How do I make AY music in Furnace Tracker and export it to PT3 for AGD?

[Cheez26]

Hey guys.

So I'm thinking of making a ManicMiner/JetSetWilly clone of a sort with AGD, but I kinda want to learn to make the music for it first. I'm looking at Furnace Tracker for that and I'm unsure of doing stuff like converting VGM to PT3 for instance. Any ideas by any chance?

Note: I know Furnace seems like Deflemask alternative, but it's a lot better I would say. Also, I'm using @highrise's AGDX+ for this...because I'm not sure how well MPAGD would work on Linux with Wine.

[Cheez26]

So, I found this old thing that somebody was working on and I'm wondering if wants to continue it so we can convert Furnace-made VGM files into VTII text files automatically.

I still thing Furnace tracker is more polished than Vortex Tracker II.

[Lee Bee]

So, I found this old thing that somebody was working on

Fascinating! Running this is a bit over my head, but could this actually convert a game music file into a vortex tracker? I didn't even think that was possible.

As for which tracker, I've tinkered with Deflemask and I know Furnace is the ultimate retro games tracker (allowing music for dozens of different machines) but I have no real experience with either, sorry.

I love the simplicity of dedicated Speccy trackers like Vortex. No unnecessary features or complications. Though let me be more specific, here…

Which version of Vortex Tracker II to use?

The program was created by Sergei Bulba who, sadly, stopped developing it in 2008 (still v1).

Then, around 2015 along came Ivan Panin and released the all-new Vortex Tracker 2.5 which offered a hugely improved experience, added features, especially the interface, with a selection of beautiful skins. This was followed a few years later by v2.6. There was no further development to this off-shoot.

Then, last year, the original author, Sergei Bulba, picked up development once again on his original program. I sent him a lot of encouragement and a long request list, and he's been updating it regularly this year, now at "v1 beta 32". He's made many excellent updates to the program, and his version is looking set to become the ultimate version, especially if he works on the interface, which I think he will in time.

But I have to say, at the moment, the only version I can still bear to use is Ivan Panin's v2.5. It is just so much more attractive and slick than Sergei's original program. And v2.6 didn't look anywhere near as nice, IMO. So the version I'd currently recommend is v2.5. (In the settings, I have Color set to "School Notebook" and Font to "WST Germ" but I actually love all the styles.)

But each to his own. Use whatever program makes you feel good inside! Couldn't answer your question but hope this was of some interest.

[Cheez26]

@Lee Bee Wow. VT 2.5 looks pretty polished. Very nice. I might use it to convert my Furnace tunes into PT3 when possible. Otherwise, I might learn how to actually use it. Thanks. I do need some templates and compatible samples to try out before I take a crack at making my own.

Once again, thank you very much!

[Lee Bee]

There's a video review of v2.5 here. It's Russian but you can skip through for a quick visual summary of the nice features of this version.

I do need some templates and compatible samples to try out before I take a crack at making my own.

Templates aren't needed, but it's definitely useful to have a few samples ready, especially drums which aren't easy for a beginner to make from scratch.

(Obviously, when we say "samples" here we're not talking about sound samples, we just mean basic instrument patterns.)

I'm sure one of the Vortex releases comes with a bundled library of samples which may be helpful. (Arkos Tracker has a library of samples, but they work differently to Vortex.)

But an easy way to is just download a bunch of other people's pt3 files (from ZX Art) then save out a few samples from these to make your own library. Even lazier is just to open someone else's module, delete the pattern data, and start making a tune using their samples.

Really, though, if you just have a bass drum + snare drum then you're good to go, because most of the melodic "samples" you'll use will all sound very similar - basically just square waves of different lengths!

[Cheez26]

@Lee Bee Thanks for the advice. Though I will say I might check out TurboSound FM stuff later, since I want to make stuff besides just soundtrack music as well.

Plus, kick and snare is just enough for the rhythm of a typical Brazil funk track, but what about synthetic vocals. I hope to see if I can use or make a "VAI" as an example. Or maybe a "let's go".

Thanks for the help again though.

[Lee Bee]

How exactly are you planning on synthesizing vocals?

[Cheez26]

How exactly are you planning on synthesizing vocals?

In all seriousness, I was hoping to make a "let's go" kinda sound by rhythmically having the sound travel rhythmically of "let's go" with noise in the middle for the "ts" sound, a quick,ascending note for "le" and the "go" being a shorter, descending note. It'll be a lot more different than Splat since it'll be part of an AY track and, well, it uses the AY chip instead of the SFX beeper engine.

If you have better ideas on how to synthesize a vocal in AY-3, please let me know.

[Lee Bee]

Gotcha. Bit like how I approximated the phrase "Hey Mickey!" in this recent tune.

[Cheez26]

@Lee Bee Kinda like that, yeah. :3