TRACKER(1)

NAME
tracker - play soundtracker modules on a Unix machine.

SYNOPSIS
tracker [-help] [-new|old|both] [-verbose] [-quiet|scroll] [-sync] [-picky|tolerant] [-mono|stereo] [-mix percent] [-frequency hertz] [-oversample n] [-speed hertz] [-transpose halftones] [-repeats number] [-start pattern] filename ...

DESCRIPTION
tracker plays soundtracker music modules on a Unix machine. Soundtracker modules originated on the amiga, where several composing playing programs are available, that give results mostly compatible with each other. tracker just plays the specified files in sequence according with the current options.

OPTIONS
Options can usually be abreviated, and are case-insensitive, so that -Over will stand for -oversample, for instance.

-help
    Displays a small useful help message.

-new|-old|-both
    Selects which soundtracker format to read. Old trackers had only room for 15 samples, instead of the more modern ones with 31 samples. -both is the default behaviour, which tries to choose automatically between the old and the new format.

-verbose
    Shows a dump of the module samples section on loading.

-quiet|-scroll
    Selects whether a scrolling event table is displayed while the module is played. Default is to stay quiet.

-sync
    Tries to keep the audio output in sync with the scrolling display at the expense of more processor power.

-picky|-tolerant
    Selects tracker's behaviour with regard to erratic problems in some modules. If you select -picky, only really clean modules will be played. If you select -tolerant, almost anything will get through tracker, including pure binary files not related with modules which will sound as so much white noise. Default behaviour lies somewhat in between.

-mono|-stereo
    Selects monaural or stereo output (provided your system has stereo capability). Keeping in mind that some amiga composers don't have stereo output, some modules will seem to float between the speakers when played in stereo. Also, stereo needs twice the output bandwidth and can consume much more cpu power.

-mix percent
    Sets amount of mixing between the left and right channels in stereo mode to percent. Varies between 0 percent (monaural) to 100 percent (spatial stereo).

-frequency hertz
    Sets output resampling frequency to hertz, in hertz. That frequency can be clipped according to your audio equipment ability. The useful range lies between 8000 and 48000 hertz. It's useless to go any higher since the amiga is limited at about 33000 hertz, and the human ear doesn't know the difference anyway. Default depends upon your equipment.

-oversample n
    Sets oversampling to n. Resampling is used to pitch the sampled sounds at the right frequency. Oversampling can be used to smooth out aliasing problems, at the cost of more cpu power. Useful values lie between 2 and 4. Defaults to no oversampling.

-speed hertz
    Sets playing speed to hertz ticks per second. The default value is 50, but 60 may be appropriate for pieces composed in the united states. Note that changing the playing speed does not change the pitch.

-transpose halftones
    Transposes each note of the module by halftones halftones up. This migh not work with some modules, or give out strange results since some effects will be approximate.

-repeats n
    Repeats each module n times before playing the next. Default is to play each module once. 0 makes the next module play indefinitely.

-start pattern
    Starts playing module at pattern number pattern instead of the default 0.

RUNTIME COMMANDS
At play time, some keystrokes effect a limited control on tracker.

n   Skip to next module.

p   Skip to previous module / restart current module.

x, e, q
    Exits.

s   Set speed to 50.

S   Set speed to 60.

>   Skip to next pattern in current module.

<   Restart current pattern / Skip to previous pattern.

?   Toggle event scroller on.

!   Toggle event scroller off.

SEE ALSO
An Amiga. You just have to see one.

BUGS AND FEATURES
Since the soundtracker format is not a real format at all, some music modules may not sound as originally intended. tracker only supports soundtracker modules for the time being, not soundtracker songs with external samples, nor MED or TFMX or StarTrekker8 nor any other amiga-originated format. Send all complaints/praise/real bug reports to espie@ens.fr

AUTHOR
Marc Espie