Has anyone started using trackers (renoise) after learning to produce music in a traditional DAW? I’m well-versed with Elektron hardware and bored of using ableton live and so am thinking of going all in with Renoise.
Yes! I found it to be a massive pain in the arse to get used to sequencing tracker style. I still find a piano-roll easier, but i constantly come back to renoise because i just love the tight integration between the sampler and sequencer.
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Any tips?
I don’t know if it’s a case of “you just had to be there” (when trackers were more prevalent, Amiga, C64, DOS) or if it’s a case of you just need to use the right one. For me, I started using them on the Amiga, (though I had seen a few on the C64 long before). I had a few pretty good mod-makers show me around on the Amiga, so I got a good start. Once you get the commands down well enough, it’s as easy (at least to me) as using a piano roll or hardware sequencer. Just a different approach.
There are trackers that were extremely popular that I thought were horrible to work with, and then others that I thought were great. For example, I hated all things Scream Tracker in the DOS days, but absolutely loved FastTracker 2. Many people felt exactly the opposite.
Trackers are similar to gear. You either click with them, or you don’t. It’s probably a good idea if you want to get into it, to try several.
Maybe you have. I’m not actually sure why I replied specifically to you, just kind of chiming in on the last few posts.
An example of a tracker that I really enjoy now (despite using a lot of more advanced software and hardware) is FM Composer. It’s a tracker with built in FM synth, multiple tabs/screens to do various tasks, easy to use, and sounds pretty good. Worth a try if you’re looking for something a bit different.
Anyway, just a couple thoughts on the subject…
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started today. hope the story continues…
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Has anyone used any of the iOS trackers like sunvox? Seem well regarded.
Sunvox also happily runs on your desktop and is much easier to use with a keyboard there.
Renoise is fun, and probably the closest thing to Elektron sequencing in a DAW, but I’d strongly suggest Bitwig to you as well. The modulation capabilities alone are endless, let alone the new Grid, introduced recently.
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sunvox was my choice for years, before I got into hardware.
Used it on iOS; it was better back then for me than the current version. Loads of new features that kind of clutter up the interface for me…
Very cool thread ! I’m a time traveller from the early-to-mid-nineties Amiga demoscene and have been writing / developing trackers all my life.
One of my early prods (as a teenager) was the Art Of Noise tracker for the Amiga 1200 (which was a sequel to “Syntracker” on the Amiga 500 released in 1991).
Nowadays I’m working on the (open source) miditracker.org, which runs circles around all other trackers I know (I’m quite confident about this b/c everyone I demoed it to in person was completely amazed).
Then again, to those who think that Elektron gear is difficult to use, this might be a real nightmare (mostly b/c it’s so different to everything else you know) ;).
Lots of <3 for trackers !
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I remember someone showing me spaceballs - state of the art demo on my amiga. I had only used it for playing games previously and it blew my mind. It was where it all started for me.
messing about with octamed was the next step.
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my all time favourite “mod” is this:
(also from ~1992. 4 channels 8bit mono.)
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I never touched a tracker before the 2010s since I was only a small kid with no interest in electronic music in the 90s, but the tracker sound was present in many of my favorite games growing up. The style of sound and arranging present in these games still holds a special place in my heart.
Some favorites from the 90s (incidentally both games by Epic Megagames):
One Must Fall 2097 - Kenny “CCCatch” Chou
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - Alexander Brandon
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One of the more amazing things I learned recently is that Calvin Harris produced his entire first album using an Amiga 1200 running OctaMED.
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Keyboard shortcuts! It took me far too long to realise how key they are to using a tracker smoothly.
Kenny is a good friend of mine and I was partners with Alex for years! I actually did some stuff for Jazz Jackrabbit 2 but those levels weren’t finished and were never released.
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are there any hardware tracker sequencers around today? i know of nerdseq at least, but am interested in picking up something to control my gear via MIDI
Get an Amiga. Run OctaMED!
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Tracker /demoscene is still kicking 
where have you guys been ?
Edit : programmed with Protracker 2.3 for the Amiga.
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Lsdj (gameboy DMG) / deflemask (pc/Mac) / DefMon (c64) / Goat tracker (win) / Protracker (windows version) all current software add to my list fellow 2020 tracker hackers if you want! 
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