Tracker Music: The Forgotten Sound of the Early Internet

From floppy disks to BBSes, how a grassroots music scene shaped digital audio.

Introduction

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, music on home computers wasn't a matter of downloading songs or streaming playlists. It was stitched together by hand — one note, one sound sample at a time. Two competing methods shaped this early digital landscape: MIDI, which acted like digital sheet music, and tracker formats like MOD and S3M, which bundled both the musical score and the actual sounds together into compact, portable files.

Tracker music emerged from a grassroots, tech-savvy subculture obsessed with pushing limited machines to their creative limits. Built inside the demo scene (a world of underground coders, artists, and musicians), tracker formats offered a level of control and consistency that MIDI simply couldn’t match. Though nearly forgotten today, this movement laid the groundwork for digital music production long before MP3s and streaming rewrote the rules.

Computer Music of the 80s and 90s

In the late 1980s and stretching through the mid-1990s, the landscape of digital music on personal computers was vastly different from today. Two distinct approaches coexisted before the MP3 format revolutionized audio distribution. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files were relatively common. These weren't audio recordings but rather compact sets of instructions, akin to digital sheet music, dictating which notes to play, on which instrument patch, and with what timing. Concurrently, a vibrant subculture, particularly rooted in the Amiga demoscene and later migrating to PCs, championed "tracker" music formats. Originating with the MOD format and evolving through formats like Screamtracker's S3M, these files uniquely combined sequencing data with actual short digital audio recordings (samples) embedded directly within the file itself; this gave tracker composers much greater control over the final sound, ensuring consistency across different machines.

The demoscene, an artistic computer subculture emerging in the 1980s, provided the crucial environment for the birth and initial spread of tracker music, beginning with the MOD format on the Commodore Amiga. Demosceners dedicated themselves to creating highly optimized, real-time audio-visual presentations ("demos") that pushed the absolute limits of specific hardware platforms like the Amiga, Atari ST, and early PCs. These intricate creations required sophisticated, synchronized soundtracks that wouldn't cripple the system's processor, leaving power for the demanding graphics. Tracker formats proved to be the ideal solution, offering vastly superior sonic control and quality compared to typical MIDI playback, while leveraging hardware efficiently – especially on the Amiga with its dedicated Paula audio chip – and allowing for complex compositions.

(From the description on YouTube, above video is from The 1995 Assembly Event, PC. See Wikipedia article on Demoscene.)

A key factor driving the adoption and persistence of tracker formats was their remarkably small file size, essential for distribution in an era of limited storage and bandwidth. Initially, demos and music packs were shared primarily on floppy disks. As the scene grew through the late 80s and early 90s, dial-up Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) became the dominant distribution channel. Enthusiasts would find BBS phone numbers listed in the back of computer magazines or shared within the community, connecting via slow modems. The compact nature of MOD, S3M, and later XM files made them practical to upload and download over these tenuous connections. Even as the transition to the nascent public internet began in the mid-90s with FTP sites and early websites, bandwidth often remained a significant constraint, ensuring that these efficient tracker formats continued to be the favored way for demosceners and affiliated groups to share their musical creations digitally.

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Tracker music quickly became an integral and defining element of demoscene productions. The music wasn't just background noise; it was a core component, often meticulously synchronized with visual effects, transitions, and narrative elements within a demo. This synergy fostered a unique aesthetic where the audio and visuals were inseparable parts of the artistic whole. The demoscene itself drove the evolution of tracker software; legendary programs like ProTracker, Scream Tracker, FastTracker II, and Impulse Tracker were often developed by demosceners for demosceners, leading to the feature advancements seen in formats like S3M, XM, and IT. Furthermore, the demoscene served as the primary distribution network and proving ground for tracker musicians, many of whom gained legendary status within the community and sometimes transitioned into professional careers in game audio or electronic music, carrying the influence of the tracker paradigm with them.

Note that playback quality and timbre of MIDI files were entirely dependent on the listener's hardware. Because MIDI files only contained instructions, they relied completely on the sound card or external synthesizer module to generate the sound. Early sound cards often used FM Synthesis, which produced characteristically electronic or "buzzy" tones that varied between different chipsets. Later, wavetable synthesis cards became more common, storing short digital samples of real instruments in ROM or RAM. However, the quality, size, and selection of these samples varied enormously between cards. A budget Sound Blaster's wavetable, typically included in Packard-Bell or Compaq computers, sounded drastically different from a premium Roland Sound Canvas module, typically used by professionals. Consequently, the same MIDI file could sound wildly different; instrument tones and voices could vary greatly, sometimes to the point of being almost unrecognizable, depending purely on the end-user's specific sound card.

During the nascent years of the World Wide Web in the early-to-mid-90s, bandwidth was extremely limited. Despite the significant sonic variability, MIDI's primary advantage was its incredibly small file size. This made it feasible for early web browsers like Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer to support embedded MIDI files using tags like <bgsound> or the proprietary <embed> for simple background music. Website visitors would hear the music rendered by their own sound card, linking back to the wide range of possible sound quality outcomes. While functional for adding a basic audio element over slow dial-up connections, the result often reflected the limitations of common, lower-cost sound hardware of the era.

This period definitively preceded the MP3 explosion. While tracker formats like MOD and S3M offered significantly richer, more consistent, and creator-controlled sound by including their own samples, they were more complex and computationally demanding to play. Native support for embedding and automatically playing these formats directly within web browsers was generally absent. Listening to tracker music found online typically required downloading the file (still much smaller than uncompressed WAV) and using a dedicated player application. Trackers occupied a vital niche, offering superior sonic possibilities compared to the unpredictable nature of MIDI playback, but lacked the easy web integration that MIDI possessed. This ultimately highlighted the need for a format like MP3 that would soon arrive to better balance audio quality, file size, and playback accessibility for the masses online.

The File Formats

At their core, all tracker music formats function by bundling two key components within a single file: a set of digital audio recordings, known as "samples," and sequencing data that dictates how and when those samples should be played. The sequencing information is typically organized into grid-like structures called "patterns." Each pattern represents a block of musical time, divided into rows (representing time steps) and multiple "channels" (representing simultaneous voices or tracks). Within each cell of this grid, a composer can specify a musical note, the number of the sample (instrument) to play, volume adjustments, and special effect commands (like pitch bends, vibrato, or volume slides). A master "sequence list" or "order list" then defines the arrangement of the song by specifying the order in which these patterns should be played back.

(Sample playback of “Mission: Impossible” theme using OpenMPT)

Playback of a tracker file is handled by a dedicated player routine (either standalone software or integrated into another program like a game or demo). This player reads the sequence list, loads the required pattern data, and steps through the pattern rows at a defined speed (tempo). For each row, the player examines each channel. If a note and sample number are specified, the player begins playback of that sample's waveform data on that channel, pitching it according to the specified note. Simultaneously, it applies any volume settings and interprets effect commands to manipulate the sound in real-time (e.g., sliding the pitch, adjusting volume, applying tremolo). Critically, the player software mixes the audio output from all active channels together into a final stereo stream, a process heavily reliant on the CPU, especially on early PCs which often lacked extensive hardware mixing capabilities found on machines like the Amiga where the original MOD format emerged.

The variation between formats like MOD, S3M, XM, and IT arose from an evolutionary process driven by hardware advancements, software innovation, and composer demands. The original Amiga MOD format was relatively simple, often limited to 4 channels (matching the Amiga's Paula audio chip), 8-bit samples of restricted length, and a basic set of effects. As trackers migrated to the PC platform, formats like Scream Tracker 3's S3M expanded capabilities significantly, offering more channels (up to 32, though 8-16 were common), a dedicated volume column within patterns for finer control, stereo panning commands, and more sophisticated effects. FastTracker 2's XM format further refined this, introducing native support for 16-bit samples for higher fidelity and, crucially, complex "instrument envelopes." These envelopes allowed composers to define automated volume and panning changes over the duration of a played sample, enabling much more expressive and dynamic sounds than simple sample triggering.

Impulse Tracker's IT format represented a further peak in tracker sophistication. It pushed channel counts higher (up to 64 virtual channels), introduced even more complex instrument features including resonant filters (though player support varied), sample compression within the file to save space, sophisticated New Note Actions (NNAs) to control how new notes interact with currently playing ones on the same channel, and an expanded set of effects. This evolution reflects a continuous desire for greater sonic fidelity (16-bit samples), more intricate control (envelopes, filters, effects), more simultaneous sounds (channels), and better usability features, often tied directly to the capabilities and interfaces of the specific tracker programs (ProTracker, Scream Tracker, FastTracker II, Impulse Tracker) that defined each era and platform.

The Music

The creation of tracker music during its peak in the late 1980s and 1990s was largely driven by a passionate community of self-taught enthusiasts, predominantly teenagers and young adults. Working on home computers like the Amiga and PC, they often lacked access to expensive professional synthesizers or studio equipment. Trackers provided an accessible, albeit intricate, pathway into digital music production. Inspired by the electronic music genres of the day – including techno, synth-pop, rave, and importantly, video game soundtracks – these young artists sought to emulate their heroes and create their own sounds within the constraints and possibilities offered by the tracker software. The surrounding demoscene and BBS communities further fueled this creativity through collaboration, shared sample libraries, and friendly competition.

The actual process of composing in a tracker was quite distinct from modern digital audio workstations. It involved meticulously entering data into the software's pattern editor grid: hexadecimal codes for notes, instrument/sample numbers, volume levels, and complex effect commands (like portamento, vibrato, or arpeggio). Acquiring the necessary sound samples was a key part of the process; musicians might sample short snippets from keyboards they owned, lift sounds directly from commercial music recordings or game sound effects (a legally gray practice), or trade sample disks circulated within the community, which often contained sounds ripped from various sources. Composition was iterative – entering commands, listening back, tweaking timings and effects – building songs block by block (pattern by pattern) and arranging these blocks into a final sequence.

Owing to the structure of tracker files, where both the sequence data and the audio samples were contained within the module itself, they became a natural platform for remixing and collaborative modification. It was relatively easy for someone to load an existing module (MOD, S3M, XM, etc.) into their own tracker software, examine how it was constructed, swap out samples for different sounds, rewrite patterns, or completely rearrange the song structure. This practice was widespread within the community. Sometimes done as an homage, sometimes as a learning exercise, and often simply as a way to put a personal spin on a favorite track, these remixes were distributed just like original compositions – across BBSes, on demo party releases, and later via FTP sites on the early internet.

I personally seem to recall that in the early 2000s, rights holders forced a site to remove "remix" mods/screamtracker files due to their similarity to original music tracks. This was around the time the recording industry began targeting illegal MP3 sharing. However, I could not find evidence of any specific incident involving tracker files when doing research for this post. ModArchive.org (which will be discussed in a moment) mentions copyright concerns for users downloading tracker files and using them as the basis for new compositions. It's likely similar concerns apply to works resembling or derived from major labels or publishing houses.

For anyone interested in exploring this rich history of digital music, a vast collection of these files remains accessible today thanks to dedicated preservation efforts. The Mod Archive (modarchive.org) stands as one of the most prominent and enduring online repositories. It hosts hundreds of thousands of tracker modules across various formats (MOD, S3M, XM, IT, and more), submitted by artists over several decades. This archive serves not only as a massive library for listening enjoyment but also as an invaluable historical resource, preserving the creative output of countless artists and offering a direct window into the soundscape of the demoscene and early home computer music creation.

While tracker formats and their unique interface are no longer the dominant force in music creation compared to modern Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), the practice of composing with these tools actively persists (as of 2025) within dedicated communities and among specific individuals. Within the demoscene, trackers remain a vital tool, valued for efficiency, precise control, and suitability for working within technical constraints, maintaining a long-held tradition. Some indie game developers also turn to trackers, particularly for crafting soundtracks for retro-styled games where the specific workflow and resulting aesthetic are desired. Additionally, a niche of electronic music artists and hobbyists simply prefers the tracker paradigm for its pattern-based sequencing and intricate effect manipulation, finding it uniquely effective for certain genres or more aligned with their creative process. The existence of modern software like Renoise, which evolves the tracker concept, alongside actively maintained classic trackers such as OpenMPT and MilkyTracker, underscores that composing music within this standard remains a relevant and ongoing, albeit specialized, practice.

Conclusion

Tracker music stands as a monument to an era when creativity was forced to live inside hard technical boundaries. It was a movement defined not by access to expensive studios or polished commercial tools, but by the raw will to create, building entire songs from grids of hexadecimal commands and a handful of tiny audio samples. In the hands of a skilled tracker composer, a 100KB file could deliver as much impact as a full album. The demoscene, BBS culture, and the rise of affordable home computers gave this form of music a place to grow, share, and evolve, even if the rest of the world barely noticed.

While mainstream internet developments favored larger, smoother, and more user-friendly music formats, trackers continued to exist quietly and still do in certain niches. Their influence is evident today in digital audio workstations, indie game soundtracks, and the enduring popularity of precisely crafted electronic music. Tracker formats did not simply vanish; they laid the groundwork for the expectations of future artists in shaping sound digitally. In a world increasingly characterized by boundless possibilities, tracker music serves as a reminder that sometimes it is the constraints, the limited spaces, the narrow bandwidth, and the challenging tools that produce the most enduring art.