This is the page for everyone who bravely came to this site on my suggestion without any clue of what they would do once they got there. :)

My name is Vince Young, but I'm known in the tracking scene as Novus. If you don't know what tracking is, you can scroll further down in this page to find out.
 

Index
The front page of the site features this week's Spotlight selection, the Scene Watch news section, the subscription form for the Novus Newsletter, and information on how to contact me.

Site Guide
The page you're looking at right now. ;)

My Music
My award-winning music, as well as a form powered by Trax In Space which allows you to comment on my songs.

Tracking Tips
Articles and resources to help trackers of all skill levels improve their music.

Tracking is a way of making music with a computer. If you're already thinking of cheesy artificial-sounding music from Nintendo games or MIDI files, think again. Tracking programs and the people who use them are capable of writing professional-quality realistic-sounding music. This is possible because tracking makes use of samples. A sample is a digital recording of an instrument playing a single note. You can play a sample at a higher frequency and make it sound like that instrument is playing a higher note, or play it at a lower frequency to sound like a lower note. It's kind of like recording your voice on a tape, and then speeding up the tape to make your voice sound higher. So, a tracker file is basically a collection of samples and instructions for when to play each instrument and at what notes. To use an analogy, a tracking artist is a composer and a conductor, and the computer is his or her symphony orchestra. I tell the computer what to play, and it plays it.

There are two things you need to listen to a tracker file. The first is a sound card, which pretty much every computer has nowadays. The second is the right program, such as the MODPlug Player or WinAmp. (I'd suggest MODPlug.)

Oh, and of course, you need some songs. ;) Tracker songs come in a variety of formats, just like all the different convenience store chains out there. Of course, just like convenience store chains, some tracker formats are more prevalent than others. The big four formats are IT, XM, S3M, and MOD. (The MOD format was the very first tracker format, and as such, some people refer to all tracker tunes as "MODs." It's kind of like how some people refer to every convenience store as a "7-Eleven," even if it's actually a Circle-K or a Cumberland Farms store instead.)