It has been a bit of a crowded month- so much to do, so little time.

I hope that you enjoyed the Madtracker programme, and the beat making tutorials. They were great to make.

I have just read a magazine the other day and they stated that "not everyone is making songs with traditional sequencers...and to the newcomer, trackers can seem quite daunting, but are really quite simple". "They represent a commonsence approach to music making".

Finally the recognition that these cool music making tools deserve is slowly coming to light. This can only be a good thing. With more and more people becoming involved in the tracker scene, development of them should increase = better music making for us!

The only downside to this is that the top-end sequencers are alot of money, and they are not going to like this new improved kid on the block taking their audience. But then again trackers are not for everyone, some people just can not get the hang of making music with them- the simplistic nature becomes too much "is that it? Surely I have to do more?"

There have even been bad press with trackers in the past, with people stating that it is a shareware programme and that it is not professional. Well that is just rubbish. Some people like their little community and don't like the idea of someone coming in, making similar (if not better) music with cheaper software that has been programmed very well...I just don't get it myself. If someone offered me a car that looked like a Ferarri, drove as well as a Ferarri but was 70% cheaper than a Ferrari I would grab that chance.

This also goes well for the VSTs out there in Internet land. I have seen many that are offered for over $100, true some look good and probably sound cool too, but when you scour the Internet you find a whole wealth of free VSTs that do the same. The free ones that come with MT2 are great- fully adaptable, tweakable and sound cool.

So before you attempt to buy anything on the Internet make sure that there is no similar free version. Remember you can add many VSTs to a sound- giving you a highly polished professional sound.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I have looked around for some free utils for you (there seems to be a surge in shareware ones at the moment), and only for the newsletter group. As per usual, in time the utils will go onto the site, but not for a while.

Analog Warfare has been released. A cool bass synth capable of some pretty good sounds. Its free, so have some fun with the 64 factory presets.

Next up is some VST instruments from Boris K. The main VST to download is Meddle. This is a morphing synth, allowing you to morph the oscillators between waveforms so that you can create some unheard of textures. Sounds cool and has some onboard effects. It was $30, but now its free.

The next update will probably be talking about making money with music- its the next area on the site to be updated, so prepare to make a bit of cash with your site. There will be some surprises with what will be written.

All the best, and happy music making.

Regards, Dominic WebSite owner: Make your own dance and techno songs.com