= [ f r e e m o t i o n m a c h i n e ] =
by jmph (Jay Hoeberechts) - 6/6/2014 - auckland
version 1.1 w/hq samples
If you enjoy this tune check out more of my stuff on:
http://soundcloud.com/jmph-1
http://buzztunes.org/music/jmph
Comments or feedback to: jaymph@gmail.com
This song took 3rd in the Flashback 2014 tracked music compo and I'm
pretty damn pleased with that because I was up against some INTENSE
competition! Unfortunately I couldn't be there myself so it was a remote
entry but it was still pretty awesome to participate. This is my first
proper compo entry at a real demoparty (not just online compos) since
2001!
Written mostly (probably 80%) with REAL Impulse Tracker under REAL DOS on
REAL HARDWARE. No virtual machines or emulators! Bit of trivia: The
909-like kick drum was made on a Roland MC-202. WTF! That's not any kind
of drum machine, how the hell did I do that?! The *other* kick drum was a
sample from an actual drum machine. From the Soviet Union.
This is the -full quality version-. For Flashback's compo I had a 2MB
limit on size to deal with! The 303 patterns alone came to like 10MB when
I recorded them on my sampler so I had to downsample them rather
drastically - to 8bit, 12kHz! - to fit everything in. Fortunately you are
hearing them here in their full 16/48 glory.
If you feel like playing with this song, the MIDI notation for the x0xb0x
is still there, on muted channel 19 (insts 25 & 26.) Grab any acid bass
machine you like, set it to MIDI channel 1, hit F5 and make the ACIEEEED
yourself!
* WARNING: IF YOU PLAY THIS MODULE IN HARDWARE MIXING MODE ON AN AWE64 YOU
MIGHT GET SYNC PROBLEMS WITH THE 303 SAMPLES. *
During the composition I found a NASTY surprise as I was using an AWE64 in
hardware mode for simultaneous sample playback+MIDI out. Notably the
x0xb0x/303 was being controlled by MIDI in this case. I've done this on
other tunes, e.g. 'Under a Foreign Sky' and was always really impressed
with how solid IT's MIDI timing is. I recorded the x0xb0x direct on my
Roland S760 sampler as one long sequence and then chopped it up into
patterns. But when I pulled the new sound files back into IT they went
totally out of sync! So I tweaked the sample rate of each individual
pattern until they were the proper duration (making changes of up to
+-50Hz!) but then they were out of sync on *every other player*, e.g.
XMPlay, Aqualung, Deadbeef...
What happened? Is ITs timing actually bad? Was my use of 'swing' tempo the
cause?
Well, no. IT is still rock solid. It's the AWE64's fault. It seems it
can't playback samples at truly arbitrary frequencies; they are somehow
quantized (probably to be integer fractions of the card's native rate) and
it hated my 12kHz (yuck) patterns. That took forever to figure out. The
sync problems totally go away in IT's software mixing mode, e.g. with the
SB16 driver. You can imagine how annoying this was.
That's my theory anyway. If I'm totally off base with my thinking here
email me with the *real* reason. I'm curious to know.
The hardware Interwave driver doesn't exhibit this problem either, but the
GUS doesn't have resonant filters (and the AWE64's are *nice*.) Win some,
lose some...
** Update! Well what do you know, this full quality verion with 48kHz 303
patterns plays fine on AWE64 hardware! I guess the AWE just can't handle
12000Hz samples. This explains why I never had sync problems with the drum
loops which are at more conventional rates. **
Tools used in the creation of this tune:
Impulse Tracker 2.14 patch 5 (DOS)
SOX 12.18.2 (DOS)
SamplEd 1.52 (DOS)
FreeDOS 1.1 (DOS)
Pentium 233MMX (DOS)
Soundblaster AWE64 w/16MB - THAT QUANTIZATION BUG
Gravis Ultrasound PnP w/8MB - after I found the bug
Roland S760 - creator of the samples
iomega zip drives - three of them, for fuck's sake
Roland MC-202 - kicks the drums & drops the bass
Reliable x0xb0x - brings out the ACIEEEED
Wavosaur (not DOS :( but totally bitching prog - under WINE)
Schism Tracker (on my laptop, while travelling)
"Advanced" Impulse Tracker tricks used:
[x] Tempo 'swing' (A05A07A05A07A...)
[x] NNAs & virtual channels
[x] Pitch, volume & panning envelopes
[x] MIDI instruments
[x] Resonant filters
[x] Volume column effects
[x] Volume column pans
[x] Fake side-chain compression
[x] Simultaneous MIDI & sample playback w/filters (AWE64 only!)
Try all that on Protracker 2.3D!
Samples from:
own synths (ACIEE... oh I've said that already.)
kb6.de
Saga Musix (*stellar* 909 clap)
Modarchive Waveworld
Bluedistortion
Beatluxe
Some "48KHz SAMPLES!!" pack, which I downsampled to 36KHz to be an ass
h0ffman (that one bass, yeah, I just couldn't make my own because yours
was *so perfect* for what I wanted... so thanks!)
** WARNING THIS IS ALMOST THE END OF THIS WALL OF TEXT **
If you would like to contact me with any feedback, questions, comments,
hate, love, or ambivilence about this tune or any of my other songs,
please don't hesitate to! Try
jaymph@gmail.com
Or leave me a message/comment on Soundcloud or Buzztunes (address at the
top.)
This song is released under Creative Commons 3.0 attributed /
non-commercial (by-nc). You are free to share, use, play, chop, sample,
remix, spin, process, convolve, mashup, or ignore this song in any
non-commercial, not for profit way you see fit. Just give me proper credit
and we're cool.
Sample ripping and remixing are encouraged! Send me what you make if you
do. :)
Hope you enjoyed it! - jmph.2014
