VOGONS

Tetra Music Compositor: A Tribute to "Echoing" and Lars"

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First post, by rfnagel

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I was recently inspired to update my really old web pages about the demo and retail versions of Bram Graveland's "Tetra Compositor" Tracker format music composition program (distributed by Creative Labs, circa 1990-1991).

A Tribute to "Echoing": https://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sn … eds/Echoing.htm

A Tribute to "Lars": https://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sn … /weeds/Lars.htm

After DECADES of research, the unknown composers of these two old Tracker format tunes "Echoing" and "Lars" (circa 1988) that were included with "Tetra Compositor" have FINALLY been discovered. My life is NOW COMPLETE 🤣!

Download a ZIP containing the whole schmear right here: http://bhservices.us/weeds/Temp/Tetra_Compositor_Tribute.zip

P.S. The web pages include embedded MIDI files that will play in web browsers that support this (some do NOT), but you can download my versions of the MIDI files (as well as my versions in MP3 format of the tunes) from the web pages.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 1 of 6, by wbahnassi

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Nice renditions! The instrument choice is nice.

Now I keep hearing that a non-interactive edition of Tetra was distributed with the early Sound Blasters..
I don't know though on which disks this came on. Did it come on a disk of its own? Because the original four 5.25" disks don't contain Tetra AFAIK, and it's not mentioned in the manual either along with the SB software that comes on disks (Sbaitso, VOX Kit, FM Organ, Parrot).

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
Intel 386 DX-33, Speedstar 24X, SB 1.5, 1x CD
Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
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Reply 2 of 6, by Grzyb

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Oh dear, "Echoing", one of my favourite MODs!
I first encountered it in 1995, when it was used in a Polish demoscene disk magazine "Korsarz", and I only had a Covox...

Nie rzucim ziemi, skąd nasz root!

Reply 3 of 6, by rfnagel

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wbahnassi wrote on 2025-11-03, 16:02:

Nice renditions! The instrument choice is nice.

Now I keep hearing that a non-interactive edition of Tetra was distributed with the early Sound Blasters..
I don't know though on which disks this came on. Did it come on a disk of its own? Because the original four 5.25" disks don't contain Tetra AFAIK, and it's not mentioned in the manual either along with the SB software that comes on disks (Sbaitso, VOX Kit, FM Organ, Parrot).

Glad you liked them 😀 I honestly don't remember which floppy had the non-interactive demo on it, it's been so long. But IIRC the Sound Blaster was either the 1.0 or the 1.5, and it was installed along with the rest of the SB drivers/software/utilities.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 4 of 6, by rfnagel

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Grzyb wrote on 2025-11-03, 16:49:

Oh dear, "Echoing", one of my favourite MODs!
I first encountered it in 1995, when it was used in a Polish demoscene disk magazine "Korsarz", and I only had a Covox...

It's one of my favorites too, simply for the fact that it was the FIRST thing I had heard on the first Sound Blaster that I bought.

That's really cool about that demoscene disk, I'll check it out ASAP when I get back to my PC 😀

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 5 of 6, by Malik

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Both are my favourites! Thanks!

I spent so much time during my school days making music with Tetra Compositor.

One thing I still couldn't find is the Tetra Compositor Pro, that supposedly came with the first release of Sound Blaster Pro.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 6 of 6, by rfnagel

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Malik wrote on 2025-11-06, 21:49:

One thing I still couldn't find is the Tetra Compositor Pro, that supposedly came with the first release of Sound Blaster Pro.

Yeah, I've heard of that, but haven't seen it either. The closest thing that I've seen is the blurb on the box of TC saying that it supports stereo sound. But, you had to run a TSR mixer utility that came with the SBPro in order to enable the stereo sound.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

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