TFM Music Maker
Author: linde on April 16 2007
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--> I browsed onto vorc.org today, just in time to see the news on a new tracker: TFM Music Maker. It's a cross-tracker for a ZX Spectrum FM sound add-on which gives it six channels of four operator FM synthesis (using the same sound chip as Sega Megadrive).

I thought it would be another one of those impossible-to-figure-out trackers for obscure platforms, and the documentation is all in russian, but I was surprised to see that it was one of the most straight-forward and intuitive trackers I've ever tried.

You can get it here (at the top of the page): link

Here's some info from the programmer:
Because documentation is available only in russian, I brief some info here:

Hotkeys for any mode:

Ctrl+O - open module
Ctrl+S - save module
F5 - play module from start
F6 - play module from current order-list position
F8 - play current pattern in loop
Escape - stop playing
Shift+Escape - reset FM device

Hotkeys for order-list editor:

0..9 - enter pattern number
Backspace - delete last digit of pattern number
L - set loop position
Insert - insert pattern with same number as in current position
Shift+Insert - insert new pattern with copy of content of current pattern
Ctrl+Insert - insert new empty pattern
Delete - delete current position
Up, Down - inc/dec pattern number in current position
Ctrl+Up, Ctrl+Down, Enter - switch to pattern editor

Hotkeys for pattern editor:

~ - increment autostep
Ctrl+~ - decrement autostep
Ctrl+0..9 - set autostep to 0..9
Up, Down, Left, Right - move cursor
Page Up, Page Down - move cursor up/down by some lines (16 by default, can
be changed in 'Editor' sheet)
Ctrl+Page Up, Ctrl+Page Down - change current position in order-list without
switching to order-list
Home - move cursor to first line of current pattern
End - move cursor to last line of current pattern
Numpad 1..8 - change current octave
Backspace - delete note in current channel, next notes moves up
Ctrl+Backspace - delete notes in all channels
Insert - insert empty note in current channel, next notes moves down
Ctrl+Insert - insert empty notes in all channels
Enter - hold to play track from current position
Ctrl+Enter - hold to play current pattern in loop, from current position
Delete - delete value from current cursor position
Ctrl+Space - clear whole channel field (note, instrument, volume, effect)
Ctrl+Delete - delete line
Shift+Up/Down/Left/Right - select block for block operations
Ctrl+X - cut block
Ctrl+C - copy block
Ctrl+V - paste block
Ctrl+D - delete block
Ctrl+U - unselect all
Ctrl+Up - switch to order-list editor


Effects:

0xy - arpeggio. MOD-like, but works from current note to next new note or to
effect 0ff
1xx - slide up (xx measured in 32th of semitone per frame)
2xx - slide down
3xx - portamento to note
4xy - vibrato (x=speed, y=depth)
8xx - operator #0 TL change (xx is direct value 00..7f, can be used at any
time)
9xx - operator #1 TL change
Axy - volume slide (non-zero x for slide up, y for slide down)
Cxx - operator #2 TL change
Dxx - operator #3 TL change
E0x - operator #0 MULT change (x is direct value 0..f, can be used at any
time)
E1x - operator #1 MULT change
E2x - operator #2 MULT change
E3x - operator #3 MULT change
EE0 - cancel of all TL/MULT/Feedback modification, can be used only with new
note
EFx - feedback (operator #0) change, can be used only with new note
Fxy - speed change. x, y measured in frames; x is speed for 'even' lines, y
for 'odds'; effect F0x sets interleaving of even/odds lines; effect F00 set
speed parameters from global speed settings


For SMD, just don't use SSG-EG values other than default.

Note that VGM exporter works not stable (can export OK, but sometimes
exports with errors). I'll fix it in later versions. I also plan to adapt
player code to SMD (it's not included in editor, because compiler is
external tool).


Apparently you can also export songs to .wav or .vgm files (for Sega Megadrive)!

Here's a short loop I made with it: link
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Comments

this looks great, i've been hoping someone would do a sega megadrive tracker. thanks for the heads-up.

FM goodies

wow nice tracker there like it much im like so into fm greatness lately so i realy like it that much

Has anyone seen people building synths out of the Yamaha YM2612??

I'm sure there are a lot of toy keyboards with that chip. look into the yamaha PSS series of synthesizers from the late 80's and 90's.

Wait, did you say FM synth ... tracker? Hah, nice. Thanks.

wow thanks! I have been trying to figure this out: link and this TFM is much more friendly. thanks for the command list too.


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