Scream Tracker 3

The DOS tracker by sami-tammilehto ("Psi") of future-crew, freeware, behind the s3m-format: 3.01 beta on 1994-04-18 ("S3M format, 16 channels, GUS, Adlib"), 3.20 on 1994-12-06 and 3.21 on 1994-12-25, descended from Scream Tracker 2.2x (1990–91) through the ST Music Interface Kit (source: s-tracker-history-notes). Up to 16 digital channels plus 9 AdLib FM channels; loads MOD (also 6/8-channel), OKT, STM and S3M, saves S3M and MOD; 386SX, VGA, Sound Blaster / Pro / GUS, samples in EMS; "no mouse support, since it wouldn't really be convenient in this style of tracker" (source: s-st3-manual, the manual by Kalle Kaivola). Its keyboard interface became impulse-tracker's and, through it, schism-tracker's; its effect letters are the S3M/IT alphabet (effect-command-crosswalk).

In the scene's words#

By November 1996 it was "the now-archaic Scream Tracker 3.x" next to IT and fasttracker-2 (source: s-tw077-general-tracking-tips); its documentation shipped with tiny waveform samples good enough to track a whole chiptune from — "using only st3.doc for samples" (source: s-tw037-death-of-the-chiptune-debate); IT "began simply as an extension to Scream Tracker 3" because, despite lacking envelopes, 16-bit samples, samples over 64 k and proper stereo, ST3 still had more releases than FT2 — "the reason must have been within the way you WRITE music with Scream Tracker 3" (source: s-it-manual); "widely acknowledged to be a bitch to learn, but … was the most powerful tracker out" (Greebo, source: s-it-hints); its documentation was "totally inadequate" (chinaski, source: s-tw086-hexadecimal-101); IT "made Scream Tracker obsolete" (source: s-schism-tracker-wiki). The Modsquad's S3M examples use its letters (s-tw077-chip-off-the-block); catspaw's frame arithmetic is written for it (s-tw058-the-finishing-touches).

From the traxweekly interviews: early builds circulated on IRC — Chuck Biscuits got 3.01b "from Psi and Gore" in 1994–95 and stayed on it because 3.20 and 3.21 were "mercilessly buggy (crashes galore)" on his GUS MAX, although he welcomed their panning, fine vibrato and glissando control; he also describes the Scream Tracker 2.25 → MOD workflow that preceded it — track in ST2, run a converter that turns the ST2 volume byte into a ProTracker Cxx command, then fix instrument names with MFED, which "would nuke any notes higher than C-4" (source: s-tw003-interview-chuck-biscuits). ST3 was the tool of choice of basehead (30–35 sample slots per song; source: s-tw001-interview-basehead) and zinc ("the editor was so much better in ST3" than FastTracker; source: s-tw032-interview-zinc), and still the beginner's tracker in mid-1997 (source: s-tw105-newbie-interviews). On stage: xiagox switched pre-programmed patterns on visual cues during a live act with instruments played over the module (source: s-tw114-live-tracking), and Maz calls hacking patterns live while other patterns play "a nice ST3 feature" (source: s-tw114-commercial-tracking-debate) — see live-tracking.

Cheat sheet#

Screens and global keys#

F1 orders and global variables · F2 pattern editor · F3 instrument list · F4 instrument library · F5 info screen (and play) · Shift+F5 play song, F6 play pattern, Shift+F6 from the current order, F7 from the mark (Shift+F7 sets it), F8 stop · Shift+F8 reload samples into the GUS · F9 status, Shift+F9 setup (colours, directories, chord set) · F10 quick help · Ctrl+R load, Ctrl+W/Ctrl+S save as / quick save, Ctrl+N new, Ctrl+P song length, Ctrl+D DOS shell, Ctrl+Q quit (source: s-st3-manual).

The row#

C#4 04 25 H81 = note + octave (0–7), instrument (00–99 decimal), volume (0–64 decimal), effect (A–Z), infobyte (hex). Middle C is C-4; a sample's C4Spd is the frequency it plays at C-4 (8363 = "no finetune"; +/- octave, * reset, / set by note). Patterns: 32 columns × 64 rows, up to 100 patterns, 255 orders. Effect memory: 00 in D E F G H I J K L Q repeats the last infobyte — and in ST3 the memory is largely shared between commands, unlike IT (sources: s-st3-manual, s-openmpt-manual-compatible-playback).

Effects#

(source: s-st3-manual; OpenMPT adds Mxx, Nxy, Pxy, S5x, S9x, SAx, Wxy, Yxy, Zxx and volume-column pxx to S3M — none are original ST3 commands, source: s-openmpt-manual-effect-reference)

Pattern editor#

Two piano rows, . clears · * / base octave · , toggles the edit mask (whether volume/effect follow a new note) · Alt+1…8 skip value · chord mode Alt+Z…M (preset chords spread over channels, : exits) · Shift+Q…L enter instrument 1–10 with the current note (drum lines) · Alt+N polychannel · Ctrl+1…9 / Ctrl+B rows between bars (3/4: break at row 47) · < > instrument, + - pattern (Shift ×4), { } speed · 1 AdLib note-off, 4/8 play note/row · Ctrl+Backspace undo, Ctrl+Enter store undo · Alt+T/Alt+R pin channels. Blocks: Alt+D quick-select 16/32/64 rows, Alt+B/Alt+E begin/end, Alt+L channel (×2 pattern), Alt+U unmark, Alt+C copy, Alt+P paste/overwrite, Alt+M mix (echoes), Alt+H overwrite keeping volumes, Alt+Y swap, Alt+Z erase (×2), Alt+X erase effects (×2), Alt+Q/Alt+A transpose ±1, Alt+V/Alt+W set volumes, Alt+S set sample, Alt+I/Alt+J volumes × 3/2 or 2/3, Alt+F/Alt+G double/halve, Alt+K slide volumes (source: s-st3-manual).

Instruments and global variables#

Instrument list: Tab subwindow, Alt+D delete, Alt+O/Alt+W save with/without header, Alt+M maximise, Alt+X/Alt+S exchange/swap, Alt+A Amiga/PC sample flip, Alt+V view as text, Enter library; samples ≤ 64000 bytes, 8-bit; A on the type column makes an AdLib instrument (opl-fm-instruments). F1 variables: tempo, speed, global volume, master volume (SB), volume-0 optimisation, Force Amiga limits (octaves 3–5), Mod Edit Mode (red = not MOD-safe), Fast volslides (ST 3.0 behaviour, auto for old files), Ultraclick removal, stereo; channels L1–L8, R1–R8, A1–A9 with default pans (source: s-st3-manual).

Saving MOD#

Three octaves (C-3–B-5), no volume column, finetune approximated from C4Spd, 128 orders, 64 patterns (100 = extended MOD), 31 instruments, no extra-fine slides / fine vibrato / tremor, speeds ≥ 20h, retrig loses its volume slide (source: s-st3-manual).

Scene practice (1995)#

Necros wrote his tips in ST3 notation "since that seems to be the most popular tracker at the moment", with a conversion chart to ProTracker/FastTracker numbers (effect-command-crosswalk); his panning notes record how the commands behaved in the field — S8x played correctly only by 3.2+ on a GUS, SBPro owners entering pans blind and checking in an external player, and Xxx (X00–X80, XA4 surround) saved by ST3 but not played by it; sampling went through FT2 and then ALT-A in ST3 with a save as .IFF (sources: s-tw012-advanced-tracking-tips, s-tw015-advanced-tracking-tips-ii).

What the 1995–98 interviews say#

Who used it, and why. The traxweekly interviews of 1995–97 read as a census of ST3 users and the ladders that led to it: stalker since "the second st3 came out", after Composer 669 and MultiTracker (source: s-tw004-interview-stalker); paganus got 3.01b from a Toronto BBS in about spring 1994, and his newbie milestone was "the finer points of a manual volume slide in st3" (source: s-tw030-interview-paganus; see volume-slides); Fred started with ST3 in March 1994 (source: s-tw031-interview-fred); loki was given it in 1994 (source: s-tw035-interview-loki); lord-pegasus — "I started writing MUSIC when I got st3", after ModEdit 1.0 (source: s-tw018-interview-lord-pegasus); luv-kohli reached ST 3.21 via MODEdit 2.00/3.00, Whacker Tracker and the original FastTracker — "I find ST3 easier to use" than FT2, whose features and sound quality he nevertheless called superior (source: s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli); perisoft on 3.21, auditioning a downloaded module's samples in the sample screen before clearing the song (source: s-tw011-interview-perisoft); beaner on 3.21b "just because I'm so used to it", unable to get comfortable with FT2 (source: s-tw011-interview-beaner); big-jim's and Popcorn's first modules were ST3 (source: s-tw013-interview-big-jim), and Popcorn was still making .s3m files in July 1995 (source: s-tw017-interview-amusic); master-of-darkness — "I use Scream Tracker 3. I believe FastTracker is better, but my IRQs screw up" (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness); smeghead — "stream of consciousness that drives me and screamtracker 3", eighteen S3M releases (source: s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead); Shawn types ST3, prefers it, and does not need FT2's extra features; MultiTracker before it (source: s-tw041-interview-shawnm); mick-rippon had "nearly mastered ST3 and FT2" after three years of ProTracker (source: s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon); daedalus came to ST3 through Malakai after ModEdit 1.0, used 3.21 in 1996 and called the FT-vs-ST argument "beyond silly" (source: s-tw052-interview-daedalus); quantam-porcupine found ScreamTracker 3.01 on AOL, was on 3.21 by 1996, and had rejected MODedit as "too user-friendly" (source: s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine); vadimvs — "basically, it st3"; ST3 "will live a couple of years", but the survivors will have 16-bit samples and instruments; he thanks FC "for giving the Scream Tracker to the world" (source: s-tw050-interview-vadimvs); liam-the-lemming reached ST3 3.01 after ModEdit 2.00, tetraMed and Composer 669 (source: s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming); fisherman's path was ModEdit → ST3 → IT, and to him ST3 is "an apple — Kind of boring, but everyone loves it deep down" (source: s-tw060-interview-fisherman); vegas made his first cover in Scream Tracker and had left ST3 for IT by mid-1996 (source: s-tw062-interview-vegas); clef used ST3 "as soon as it came out", then IT — "just like ST3 but better" (source: s-tw055-interview-clef).

Against it. leinad "never liked text-mode based trackers like ScreamTracker" (source: s-tw002-interview-leinad); claim found it unusable on a cheap Sound Blaster Pro clone — "either mono or stereo with swapping (which drove me crazy)" — and switched to FT2 (source: s-tw015-interview-claim; see stereo-panning); balrog's first tracker was "scream tracker v2.23 i think" (he wrote STMs), but ST 3.0 was "buggy as hell on my machine", so he used X-Tracker until FT2 (source: s-tw042-interview-balrog) — compare Chuck Biscuits's crashes on 3.20/3.21 above; zalt — "god i hate st3": his Atari Pro/NoiseTracker habits made FT2 the natural PC tracker, and "I can't stand the thought of 20 billion macros to remember" (source: s-tw040-interview-zalt); ganja-man — "I can't stand the text interface of ST3" (source: s-tw052-interview-ganja-man); u4ia — ST3 is "far too much like Word Perfect … Alt shift F4 when the moon is high and the tide is out and you might just get to the sample load screen", and has no mouse (source: s-tw067-interview-u4ia); Cosmic/RR — "i really hate the s3m interface" (source: s-tw090-interview-cosmic).

After Impulse Tracker. mikmak used ST3 in June 1997 only as the reference for S3M replay in MikIT (source: s-tw103-interview-mikmak; see s3m-format); ryan-sprott proposed judging Music Contest 4's S3M entries in ST3 itself, and rated IT and FT2 "better than st3, and look how long st3 lasted" (source: s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott).

The trackers before it. The ladders above name the PC editors ST3 replaced, none of which has a page: Composer 669 (Stalker, Liam the Lemming), MultiTracker / MTM and MMEDIT (thehacker on a 386-25, Stalker, Shawn, Balrog "back when ST3 was only a rumor"), ModEdit 1.0/2.0/3.0 (TheHacker with ripped Amiga samples, Beaner, Claim, Lord Pegasus, Luv Kohli, Daedalus, Liam, fisherman — "didn't EVERYONE start on modedit"), KingMod (Beaner, Claim), Whacker Tracker (ryan-cramer, Luv Kohli, Quantam Porcupine from 1992), Tetra Compositor (Bram Graveland's four-channel shareware, bought by scirocco in 1993), X-Tracker (D-Lusion; Balrog, Cosmic), TCB Tracker on the Atari ST (Ganja Man) and Extreme's Tracker (Leinad) (sources: s-tw004-interview-stalker, s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming, s-tw005-interview-thehacker, s-tw041-interview-shawnm, s-tw042-interview-balrog, s-tw011-interview-beaner, s-tw015-interview-claim, s-tw018-interview-lord-pegasus, s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli, s-tw052-interview-daedalus, s-tw060-interview-fisherman, s-tw007-interview-ryan-cramer, s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine, s-tw054-interview-scirocco, s-tw090-interview-cosmic, s-tw052-interview-ganja-man, s-tw002-interview-leinad).

Related#

s3m-format · sami-tammilehto · future-crew · impulse-tracker · fasttracker-2 · protracker · openmpt · effect-command-crosswalk · chiptune · chip-samples · opl-fm-instruments · live-tracking · gravis-ultrasound · stereo-panning · volume-slides · traxweekly

Sources#

s-st3-manual · s-st3-tech-doc · s-tracker-history-notes · s-openmpt-manual-effect-reference · s-openmpt-manual-compatible-playback · s-tw037-death-of-the-chiptune-debate · s-tw077-general-tracking-tips · s-tw077-chip-off-the-block · s-it-manual · s-it-hints · s-tw086-hexadecimal-101 · s-tw058-the-finishing-touches · s-schism-tracker-wiki · s-tw012-advanced-tracking-tips · s-tw015-advanced-tracking-tips-ii · s-tw003-interview-chuck-biscuits · s-tw001-interview-basehead · s-tw032-interview-zinc · s-tw105-newbie-interviews · s-tw114-live-tracking · s-tw114-commercial-tracking-debate · s-tw004-interview-stalker · s-tw030-interview-paganus · s-tw031-interview-fred · s-tw035-interview-loki · s-tw018-interview-lord-pegasus · s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli · s-tw011-interview-perisoft · s-tw011-interview-beaner · s-tw013-interview-big-jim · s-tw017-interview-amusic · s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead · s-tw041-interview-shawnm · s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon · s-tw052-interview-daedalus · s-tw054-interview-quantam-porcupine · s-tw050-interview-vadimvs · s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming · s-tw060-interview-fisherman · s-tw062-interview-vegas · s-tw055-interview-clef · s-tw002-interview-leinad · s-tw015-interview-claim · s-tw042-interview-balrog · s-tw040-interview-zalt · s-tw052-interview-ganja-man · s-tw067-interview-u4ia · s-tw090-interview-cosmic · s-tw103-interview-mikmak · s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott · s-tw005-interview-thehacker · s-tw007-interview-ryan-cramer · s-tw054-interview-scirocco