PROTIP: As Avrilcadabra pointed out to me... you could of course just use the ARP command in the M8 if you want to make basic ARPs, rather than going through the manual process of putting down each note - but I like to make things difficult. Go watch their channel: ua-cam.com/users/avrilcadabra
Thank you for making the m8 videos, you do it very well and you can see from the comments it makes sense to people, I've yet to do a tutorial on the M8 as every time I have tried they just get way to long, it's hard to just explain one specific thing on it.
@@avrilcadabra Thanks for pointing out that I was living a lie all these years!! But yeah, even simple things tend to take up some time - as is evident from this err, 30 minute video. D:
For me the best way to understand them is as mini sequencers that are not directly tied to the main sequence. 1. they can run at speed divisions or multiplications of the main clock. So for eg, half speed, double speed etc. 2. they can be triggered on any step, so don't have to start when a sequence starts. You can for eg. trigger a fast table table every third step to create an arp or modulation. 3. any table can be triggered from any step on any tracks, so you can re-use tables across tracks, use more tahn one table in one phrase etc.
Thank you for putting these together. I started listening to trackermods way back in '85 on the C64 and am just starting to get into creating music using that ancient but powerful language. You explain things quite well!
My M8 arrived yesterday so I’m a long way off from understanding tables, but I’ve watched this video twice and deeply appreciate your taking the time to do this!,
This series is crazy helpful! Thank you! I've been reading the manual, but for some reason none of it is sticking, but this visual format is making a ton of sense!
Proud hex freak here. :) Comes with ingrained 6502 assembly language programming as a kid in the 80s. Loving the M8 tutorials - thanks for making them!! I'd never even heard of this until I saw a news item about the Polyend Tracker Mini. Did a bit of Googling, found the M8, instinctively connected with *it* instead. I'm not built for waiting though. Damn lead times.
Nice!! I can't really visualise hex, in terms of auto converting it to decimal, but I do understand it in a... different, weird, tracker specific way ha. The M8 is definitely a power house! Glad you enjoyed the video. :) I too am not one for patience or waiting ha.
Super sweet dude! Really enjoyed your example at the end! I really see this HW / workflow as an opportunity to shake normal operating paradigms up --> new cool shit
When you started explaining, I was thinking it's like a macro. Instead of just playing the note, you trigger the macro that adjusts the note to your liking. I must say I thought I was the only person on earth with a serious interest in trackers, mechanical keyboards and Melt Banana, but I'm happy that I was proven wrong. I've been using the Beatstep Pro for a while now and I just did a 6/4 track. How hard can you make that! I cannot believe "copy these 12 steps" actually turns it into 16+8 instead of 12+12. That's definitely not a problem with trackers. I have been eyeing the options for a while now and after seeing this video, I ordered a Teensy. Should be here tomorrow. Thanks for your hard work, you explain complex things in a very understandable way. And your accent always takes me back to my travels on Skye, Arran, ...!
Thanks Peter! Well spotted on the Melt Banana shirt. I am a big fan of Trackers for that reason too - you can do interesting one off bits and pieces and make tracks complex and varied without being stuck in the same usual patterns. Let me know how you like the M8 when you get the Teensy!
Got my M8 a week ago or so now and this video has been invaluable in shortcutting the learn process of tables for me. I really appreciate you making this video and it makes sense once you have the M8 in hand 👍
Cheers Jack! It took me years before I worked up the courage to try out tables in LSDJ as I couldn't for the life of me understand them, so glad I can help.
@@StephenMcLeod Would you know of any good resources for general mod tracker theory/tricks/workflow patterns. Coming from the programming world, I see a lot of similarities between writing code and using mod trackers, especially when it comes to identifying re-usable workflows and patterns. There must a heaps things people are doing with tables - it would be awesome to have some sort of definitive resource illustrating those concepts.
@@jacklee7695 I don't know of any specific resources, but if you search for LSDJ tutorials there are loads of them on old blogs etc. Danimal Cannon I think did a bunch of great ones. Also SabrePulse, Bubblyfish and others :)
Appreciate you making this video, learned a lot, very interesting and cool way to make music, hope to try this out in the near future! Killer is outro too btw, sounds soooo damn good! 🤘🐀
Great job! Would love some more m8 videos. Perhaps one going through the different commands. UA-cam definitely needs more m8 tracker videos. Anyhow, keep up the good work
This is an AWESOME tutorial! Thanks so much for this. I’m building a m8 headless running on a rpi 3b+ (already kinda of a heady setup lolz!) and this really helped me understand the m8 structure. Also, nice shirt🤘
@@StephenMcLeod Yeah, it's awesome they saw what the workflow needed and made it happen. I'm glad they did the headless version too. Though they could set up a donation box or something.
Great video. I have seen one, from the maker, where a guitar strum was created, presumably with a table but I'll be damned if I can find it. Really looking forward to mine arriving.
Ah! That is probably from the M8 Discord meetups. It's on the official channel I think :) Glad these are helpful! I have another one coming up in a day or two.
@@StephenMcLeod yes that was it, one of the discord meets but I can't find it without watching them all from the beginning haha! The strum was so realistic and it would be great to be able to do that when mine arrives.
@@DavidDeLuge You'll need to watch them all again :D I think the guitar thing might even be an instrument pre-loaded now... but don't quote me on that.
Excellent vidéo thank you! Assuming I didn't read Avrilcadabra's tip for the arp command, and wanted to use tables to make an arp, how would I go to get a sustained arp for the whole pattern/chain? My guess is that the arp was fading because the instrument was set with no sustain and only decay or release, so... just raise the sustain of the instrument would make it a sustained arp? Cheers!
@@StephenMcLeod that's pretty awesome! You're lucky. Are they still doing it as a 2pc with Yako controlling the drums with wireless midi while she sings? That's how they did it in 2013... Last time I saw them. I still remember the first time I saw them too!!! They opened for Dillinger escape plan and Mr bungle. Circa 1995-96 something like that. Heck of a good time...
You can, though obviously not all of the commands will work over MIDI, and some instruments get confused if the MIDI rate is too high - so crazy crazy fast tables might trip up some synths.
I guess that depends. What do you mean more powerful controls? A bigger screen would be nice, but then it wouldn't be as portable - so it's a tradeoff.
So you can use a table to set up different macro synth strums, and then use table hop to jump to the chord you want to strum right? Only problem being I'm not sure how to get the table to stop before it intrudes on your next chord.
I can't 100% recall why it's 4E in this example specifically (I recorded this a while ago), but I believe it was to go to that specific row. If you watch, it goes to E. If I jump right to the very end/last row of the table, then there'd be no real point in using the table.
@@StephenMcLeod What confuciuses me is the 4. I think, it's pretty useless to put any value at the Y-position of the HOP-command. After checking the manual and trying it with the M8 itself, I came to this simple conclusion. Some great content you upload to your channel, btw.
@@StephenMcLeod thanks for the response. How would you approach changing the behavior so that it doesn't restart everytime? Just curious about your thoughts on that.
@lawdviola if you go into the table settings you can change how it advances. E.g. if it goes one step per note, or retriggers. I can't remember off the top of my head where it is though I'm afraid.
PROTIP: As Avrilcadabra pointed out to me... you could of course just use the ARP command in the M8 if you want to make basic ARPs, rather than going through the manual process of putting down each note - but I like to make things difficult. Go watch their channel: ua-cam.com/users/avrilcadabra
Thank you for making the m8 videos, you do it very well and you can see from the comments it makes sense to people, I've yet to do a tutorial on the M8 as every time I have tried they just get way to long, it's hard to just explain one specific thing on it.
@@avrilcadabra Thanks for pointing out that I was living a lie all these years!! But yeah, even simple things tend to take up some time - as is evident from this err, 30 minute video. D:
@@avrilcadabra Sign me up for long, meandering demos, especially if I can follow along with you on my own setup.
For me the best way to understand them is as mini sequencers that are not directly tied to the main sequence. 1. they can run at speed divisions or multiplications of the main clock. So for eg, half speed, double speed etc. 2. they can be triggered on any step, so don't have to start when a sequence starts. You can for eg. trigger a fast table table every third step to create an arp or modulation. 3. any table can be triggered from any step on any tracks, so you can re-use tables across tracks, use more tahn one table in one phrase etc.
A great summary!
How do you use tables as clock divisions, e.g. half speed?
Change the tic speed of the table, or the groove :)
"Mini sequencers:, now that term I can get my head around. Thanks!
Thank you for putting these together. I started listening to trackermods way back in '85 on the C64 and am just starting to get into creating music using that ancient but powerful language. You explain things quite well!
I love the C64! I've got plans to use it with some old trackers like SIDWizard, but it is going to take some time to learn haha. Thanks for watching!!
My M8 arrived yesterday so I’m a long way off from understanding tables, but I’ve watched this video twice and deeply appreciate your taking the time to do this!,
Thanks a lot! I hope it is useful. Enjoy the M8!!
This series is crazy helpful! Thank you! I've been reading the manual, but for some reason none of it is sticking, but this visual format is making a ton of sense!
Awesome! I'm glad it's been useful :) Thanks for commenting.
Proud hex freak here. :) Comes with ingrained 6502 assembly language programming as a kid in the 80s. Loving the M8 tutorials - thanks for making them!! I'd never even heard of this until I saw a news item about the Polyend Tracker Mini. Did a bit of Googling, found the M8, instinctively connected with *it* instead. I'm not built for waiting though. Damn lead times.
Nice!! I can't really visualise hex, in terms of auto converting it to decimal, but I do understand it in a... different, weird, tracker specific way ha. The M8 is definitely a power house! Glad you enjoyed the video. :) I too am not one for patience or waiting ha.
Good clear explanation of tables + Melt Banana shirt = instant subscribe. Thanks for the great video!
Haha thanks! To be fair I would also instasub for Melt Banana.
Super sweet dude! Really enjoyed your example at the end! I really see this HW / workflow as an opportunity to shake normal operating paradigms up --> new cool shit
Thanks a lot! Have you picked up an M8?
@@StephenMcLeod Hahaha I was a day late. Just checked and it's now SOLD OUT!
@@subzonepen You should check out the Headless version!
When you started explaining, I was thinking it's like a macro. Instead of just playing the note, you trigger the macro that adjusts the note to your liking. I must say I thought I was the only person on earth with a serious interest in trackers, mechanical keyboards and Melt Banana, but I'm happy that I was proven wrong. I've been using the Beatstep Pro for a while now and I just did a 6/4 track. How hard can you make that! I cannot believe "copy these 12 steps" actually turns it into 16+8 instead of 12+12. That's definitely not a problem with trackers. I have been eyeing the options for a while now and after seeing this video, I ordered a Teensy. Should be here tomorrow. Thanks for your hard work, you explain complex things in a very understandable way. And your accent always takes me back to my travels on Skye, Arran, ...!
Thanks Peter! Well spotted on the Melt Banana shirt. I am a big fan of Trackers for that reason too - you can do interesting one off bits and pieces and make tracks complex and varied without being stuck in the same usual patterns. Let me know how you like the M8 when you get the Teensy!
Phew, what a blessing. Could not figure how to assign a table to the instrument coming from LSDJ.
I'm glad this helped!
Got my M8 a week ago or so now and this video has been invaluable in shortcutting the learn process of tables for me. I really appreciate you making this video and it makes sense once you have the M8 in hand 👍
Hey thanks, glad it made sense for you. It barely makes sense to me, and I made it!
The way I understand tables is "micro management" for instrments. Change the tempo individually, instead of globally, with tables. Super powerful.
I refuse to micro-manage.
Man, thanks for your M8 vids, and making it all understandable. I've been poking around with headless M8, and this feature is blowing my mind.
Cheers Jack! It took me years before I worked up the courage to try out tables in LSDJ as I couldn't for the life of me understand them, so glad I can help.
@@StephenMcLeod Would you know of any good resources for general mod tracker theory/tricks/workflow patterns. Coming from the programming world, I see a lot of similarities between writing code and using mod trackers, especially when it comes to identifying re-usable workflows and patterns. There must a heaps things people are doing with tables - it would be awesome to have some sort of definitive resource illustrating those concepts.
@@jacklee7695 I don't know of any specific resources, but if you search for LSDJ tutorials there are loads of them on old blogs etc. Danimal Cannon I think did a bunch of great ones. Also SabrePulse, Bubblyfish and others :)
@@StephenMcLeod Sweet, thanks I'll take a look. (Google hasn't been my friend recently)
Appreciate you making this video, learned a lot, very interesting and cool way to make music, hope to try this out in the near future! Killer is outro too btw, sounds soooo damn good! 🤘🐀
You gotta get on this sweet M8 train.
Ohh don't mind if I do. I suspect this should translate right back to LSDJ. Dabbling in the dark arts!
It mostly should yeah! If not entirely.
This is what my step component/step condition training has been for.
Yas!
So helpful! Much thanks
Glad it was useful!
Great job! Would love some more m8 videos. Perhaps one going through the different commands. UA-cam definitely needs more m8 tracker videos. Anyhow, keep up the good work
Thanks for watching! By commands, do you mean the FX? I can see how that would be useful...
@@StephenMcLeod Yes exactly
You are amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this. Exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks! I've got another one coming based on what we spoke about the other day. Walking through how I create a song from scratch.
Very nice explanation, and the outro track is great.
Thanks a lot!
Ooh looking forward to watching this.
This is an AWESOME tutorial! Thanks so much for this. I’m building a m8 headless running on a rpi 3b+ (already kinda of a heady setup lolz!) and this really helped me understand the m8 structure. Also, nice shirt🤘
Hey, I'm really glad that it was useful! Cheers for watching and commenting :)
Good one!!!! 🤍
I'm glad it was useful!
These videos are great mate. Nice one.
Thanks Simon! Really appreciate it. Hope they are useful and worthwhile :)
Good one❤❤❤
Thanks!!
This was perfect. Thank you
Glad it was of use!
“Which features should m8 have”
Trash80 - “Yes.”
Haha. TBF a lot of this is ported from LSDJ, which is why so many folk loved it for so long, but... the addition of so much other stuff is amazing.
@@StephenMcLeod Yeah, it's awesome they saw what the workflow needed and made it happen.
I'm glad they did the headless version too. Though they could set up a donation box or something.
Great video. I have seen one, from the maker, where a guitar strum was created, presumably with a table but I'll be damned if I can find it.
Really looking forward to mine arriving.
Ah! That is probably from the M8 Discord meetups. It's on the official channel I think :) Glad these are helpful! I have another one coming up in a day or two.
@@StephenMcLeod yes that was it, one of the discord meets but I can't find it without watching them all from the beginning haha! The strum was so realistic and it would be great to be able to do that when mine arrives.
@@DavidDeLuge You'll need to watch them all again :D I think the guitar thing might even be an instrument pre-loaded now... but don't quote me on that.
@@StephenMcLeod now that would be handy.
Excellent vidéo thank you! Assuming I didn't read Avrilcadabra's tip for the arp command, and wanted to use tables to make an arp, how would I go to get a sustained arp for the whole pattern/chain? My guess is that the arp was fading because the instrument was set with no sustain and only decay or release, so... just raise the sustain of the instrument would make it a sustained arp? Cheers!
Yes! If you don't have an indefinite sustain, then the arp will fade out.
Melt Banana! Love them!
Yeah! I saw them in Glasgow last week. Great gig.
@@StephenMcLeod that's pretty awesome! You're lucky. Are they still doing it as a 2pc with Yako controlling the drums with wireless midi while she sings? That's how they did it in 2013... Last time I saw them. I still remember the first time I saw them too!!! They opened for Dillinger escape plan and Mr bungle. Circa 1995-96 something like that. Heck of a good time...
Thank you !!!
You're welcome!
Have you used the M8's tables to sequence external gear? I'm interested on it's potential as a MIDI controller
You can, though obviously not all of the commands will work over MIDI, and some instruments get confused if the MIDI rate is too high - so crazy crazy fast tables might trip up some synths.
Would the M8 benefit from being in a more modern format like a steam deck, having a bigger screen and more powerful controls?
I guess that depends. What do you mean more powerful controls? A bigger screen would be nice, but then it wouldn't be as portable - so it's a tradeoff.
So you can use a table to set up different macro synth strums, and then use table hop to jump to the chord you want to strum right? Only problem being I'm not sure how to get the table to stop before it intrudes on your next chord.
That should work! You can add a kill command to stop the note :)
21:00 here you put the command "TBL01" inside of table 2, but can yoh put the "TBL01" on the phrase sequencer instead?
You can I think, but it will need retriggered on each phrase I believe, whereas this way it is tied to the table itself.
Which one is better? This one or Polyend tracker mini?
Tracker Mini isn't out in the wild yet, but the M8 is generally more powerful. It depends on the workflow etc that you want.
How viable is it to run the headless version on a mac to evaluate whether or not I should get an M8?
Easy. You need one of the teensy boards though. That's what I did originally. :)
22:25 THO 4E ...why 4E? A Table only has F positions. I don't get it.
I can't 100% recall why it's 4E in this example specifically (I recorded this a while ago), but I believe it was to go to that specific row. If you watch, it goes to E. If I jump right to the very end/last row of the table, then there'd be no real point in using the table.
@@StephenMcLeod What confuciuses me is the 4. I think, it's pretty useless to put any value at the Y-position of the HOP-command. After checking the manual and trying it with the M8 itself, I came to this simple conclusion. Some great content you upload to your channel, btw.
@@homo192 Ah gotcha!! In that case... I can't recall. I'll need to test it out. Well spotted you eagle eye!
Will the table always restart on every new note??
You can change that behaviour, depending on what you want to have happen.
@@StephenMcLeod thanks for the response. How would you approach changing the behavior so that it doesn't restart everytime? Just curious about your thoughts on that.
@lawdviola if you go into the table settings you can change how it advances. E.g. if it goes one step per note, or retriggers. I can't remember off the top of my head where it is though I'm afraid.
Woth mentioning that its worth copying his wavsynth settings as some presets have weird table stuff built in and will throw you... (me) off
Yeah the presets can be hard to wrap your head around if you're not familiar with the bits and bobs.
Table=subroutine.
Don't come at me with your fancy programmer mumbo-jumbo!
just what I was thinking. that helps.
Super helpful. Thanks!
I'm glad! :D