ProTracker
The Amiga tracker that fixed the 4-channel mod-format and the effect numbers every later tracker inherited. Written by lars-hamre ("ZAP") of Amiga Freelancers on the basis of NoiseTracker (first version 1990-05-04, public 1.0A August 1990, 1.1A December 1990 with CIA timing and a tempo gadget), continued by peter-hanning ("Crayon") of Mushroom Studios / Noxious as 2.1A–2.3A (1992–January 1993; 100 patterns, chord maker, position editor), fixed for AGA as 2.3b/2.3d (1994, "the definitive one" in the forum posts quoted by tracker-history), rewritten by others as the 3.x line, and revived by Olav "8bitbubsy" Sørensen as 2.3e (2019) (sources: s-tracker-history-notes, s-protracker-23-readme-and-docs). Public Domain: "may be copied freely and included in any PD library" (source: s-protracker-23-readme-and-docs). The PC scene wrote in its commands — Vivid's "Tracking Hints" are ProTracker, Greg Heo gives 4xy/3xx as the equivalents of IT's Hxy/Gxx (sources: s-tw059-tracking-hints, s-tw074-intro-to-musical-theory); ST3 and FT2 both grade their MOD export against it (sources: s-st3-manual, s-ft2-manual).
The song model#
Four tracks, "one for each of the amiga's audiochannels"; patterns of 64 lines; a cell is note sample effect (C-3 01 C20); up to 64 patterns (100 with the toggle, tagged M!K!) at up to 128 positions; song length = last position + 1; 31 samples of up to $FFFE bytes with volume, repeat and replen; three octaves C-1–B-3 (periods 856–113); finetune −8…+7 (table 412.0–457.0 Hz for A); timing by VBlank (50 Hz PAL, "20% faster" on NTSC) or CIA in BPM 32–255 (default 125) (source: s-protracker-23d-help). Sample 0 lets a note play without resetting the volume; the Amiga's fixed stereo is L-R-R-L (source: s-ft2-manual).
Cheat sheet#
Effects#
| cmd | effect | cmd | effect |
|---|---|---|---|
0xy | arpeggio +x, +y ("noisy and grainy on most samples, but ok on monotone ones"; 047 major, 037 minor) | E0x | LED filter: E00 on, E01 off ("some A500 + A2000") |
1xx / 2xx | portamento up / down per tick (cannot pass B-3 / C-1) | E1x / E2x | fine slide up / down, once ("Great for creating chorus effects") |
3xx | tone portamento to the note (300 continues) | E3x | glissando: portamento by semitones |
4xy | vibrato speed x depth y (400 continues) | E4x / E7x | vibrato / tremolo waveform 0 sine, 1 ramp down, 2 square, 3 random; +4 "Don't retrig WF" |
5xy / 6xy | tone portamento / vibrato continued + volume slide up x down y | E5x | finetune (+7…0 = 7…0, −1…−8 = F…8) |
7xy | tremolo | E60 / E6x | loop start / loop x times |
9xx | sample offset $xx00 ("Handy for speech-samples") | E9x | retrig every x ticks — "Retrig on hi-hats!" |
Axy | volume slide up x / down y per tick ("The slower the song, the more the volume will be changed") | EAx / EBx | fine volume up / down |
Bxx | jump to position xx (hex; also breaks the pattern; "instead of restart as on Noisetracker") | ECx | note cut at tick x (volume only) |
Cxx | volume 00–40 | EDx | note delay to tick x (ED0 still delays "a little" — flanging with a doubled note) |
Dxx | pattern break to line xx (decimal, 00–63) | EEx | pattern delay x notes (effects keep running) |
Fxx | VBlank: speed 01–FF; CIA: 01–1F speed, 20–FF BPM; F00 stops | EFx | invert loop at speed x (short loops of $10/$20/$40/$80 bytes; "Sounds better than funkrepeat"; EF0 off) |
8xx and E8x are "NOT USED" (sources: s-protracker-23d-help, s-protracker-23-readme-and-docs).
Keys#
Two note rows; F1/F2 low/high octave; F6–F10 go to line 0/16/32/48/63 (Shift stores, Alt plays, Ctrl records from there); Shift/Alt/Ctrl+F3–F5 cut/copy/paste sample / track / pattern / commands; Ctrl+0–9 edit skip; Tab next track; right Amiga / right Alt / right Shift play pattern / song / record; Space stop/edit; Del note, Alt+Del command, Shift+Del both; Shift+0–9 store and Alt+0–9 insert a command; Alt+\ copies the command above (= / - ±1); Ctrl+A mute channel, B mark block, C/X/P/J copy/cut/paste/join-paste, H/L transpose block, E/O expand/contract, W polyphonize, Y backwards, K kill to end, U undo, Z restore effects, F filter, G boost all; Alt+D/E/S Disk Op / Edit Op / Sampler, Alt+M metronome, Alt+R resample, Alt+T tuning tone, Alt+Q quit; keypad 0–9 and Enter pick samples $0–$1F; L-Amiga + keys transpose note/octave for sample or all, track or pattern (source: s-protracker-23d-help).
Sample tools#
Sampler screen: waveform/display/range play, ranges, cut/copy/paste, volume box with \ / - ramps and Normalize, tuning tone, Resample by note, loop on/off. Edit Op 3: Mix (offset, modulation), Echo, Boost ("Use this on hi-hats and snares!"), Filter ("noisy basses"), X-Fade for hard loops, Backwards, Upsample/Downsample (octave up/down), Fade Up/Down, Vol, and the Chord maker (major, minor, sus4, major7, minor7, major6, minor6 into a new sample). Edit Op 2: record with quantise and a metronome on sample $1F (source: s-protracker-23d-help).
Tips from the help file#
---01C00 sets a volume without a note; C-301A08 followed by ---01A08 rows "will create a strange arpeggiato effect, like on 'Cream of the earth' by Romeo Knight / RSI"; lock locks the program with a password; Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L-Amiga+Del prepares "the infamous 'backwards play' trick" (source: s-protracker-23d-help).
Users in the PC scene's sources#
Zapper moved from NoiseTracker on the Atari ST to "ProTracker 4 GUS, which is almost a 100% conversion" when he bought a gravis-ultrasound around 1992 (source: s-tw027-interview-zapper); basehead loved 4-channel Amiga music but "didn't have the patience to learn protracker" (source: s-tw001-interview-basehead); Nasenbluten (Newcastle, Australia; Bloody Fist Records) made their gabba in ProTracker on Amigas and performed with one operator on the Amigas into a cross-fader (Mark Bradley, 1997; source: s-tw114-commercial-tracking-debate; see live-tracking). From the traxweekly interviews: leinad no longer used ProTracker in 1995 but still wrote four-channel entries "limiting myself to the Amiga rules" in Extreme's Tracker — "very easy to use for us ProTracker nerds" — to stay eligible for every party compo (source: s-tw002-interview-leinad); big-jim's favourite Hollywood "has only ever done 4 channel stuff", released unprefixed on Aminet (source: s-tw013-interview-big-jim); mick-rippon "mastered Protracker on the Amiga" over three years before moving to ST3 and FT2 in 1995 (source: s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon); zalt came from Pro/NoiseTracker on the Atari, and he and psibelius wanted "regular standard Amiga Protracker available for the PC" because FT2's .MOD export was unreliable (source: s-tw040-interview-zalt; see mod-format); rage "used to do some stuff with my amiga500 and protracker few years ago" before Assembly '94 (source: s-tw060-interview-rage); u4ia learned on SoundTracker 1.0 without a manual, and his "Take a Trip From Me (Mobieus)" was released with ProTracker 3.10 (by CryptoBurners and Maw) on an Amiga Format cover disk (source: s-tw067-interview-u4ia); Cosmic/RR chose FT2 in 1997 because it is "somewhere a pt clone" (source: s-tw090-interview-cosmic; see fasttracker-2).
Hardware notes#
The only hardware facts in the sources: four audio channels with a fixed L-R-R-L stereo layout, 8-bit samples (the MOD format), an LED low-pass filter switched by E0x, vertical-blank timing that differs between PAL and NTSC, and a DMA wait setting for fast machines (sources: s-protracker-23d-help, s-ft2-manual, s-openmpt-manual-module-formats). The chip itself (amiga-paula) still lacks a source.
Related#
mod-format · lars-hamre · peter-hanning · scream-tracker-3 · fasttracker-2 · openmpt · effect-command-crosswalk · sample-offset · chiptune · amiga-paula · compos · traxweekly
Sources#
s-protracker-23d-help · s-protracker-23-readme-and-docs · s-tracker-history-notes · s-openmpt-manual-module-formats · s-openmpt-manual-compatible-playback · s-openmpt-manual-song-properties · s-openmpt-manual-effect-reference · s-tw059-tracking-hints · s-tw074-intro-to-musical-theory · s-ft2-manual · s-st3-manual · s-tw027-interview-zapper · s-tw001-interview-basehead · s-tw114-commercial-tracking-debate · s-tw002-interview-leinad · s-tw013-interview-big-jim · s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon · s-tw040-interview-zalt · s-tw060-interview-rage · s-tw067-interview-u4ia · s-tw090-interview-cosmic