Creating sounds with milkytracker Patch#
Creating sounds with milkytracker software#

You need a 3-part multitimbral analog for that and it'll need fast envelopes. That's a nice set of gear and the quality of this is wayyy too high.Ī TX81Z can be used as a Sega Genesis emulator, but then you also need something that does the PSG waveforms. TX-81Z, Roland MKS-70 Super JX, MKS-50, D-110, SH-101, JX-8P, Studio Electronics SE-1, Yamaha TX-16W etc. I have both analog and digital (hardware) synths along with a 12-bit hardware sampler: Yamaha DX-7, TX-802.

Creating sounds with milkytracker software#

However, since the software has to vary the amplitude, it can't be done as quickly - so you're going to be already happy if you can do this 5000 times per second or so. You choose a really low note, which basically means that a voltage is held at a certain time for quite a while.īy restarting the phase every time and varying the amplitude of that note really quickly, you can create arbitrarily shaped waveforms. Imagine if you have a synthesizer that can only do square waves. The fidelity of those samples was really low, because in several cases the way sample playback was achieved consisted of using DC waveforms and quickly setting these to the desired voltage. While sampling was possible, it was mostly used for speech, drums and effects. Then there's all this talk about 8-bit video game sounds -but surely, they didn't use widespread sampling technology back in the early 80s with prohibitively expensive (and limited) memory chips? So what's that all about? You can clearly see in the more dense tracks how channels are shared.

Creating sounds with milkytracker Patch#

Sometimes, hihats and bass are also crammed on the same channel, which is more reminiscent of the parameter locks on Elektron machines - you essentially quickly load a brand new patch on the same track when you need another sound, and you compose the song in such a way that this is allowed.Īgain, I'll mention the Commodore 64 because I feel it had some of the most innovative work going on in terms of synthesis the SID-chip is something really special. Take a Commodore 64 drum sound - if you pick apart its layers, it becomes noticeable.Īnother important aspect is that the limited polyphony is compensated for by creative multitimbrality instead of using a separate channel for kick and bass drum, the sound switches between these presets really quickly. It appears to me that the sound sources are very simple, but it has more to do with how they're played (very quick arpeggios or sequences, clever use of LFOs etc.).