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[johntorkington]

As a composer looking to get into the game industry I've been toying with the idea of creating some examples in native tracker formats or even general midi rather then render out everything as a waveform to demonstrate my ability to write in those formats and with restrictions. However I don't know how prevalent these formats are in 2011, nevertheless the future. Do any developers still look for native formats when it comes to music?

[C.A. Sinner]

a lot of indie devs use tracker music, not sure about the industry but my guess is it's probably not very common.

[Noah!]

Honestly, from a developer's perspective I don't know. The thing is, really the only advantage that tracker files have now is file size. And even that advantage can be mitigated through some clever use of codecs (though I haven't seen any indie games attempt to take advantage of that).

I think that the decision to use tracker music comes from convenience, really. Like, either the developer is already used to working with the format, or knows someone who is well-versed in the format, and so it becomes a given that that is what they're using. However, nowadays I'm seeing an influx of more "traditional" composers, who are more familiar with modern production tools, and don't see as much of a need to learn a whole new method of composing music just to be able to support a format that is quickly sliding into obsolescence.

[pgil]

I use XM files for most of my games, and have made them for a few other peoples' games.  The advantatges are file size (sometimes) and having lots of  control over looping, muting tracks, etc... That said, I don't think I've ever gotten a job from someone who opened an .xm file of mine in a tracker and listened to it. I think nowadays, people just want to know you're good at making music, and will talk about the technical stuff later.

[moi]

I think tracker music will come back in force sooner or later.
There is no reason to have 5 Mbytes of music on a 2 Mbytes flash game for example.

[johntorkington]

Fair enough. I may make a few examples if I have free time but I won't make it a priority.

[Player Ʒ]

I think tracker music will come back in force sooner or later.
There is no reason to have 5 Mbytes of music on a 2 Mbytes flash game for example.

Just hope Triplefox finishes up that SiON tracker so we can just sacrifice CPU for file compression.

[pgil]

Yeah, SiON is great too, and I think having a more intuitive song editor will make it more popular. 

BTW, there's already an open-source XM Player for Flash. I'm using it in a game I'm currently working on.

[st33d]

Our musician actually has to send midi files to some clients for backing tracks to certain things. It's still a standard, especially if the clients aren't minted.

[MoritzPGKatz]

MIDI is still a standard production-wise, but for the past 5 years I can't say I've used general MIDI files for anything other than programming or exchange with other studios when collaborating on a project, neither for gaming music nor for film or commercial tracks.

Tracker formats still have a demo/retro niche, but most people consider them obsolete for very good reasons.

[Brother Android]

Tracker formats still have a demo/retro niche, but most people consider them obsolete for very good reasons.

What are those reasons?

i think module formats are economical in terms of space and would make it easy to program games that make interactive use of sound. For chiptune-type music (simple waveforms) tracker formats are ideal; for sample-based music in general they are quite functional, although the file size benefit becomes less significant. i see no good reason not to at least consider using them... that said, though, if you're distributing your portfolio, do it in a normal format. As pgil says, people want to know you can make music; if it later turns out to be an advantage that you know your way around a tracker, great.

[1982]

There is no way I see trackers as obsolete. Sure they are more into electronic and sample based music. For music that has lots of live instruments multi-track systems and piano roll sequencers work better. But in the end it is all about what you get used to as composer. I personally implement live recordings easily with my tracker work environment.

For games module music has a lot pros in it like stated in this thread. Thou it seems that game tracker music is made because it is retro and hip, and not actually seen as as true alternative way for making awesome music. Listen the masters.

[Noah!]

To be honest, I have nothing against the tracker method of composing. I mean, I use Renoise, and love it to death. Wouldn't give it up for anything (and I've tried almost everything). But the module format itself? Ehh, I think it's time to give it a tune-up.

I'm just gonna throw this out there, but I think something like SunVox will be the wave of the future. Enough waveform support to implement most synthesis methods, plus sample manipulation and flexible DSP connections, an open engine...The only thing it needs to hit the big time is fan support; unfortunately, that's where it seriously falls short. And that's where most proposed solutions will fall short.

SiON's a worthy contender too, but I have a feeling that AS3-only thing is gonna throw a lot of people under the bus.

[C.A. Sinner]

I think tracker music will come back in force sooner or later.
There is no reason to have 5 Mbytes of music on a 2 Mbytes flash game for example.

there's no "reason" but internet connections are so fast these days it doesn't really matter. i average on 2MB/s when i'm downloading from a decent server and i don't care whether some flash game takes 1 or 5 seconds to load.

[moi]

flash game portals have some "reasons" to keep the file size low and will generally favor smaller games or have a bias against big ones.
Also having a lot of space is not a good reason to waste it.