https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker#Selected_list_of...
Oh, and samples? Kids used hardware samplers to rip or record their own:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37376675
And how'd that work out? The end result was a piece of music called a module ("mod"). Strangely enough, I can't find exact (or even approximate) numbers. A snapshot of the MOD archive from 2007 had 120k mods:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_Archive
So, yeah, a very low barrier of entry... ;-)