what's the modern equivalent of "MOD tracker" software for music generation?

For those who are unfamiliar, in the 1990s or so we would make music for games and demos using "MOD tracker" software in which you have essentially a bunch of "samples" of instruments, drums, keyboard, trumpets, guitar sounds, etc. and you put them together in "tracks" by essentially placing notes and sounds on a grid where you want them.

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In 2022 what's the (preferably free or low-cost) version of this?

 

Mod trackers still exist, however the *.mod file format itself is no longer exactly popular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenMPT

For music creation people usually use DAW which is Digital Audio Workstation.
For free, you could use LMMS.
If you're willing to pay, then Ableton Live is quite popular.

 

Thanks! Looks like DAW is the search term that eluded me.

 

I use FL studio. It's a DAW that focuses on that "Mod Tracker" style sequencing. There are several different price tiers and you can upgrade from one to the next.

 

MPC Beats is also decent free alternative for FL Studio.

 

If you still want to use a tracker-style application, look at Renoise.

 

In mode trackers, you were programming the music by typing in hex codes.

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FL studio does not do that.

 

Ok, so I guess it's not EXACTLY the same thing, but I kind think of it as the same type of thing because it's all very grid based.

 

I remember using mod trackers on the Amiga that used a grid style sequencer where you would drag/drop colored blocks representing different instruments

 

As @sxa mentioned, check out Renoise: https://www.renoise.com/ which shares its roots with Fast Tracker 2 (PC), Soundtracker / Noisetracker / ProTracker / OctaMED on the Amiga.

 

Thanks guys! That looks promising.

 

Coming from the Amiga I can only recommend Renoise - it's the logical evolution of what a tracker would look today.

FL Studio has a slightly different workflow of course but from all the options I have tried during the past years (decades?) it comes closest. Having the "keyboard" keyboard using the same layout as trackers (Z is C#3, Q is C#4 etc.) makes for an easy transition as well.