FastTracker v2.08 Manual (Urban Jonsson, 1996)

An extension of fasttracker-2's built-in help "with examples included for all the functions", written by Urban Jonsson between June 1995 and February 1996 (published by Triton Productions and Under World Digital Publishing, chapter mottos by Smashing Pumpkins). Chapter 3 is the complete effect reference, chapter 4 the instrument and sample editors, chapter 5 the keyboard, chapter 6 a troubleshooting FAQ. The text is OCR and contains errors.

Key claims#

• Philosophy (Huss and Högdahl): work began in June 1993 to "set a new standard in the confused PC-scene"; "Who want to do more effects? We made instruments instead of a bunch of effect columns." The linear frequency table makes pitch bends run at constant speed regardless of frequency; switching it on a finished song "might sound strange if the sound uses portamentoes" (and MOD saving needs the Amiga table).
• Ticks: "The word tick goes back to the Amiga and means number of VBL's to wait until playing next row"; the first tick plays the note, the following ticks run the effect; "fine" effects act once per row. BPM = ticks per second × 5/2 (125 BPM ↔ 50 Hz); Speed = ticks per line; F01–F1F speed, F20–FF tempo, "the BPM is correct at speed 06".
• Effects: 0xy arpeggio (tick 1 note, tick 2 +x, tick 3 +y); 1xx/2xx portamento up/down per tick, non-linear with the Amiga table; 3xx tone portamento ("Portamento will not bend further than the first last says"; 3F0 bends to the target), glissando E31 rounds to semitones; 4xy vibrato with waveform E4x (0 sine, 1 ramp down, 2 square; +4 = not retriggered on a new instrument); 5xy/6xy portamento/vibrato + volume slide; 7xy tremolo; 8xx pan 00–FF (GUS: 16 positions), reset by the next instrument's default; 9xx offset × $100 (samples < 64 KB); Axy volume slide ("One of the data fields must be 0"); Bxx jump; Cxx volume ≤ $40; Dxx break to a hex position (D16); E0x Amiga filter "not implemented … totally useless"; E1x/E2x fine portamento; E5x finetune with a note; E6x pattern loop (E60 start); E7x tremolo waveform; E9x retrig; EAx/EBx fine volume; ECx note cut ("will only set the volume to zero"); EDx note delay; EEx pattern delay; Gxx global volume; Hxy global volume slide; Lxx envelope position; Pxy panning slide; Rxy multi retrig with the volume table (1 −1 … 5 −16, 6 ×⅔, 7 ×½, 9 +1 … D +16, E ×3/2, F ×2); Txy tremor ("included for STM compatibility"); X1x/X2x extra-fine portamento (speed ÷ 4).
• Volume column: 00–40 volume, +x/-x slides, Ux/Dx fine slides, Sx vibrato speed, Vx vibrato, Px pan, Rx/Lx pan slide, Mx tone portamento.
• Instruments: "A Fasttracker 2 instrument is: 1 volume envelope, 1 panning envelope, 1 auto-vibrato definition, 1..16 sample(s), 1 keyboard split definition, 1 MIDI definition"; a sample has volume/panning/finetune, relative tone and a waveform. Envelope: one pixel = one player tick (50 per second at 125 BPM, the window ≈ 6 s); sustain point holds until key-off, then fadeout; predefine 1 is the default applied to every loaded sample, "if you turn the volume-envelope off, you don't turn the vibrato off"; finetune became a signed byte (−128…+127); vibrato sweep in ticks; the piano keyboard draws the key split. Key-off is Caps Lock; a sample keeps ringing after release with an envelope at full volume and fadeout 0.
• Sample editor: X-Fade for smooth loops (range across the first loop point), Minimise (cut after the loop), 8/16-bit, Backwards, Convert signed/unsigned and byte order, Echo, Morph, Resample, Mix, draw mode with the right mouse button; a copy/paste mask with transparency; a CD-ROM dumper.
• Main screen: BPM, Spd, Add (cursor jump), pattern length up to $100 lines, Expand/Shrink patterns (speed 2x ↔ x); scopes mute/solo/multi-record.
• Keyboard: F1–F7 octave, Right Ctrl play song, Alt Gr play pattern, Right Shift record, Space stop/edit, Shift/Alt/Ctrl+F3/F4/F5 cut/copy/paste track/pattern/block, Alt+F7…F2 transposes, Ctrl+letters switch windows (A advanced edit, I instrument editor, S sample editor, T transpose, C/1/2/3 configuration…), keypad instrument selection, Alt+1…0 effect macros.
• Troubleshooting: Amiga-style L-R-R-L stereo needs P0/PF in the volume column per channel ("That's very boring!") because every channel is centred so the panning envelope can work; MOD saving fails with the linear table or envelopes; delay a sample with EDx or 9xx; the sample booster is the volume button; GUS 16-bit samples over 256 KB loop wrongly; Nibbles.

Practical takeaways#

FT2 thinks in instruments: envelopes drawn in ticks, sustain + fadeout, up to 16 samples on a key split, auto-vibrato with a sweep — and its panning is per instrument, its finetune fine (1/128 semitone), its pattern breaks hex. Random LFO waveforms do not exist; Rxy and Txy are the STM-era extras.

Notable quotes#

"Who want to do more effects? We made instruments instead of a bunch of effect columns."

Pages touched#

fasttracker-2 · xm-format · instrument-envelopes · multisampling · vibrato · pitch-slide-and-portamento · volume-slides · retrigger · stereo-panning · sample-offset · sample-looping · chip-samples · detune · tracker · song-init-and-looping · triton · effect-command-crosswalk