Music Disks: MOD/Tracker Albums of the Amiga Era

Imagine this, music nerds: It's the 1990s. Instead of popping a cassette tape into your boom box, or even a CD, you instead slide a 3.4" diskette into your home computer. No music player software is needed, it's included on the diskette and auto-executes as soon as the computer finishes reading the disk contents.

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Then it launches, and you're greeted with an attractive looking splash screen with WinAmp-like controls for playing the tracks on the diskette. How is this possible? A single 3.4" diskette won't even fit a whole MP3 in most cases. The answer? It's not MP3, it's MOD.

MOD is similar to MIDI in that both simply consist of instruction sets for a computer to play a song using pre-recorded samples for each instrument. It differs from MIDI in that it can create a much more complex sound. More channels, wider range, and embedded WAV samples for voices.

A format of this type was used for the N64 to create as complex and rich of music as possible despite the space limitations of cartridges. It was also the format used for Atari Jaguar, for the same reason. The soundtrack to Tempest 2000 for example was all MOD and wicked enough to have come out on CD as its own album:

But this isn't just a general MOD music appreciation article. The focus of course is on the MOD compilation diskettes that were distributed at scene demo parties for use with Amiga home computers. So here, for your consideration, is a playlist of some of the best Amiga music disks:

Ooh yeah, that's the good shit. Let those 90's as fuck beats soak into your pores. Do you feel rejuvenated? Are you not entertained? You know where to go when you need your fix of obscure goodies like this, right? They all come crawling back. (⌐■‿■)

Incidentally if you just want to load up on MOD files and don't care about the retro computing aspect, I recommend The Mod Archive.

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^{Stay Cozy!}