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DUET README (summary)

summary #tool #tracker #sid-wizard #impulse-tracker
author m64
date 2026-08-28
source file raw/duet/README.md
source url ../../m64/space_64/duetracker (local repo, commit 85155dd, 2026-08-28)
created 2026-08-30 · updated 2026-08-30

The README of duet, m64's tracker (v0.1.0-alpha). Ingested first for the basics; the repo's docs/ and SID-Wizard research followed on 2026-08-30 — see s-duet-docs-grid-and-sides, s-duet-docs-formats, s-duet-docs-dust-dusk, s-duet-docs-clipboard, s-duet-docs-sounds-mixer-bounce, s-duet-research-sidwizard and s-duet-research-sidwizard-deep. One phrasing here is README-era: the SID clipboard header is canonically DUET SID, with DUET SW an accepted equivalent (s-duet-docs-clipboard).

Key claims#

  • DUET is "Impulse Tracker and SID-Wizard on one grid": a complete impulse-tracker engine (.it, implemented from ITTECH.TXT, IT's own technical reference, and held against openmpt renders) and a complete sid-wizard engine (.swm, SID-Wizard 1.97's player logic reimplemented instruction-faithfully from hermit's 6502 sources, verified write-for-write against the original through reSID emulation). Both save their own formats back byte-exact.
  • Co-play: SID voices as columns beside sample channels in one pattern; a whole .swm can play beside an .it on the IT clock. Two own synths — DUST (SID synth with table programs) and DUSK (wavetable synthesis over samples) — plus a studio console (per-strip EQ, four send effects with returns, master chain, bounce/stems).
  • Up to four reSID chips as pattern columns, each 6581 or 8580, plus four more inside DUST.
  • The system clipboard uses OpenMPT's text format (also read by Schism Tracker), so blocks and generated patterns move between editors.
  • Runs at 60 fps in a kitty-class terminal or in an SDL3 window; headless render/stems/register traces; libduet is a Zig module and C ABI in libopenmpt's shape, with a WebAssembly web player.
  • Formats: .it, .swm/.sws/.swt/.swq, .swi; project file is a ZON text. Zig 0.15, GPL-2.0-or-later (reSID is vendored). Credits: SID-Wizard by Hermit (formats and player semantics, "generously documented and WTF-licensed"), reSID by Dag Lem, miniaudio, stb_truetype, movy.

Relevance#

Explains the DUET SW clipboard target in 037-lab; documents that SID-Wizard exists in a version 1.97 with a .swq format; establishes ITTECH.TXT as the IT technical reference to look for.

Pages touched#

Created: duet. Updated: 037-lab, sid-wizard, hermit, impulse-tracker, openmpt.

source file wiki/summaries/s-duet-readme.md · graph