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## Skale Tracker Tutorial

Moderator: ZFP Peacekeepers

| [ 9 posts ] |

Author | Message
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Dragon |
Post subject: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 11:07 am
Ilwrath torturer
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:29 am Posts: 474 Location: South Africa |
Step 1. Playing a MOD Firstly (and obviously) run Skale Tracker (Skale.exe). You should see: If instead you get some message about the config being missing then run ConfigSkale.exe hit "Save" and run Skale.exe again. In the config turn off Full Screen for the duration of this tutorial or you might have issues tabbing between your browser and Skale Tracker. Skale Tracker really is supposed to be run full-screen it's just not the same windowed. This is a throwback to it's predecessors that didn't run in multitasking environments (you know, Windows) and didn't even have the concept of running in a window. If you run Skale.exe and get a black screen or a single frame that doesn't react to input then you'll need to turn of Full Screen too. Okay, so Skale Tracker is running. If you haven't already found yourself a MOD file then go get melnorm.mod. Hit the "DISK OPTIONS" button You'll see: Make sure that "Module" is selected (I'll cover "Instrument" and "Sample" in later steps). Find melnorm.mod. 1) "..\" will take you up a directory (your starting directory will be where you ran Skale Tracker from). 2) "C:", "Z:" etc... is your list of drives. "*.*" shows all files in a directory. Ignore "*.*" for now, we're only interested in MOD, XM, S3M and IT files. All of which contain a complete module. A module file contains the complete information for a song. When you click on melnorm.mod it will immediately load the file, destroying any work you've already done. Skale tracker should look like this now: "mod.POTATOJUICE" is the name of the module (it's file name is melnorm.mod). Remember to change the name if you use someone else's mod as the basis for one of your creations. "#Composed_By_Eric_Ber" ... etc... is the list of instruments that have been loaded. Composers (like Eric Berge) tended to use the instruments names as a place to leave comments rather than describing the actual instrument. Thus you have an instrument called "PO Box_80798". Instruments Ahhhhhhh_1, spoils, bass-ffdunk etc... are slightly more meaningfully named. Slightly. Hit "EXIT MENU" this will take you back to the, I dunno, default view. Now hit the "PLAY SONG" button and listen to wonderful music. In Step 2. I'll cover what you're seeing in the default view.
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Dragon |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 3:52 pm
Ilwrath torturer
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:29 am Posts: 474 Location: South Africa |
Step 2. What's happening Now we have a MOD playing l'll go through what the (somewhat cryptic) numbers/lines/pictures mean. Skale Tracker should be in the 'default' view and look somewhat like this: There's quite a lot of stuff happening there. Focus on the following: Firstly notice there are 4 channels. This is broken into the 4 channel waveforms and the 4 channel tracks. Skale Tracker handles up to 64 channels but that's not manageable. One channel can play one note at a time; which is to say a certain instrument and a certain frequency. Each channel contains a lot of information so I'll cover that in a moment. The current line indicates the note that has *just* been played (or will be edited). The pattern order indicates what pattern is being played. A pattern is generally 64 lines long (in the screen shot above you're seeing lines 06 through 32). Unfortunately I picked a bad example where the pattern position number and the pattern number are the same. Nevertheless the 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 on the left hand side is the pattern position number, basically a line number. It runs sequentially from 00 to the number of patterns in the module. The pattern number on the right indicates which pattern should be played. Had they been 01, 01, 01, 01, 01 then the same 64 lines would have repeated 5 times. The output waveforms are what's going out to the left/right speakers and the funky little coloured bars in the middle right are the left/right volume levels. Taking a closer look at a channel (in this case channel 0): The notes and octaves are in the bold column. Where a note is left blank the previous note will continue playing (eg: line 09 continues playing an A#). If a note is still playing when a new note becomes current then that note is stopped and the new one begins. The old note does not fade out. The instrument being used is the little number to the right of the note. In this case it's instrument 04, "#Made_in_the_USA" - it sounds like a hi-hat. Notice every instrument is the same in channel 0, this is not a requirement but it's pretty common (it's easy to edit). If you look in channel 02 you see it uses two instruments (01 and 02). The effects column can be ignored. It's a mashup of binary flags and bit shifted values. Practically it controls things like volume, portamento, vibrato, retrigger, and arpeggio. Effects deserves a post all on it's own.
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Dragon |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 4:25 pm
Ilwrath torturer
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:29 am Posts: 474 Location: South Africa |
Step 3. Muting Channels and Instruments Whilst working on your own creations (or deconstructing others) it's useful to listen to only some parts of the song. Muting a channel is easy. Just click on the channel waveform. A big white cross will appear in it. Click it again to unmute it. You can also use the "SOLO CHANNEL" button: to mute all channels except the currently edited one (see "current edit position" from the previous post). This is more useful when you're dealing with modules that have dozens of channels. You can also mute specific instruments by clicking on the green dot next to an instrument. To mute all instruments except the current one (not covered but you'll work it out) click on then "SOLO" button: leaving only one highlighted green dot. Play around it'll make sense pretty quickly. If you can't find the instrument you want to mute it's in a different instrument group. Notice the instruments 01 to 08 are currently visible. Click on the letters "A" ... "H: to change between instrument groups. This gives a total of 64 instruments available to the module. Which is a bit of a lie actually. If you hit the "SWAP BANK" button you'll get another 64 instruments. Instruments (127 to ... 191). How do you get to instruments 64 to 126? I have no idea. Step 4 will be on editing a pattern but that will have to wait to Thursday as tomorrow is voting day. Um, Yay!
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Draxas |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 5:16 pm
Atum-ta the Sixth
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:09 am Posts: 1022 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
Thanks for this. I've always wanted to learn how to use some sort of music editing program, and mods seem like a relatively simple first foray (though you may prove that notion wrong).
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Lobsterman |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 7:26 pm
Androsynth scientist
Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2010 1:11 am Posts: 90 |
I'd also like to thank you for this, Dragon! I've always wanted to learn how to make music with these kind of programs, but due to the relatively complicated user interface and non self-explanatory operating procedures of other trackers I have tried, I had chosen to abandon the project for a while. This is a simple and well-written guide, and I hope the next part(s) are just as good and enjoyable to read. Can't wait to see what they will cover! With Skaletracker explained I might even try to make some music to contribute to the Project 6014 mod.
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Dragon |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 1:12 pm
Ilwrath torturer
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:29 am Posts: 474 Location: South Africa |
Glad you guys like it. Here's step 4... Step 4. Deleting Stuff The easiest way to get started is to use someone else's module as a starting point so load up melnorm.mod again. However we don't actually want Eric's awesome potatoe juice so under "general options" hit the "ZAP" button: We want to keep everything except the patterns (practically this means we're keeping the samples/instruments) so select total devastation of "PATTERNS". And this gives us a clean slate to compose our own music without having to find instruments. A nice simple step.
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Dragon |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 1:52 pm
Ilwrath torturer
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:29 am Posts: 474 Location: South Africa |
Step 5. Using the Keyboard (aka Making a noise) Stop the song from playing (if it is). By now you should have found the "STOP" button, it's under "general options". Click on "INSTR. EDIT": This will take us to the instrument Editor: but we're not actually editing instruments (!). It's just a good view of how the keyboard works. Your PC keyboard maps to a piano keyboard via the keys below: Hit buttons and listen to what happens. You should also see the relevant piano keys play. You can change the octave offset by pushing the function keys. 'F4' is the default giving and offset of +3 (F1 is +0). Note that I made a mistake when I wrote the 1st octave in red. It should be the zero'th octave. However the purple and mustard octaves ARE the same octave making the octave key groupings 0, 1, 1, 2 rather than the 1, 2, 2, 3 I have in the picture. You probably haven't selected an instrument yet so Skale Tracker will be using the first instrument. In the instrument panel click on the instruments name (not the number or the red/green dot) to select an instrument. Hit more buttons. Hear different noise. You can also select instruments using keyboard shortcuts. This is more useful when you're composing but for now they keys (all on the numpad) are: Using Num-Lock / * and - doesn't actually select an instrument it only shows those instrument groups. You then need to press numpad 1 to 8 to select the first to eighth instrument within that group. I don't know how to select instruments 33 to 64 with the keyboard but that's probably not a problem. And that's the end of this step. The next one will cover editing patterns, which is to say: making music. Unfortunately I'll only be around to post it on Monday.
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Angelfish |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 2:19 pm
Slylandro gasbags
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:10 pm Posts: 1124 |
I wonder if I could ever get into Skale tracker, having done quite a bit of mods with Screamtracker 3 and some in Impulse tracker...
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Dragon |
Post subject: Re: Skale Tracker Tutorial Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 1:23 pm
Ilwrath torturer
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:29 am Posts: 474 Location: South Africa |
Step 6. Editing Patterns Assuming you've loaded up a module and zapped the patterns Skale Tracker should look like this: The large red bordered area is where you'll be editing patterns. The two bordered 00's are the pattern you're editing. Use the Tab and Shift-Tab keys to navigate left and right between channels. Use the cursor keys to navigate up and down the lines and left and right within the columns of a channel. Use Alt and the cursors to select a block. Use left-Ctrl and the up/down cursors navigate between patterns (if you try this you'll notice they're all empty; all that happens is the PATTERN number changes). Use Shift and the left/right cursors to navigate in the pattern order (the pair of 00 00's in the top left). There is only one pattern in the sequence so nothing will happen. Use Shift and the up/down cursors to select and navigate instruments. Click on RECORD (not RECORD SONG or REC. PATTERN). Notice the PLAYING button is not highlighted. All that should happen is that the top and bottom borders go red and Skale Tracker says "Rec mode enabled". You can also use the Space Bar to to toggle RECORD mode. If the module is playing the first space bar press stops it the second turns record on. Record mode allows you to edit the pattern. If you're not in record mode then Skale Tracker is just a glorified mod player. Look at the PC Keyboard to Piano keyboard map and press a few notes. They'll appear in the channel you're currently editing. If the pattern scrolls down but nothing appears then you're not editing the notes column. Use the left right cursors or Tab to bring you back to the notes column. Just to remind you (and because I left out volume) these are the tracks columns: Now hit the PLAY SONG button or the right-Ctrl. Incidently right-Shift is REC. PATTERN; I can't think of anywhere else to mention this. If you're editing a column other than notes then use the numeric keys 0...9 and the letters A...F (everything being hexadecimal). For instance if you edit the notes volume, second column from the right, it allows a range from 00 (silent) to 80 (full volume with a decimal value of 128). So 7F would be one step away from full volume. Now you can edit a single pattern you'll need to add a few more to make a full length song. Take a look at the SONG PROPERTIES section of the editor: I've reloaded melnorm.mod as an example As before, the pattern order number runs from 00 to the length of the song (minus) one. The song length is the number of patterns in the song. In this case it's 00 to 0F (15 decimal) giving a song length of 10 (16 decimal). You can change the length of the song with the INSERT and REMOVE pattern buttons. You can change the patter number in the pattern order with the increase/decrease buttons. If you haven't yet edited that pattern you won't hear anything if you play it. You can change the currently edited pattern with the edited pattern number buttons. This allows you to edit patterns that are not part of the song (ie: in the pattern order). Personally I think this is a bit pointless. You can change the length of the currently edited pattern with the 4 buttons bordered at the bottom. If you make the pattern shorter any work that was in the lines you've removed will be lost. LINE increases/decreases the pattern length by 1. Expand X2 and Shrink X2 double or halve the pattern length. ADD actually has nothing to do with pattern or song length. It changes how many lines the pattern increments when you edit a note, instrument, volume or effect column. You can make it zero so the line move at all. And that's that. You can compose wonderful music. The final step will be on sample editing.
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