The Soundtracker
How does the St-01 amiga samples originally sound?

The trackers are typical affordable (or free) musical sequencers used by various system.

The concept was born in 1987 with the ULTIMATE SOUNDTRACKER (EAS Computer Technik) written by Karsten Obarski for the computer . Commodore Amiga uses the 4 PCM samples voices generated by PAULA audio chip.

 

 

 

What's a MUSIC TRACKER? The original tracker was based on simple sequencers using internal samples (not Midi samplers). Each samples was entered as a note (pitch samples) into different channels lined up on columns patterns.

AMIGA TRACKER - The samples can be usually edited (eg.volume and EG for early trackers) depending on the software, then the song can be saved on various "module" format like .mod, IT, S3M [...] famous Module Echoing HEAR

 

 

MUSIC TRACKER Influence Right after the Ultimate Sountracker release, many freeware / shareware clones appeared and music trackers began to be appreciated amongst DEMO SCENE people, not to mention some commercial blockbuster games. The tracker concept is born with the Amiga then evolved and spread to both modern platforms (e.g PC RENOISE) and even to older computers (C64, spectrum, MSX, Atari St). Today tracker softwares handle much more tracks, feature high quality samples, filtering, VST effects, virtual instruments.

spectrum tracker, on the right modern Renoise

 

 

The tracker sound collection ST-XX In order to reduce module file dimension and simplify songs swaps, many modules did not include the most common samples since these were on available on a standard free sound library collections called "ST-" followed by a number indicating the disk number (officially from ST-01 to ST-116).

Originally most of these ST-XX samples were recorded from synthesizers or drum machines from this era, but seldom reported the original recorded source (copyright?) but some short "hints": e.g.D50 heaven-> staccato heaven

 

ST-01 DISK The first disk ST-01 was probably the most popular and used as it contains some very classic sound you heard hundreds of time on classic Amiga songs. According to both web indications, name's linkenes, I managed to record some original synth sound sources - not an easy task since Amiga ST-01 short samples were sampled at 8/11 kHz at low 8 bits resolutions with many audio artefacts.

Most of the st-01 samples were recorded from 3 common synthesizers: - Roland D-50 - Yamaha Dx21 / 27 / 100 - Casio Cz101 / 1000

 

Following a full 44 kHz 24 bits STEREO recording from original machines, this will be updated when new sounds (for suggestions drop me a LINE).

ST-01 SAMPLES FROM ROLAND D50 A classic digital synthesizer from 1987 based on LA synthesis, also well-known to retrogamers for the Roland MT32 module.

These short mp3 samples are provided as tutorial for educational purposes, Roland D50 samples are still copyrighted and we cannot provide any full samples set. We do respect copyright.

 

ST name Synth preset ST01 sample original D50 sample Call Living Calliope Heaven Staccato Heaven JahrMarkt2 Metal Harp Jetes Jete Strings TineWave Tine Wave Pizza Pizzagogo NightMare NightMare Mechanic1 Intruder FX

 

 

ST-01 SAMPLES FROM YAMAHA DX-TX 4OP line. Many Amiga samples come also from 4 OP FM synthesizers developed by Yamaha. The 4 OP FM machines were basically buget version of more DX7 traditional 6 OP (6 sinewave oscilaltors) with simpler sound and less algorithms. The 4 operators family are based on similar IC YM chip / DAC compatible between them, consequently it is actually totally impossible to tell the specific the true original module or synthesizer recorderd on the Amiga samples.

Most common 4 OP FM machines are:
- 4OP with standard sinewave: DX21 - DX27 - DX100
- 4OP with sinewave + harmonic variations: TX81Z - DX11.
Later 4 OP models c.a 1988 (V50- TQ5 - WT11 - YS100/200) could not be featured into the ULTIMATE SOUNDTRACKER since it has been released in 1987.
HINT: FM synthesis has been also implemented on famous PC soundcards ADLIB/SOUNDBLASTER with the OPL chip.

According to the ST-01 likeness names, it is mostly probable that the sound sets comes from DX21 presets.

ST name Synth preset ST01 sample DX sample remarks Heifer Heifer bell   FunkBass Elec Bass   SixTease <6 Tease>   MetalKeys MetalKeys   HeavySynth HeavySynth   Horns Horns   Koto Kotokoto   DigDug Solid Bass also known as more famous "lately bass"

 

ST-01 SAMPLES FROM CASIO CZ line - SOON! in the mean time you can read about PD synthesis on the CASIO CZ101 page

ST name Synth preset ST01 sample original CZ sample remarks soon

 

 

VIDEO SELECTION Axel F Spectrum tracker renoise tracker

 

GALLERY: