ProTracker 2.3d help file (edited by echolevel)

The complete built-in help of protracker 2.3d — main screen gadgets, Disk Op, PLST and preset editor, sampler, the two setup screens, MIDI, the position editor, Edit Op screens 1–3 with the chord maker, the effect command reference with examples, the full keyboard map, general info, tips and undocumented features — as edited by echolevel in 2019. "Sourcecode: 440k / 25000 lines"; Mushroom Studios are Peter "CRAYON" Hanning (code, music), Anders "DOLPHIN" Ramsay and Daniel "KNOTIS" Sindahl.

Key claims#

• Song model: patterns of 64 lines and four tracks, "one for each of the amiga's audiochannels"; a cell is note sample effect (C-3 01 C20); up to 64 patterns (100 with the "100 patterns" toggle, which changes the M.K. tag to M!K!) at up to 128 positions; song length = last position + 1; 31 samples ($1F) of up to 64 k ($FFFE), each with volume, repeat and replen; finetune table 0…7 = 436.4, 439.0, 441.6, 445.1, 447.8, 451.5, 455.2, 457.0 Hz and −1…−8 = 432.1 … 412.0 Hz; sample 0 records notes "to prevent ProTracker from setting the volume each time you play a new note".
• Timing: CIA or VBlank; "Using Vblank on NTSC amigas will cause the song to play 20% faster. With CIA, there's no difference"; CIA tempo 32–255 (default 125 BPM), VBlank speed 01–FF; DMA wait 300 on an A500, about 900 on a 25 MHz A3000.
• Effects with examples: 0xy arpeggio "to simulate chords … noisy and grainy on most samples, but ok on monotone ones" (C-3 00047 C major, 037 minor); 1xx/2xx portamento "called as many times as the speed" — cannot slide above B-3 (period 113) or below C-1 (856); 3xx tone portamento (300 continues); 4xy vibrato (400 continues, waveform E4x); 5xy/6xy continue portamento/vibrato + volume slide ("compatible with NT 2.0"); 7xy tremolo; 9xx offset — "the two numbers equal the two first numbers in the length of the sample. Handy for speech-samples" (923 = $2300); Axy volume slide; Bxx position jump in hex (also breaks the pattern; "instead of restart as on Noisetracker"); Cxx volume ≤ $40; Dxx pattern break to a decimal position (D32); E0x filter/LED "on some A500 + A2000"; E1x/E2x fine slides "(Great for creating chorus effects)"; E3x glissando; E4x/E7x waveforms 0 sine, 1 ramp down, 2 square, 3 random, +4 "Don't retrig WF"; E5x finetune value table (+7…0 = 7…0, −1…−8 = F…8); E60/E6x pattern loop; E9x retrig — "Retrig on hi-hats!"; EAx/EBx fine volume; ECx note cut ("the volume is just turned down"); EDx note delay — "If you use ED0, the note will be delayed a little anyway. You can play the same note on two channels, delay one, and get a nice flanging effect"; EEx pattern delay; EFx invert loop (needs a short loop of $10/20/40/80 bytes; "Sounds better than funkrepeat"; EF0 or Ctrl+Z stops); Fxx speed: VBlank 01–FF, CIA 01–1F speed / 20–FF BPM, F00 stops the song.
• Sampler and Edit Op: waveform/range playback, cut/copy/paste, volume box with ramps and Normalize, tuning tone and Resample by note, loop on/off; Edit Op 1 transposes (sample or all; TransDel drops out-of-range notes), Edit Op 2 records with quantise (01 to the nearest slot) and a metronome on sample $1F, Edit Op 3 sample tools — Mix (with offset and modulation), Echo, Boost ("Use this on hi-hats and snares!"), Filter ("Delta-filter … on 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 mixed into a new sample, marked !).
• Keyboard: two note rows, F1/F2 octaves (C-1–G-3 / C-2–B-3), F6–F10 pattern positions 0/16/32/48/63, Shift/Alt/Ctrl+F3–F5 cut/copy/paste sample/track/pattern/commands, Ctrl+0–9 edit skip, Tab tracks, right Amiga/Alt/Shift play pattern/song/record, Ctrl+A…Z block operations (B mark, C copy, P paste, J join-paste, H/L transpose, E/O expand/contract, W polyphonize, Y backwards), Alt+letters screens, Shift+0–9 / Alt+0–9 store and insert command macros, Alt+\/=/- copy the command above and ±1, keypad sample selection, L-Amiga transposes.
• Tips: set a volume without a note (---01 C00); C-3 01 A08 then --- 01 A08 rows give "a strange arpeggiato effect, like on 'Cream of the earth' by Romeo Knight / RSI"; undocumented lock password, backwards-play trick (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L-Amiga+Del), the kill-all-voices key.

Practical takeaways#

The Amiga rules a chiptune writer inherits from MOD: three octaves (C-1–B-3), 64 rows, decimal Dxx but hex Bxx, per-tick slides that scale with speed, E9x hi-hat rolls, ED0 flanging, 9xx in units of $100 bytes, and NTSC's 20 % problem unless CIA timing is used.

Notable quotes#

"It sounds very noisy and grainy on most samples, but ok on monotone ones."

Pages touched#

protracker · mod-format · chord-arpeggio · pitch-slide-and-portamento · vibrato · volume-slides · retrigger · sample-offset · fake-echo · detune · song-init-and-looping · chip-samples · sample-looping · tracker · peter-hanning · effect-command-crosswalk