Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[Clive Crous]

I ma desperately looking for a linux equivalent of Fast Tracker 2 ( by triton) or even better, a port of this great xm tracker.

I have tried the following trackers and listed their problems...

sound tracker - 
slow, not enough pattern editing functionality ie copy paste tracks, patterns and/or single lines etc.

voodoo tracker -
better, but once again not enough pattern editing functionality.

both of the above do not have decent sample editors loaders. Cant load .SMP files ??????? why ?

keg tracker -
never managed to get it compiled, not due to lacking libraries though
<---paste--->
ktspinbutton.c: In function `kt_spin_button_insert_text': 
ktspinbutton.c:1177: warning: passing arg 1 of `strchr' from incompatible pointer type 
ktspinbutton.c:1178: warning: passing arg 1 of `strchr' from incompatible pointer type 
ktspinbutton.c:1183: warning: passing arg 1 of `strchr' from incompatible pointer type 
ktspinbutton.c:1183: invalid operands to binary - 
make[2]: *** [ktspinbutton.o] Error 1 
<---end paste--->

any other ideas ????

Thank you for your help
     Clive Crous

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[David Jander]

On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Clive Crous wrote:
>I ma desperately looking for a linux equivalent of Fast Tracker 2 ( by triton) or even better, a port of this great xm tracker.

FT2 is surely by far the best tracker I have seen !
I had been using FT2 for a long time before I abandoned DOS/Windows and turned
towards linux. I don't have any idea about what happened to the guys from
triton. Do you have any e-mail adress ? 
I would be very interesting in doing a port to linux, although, as I know FT2
is written in Borland-Pascal with tons of assembly code inside (hard to port !!)
Anyway, if there is interest, I'd try to talk the guys from triton into giving
away the sources, or even better, helping in doing this. I don't think they
have any plans for porting it to Window$. They are not the kind of guys who
like the windows platform very much I guess, so ... maybe linux is an option to
them ... who knows ?

Anybody else interested ?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
David Jander J.                   | "M$-Windows sux, Linux Rulez !  
Electronics Student, UTFSM, Chile |  That's it !"
E-Mail : djander@alumnos.utfsm.cl |               -Me

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[David Jander]

On Wed, 01 Dec 1999, you wrote:
>What is fast tracker exactly - Is it a wave file editor ?
>Wwhat is fasttracker capable off ?

Well, FastTracker 2 is an astonishing piece of art for a program.
It all dates back to 1992 (the M$-DOS era). 
Do you know the .mod file format ? It was invented on the Commodore-Amiga
computer, for storing music. It is basically a set of digital sound samples,
and an arrangement (just like a midi sequence). The standard MOD format
considered 8 bit samples, 4 tracks (i.e. max. 4 samples playing at a time) and
an acceptable set of special effects (like tremolo, arpeggiator, pitch pend,
volume, loops, etc...). The guys from triton did their FastTracker 1,
supporting the MOD format only (with 6 and 8 track variants). This program
alone was astonishing: Small, extremely fast and very flexible. You could even
produce stereo sound on a little stereo-DAC conected to your parallel port (a
cheap alternative when sound-cards were very expensive).
In 1993 they did FastTracker2, which knocked me right off my seat. I did not
imagine the computing power inside my old 386 until I saw this program. It
supported the new .XM (eXtended Module) format, which upgraded to 16 bit
samples, up to 32 tracks (voices), advanced wavetable synthesis capabilities
like complex envelopes for volume and panning, complete sample-editor/CD audio
ripper, midi sequencer (for editing with a midi keyboard), tons of new effects,
and a blazing fast GUI with oscilloscopes for each channel. Imagine this
(software-wavetable synthesis) running along with fast graphic displays
(vertical scroll + the scopes) on a 386 !!!!! Amazing !
All these features made FT2 the ultimate music composition utility.
Many techno-style soundtracks from not-so-old DOS computer games are made of
.MOD files.
We never heared again from the mythical Mr. H from Triton productions since
their last release of FT2 (version 2.06 is the last one I know of).
FT2, btw, is shareware, and contains a complete description of the .XM
file-format (in case someone wants to write a player for this). This is why
prgrams like Winamp (and XMMS ?) can read this file format.

Sincerely...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
David Jander J.                   | "M$-Windows sux, Linux Rulez !  
Electronics Student, UTFSM, Chile |  That's it !"
E-Mail : djander@alumnos.utfsm.cl |               -Me

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[Kai Vehmanen]

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, David Jander wrote:

>> I ma desperately looking for a linux equivalent of Fast Tracker 2 ( by triton) or even better, a port of this great xm tracker.
> FT2 is surely by far the best tracker I have seen !
[...]
> I would be very interesting in doing a port to linux, although, as I know FT2
> is written in Borland-Pascal with tons of assembly code inside (hard to port !!)

I think a better (úster) way to do this is to join some existing Linux 
tracker project and start contributing. I'm a huge FT2 fan myself 
(I used it extensively when recording my first demo-CD!), but I don't
really need it anymore. I'm quite happy with Michael Krause's 
SoundTracker (for Linux, of course). It's not perfect, but it's
open-source! If you need some feature or something isn't working, you
can add/fix it yourself.

If you're interested, go to http://www.soundtracker.org/ 

--
Kai Vehmanen <kaiv@wakkanet.fi> -------- CS, University of Turku, Finland
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/ecasound/ - linux audio processing
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/sculpscape/ - ambient-idm-rock-... mp3/ra/wav
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/kerttulin_listat/ - music&movies (in Finnish)

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[Clive Crous]

David Jander :
>>On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Clive Crous wrote:
>>>I ma desperately looking for a linux equivalent of Fast Tracker 2 ( by
triton) or even better, a port of this >>great xm tracker.

The greatest ever ;-)

>>
>>FT2 is surely by far the best tracker I have seen !
>>I had been using FT2 for a long time before I abandoned DOS/Windows and
turned
>>towards linux. I don't have any idea about what happened to the guys from
>>triton. Do you have any e-mail adress ?

What has happenned to triton ? that's easy, check out
http://www.starbreeze.com

>>I would be very interesting in doing a port to linux, although, as I know
FT2
>>is written in Borland-Pascal with tons of assembly code inside (hard to
port !!)
>>Anyway, if there is interest, I'd try to talk the guys from triton into
giving
>>away the sources, or even better, helping in doing this. I don't think
they
>>have any plans for porting it to Window$. They are not the kind of guys
who
>>like the windows platform very much I guess, so ... maybe linux is an
option to
>>them ... who knows ?

If you check out the webpage, you'll see thay've stopped development
completely on FT2 :(

>>
>>Anybody else interested ?

Yes, Yes, and Yes again :-)
I've done a lot of DOS pascal & asm coding in the past including my own
xm/mod/s3m player.
Unfortunately I'm only a newish convert to c and i might be a bit slow
there, but converting pas/asm -> c shouldn't be a problem.
I would love to help with a port, in fact I was planning on writing an
editor myself from scratch using svgalib as the music partner in my demo
group was complaining about the current linux-sound-editors.
so feel free to mail me in this regard.

    Clive Crous

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[David Jander]

On Thu, 02 Dec 1999, Clive Crous wrote:
>David Jander :
>>>On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Clive Crous wrote:
>>>>I ma desperately looking for a linux equivalent of Fast Tracker 2 ( by
>triton) or even better, a port of this >>great xm tracker.
>
>The greatest ever ;-)

You say it :-)

>What has happenned to triton ? that's easy, check out
>http://www.starbreeze.com

Wow ! Finally I fond them (one of them ... Vogue)
I'll contact him. In the FT2 page, he says that they are already considering an
open-source release ! So I'll be contacting him, to see if he is alright with
the idea that a couple of guys (who else wants to join ?) take on their project.

>If you check out the webpage, you'll see thay've stopped development
>completely on FT2 :(

I thought so ! But maybe this means, they might let someone else continue
develpment.... asking them won't hurt :-)

>>>Anybody else interested ?
>
>Yes, Yes, and Yes again :-)
>I've done a lot of DOS pascal & asm coding in the past including my own
>xm/mod/s3m player.

Yup. Good news. I never did a player, but a XM to MIDI converter (in
Turbo-Pascal :-)

>Unfortunately I'm only a newish convert to c and i might be a bit slow
>there, but converting pas/asm -> c shouldn't be a problem.

Exactly the same case as with me. I'm a Borland-Pascal coder who moved to
Linux/C/CPP a while ago, but I'm still faster in Pascal than in C :-)
p2c turned out to be a VERY neat tool !

>I would love to help with a port, in fact I was planning on writing an
>editor myself from scratch using svgalib as the music partner in my demo
>group was complaining about the current linux-sound-editors.

I am complaining about linux sound drivers, editors and midi-sequencers.
So I think it's time to do something about it. Sound is still one of the very
underdeveloped items in linux... *sigh !
I'll let you know if I have news from Magnus "Vogue".

regards...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
David Jander J.                   | "M$-Windows sux, Linux Rulez !  
Electronics Student, UTFSM, Chile |  That's it !"
E-Mail : djander@alumnos.utfsm.cl |               -Me

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[David Jander]

On Wed, 01 Dec 1999, Kai Vehmanen wrote:
>On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, David Jander wrote:
>
>> I would be very interesting in doing a port to linux, although, as I know FT2
>> is written in Borland-Pascal with tons of assembly code inside (hard to port !!)
>
>I think a better (úster) way to do this is to join some existing Linux 
>tracker project and start contributing. I'm a huge FT2 fan myself 
>(I used it extensively when recording my first demo-CD!), but I don't
>really need it anymore. I'm quite happy with Michael Krause's 
>SoundTracker (for Linux, of course). It's not perfect, but it's
>open-source! If you need some feature or something isn't working, you
>can add/fix it yourself.

I had a look at it (the screenshots) and am currently downloading it.
Unfortunately my workstation doesn't have a sound device, so I'll have to take
it home before I can give it a try :-)
Screenshots look very neat. It remembers me of FT2 ! It really seems a
project worth contributing to. 
Also, I checked out the FT2 web page, and it says that Magnus (one of the guys
who did that thing) is considering an open-source release of FT2... interesting
too, don't you think.

Greetz...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
David Jander J.                   | "M$-Windows sux, Linux Rulez !  
Electronics Student, UTFSM, Chile |  That's it !"
E-Mail : djander@alumnos.utfsm.cl |               -Me

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[Kai Vehmanen]

On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, David Jander wrote:

> Also, I checked out the FT2 web page, and it says that Magnus (one of the guys
> who did that thing) is considering an open-source release of FT2... interesting
> too, don't you think.

This would be great. Of course, it might be more useful to just port
some parts of FT2 and use them with existing Linux trackers. Porting 
the whole FT2 would be a big project. And it's important to think 
about the future of tracking. Modern computers are suitable for 
direct-from-disk streaming, complex realtime effects, *big* samples,
etc... Modern trackers should take advantage of this.

--
Kai Vehmanen <kaiv@wakkanet.fi> -------- CS, University of Turku, Finland
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/ecasound/ - linux audio processing
 . http://www.wakkanet.fi/sculpscape/ - ambient-idm-rock-... mp3/ra/wav

Re: Linux Equavalent - Fast Tracker 2

[David Jander]

On Fri, 03 Dec 1999, Kai Vehmanen wrote:
>On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, David Jander wrote:
>
>> Also, I checked out the FT2 web page, and it says that Magnus (one of the guys
>> who did that thing) is considering an open-source release of FT2... interesting
>> too, don't you think.
>
>This would be great. Of course, it might be more useful to just port
>some parts of FT2 and use them with existing Linux trackers. Porting 
>the whole FT2 would be a big project. And it's important to think 
>about the future of tracking. Modern computers are suitable for 
>direct-from-disk streaming, complex realtime effects, *big* samples,
>etc... Modern trackers should take advantage of this.

Of course, the goal would be to put a lot more things into it. The XM module
format has to be extended, to include more effects. Sound-Tracker for example
includes a global real-time reverb effect, which is neat so far, but the idea
of including real-time effects into FT2 (making it FT3 maybe), would be
something like effect-modules which could be connected to individual tracks,
and effect controlers inside that track control the fx parameters. Effect
modules could include reverb, chorus, delay and realtime filters for example.
Imagine a techno-style bass made of a square wave signal, put through a
controlled resonant low-pass filter ... great stuff !
Maybe some (or all) of those effects should better be bound to individual
instruments rather than a track. Filters would do better with an envelope
generator.....
Anyway, just a few thoughts for an ambitious project :-)

Sincerely

---------------------------------------------------------------------
David Jander J.                   | "M$-Windows sux, Linux Rulez !  
Electronics Student, UTFSM, Chile |  That's it !"
E-Mail : djander@alumnos.utfsm.cl |               -Me