Hey, guys. I am really sorry if I’m asking banal questions, but I’ve been a little confused, so I’d like someone to explain it a little bit better to me. I have no experience with trackers. I was reading a little about it and I joined the Dirtywave discord. In general, I understand how the trackers work, but usually people mention them as samplers. It says that Dirtywave has multiple engines and that’s what confuses me. I’d like to know how different it is from a regular synth, how hard is it to produce music on it, and how much math do you need in order to understand it? Thank you in advance!
Tracking is a sequencing method. It’s frequently tied to sample playback since early tracker software mainly used samples, but it’s common for trackers to have external MIDI sequencing, internal sound generation, VST hosting, etc. M8 is kind of a spiritual successor to the LSDJ Gameboy tracker, which has both sample playback and internal synthesis.
It’s not that different to something like the Monomachine that allows you to assign a variety of different synthesis engines to different sequencer tracks, with the tradeoff being that they’re slightly simplified. For example, the M8 FM engine isn’t as complex as a dedicated 4-OP FM synth like the TX81z but there’s still plenty of range there.
There’s a learning curve, especially with tables and the phrases-chains hierarchy, but it’s not much harder than learning an Elektron machine for the first time. There are plenty of resources available and it doesn’t take long for things to click into place. Once you get used to it it’s a very fast and fluid way to work.
You don’t need to know any actual maths, just hexadecimal numbers. All they’re used for is representing parameters, you rarely need to do any actual calculation.
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The way I like to think about trackers is this: it’s like a plain text interface for the parameter-locking that we all love from Elektron machines. But given that’s plain text, the parameter or instruments locks are always exposed with its values and meaning. Of course, trackers are much more than that. And features such as the tables in M8 or LSDJ take the sequencer to another level… I recognize the only thing preventing me from purchasing the M8 is I already spend 10h a day staring at a screen…
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To quickly explain the difference between hex and normal numbers, hex goes from 0 to the letter f, like such
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f
Originally this was a more compact way to store numbered data. So if you wanted, say, a kickdrum on the first beat of each bar you would add a step at 0, 4, 8 and c (instead of 1, 5, 9 and 13 on an elektron box).
The loudest value is FF, the middle one is 80 and 00 is the lowest.
If you’re working in 4/4 it’s actually pretty neat, cause every bar starts with a new first digit (eg 0x, 1x, 2x, 3x, etc).
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Fixed it for you 
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Are you one of those types that run their projects at double or quadruple BPM? 
Never was my preference, but yeah you’re definitely right to add that clarification.
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yep, and changing / entering hex values on m8 is super easy - edit+right goes up in single increments, but edit+up goes up in 16’s (so 00 / 10 / 20 / 30 etc with a single press). no entering values manually or any of that malarkey.
ultra fast 
The M8 Discord meet ups on YouTube are a wealth of knowledge. covers everything from the basics to more advanced stuff to dissecting tunes etc. brilliant stuff.
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You don’t need real math but hexadecimal as previously said.
But usually tracker are more complicated to work with than standard daw and they look cryptic.
Elektron box are like tracker oversimplified to make them useable as a standard Groovebox. Elektron box borrow : plock, soundlock, trigles trig from tracker.
Thé interface of tracker make them not intuitive.
I mean usually a tracker contain let’s say 4 or 8 ´track’, and you put a synth/sampler on it.
And each track is mono 90% of the time if not more.
So if you want to do chords it require you to think a bit about it using multiple ´track’.
But tracker could be really smart for différent kind of thing.
Possibility to use :
- chain : which is like putting multiple small pattern in a larger one
- table : which is like multiple lfo in a subpattern for a given track
- synthesis with single cycle waveform
- sample : with one shot or loop
- and plock, soundlock, trigless trig
- and sometime real synthesis or midi
But I don’t use them because I loose my spontaneity with them.
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I would give Renoise a try if you are interested in trackers. They’re not for everyone, but Renoise should give you a good idea if they’re suitable for what you need.
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Not a tracker user, but ever alert to assumptions about 4/4 time in 16th note steps. Doing anything based on threes on a model:cycles is a challenge … not impossible, of course, just challenging to think about.
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On the M8 you use the Tracker to make musical phrases - the simplest type of musical phrase being Phrase.
For a Phrase you can set what Instrument to use… for each note… Don’t worry, when you enter a note, an Instrument is automatically assigned.
When you edit the Instrument you can select whether it is the Sampler or one of the synth engines.
I like how I can have M8 play a Phrase, then I can go to the Instrument page and try different synth engines or presets while the Phrase is playing.
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What’s your take, does it stand a chance against Mnm? This is something I’d like to know too! Anyone who feels like sharing their opinion is welcome.
Btw, guys, I’m so grateful that so many of you responded. You helped me with my research a lot. Love this forum.
there’s maybe some parallels in that they both have a bunch of internal machines to choose from & can be step modulated and such. they’re both also really fkn good 
here’s a single channel of the m8 fm synth by our very own Ess. gives a taste of what it’s capable of (if you’re really talented lol)
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Direct link to song: M8 Discord Meet-up #7 - YouTube
Interesting … looking at the subsequent walkthrough though, it still looks (to me) too much like ‘programming’ to engage me in music making.
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It’s programming in the same way working with any sequencer or drum machine is.
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I’d say maybe. It doesn’t have the routing, per track delay, or range of effects that the Monomachine has, but if you get into things like tables you can really get weird with it.
The synth engines and reverb sound better (imo), and the different clipping modes are a step beyond MnM distortion… however, the filter doesn’t have the same temperamental, odd charm as the MnM.
Sequencer wise, not even comparable. M8 wins hands down. Monomachine’s arpeggiator is pretty great though.
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I’ve had both and I wouldn’t say that one could replace the other, though they’re close in a few ways. The differences in sound and sequencing are covered pretty well in the above post, though it’s important to add that the M8 has a whole stereo sampling/resampling engine on top of all that.
If you buy a Monomachine now, you’re buying an aging instrument that has so rapidly overinflated on the used market that you will never get your moneys worth from it. When I had one I brought it to shows all the time, it’s so fast to work with that I would often leave patterns blank so I could punch in new sequences while I was playing. It’s a shame that they’re too rare and expensive now to risk taking out live for most smaller performers.
If you buy an M8 for a fraction of the price you are buying something genuinely new that is constantly being added to and improved. Even though they’re still hard to get I haven’t seen any shameless price gouging as I have with the Monomachine. Given the interface I wouldn’t be as confident about using it live in the same way, but the tradeoff is that I can take it anywhere and make tracks on the couch or in the park without being tethered to my studio desk.
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Can the M8 be used for field recordings? If so, does anyone here use theirs that way, or do you use yours only to load or record sounds in a home/studio/library context?
I should probably hunt down the specs and find out the maximum amount of time the M8 can record. I’m hoping that time is limited only by the size of one’s SD card.
It doesn’t have a microphone, so it’d be much more convenient to use something like a Zoom H1 for field recordings. An advantage of plugging an external (powered) mic into the M8 would be that you’d have the recordings on your SD card instantly for use in songs… but then again, you could just put the SD card into the Zoom and record directly to it.
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