What is Tracking?

Tracking is just another method of creating music, for a moment as much as I hate to, I'll compare it to (MIDI). Now pretty much everyone interested in "Music" & "Computers" has heard a Midi, or collected them, or even written one. However, Midi is very different from tracked modules such as "XM, IT, s3m, Mod," and other such formats. The major difference between these files is the way that they are constructed. You see Midis, do not contain their own instruments, therefore the same Midi on 20 different computers could sound completely different every single time. Tracked modules contain their own instruments, now of course there is a good and bad side to this. The way it works is that it stores the files inside it like let's say (Wave data). Now this isn't all modules are made up of, they are made up of the wave data, and instructions on how to play them. The instructions tell the sound files to play at different pitches to form different notes, this is good because you can put in digital voice, any type of instrument and it will always ALWAYS sound the same on every machine. However, of course there is a bad part, the bad part is that as you change the pitch more and more from it's original recorded pitch it becomes distorted. So sometimes for high and low areas of just one instrument you need two samples. This brings up another problem with tracking the size. Tracked modules are often very big, sometimes as large as (Mp3's). Still, tracking has been around for around 15 years now, back on the amigas. It can reach a higher quality than any other form of non-analogue music. It is the choice of many game creators, and I find it to be a very interesting and productive pastime.

"Back"