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Author: Spark on March 23 2007 Viewed 5865 times. 12 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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YE-HAW – POP! POP! POP! PE-KANG!
It's the horribly incomplete new-oldskool tracker roundup.
Thanks to Rivel for inspiring this. Thanks to Veronica who had to wait for her desert while I wrote this.
There are a fucking shitload of trackers out there, but I think these ones are the very best free/stable ones.
Start with Wikipedia if you go looking.
While some people give trackers a bad rep for being hard to use and extremely limited, anyone who has used Apple Logic 7 will know, that it is by far the most complicated musical composition program known to mankind. For all of it's multiple menus, options, and configuration possibilities.. it is no more capable of making MUSIC than any of the programs listed below.
PLEASE! Feel free to list any trackers below that have not been included.
>>> Honorable Mentions not included. <<<
Renoise ($$) Renoise 1.5 was pretty good.. but this new 1.8 is one big ugly mess of shit. I mean by the time it loads, any of these other trackers would have played 8 bars of your song. (even on a Dual Core AMD64 with a gig of ram and stupid amounts of hd space). Basically it's a DAW now with a tracker interface. I'm not liking the direction its going. If you want to use VST's with a tracker use Ztracker and a VSThost (I'll list one under Ztracker). Renoise 1.1 is nice too.
Psycle (I dunno I just don't like it). But, a good option to Renoise. Cross platform.
Buze(too beta, but damn it works nice), I would have listed it with a tutorial on how to get it working righ if it wasn't SO FUCKING WHITE!!! I mean, everything is WHITE! Get with the fucking program! Dark Themes are in!
Aldrin (Couldn't get Ubuntu working on my laptop for testing). Apparently it works quite well.
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Schism Tracker - link
Cross platform IT clone. The only thing I can see missing is the filter. But who fucking cares about jeffrey lims WEAK ASS filter.
Well laid out and stable. A bit boring (you'll see what I mean).
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Chibitracker - link
Cross platform IT clone. Very well laid out in oldskool form with "new old school" features like filters and effect sends (chorus and reverb). The reverb seems to be locked to a few presets (which may be alterable in a text file/hex editor.. haven't tried) and the chorus allows you to change the settings (get ready for lots of clicking). Instruments allow for Pitch/Filter, Amp, Pan, and the ubiquitous multi-sample. Everything has to be entered textually so some things can be time consuming. All round though it's very complete, fast and easy to use.
Seemed to have left out chord macros (was that in IT, or Scream Tracker 3, I can't remember), which, for those who know... were the way to make badass songs quickly, because you could store a whole scales worth of chords to key commands, and just pop them in as you were writing your melody.
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Skale - link
Windows and VSTi (doesn't work in CubaseSX, but works in VSTHost)
THEY FUCKED US! They get this totally bad ass tracker to the upper echelons of beta software, then they vanish, leaving behind a very lovely tracker with some annoyingly incomplete features. With it's retro-new interface that reminds you of the old days while blinged out. Lets not forget the truly unique feature in all of modern digital audio software.. THE ABILITY TO LOAD A FUCKING TRACK WITHOUT INTERRUPTING THE AUDIO STREAM. Ie, while the track loads, the old one still plays, when the new one loads, it plays right away (only if you were playing though). DJ the fuck out of those old XM's now.
Usable, but you'll soon get tired of it's incompleteness and move on.
DON'T PULL A FUCKING OSKARI TAMMELIN ON US. Finish this deity of dopeness.
If there were any tracker I could make into a real live human woman.. it would be skale tracker.. pretty, dirty, abused by it's parents making for low self esteem and easy access. (takes one to know one)
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MilkyTracker - link
This is as crossplatform as it gets.
I've written a few tracks in milkytracker and can say it is sufficient for regular track production. Though, you will be limited to MONO samples, and no DSP effects. One thing to note is that the Sample offset command will only offset the first 64k of a sample. This sucks, or is awesome depending how you look at it (ie, awesome for lo-fi sweepz).
The developer seems a bit stoic on remaining "oldskool". It seems he may feel what's the point of going after some new school shit when renoise is so badass. This allows for instant track loading as well (like Skale).
Two edit modes, Fast Tracker and Milkytracker. Milky edit mode is "more intuitive" ie, more like microsoft word. Where fast tracker edit mode is well, like fast tracker. personally I prefer Fast Tracker mode because it is monomaniacal about using the keyboard for every conceivable operate. Just duct-tape your fingers to the control alt and shift keys.
making multisamples is a SNAP. Just select a sample and click on the keyboard. DONE.
Usable on mac, though it fucks up all the key commands and there is no manual so you'll have to translate on the fly.
Where Milkytracker really Shines....
This one can be quite nice as a program you stick on a USB drive and carry around with a few hundred dope mods (think Bogdan Rachinzski .IT files, and old BrothomStates XM's). You can then proceed to rock a party with your own tracker files wherever you go. Just stick a linux, mac, pc version on there. Not to mention Cellphones, PDA, and Sony PSP.
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NES
Windows.
Famitracker - link
MIDInes/Ztracker or Famitracker was the debate at my house for a long time. Real and Inconvenient vs Emulated and Convenient. Well, eventually I opted for the MIDInes, but before that I used Famitracker. Load your own samples and it'll NESify them for you (MIDInes can't do that). It's just lovable and easy to make noise with. Artist like MC Firedrill kill this shit with psychedelic 8-bit madness.
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MIDI trackers.
There are a lot of midi trackers now.. even on Linux.. but the only one you need if you have the “luxury” of a windows box is...
Ztracker - link
VSTHost - link (If you want to use
VST's with it)
Windows.
Ztracker takes a bit of getting used to, but, if you have ANY midi sequencing to do and trackers are your thing. This is the no-bullshit approach.
Couple of things that may not be obvious if you're used to trackers.
NO SAMPLES. The program assumes you're using an outboard sampler.
Shift-~ is how you get to the "effect drawing" feature. Press "TAB" to cycle between edit modes. The two edit modes basically allow for a better visual representation of regular control data and "centered" data like pans and pitch bends.
Sxxyy is the CC command. XX is the control change number, and YY is the data. The effect drawing will only alter the YY data, regardless of what effect you might choose. Anyways, with this you can do some pretty fucking intricate CC mangling that'll have your DAW-Sequencer friends saying "say whaaa" and "oh no he di-ent".
Now, if you have CubaseSX or something like that.. by all means, route the midi output of Ztracker to in and you're good to go.
But if you want an even easier way to go use a VST-only host
VSThost is a pretty simple free solution. It can recall patches etc. Everything you might want to do from a MIDI perspective.
It also allows you to load a midi file and consequently, Ztracker saves midifiles. While I suggest you use it in realtime with a MIDI loopback driver.. the ability to open your patch back up and play it with a midi file means you can tweak it after your done, without having to open Ztracker. Handy.
It can also control outboard MIDI gear, which is awesome if you want to incorporate a DX7 or an Virus into your tracker tracks.
Ztracker also works great with outboard gear and effects. It can sync all though I do not know how well.
It is also, IMO, a great companion to MIDInes.
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Now go make some lists.
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Comments
03/23/07
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sprouts
PIGGYTRACKER
um, its being developed for the gp32x etc. it can run on linux too
has potential as well as the North American Hardcore dudes are behind it (statpause kid)
03/23/07
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Spark
03/23/07
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sprouts
yeah, i was going to eventually do that its just too late at night :]
03/23/07
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maydaycapsiz
What about freaking 'buzz'....I use buzz extensively...sure it's buggy but it is amazing.......
there's that new one .......dark wave.....it also uses piano roll
check out nakalyne......http://www.nakalyne.com ....one day it will be the bomb......
03/23/07
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yghartsyrt
trackers till freeze my brain instantly.
03/23/07
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license
ztracker was super buggy for me last time I tried it. Renoise worked great for the same purposes until this computer, same OS and everything. kinda weird. I personally like the direction it's gone in except that its built in effects sound god-awful and I don't care about VSTs at all, but I understand everyone else does.
I really like Modplug, I'll probably always keep a copy on any home computer. I know it's not true to the formats and all that but its filter sounds grainy and lovely, it's got great envelopes, and there's something irresistibly charming about its ugly ass windows 95 interface. plus it just works. it's been more robust than anything else for me.
03/23/07
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Spark
I mentioned Buze, which implies Buzz.
I use Buzz for everything but mixing.
Oh yeah, shit.. I totally forgot about Modplug and Madtracker
03/23/07
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j_chot
modplug rules.
you don't like the modplug? YOU SUCK.
edited: Mar 23 2007
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trash80
*gets stop-watch out and loads renoise*
8 seconds from a fresh reboot. ;p
hoestnestlyly I've been using trackers since the dawn of trackers and I feel you didnt give renoise the proper go. :p but then again im mac now and theres nothing better for it. and then again i use logic as well. god damn turtles!
03/23/07
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EsromCole
I like the latest the latest renoise. I played around with Cheesetracker on a linux partition I was testing out. It seemed cool enough, could load LADSPA plugs. Also +1 for ModPlug, I keep it and a small selection of foundfonts and vst/i's on my USB stick. I haven't been to those forums in a long time.
03/23/07
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crazyshadow
nice list do you have any link to sid tracker for windows that the only something easy as famitracker cause its realy the only one i dont have in my collection
03/23/07
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delete
does Music for ps1 count as a tracker?
03/25/07
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pillowtalk
thanks for the list! i never heard of milkytracker, i am going to give it a try.
03/25/07
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Zargon
Well you forgot to mention ghoattracker(sid) and nerdtracker(nsf), they pretty good, i´m used to use milkytracker nowadays (started with modplug)...
j_chot; dude modplug doesn´t rock it´s good in it´s ways but i don´t like it, you can´t make good xm chiptunes in it, i´ve heard modplug is better for composing IT files, if you want the correct playback you shouldn´t chose modplug that´s for sure ;)
03/25/07
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Zargon
crazyshadow, ghoattracker for sure, or use VIC to emulate and use cybertracker, good shit =D
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