Protracker Tutorial - Samples on Amiga

The basics of how to obtain samples to use in Protracker on the Amiga.
Disclaimer: Sampling and converting are two delicate processes and includes a whole lot more than what I show in this video. To make a video about all the details would probably take forever. :)
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:20 1. Using pre-existing samples (history lesson).
02:11 2. Sampling for yourself.
04:54 3. Converting from modern format samples.
07:09 4. Over-explained tech stuff.
08:58 5. Exporting file to Amiga.
09:57 6. Post processing and real hardware.
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Notes about setting the volume when loading samples:
Protracker on Amiga doesn't read any volume information in .IFF samples files and will automatically set the volume to 64. This is probably because of the early ways of saving the volume parameter in the song info since you had little to no control over the source. When loading a sample in the clone you may need to set the volume manually like I do in the video.
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16-bits.org/pt... (The Protracker clone for PC/Mac)
16-bits.org/pt... (Table of note frequencies in Protracker)
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Some of these files are zipped with .LHA or .GZ.
Amiga Music Preservation: amp.dascene.net (Module archive)
Modland: www.exotica.or... (Module archive)
Scene.org: files.scene.or... (Demoscene releases in general)
Aminet: aminet.net/mod... (ST disks and much more)
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eab.abime.net/s... (Hoffman's WAVE2AMIGA etc.)
github.com/ech... (Sample converter)
www.audacityte... (Sound processing)
sox.sourceforge... (Sound processing)
shibatch.source... (Sound processing)
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• Amiga Samplers : Budge... (cTrix's videos on Amiga samplers)

[@OLIV3R_YT]

After 8 years I finished this excellent tutorial series. And now I finally understand how trackers work after 30 years since I was trying to track on the A500 😅 thank you very much!

[@atetraxx]

Looks at video creation date

[@no9or9]

64th upvote of this video is mine! 😎

[@MikeyGRetro]

Thanks. Look forward to more tutorials from you in the future.

[@aftertheendtimes]

Hi wasp amiga😃I am very greatful for your tutorials you made for Protracker🎹💕

[@miserychordia]

Great video :) Hope you make more Protracker videos =)

[@NightSprinter]

Might want to update the sample rate part for the new versions of Audacity. It's no longer in the main UI window as shown in the video.

[@CaptainNow2]

Excellent video! Thank you!

[@waspamiga]

Thanks! I've added a link to the clone in the video description.

[@CaptainNow2]

@@waspamiga thanks very much indeed! I have been having a play. It's a lot of fun and now I am learning what all the numbers/letters mean! :D

[@pilleater]

To transfer files on an actual Amiga 500, I use either ADF Opus (PC) or ADF Master (Mac), which then I create a new (blank) .adf file, and there I load on it my own .iff or .8svx sample files. Then, after loading up a bootable Protracker .adf on the Amiga first, I can switch over to the .adf sample disk I made by clicking on the module button and loading it by "floppy." However, I strongly recommend installing a Gotek mod on the Amiga, as USB is more convincing.

[@severebraindamage_med]

you can use hxc to make a floppy image. but i'm too lazy so i use pistorm with sd card rite not so i can mount fat32 partition on my sd card and dragndrop files from it

[@esimitley4729]

i will learn it!

[@JMDAmigaMusic]

That workflow is to protracker directly but using a compatible tracker like milkytracker the process might be a bit different

[@elementor85]

Hello, is the same thing if I work with OpenMPT? How can I know what frequency should I use? Couldn't I simply convert a note in C3 / C5, and just keep it at 8287 Hz? I'm just new to this, that's why I don't understand many things. The only bad thing is that I don't have an Amiga, but I would like to make MOD music anyway. On the other hand, I found the ST 01 from the video description, and it looks awesome for my first modules. I guess by using these samples, I shouldn't worry about sampling frequency, rigbht? Cheers!

[@xsm5525]

I really wish protracker on Amiga had a way of doing 0.5 steps on the fine tune. but I guess it's technically impossible to add this feature.

[@severebraindamage_med]

only via software resample i think, but you'll need a faster cpu for that.. so yeah, i try to tinker with sample before i sample them via my sampler into amiga

[@severebraindamage_med]

another big thing is that you better be using protracker for sampling as octamed fucks the sound sometimes (somehow??)

[@Newtined]

@@severebraindamage_med how?

[@mantax55]

Quick question: when I do Mod2Wav it seems that the samples are all out of time? Do you happen to know why this is?

[@bubuzita5544]

thanks for the tutorial but as you said in the end : no amiga no point bothering with this

[@xsm5525]

but,, How do I mak the jungles?

[@waspamiga]

Most junglists seem to prefer OctaMED, but I’d sample some good Amen Breaks and play around with the 9xx command.

[@xsm5525]

@@waspamiga ah yeah was indeed a sort of joke by the way though, have you heard of NASP?

[@severebraindamage_med]

lup the amen brek and drop som "aye ye" voc samples in fl studio why would u need an amiga its old and complicated!!

[@AmigaJunglism]

@@waspamiga 😉

[@waspamiga]

@@xsm5525 Yeah, but I never played around with it.

[@lauriran]

How to get the color sheme of pt2-clone darker like that? Thank you. edit. I think I found the answer. You need to edit the pt2_palette.c file before compiling. edit2. Ok, I found the real answer which is the pt_pal_editor that is included in the source files. It's a bit buggy though.

[@waspamiga]

..or just copy the config file from an Amiga. That's how I did.

[@davemoylemusic]

Hi. how do i find the file st-01 in tracktor on my pc. Like where it the directory.Just says can't find directory when i click onto load track or load module?

[@waspamiga]

If you downloaded the st-01 file as an .lha archive you first need to unpack it. The archive contains lots of separate sample files.

[@cesvlc5211]

One of the most important things when working with samples, IMHO, is to change the pitch without modifying the speed (sample rate). I know Protracker cannot do this, but was there any other Amiga tracker with that feature? As a workaround, Audacity and other audio editors can do this, so, ideally you could generate a different sample for each note in your instrument. Would this workflow be recommended, or would it be a nightmare to compose songs with the pattern editor using per-note samples?

[@waspamiga]

Pitch shifting without changing speed requires processing of the sample data (time stretching). This is not featured in Protracker. It would use CPU resources to do on the fly. I wouldn't recommend using a lot of samples for the same sound, but inverting chords can be quite useful. If the melody spans over several octaves, perhaps two different samples of the same sound could be a decent workflow. Using three would result in weird notation, but I guess that's also a way.

[@xsm5525]

when you convert samples from audacity to iff, how come there's usually background hiss in the sample when loaded in protracker? is there a way to get rid of it completely? this is even after normalizing and sometimes even some compression. You can get away with it on some things, but things like bass and low synth bass etc, it's sometimes a problem.

[@bubuzita5544]

no because its 8bit

[@EMAHGERD]

@@bubuzita5544 mate do you have any idea who youre talking to lol

[@haji2nd444]

well you could try an ADPCM format if you don't want as much noise at quiet parts of the audio, but I'm not sure if NoiseTracker or ProTracker support ADPCM audio formats.

[@thamessinclair2010]

@@haji2nd444 An approach for the "not as much noise in the quiet parts" desire (reverb tails and such) is to preprocess the sample with a limiter to whack up the quiet parts. Audacity also offers a limiter effect. Then use the A or EB command to apply a release envelope to the sample in Protracker. This can also be done using AmigaPAL, a dedicated sample conversion tool.

[@hajivideos9104]

I would love to do what you suggested at 11:04, but there's just one problem: I don't have an Amiga and have never had one before, so I don't know much about Amiga computers, or how to use them. Edit: I have WinUAE and Noise/ProTracker .adf files on my computer.

[@waspamiga]

Get one! I don't know where you live, but there are probably machines for sale in your area. :)

[@hajivideos9104]

@@waspamiga Yeah! I hope to have one someday (just because of the tracker music)

[@hajivideos9104]

​@@waspamiga now I have winuae, and ADFs of NoiseTracker and ProTracker on my computer.

[@Skiazo_chu]

I have a Focusrite 4i4 and PT2C says "Can't open audio device" Is it not compatible?

[@waspamiga]

I wish I could help you. Since 2i2 is, I can't see why it shouldn't be.

[@Skiazo_chu]

@@waspamiga No worries. Found out the issue is with my laptop. I switched to another one and it’s working perfectly fine For some reason, that laptop won’t let me sample anymore.

[@JimmyHandtrixx]

where is the video how to sample with pt?

[@MrCharliejaera]

Fett👌

[@harmonymelongachasgf9324]

How do you loop a sample?

[@waspamiga]

At 10:06 I show how to set the loop in the Protracker sampler.

[@80Jay71]

Isn't C +3?

[@waspamiga]

I'm not sure what you mean.

[@g-gnu4791]

First :)