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Impulse Tracker




Impulse Tracker is a multi-track Digital Sound Tracker ( Music Sequencer ) which proliferated on the DOS platform. It was authored by Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim, and demo music was done by Jeffrey Lim and Chris Jarvis.

The software was distributed as Freeware , though the author supplied extra features, like saving stereo WAV files and the possibility to use an IPX network mode, in exchange for some cash (on the order of US$ 20). Once the stereo WAV writer plugin was publicly pirated, the author announced that he would discontinue it after version 2.14. There were some patches released, and 2.15 is by outside contributors. Impulse Tracker's interface was very similar to and could be considered the continuation of ScreamTracker 3. It was comparable to its rival FastTracker .

Like most MOD editors Music is arranged into a grid of ''channels'', each channel containing key-on and optional key-off instructions not unlike MIDI . The Impulse Tracker modules have an extension of .IT.

One of the features which set this MOD editor apart was NNAs, New Note Actions. If a new key-on command is received in the same channel as another instrument which is still being played, NNAs allow the user to customize the action that next occurs:
  • Cut: New instrument sound replaces current playing instrument.

  • Continue: Old instrument continues to play following its defined ADSR curve.

  • Off: Old instrument instructed to begin release section of its ADSR curve.

  • Fade: Old instrument fades out to 0 volume at a designated rate overriding any ADSR information.


Last version was v2.14 Patch #5 which was released April 8, 1999.


FREE SOFTWARE IMPULSE TRACKER CLONES



CheeseTracker

See Also: CheeseTracker


CheeseTracker is an IT-style tracker running on Mac OS X , GNU/Linux and some other Unix -like operating systems. It is based on the Qt graphical toolkit and is licensed under the GNU General Public License .


Schism Tracker


Schism Tracker is intended to match the look and feel of Impulse Tracker as closely as possible. The user interface is built on , Mac OS X , FreeBSD , MorphOS and Microsoft Windows , for example. The LibModPlug library is used for player features. Supported formats include IT, S3M, MOD and XM. WAV saving and MIDI are also supported.

The first developer of Schism Tracker was Chisel, and now it is developed and mantained by Nimh (nimh.org), a very active developer. Nearly daily, there are new CVS snapshots and build, and it's becoming a light (it runs under many machines and configurations), solid, stable and very popular tracker. Many former Impulse Tracker users are now composing under Schism Tracker.


External links




BeRoTracker


BeRoTracker can load IT files.


External links

  • http://berotracker.de



FREE SOFTWARE THAT PLAYS .IT FILES

  • XMPlay (Win32) supporting many modular formats (MOD, STM, XM, IT) as well as MP3 & OGG.

  • WinAMP (Win32) A popular MP3 player that also supports modular formats.

  • XMMS A X11 ( Linux / Unix / BSD ) MP3 and modular music player modeled after WinAMP.

  • Mpg321 A command-line MP3 player for Linux / Unix / BSD

  • Psycle is a tracker capable of loading .IT files, and playing them with its Impulse Tracker -compatible sampler



SEE ALSO



SOUND EXAMPLES



EXTERNAL LINKS