Tracker

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General

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker - (usually referred to simply as trackers) are a type of music sequencer software used to create music. They represent music tracks as an arrangement of discrete musical notes positioned in one of several channels, at discrete chronological positions on a timeline. The file format used for saving songs is called a module file.

A music tracker's musical interface is traditionally numeric: both notes and parameter changes, effects and other commands are entered with the keyboard into a grid of fixed time slots as codes consisting of letters, numbers and hexadecimal digits. Separate patterns have independent timelines; a complete song consists of a master list of repeated and concatenated patterns. Later trackers departed from module file limitations and advantages, adding other options both to the sound synthesis (hosting generic synthesizers and effects or MIDI output) and to the sequencing (MIDI input and recording), effectively becoming general purpose sequencers with a different user interface.



  • Ultimate Music Tracker Base - Comprehensive database of music tracking software. Ultimate Soundtracker, ProTracker, Scream Tracker, Fast Tracker, Impulse Tracker, Renoise.




Classic trackers

Soundtracker

  • SoundTracker - a music tracking tool for Unix / X11 similar in design to the DOS program FastTracker and the Amiga legend ProTracker. Samples can be lined up on tracks and patterns which are then arranged to a song. Supported module formats are XM and MOD; the player code is the one from OpenCP. A basic sample recorder and editor is also included. SoundTracker is free ("open source") software, licensed under the GNU GPL. The name of the program is a tribute to Karsten Obarski, who released his Ultimate Soundtracker program for the Amiga in 1987 and thus unknowingly founded the basis of a huge free-music movement.

The basic concept is very simple: you have a number of sound samples, and you can arrange them on so-called tracks. A track (also called "channel") can not play more than one sample at the same time. Whereas the original Amiga trackers only provided four tracks (this was the hardware limit), modern trackers can mix a virtually unlimited number of channels into one sound stream, applying various effects to the samples used. Tracks which are played at the same time are grouped to form a pattern. A pattern typically has 64 entries per track; these entries are cycled through at equidistant time intervals. A basic drum set could thus be arranged by putting a bass drum at entries 0, 4, 8, 12 etc. of one track and putting some hihat at entries 2, 6, 10, 14 etc. of a second track. Of course you can also interleave bass and hats on the same track, if the samples are short enough -- they can't overlap, otherwise the previous sample is stopped when the next one sets in -- look at the screen shots for a more visual explanation. Finally, a module is a compact file containing various patterns and samples, including a position list which specifies playback order of the patterns, forming a song. SoundTracker can load modules of the popular XM and MOD formats. The also very popular IT format is not supported at the moment.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Soundtracker - or Soundtracker for short, is a music tracker program for the Commodore Amiga. It is the creation of Karsten Obarski, a German software developer and composer at a game development company EAS. Soundtracker was released as a commercial product in mid 1987.

NoiseTracker

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoiseTracker - a freeware tracker created 1989 for the Amiga platform. It was based on the Ultimate Soundtracker and developed by Pex "Mahoney" Tufvesson and Anders “Kaktus” Berkeman. It was used by Amiga game musicians to create music with four channels of sampled stereo sound. Additionally it was used by some music groups as a low cost alternative to a full studio for rudimentary backtrack music production. One of the users is Axwell of Swedish House Mafia.

OctaMED

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OctaMED - a popular sound tracker for the Commodore Amiga, written by Teijo Kinnunen. The first version, 1.12, was released in 1989 under the name MED, which stands for Music EDitor. In April 1990, version 2.00 was released with MIDI support as the main improvement. In 1991 the first version with the name OctaMED was released, so-called as it could replay eight independent channels on the Amiga's four-channel sound chip. This was also the first commercial version of the software. The publisher throughout has been RBF Software of Southampton, UK which is run by Ray Burt-Frost.

Protracker

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protracker - a popular freeware tracker created by Lars Hamre, Anders Hamre, Sven Vahsen and Rune Johnsrud for the Amiga platform. Initially released in 1990, it is among the first programs that allowed for widespread creation of music without studio equipment. It was popular for amateurs and professionals, and set a standard for the MOD fileformat.

Scream Tracker

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_Tracker - a tracker (an integrated multi-track step sequencer and sampler as a software application). It was created by Psi (Sami Tammilehto), who later formed Finnish Future Crew. It was written in C and assembly language. a tracker (an integrated multi-track step sequencer and sampler as a software application). It was created by Psi (Sami Tammilehto), who later formed Finnish Future Crew. It was written in C and assembly language. The first version (1.0) had monophonic 4-bit output via PC speaker and 8-bit via a digital-to-analog converter on the parallel port, or a Sound Blaster 1.x card. The first popular version of Scream Tracker, version 2.2, was published in 1990. Versions prior to 3.0 created STM (Scream Tracker Module) files, later ones used S3M (ScreamTracker 3 Module). The last version of Scream Tracker was 3.21 released in 1994. It was the precursor of the PC tracking scene and its interface inspired newer trackers like Impulse Tracker.

Future Crew released third version (ST3) in 1994, placing it in competition with FastTracker 2. Various other trackers (such as Impulse Tracker or OpenMPT) adopted the use of the Scream Tracker's S3M format.

FastTracker 2

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastTracker_2 - a music tracker created by Fredrik "Mr. H" Huss and Magnus "Vogue" Högdahl, two members of the demogroup Triton (who later founded Starbreeze Studios) which set about releasing their own tracker after breaking into the scene in 1992 and winning several demo competitions. The source code of FastTracker 2 is written in Pascal using Borland Pascal 7 and TASM. The program works natively under MS-DOS.

QuadraComposer

Impulse Tracker

CheeseTracker

  • CheeseTracker - a software sampler and step-based sequencer modelled after Impulse Tracker. It allows a musician to turn single-note samples into instruments capable of covering three or four octaves (by playing the samples at different speeds, resulting in different pitches). In addition, it is possible to take a collection of samples that are recorded at different octaves, and combine

them into a single "instrument," allowing for even more octaves without sampling artifacts. Last update 2007.

Retro trackers

MilkyTracker

Adlib Tracker II

  • Adlib Tracker II - is, dare we say, the most userfriendly tracker aimed for the OPL3 FM-chip, and is full of advanced features to simplify your task of making the most of your Adlib-tunes. Supporting 4 operator instruments, percussion mode, a wide selection of importable song- and instrument types and - maybe foremost - an advanced macro editor that can really push the FM-chip to the limit.

If you're lucky enough to have an old PC machine lying around with a Sound Blaster compatible card - or a brand new computer that can simulate it - don't hesitate to install and get grooving with this ultimate FM-tool of yours! DOS/Win/Linux

klystrack

  • klystrack - a tracker for making C64/NES/Amiga-style chiptunes on a modern platform. Sound: Additive synthesis with filters (think SID, Atari, NES etc.), Hard sync and ring modulation (like SID), FM synthesis (think Adlib, MSX, OPL2 etc.), Wavetable for samples or custom waveforms to be used in synthesis (think Amiga, SNES), Built-in wave generator and editor, Programmable instruments not limited to simple arpeggios. Sequencer: Tracker with free positioning of patterns, Pattern transpose, Pattern length is not fixed, Hard limit of 32 channels but this can be raised (just ask if you need more... sounds crazy, though), Fully themeable, includes half dozen themes. Effects: Stereo chorus, SNES-style multitap echo, Bit crusher/decimator. Export: Own custom format with a tiny playback library to be used in games, demos etc., Export as .WAV, Export each track as separate .WAV's, Export wavetable items as .WAV's (use klystrack to create one-cycle waveforms). Import: Import .WAV's to use as samples, Import Protracker and FT2 modules, Import C64 SID files (Rob Hubbard player)

Propulse

  • https://github.com/hukkax/Propulse - A crossplatform tracker for making Amiga ProTracker compatible tracker modules using an Impulse/Schism Tracker style user interface. Currently tested to build and run on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Features: Super accurate playback engine based on work by 8bitbubsy (itself based on a disassembly of the original Amiga ProTracker); things like black_queen.mod and MPT test cases play correctly. You can also choose whether the EFx effect should be played like in ProTracker or like the PT playroutine plays it. Familiar Impulse/Schism Trackerish interface with familiar keyboard commands. User configurable keybindings, colors, fonts of any size, even screen layouts... Show and edit effects in either Impulse or ProTracker format (e.g. Dxy vs. Axy). WAV export with optional looping and fade out. Integrated mouse-driven sample editor

Supported formats: MOD - Loads and saves Amiga ProTracker modules (including load support for 15-sample Ultimate SoundTracker mods, NoiseTracker, and PowerPacked files), P61A - Imports The Player 6.1a crunched modules, IT - Imports Impulse Tracker modules, Samples: IFF 8SVX, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, raw

ChibiTracker

Hively Tracker

  • Hively Tracker - a tracker program based upon the AHX format created in the mid '90s by Dexter and Pink of Abyss. The format was relatively popular, and many songs were created and used in scene productions and games. AHX was designed to create a very SID-like sound on the Amiga. HivelyTracker can import and export modules and instruments in the AHX format, but it also improves on AHX in several ways and therefore has its own instrument and module formats. HivelyTracker offers the following features over AHX: Multichannel (4 to 16 channels), Per-channel stereo panning, Two commands per note instead of one, Ring modulation, A more feature rich editor

Prototracker

  • Prototracker - a multiplatform fakebit chiptune tracker. Try the online version. The editor is a fairly normal tracker. The synth is an absolutely minimal single-oscillator synth (with 256 preset waveforms). Macros are used to create "instruments" and also some normal channel effects. Most keyboard shortcuts are the same as in Protracker. Protracker is not the same thing as Prototracker-modular or Prototracker-OPLL. They have their own forks. Supported platforms: HTML5, Windows (MinGW), Linux, Mac (just use the Linux makefile), Chip8 (runs great on a PocketCHIP), Probably anything SDL2 supports


Modern trackers

Schism Tracker

  • Schism Tracker - free reimplementation of Impulse Tracker, a program used to create high quality music without the requirements of specialized, expensive equipment, and with a unique "finger feel" that is difficult to replicate in part. The player is based on a highly modified version of the Modplug engine, with a number of bugfixes and changes to improve IT playback. Where Impulse Tracker was limited to i386-based systems running MS-DOS, Schism Tracker runs on almost any platform that SDL supports, and has been successfully built for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, FreeBSD, AmigaOS, BeOS, and even the Wii. Most development is currently done on 64-bit Linux. Schism will most likely build on any architecture supported by GCC4 (e.g. alpha, m68k, arm, etc.) but it will probably not be as well-optimized on many systems.

DefleMask

  • DefleMask - a cross-platform tracker (runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) for producing music for many soundchips and old school game-consoles/computers. Every sound that comes from this tracker is obtained from pure register writes to the soundchips being emulated, and those sounds can be exported to the real hardware! Supported soundchips so far: YAMAHA YM2612 (with full support of Special CH3 mode), Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG, Z80 Game Boy, Hudson Soft HuC6280, Ricoh 2A03, MOS Technology SID, YAMAHA YM2151, SEGA PCM. So you can make music for: SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, SEGA Master System, Nintendo Game Boy, NEC PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16, Nintendo NES, Commodore 64, Arcade System (SEGA X/Y boards)

NoiseTrekker / ProTrekkr

  • ProTrekkr - formerly known as NoiseTrekker by Juan Antonio Arguelles Rius aka Arguru, is a tracker program combining a software synthesizer together with a traditional samples tracker which can be used to create electronic music (like psytrance, trance goa, hard acid, IDM, chip, techno, etc.) for small sized intros, demos or games. Arguru used NoiseTrekker as the basis of Renoise.

PSYCLE

  • PSYCLE - Psycle Modular Music Creation Studio, using a tracker interface (like FastTracker 2 or Impulse Tracker). It can be used to make any type of music, using either its native plugins (synths and effects), VST2 plugins (synths and effects), internal sampler and effects and .wav files through the sampler. Notes are entered in patterns, where lots of different commands (plugins related or general) can be used to change any plugin (native or VST, synths and effects) parameters at any time. The patterns are then organized in the sequencer. This sequence is the song and can be saved in .psy format, but also to .wav (this allows to compress the song in .mp3 or .ogg formats for example)

PixiTracker

  • PixiTracker - a simple and fun tool to quickly create musical sketches, chip tunes and sound experiments. Without requiring a lot of musical knowledge! Windows/macOS/Linux/iOS/Android. Key features: intuitive interface; pattern-based sequencer (tracker) with high quality sampler; several packs with unique sounds; sound recorder (from microphone or line-in); MIDI keyboard support; WAV export/import; export to XM (eXtended Module of the FastTracker2) - this file can be loaded by any modern music tracker/player (for example, SunVox)

jacker

  • jacker - create music from a cornucopia of free synthesizers and effects on GNU/Linux. Jacker uses the power of JACK MIDI to control external synthesizers, samplers and effects - with perfect timing. Connect your favorite instruments and exercise total control over every aspect of your song using the traditional tracker interface known from underground apps like "Impulse Tracker" or "Fasttracker 2". And of course, it's free and open, too. Last commit 2011/2013

Renoise

  • Renoise - a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with a refreshing twist. It lets you record, compose, edit, process and render production-quality audio using a tracker-based approach. In a tracker, the music runs from top to bottom in an easily understood grid known as a pattern. Several patterns arranged in a certain order make up a song. Step-editing in a pattern grid lends itself well to a fast and immediate workflow. On top of this, Renoise features a wide range of modern features: dozens of built-in audio processors, alongside support for all commonly used virtual instrument and effect plug-in formats. And the software can be extended too: with scripting, you can use all of your MIDI or OSC controller to control it in exactly the way you want. - $


Web trackers

WeTracker

  • WeTracker - a Reaktor-like web based music composition application, bringing the world of ditial audio into the browser. Create your music wherever you find the muse, just login to the site from a Chrome or Firefox browser and start creating. WeTracker has a heritage that can be traced back to the old school music trackers of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s era, used prolifically in game music and the “demoscene”. Instruments are created by using samples of real instruments, or taken from synthesizers, once loaded into the system, you can apply volume and panning waveforms to control the playback of the sample. Music is created by playing these instruments in “patterns”. A pattern is a sequence of instructions to do various things with the instruments, including playing notes and applying various effects such as vibrato, volume/pitch slide, arpeggios, etc. These patterns are then played in a sequence, repeating if required to form the song.

Sonant Live

  • Sonant Live - a minimalistic music synth and editor that runs in your browser. It has its roots in the demo scene, and was originally a Windows native tool (Sonant by Jake Taylor, aka Ferris / Youth Uprising) for creating songs for 4K demos (where neither the song data nor the music player code can be larger than a copule of thousand bytes at most). Sonant Live is fully compatible with the original Sonant tool as well as with the js-sonant JavaScript player routine that can be used for adding music to your JavaScript demos.

Bassoon Tracker

SoundBox

Marabu

  • Marabu - a minimalist music writing application. You can see the full the source code and guide here. We hope you enjoy creating music with Marabu! You can download additional themes.


MIDI trackers

Tutka

  • Tutka - a free (as in freedom) tracker style MIDI sequencer for GNU/Linux and Mac OS X. It is similar to programs like SoundTracker, ProTracker and FastTracker except that it does not support samples and is meant for MIDI use only. Tutka uses a custom XML based file format for storing songs. Songs in OctaMED SoundStudio's MMD2 file format can also be loaded and saved.

FLTracker

ttrk

  • ttrk - a MIDI sequencer application. I was annoyed by the bad step editors found on pretty much all MIDI sequencers I could find, and since I was big fan of the tracker interface, I used the user interface ideas behind a tracker in my design.

b-tektracker

TEQQER

  • TEQQER - The Console MIDI Tracker for the Nerdy Music Hacker. An ncurses/terminal based midi and CV signal tracker/sequencer.

= MIDItrk

  • MIDItrk - enables you to create MIDI with tracker-style handling. The main difference to most of the contemporary trackers is that it gives orderlist/sequence for all tracks, so you can use one pattern anywhere without tedious copy/paste process, just by typing its number in the right place...


Game Boy trackers

Little Sound Dj / LittleGPTracker

  • Little Sound Dj - the Game Boy/Game Boy Color tool of choice for amateur & professional musicians and composers!
  • LittleGPTracker (a.k.a 'The piggy') is a music tracker optimised to run on portable game consoles. It is currently running on Game Park's GP2x & Caanoo, PSP, Dingoo, Windows, Mac OSX (intel/ppc) & Linux (Debian). It implements the user interface of littlesounddj, a very famous tracker for the Gameboy platform that has been tried and tested by many users over the years, leading to a little complex but yet extremely efficent way of working.

C64 trackers

Covert Bitops

  • Covert Bitops is a small group making C64 productions (mainly games & music) and related free utilities on recreation basis. This site is dedicated to these productions, utilities and C64 programming-related articles (rants).
  • GoatTracker2
  • NinjaTracker2
  • etc.

Hermit SoftwareHungary

Software:

  • (6.4MB) SID-Wizard 1.7 (Featureful Commodore64 tracker-style music editor)
  • (437kB) TEDzakker 1.0 (Featureful Commodore Plus4 / C16 TED-music tracker)
  • (212kB) 1raster-tracker 1.0 (One rasterline tracker for C64 SID)


  • (147kB) jsSID-0.9.1 (JavaScript SID emulator and player for Web Audio API)
  • (106kB) cSID (Commandline C64 SID music player based on jsSID code.)
  • (156kB) cSID-light (Non-cycleexact version of cSID with much less CPU-usage.)


Graphic calculator trackers

HoustonTracker 2

  • phttp://irrlichtproject.de/houston/ HoustonTracker 2] - a music editor/sequencer for the Texas Instruments TI-82, TI-83/82STATS, and TI-83+/84+/SE. It allows you to compose and play multi-channel 1-bit music directly on your TI graphic calculator. HoustonTracker 2 is a complete rewrite of the original Houston Tracker. Like HT, it is developed by utz aka irrlicht project.

PSP tracker

PSPSeq

  • PSPSeq - a free homebrew application for composing music on the Sony PSP handheld game system. PSPSeq contains both realtime synthesis and sample playback capability, along with multiple FX modules of widely varying types for modifying instruments in countless

ways. PSPSeq also has a powerful and unique step sequencer for triggering samples and arranging loops into full songs.


Windows trackers

OpenMPT

  • OpenMPT (short hand for Open ModPlug Tracker), a popular tracker software for Windows.

SVArTracker

  • SVArTracker - a music creation tool - a virtual studio with the tracker interface. Compatibility with thousands of virtual instruments - can load VST, VSTi, and DirectX DMO plug-ins. Windows.

BeRoTracker

  • BeRoTracker - a advanced modular next-generation tracker, which is fully compatible with old module formats (MOD, S3M, XM, IT, etc.). It has a VST/VSTi host too. BeRoTracker is a modular tracker. Illimited channel number. Drum Patterns. Cutoff, Resonance, LFO instrument envelopes. Resampling support. Piano-roll editor. Windows.

Aodix v4

  • Aodix v4 - the first tickless tracker-interface based sequencer of its kind. VST2 host, and supports ASIO2. Aodix v4 achieves outstanding real-time performance with very low latencies. Aodix supports modular VST instancing and wiring, allowing any kind of scheme. Aodix supports pattern arrangements with pattern calls, patterns being of virtually unlimited length. Aodix provides several recording/editing modes for your convenience (e.g. edit at one location while transport is playing elsewhere!)...

zTracker

  • https://github.com/cmicali/ztracker - zTracker is a win32 only MIDI tracker/sequencer modeled after Impulse Tracker. The project is currently closed but the source is archived here.

FamiTracker

  • FamiTracker - a free Windows tracker for producing music for the NES/Famicom-systems. The interface is based on MadTracker and should be easy to use if you've been using trackers before. One of the features is NSF-file exporting. That allows music created in this tracker to be played on the real hardware, or even for use in your own NES-applications. Some other features: Full real-time emulation of all channels, Internal PCM to DPCM-sample converter, MIDI input devices are supported, NTSC & PAL modes are both supported
  • http://www.nanoloop.com/ - gameboy

Mac tracker

zTracker_mac

  • https://github.com/esaruoho/ztracker_mac - zTracker, the MIDI-only clone of Impulse Tracker, which itself was a clone of Scream Tracker 3. It's a tracker. It does MIDI. I'm looking to somehow crowdsource it's compiling for the macOS/OS X.
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