yehaa!

Hi, there is a small update:
Dreamblaster has kindly tested the tracker and made me aware of a small bug:
When importing AGI music, the last notes of a voice get stuck on some tracks. Apparently a key-off has to be inserted if there is no further data for a voice in the file.
Fixed this and also a typo in the menu.
You can get the updated exe (and of course the source code if you're interested) from my github.

Works great !

Thank you!

I see you have plans for VGM. Will this be an import and export option?

Keep up the good work!

Chilly Willy wrote on 2021-07-12, 15:09:

I see you have plans for VGM. Will this be an import and export option?

Keep up the good work!

Yes, support for VGM import/export is a feature I would like to add to make the tracker more versatile. Also an export to AGI and maybe support for other game formats would be nice. Maybe not directly in the tracker, but in the form of a small external tool to convert TND files to other formats and vice versa. Otherwise the file menu in the tracker would be a bit overweight 😀

Also, since the last release, users have given me some interesting ideas and impulses for a, at least rudimentary, instrument system that could still work well on slow machines. For example, instruments in the form of simple lists, in which changes in frequency and volume as well as a number of ticks after the start of the actual note for the timing can be entered.
With this I will experiment a bit.

Feel free to write me if you are still missing something or if you have some ideas for the tracker.
By the way, I'm already working on a version of the tracker for CMS. Now that I have the code for a well optimized tracker interface at hand, it must be used for other projects as well and it can be easily adapted to other sound chips.
But it will take some time until I have something ready there. My daily job and my family don't leave me much time for DOS programming at the moment.

First, I would like to say, TNDY Tracker runs great on my Tandy 1000 HX. The only issue I see so far is the SHIFT Home\End doesn't seem to work for volume change. So I just change it per note as required. Not a big deal to me.

As for finding programming time, I completely understand. Looking forward to this projects future. I do like the simplicity of it and hope it stays that way. I really don't care for overly featured software. The UI gets too busy and it's a distraction on getting the job done or actually enjoying the app.

I'm use to the piano roll type of DAW but I found interest in this tracker. 😉

This is pretty slick! I just downloaded it for my 1000HX (w/ NEC V20), and it plays the one .TRK song included well.

Are there more TRK songs out there folks have created since this was released? Thanks!

UPDATE: I tried importing some of the AGI .SND files and they import but playback is incredibly slow. I fiddled with temp and ticks per minute, but it doesn't seem to change the speed. Is there a trick to this? Thanks.

bp

Hello blakespot, thank you for the feedback. I'm glad you like my Tracker!
I wrote it on a 486, which is of course much too fast compared to a Tandy HX. But originally I just wanted to write a tracker for the awsome projects of matze79 and dreamblaster, so I just used my favorite DOS PC for it.
But of course it would be cool if it also worked well with the original. That's why I set the compiler settings accordingly and tried to optimze the code (interrupt use, disk routines and keyboard handler etc.) for it.
Unfortunately, I don't have any real Tandy hardware myself and could therefore only emulate it via PCem for testing. Of course, this is not optimal and therefore it may well be that I missed some things.

Do you use the latest version of the tracker 1.21a?
Does it make a difference if you turn tracing off (the bottom item in the Play menu or by pressing F4)?

Others have also reported keyboard problems or that some key combinations in the program do not work correctly on a Tandy. Have you also noticed this issues?
Due to lack of time (new job, became a father for the second time...) I haven't worked on this project for ages now. But I will gladly try to optimize it according to your feedback.

I haven't created any more songs and haven't received any from others. But it would be wonderful to have more songs for the tracker. And I'm sure others can get even better music out of it than I did. 😉
So dear community, please share your songs with us 😀

Great to see someone using this 😀

I hope dreamblaster will finally release the Tandy Card in 2024 to the people.

DragonSphere wrote on 2024-01-08, 10:51:

So dear community, please share your songs with us 😀

Alright, here are 6 Commander Keen 4 songs and a YouTube video.

Thank you very much for the great tunes! It's great to have even more music for the tracker.

I’ve just installed this onto my three Tandy computers: 1000 TL/2, 2500 XL/2, and 2500 RSX.

I’m listening to “Popcorn”. All 3 channels of the PSSJ, plus noise, plus PC beeper… I SO WISH THIS PROGRAM HAD BEEN AVAILABLE WHEN THESE COMPUTERS ORIGINALLY CAME OUT!! ❤️

I might’ve gotten into trackers YEARS sooner, and been making music much earlier! The Tandy Deskmate Music program is just too clumsy and slow, and I can’t work with staff notation (a neurological limitation, it seems).

I wish Sierra had used an engine like this in their Tandy support. We got the 3-voices, and the DAC in a few games, but they never used the noise channel for anything other than “water” sounds occasionally and apparently didn’t integrate the PC beeper.

Also, your tracker has visual feedback and nice menus, unlike MOD Edit (which was where I started with Trackers on a 486 later on).

Thanks for making this program! Even if I end up not making any songs on it (I’m going to try, but it’s been a while since I had the patience for trackers, as I’m using Logic and MIDI/DAW stuff now), it’s providing immense pleasure to see this program doing what it does on these old computers that are important to me for nostalgia’s sake.