Since I started with the Impulse Tracker music program in 1999, I have learnt a lot about, not just how to make but how to listen to music, but I developed a different way of enjoying music than I had before. New elements, new details and even new instruments and new melodies that joined the main ones started to be noticeable for me, and everytime I tried to experiment and compose new stuff I learnt more about it. I also started to expand my tastes and in these last 10 years I had probably listened thousands and thousands of albums of different styles, though mostly inside Metal. Anyway, I have also had my different periods, like "new age period" or "symphonic period" or "classic rock" or "brutal death" etc. that I tried to go in depth into them. I still keep many good memories about some of those albums from each style, and it kind of influenced me as well when creating my own music.
Besides, one of the most important things I have learnt when working in Impulse Tracker was to enjoy works that didnt keep so good samples. They were made poorly in surface, but I could realize with time there was a great creative potential inside, even that they "sounded badly" at first. This is really a great thing cause going beyond the surface of music, of production, of great sound, is like reaching a higher level of understanding. I might sound cheesy XD but I comprehended that before that, my ears payed attention and listened different than I did later. Of course listening loads of music can also help to realise where you can find quality or there are just copypasted songs from others or just zero compositive talent.
I might not be a great music composer but trying to create helped me a lot in taking music into different levels and divide mentally and enjoy each one of the different instruments playing. That's why I would encourage everyone to take a musical creation program and try to invent and imagine things there (maybe the sentence "you dont know how hard is to make it till you dont try" fits well here, I think).
These last days I had a great new: after 3 years of being stucked, after realizing Impulse Tracker 2.14 wasnt running at all in Windows XP or Vista (the owner refused to go on working on that program), I downloaded a very similar program, called SchismTracker (you can find it googling) and I am re-learning and reminding how to work on it. I also took that old cd with instruments, samples and songs made with IT, and I was listening after many years some of those. I finally decided that many had the worth quality to not to be forgotten in time, and I started to make a compilation. Maybe this wont be interesting for so many people, but I would like to leave somewhere in the web (apart from those Tracked Aggression Compilations) a mark of good mod songs, some quite old, some with bad samples, different styles, different ways of composing,... but under my opinion with great creative minds behind computers.
This is my tribute to those who once made music by computer with IT:
Forgotten Songs - IT Mod Compilation I (by EE)
01 - Betrayer - Snaildeath
02 - Marcus Kalushke - Too Much
03 - C0rpse - And Tears Apart
04 - Amok - After Millennium
05 - Skarf - Cromm Cruaich
06 - Icelizard - My Grief Never Dies
07 - Amanojaku - Amano Warriors
08 - Tuomo Saloranta - The Light And Nothing
09 - Dim Tim - Eye Of The Serpent
10 - Zack Ohren - Discombobled
11 - Aegis - Angelique
12 - Xoio Carmesí - Els Segadors (original by Thunder)
13 - MAlekith - Ahead On The Way
14 - Gonzalo Blazquez - Iris Parte 3
Forgotten Songs - IT Mod Compilation II (by EE)
01 - RED - Mayhem
02 - Pain Inc - In The Shade
03 - Malekith & Cadaver - Oath Of The Brave
04 - Destiny - Warcry Of Sarcasm And Triumph
05 - Zack Ohren - Crush
06 - Einherjar - Oak (with Vocals)
07 - Blue Shade Of Moonstorm - Beyond The Stars
08 - Icelizard - Beyond Life
09 - Jimmy Grimberg - Arrival
10 - Nocturnus - Dreamscape 9
11 - C0rpse - Pray For Me Tonight
12 - Oriol Taulats - Gikka2
13 - Betrayer - The Ending Dream
14 - Rez + Eclipse - Space Warz Opus 1