Article detailing the evolution, features, purpose and kinds of trackers along the years of computers & music.
First, before jumping to trackers, we need some backstory: In the late 1980s, home computers such as Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Commodores & Amigas were booming. And certain developers were questioning what they could do with audio, how could they improve their size or share it without affecting the composition... How can they make it universally compatible with any other PC (in both terms of sound and file size)? That's when MIDI files enter the scene. MIDIs are files which contain already charted notes for a melody or a pattern, they can be inserted into the computer's sound card or a synthesizer which supports them. But the problem was: it carried the melody & composition but not the main sounds. That means the exact same song sounded drastically different from each other, especially in the case of videogames. This wasn't necessarily bad, but of course there can be an easier way to synthesize, produce music and achieve the stuff that has been questioned a while ago.
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With the new Ultimate Soundtracker for the Commodore Amiga (and later programs for other PCs and OS such as ProTracker for MSDOS, for example) you were now able to produce music with your own samples & instruments inside a tiny and direct program. These programs had a special project file called a module, which contained every arrangement, note, sample and instrument just exactly like the original. In the era (and in general to me), this was an amazing advance in computer and electronic music history. |
Trackers work a bit like DAWs, except it works via samples which you can edit in the tracker itself. Instead of being horizontal-sliding melody and pattern combining charts, you're always set on a vertical-scrolling pattern where you insert musical notes with the number of the sample you inserted in the project, and a bunch more (stops, effects, etc.).
For example, in this Schism Tracker screenshot we are in pattern 17 and the first row. In the rows we can see there are 4 spaces: the first one (/3) are spaces for the musical note, the second one (/2) are for the sample number, the third one (/2) is for the volume number, and the fourth space (/3) is for the type of effect (and level of it) you want on that note.
Of course not every tracker has a single universal module file, though some tracker modules like .xm and .mod can be compatible with lots of them, not every like .it-s can be read by some like MilkyTracker.
I don't really get to decide what you like, it depends on your OS and preferences, there are lots of trackers out there for Windows, MacOS, Linux and so on. I personally use Schism Tracker since it's the most compatible and flexible in my opinion, it works with keybinds, shortcuts and more but it isn't restricted to that only. All of them are clickable and sometimes tributing & forking the mechanism of past trackers:
MilkyTracker, a free multi-platform FastTracker II descendant.
Luckily there are manuals and tutorials you can read or watch in their corresponding websites. Thank you and good luck.
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