GoatTracker

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Screenshot of GoatTracker

1 GoatTracker
2 Specificity
3 References
4 External links

[edit] GoatTracker

GoatTracker is a cross-platform Commodore 64 (MOS Technology SID) music tracker. It uses the SDL library and is verified to work under Win32, Linux, Mac OS and Amiga. It supports emulated output via the software reSID engine, the HardSID soundcard, or the Catweasel (MK3/MK4) controller card, and produces songs in its own format (*.SNG). The program can also export tunes in SID format, BIN format, or Commodore PRG format for inclusion on a floppy you can stick into a 1541/1571/1581 drive. So far, it cannot import these other formats due to their nature, so it is recommended to save your song in GoatTracker native format. Several example songs are supplied with the source code; several instrument files are supplied with the source code to the earlier version of Goat Tracker, and presumably these instrument files can be imported into the latest version of GoatTracker. It is written by Lasse Öörni and released under the GPL with source code. Compiling Goattracker requires a library called bme, also available at the site. A stereo version, emulating two SIDs with reSID, is also available, though in an earlier version.

Like most tracker programs, the program is able to import instrument files, create and modify track patterns, set the order of playback of patterns and change details of the song such as the title and author. Explanations of the different editing areas, as well as the formats of songs and instruments are described in the readme that comes with the source code, though there isn't exactly a tutorial for how to create a tune from scratch. If you are familiar with tracker-like programs, then GoatTracker will feel like a simple version of those, though with differences attributable to the hardware; further details are in the readme file supplied with the source code. People new to composing in general should look up other information on composing on the C64.

[edit] Specificity

GoatTracker is notable for being possibly the only non-C64-native program able to compose tunes for the MOS Technology SID chip; though there are several SID music players available outside of the C64, any other commonly available composing programs for the SID soundchip are only executable on the C64 or inside emulators such as VICE and Frodo (emulator).

Up until recently, programs to create (and also to play) these SID chiptunes only executed natively on the C64, and were quite often made by the very people composing the tunes. Notable Tracker-like composers include JCH, and CyberTracker. Nobody had put much thought into even making the tunes playable on anything other than a C64, let alone making programs outside the C64 to compose them; after all, what was the point? It wouldn't sound like a real C64. However, soon people decided to at least make the attempt to render SID tunes outside the C64 platform - mostly for people who had no access to this rapidly-disappearing machine; a project is currently under way to record a C64 playing all of the tunes from the HVSC release 45 and encode them into MP3 format.

Several SID chiptune players (and libraries) are now available outside the Commodore platform to play SID chiptunes; they have gradually improved from original attempts, though the sound quality in comparison to a real C64 still hasn't been reached, as not every aspect of the different models of SID chips could be accurately emulated. And until recently, nobody could create these tunes without having a C64 and composing program. As you can imagine, in the days of Pentium 4 and AMD64 machines, C64 machines are getting rather scarce to find. So someone decided to help out, by creating the GoatTracker composer.