Renoise is the Finest Sort of Nostalgia
I first got into electronic music via the demoscene. Demos (mind-blowing CGI animations, often accompanied by cutting-edge dance music) were (and are) created by people all over the world and were easy to find online. The maniacs that supplied the soundtracks typically used an old computer music format called MOD, which paired playback of short samples with simple sequencing capabilities. In a scene where people prided themselves on creating vanishingly tiny files, mods saved vital space compared to using full-length audio clips.
My first electronic group was founded out of a love for this new music we were hearing in demos. We definitely had to try making some of our own, so we grabbed Fast Tracker II, a program for Windows. It let us record audio, chop it up, apply some rudimentary effects, and create songs to our heart’s content. It was also free, in the era where a computer-based MIDI sequencer, a decent hardware sampler and all the stuff needed to complete the setup cost thousands.
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