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FamiStudio, a pretty fun looking program designed for people making chiptune music and NES homebrewers recently had a big new release and it came with their first Linux build.

Quite an impressive feature set too with it being able to export to various formats, not only that though the editor itself has some sweet features. Some you would expect like Copy/Paste and Undo/Redo along with Volume, fine pitch, vibrato effect tracks and more. The latest release adds in some great sounding features too (on top of Linux support) like trackpad controls, a command-line interface, extended MIDI keyboard support, improved WAV export and import of instruments from any supported format.

This is actually really cool, take a look at their fresh trailer for the update:

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For Linux it requires Mono and gtk-sharp2 installed. In my initial testing, it seemed to work quite nicely and appears to be quite a streamlined and fun retro music making application.

Not only is it free to download from the official site, it's also open source software! You can see the innards up on GitHub under the MIT license.

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Glog78 Jul 2, 2020
Quoting: axredneck
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: axredneckIs there any tool for creating "tracker" music, like OpenMPT but with sequencer-like interface and piano roll?
What do you mean?
There is no "tracker" music... i mean you can create any kind of music with trackers and sequencers, they are just tools.
Create .xm, .it, .vgm files with piano roll.
.mid files are small and i can create them with Muse but they sound differently on different devices.
.nsf files are small too and i can create them with FamiStudio but they sound too "simple".

https://milkytracker.titandemo.org/about/ maybe this one help. Also -> https://github.com/milkytracker/MilkyTracker/commits/master << someone seems still to maintain the codebase.
axredneck Jul 2, 2020
Quoting: Glog78
Quoting: axredneck...
https://milkytracker.titandemo.org/about/ maybe this one help. Also -> https://github.com/milkytracker/MilkyTracker/commits/master << someone seems still to maintain the codebase.
Thank you but it's "oldschool" tracker.
Currently i use OpenMPT, and it's a bit hard for me without piano roll.
Berserk Jul 3, 2020
If you want a good tracker, developed from a guy from the 90's demoscene packed with a ton of modern features: renoise. There is a native linux version (not free, but it is a full featured digital audio workstation, there are a tons of effects and it can use plugins).
Redux, by the same developer, is a tracker vst plugin you can also integrate in an other audio workstation (Ardour, Bitwig, I use this one, it is also amazing) software to integrate a tracker in your instruments.
kokoko3k Jul 3, 2020
Quoting: BerserkIf you want a good tracker, developed from a guy from the 90's demoscene packed with a ton of modern features: renoise. There is a native linux version (not free, but it is a full featured digital audio workstation, there are a tons of effects and it can use plugins).
Redux, by the same developer, is a tracker vst plugin you can also integrate in an other audio workstation (Ardour, Bitwig, I use this one, it is also amazing) software to integrate a tracker in your instruments.
I used extensively renoise, but still, renoise is missing the pianoroll.
As a side note, i find tracker notation so much better than the pianoroll.
kokoko3k Jul 3, 2020
Quoting: uraxhornyxUnless he was thinking about creating files in .xm, .it, .mod... format, which are lighter than mp3 files ?
Quoting: axredneck
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: axredneckIs there any tool for creating "tracker" music, like OpenMPT but with sequencer-like interface and piano roll?
What do you mean?
There is no "tracker" music... i mean you can create any kind of music with trackers and sequencers, they are just tools.
Create .xm, .it, .vgm files with piano roll.
.mid files are small and i can create them with Muse but they sound differently on different devices.
.nsf files are small too and i can create them with FamiStudio but they sound too "simple".
I still don't get it 100%, seems like an XY problem.
Do you need the file format to be compatible with common tracker formats or do you want an efficient format? Or something else?
I dont know about Musescore, but it seems to be bound to midi instruments (it is not a daw, but just a notation software).
But afromentioned lmms does indeed produce small files and has a pianoroll, and i bet there are a lot of sequencers that uses efficient file formats.

Do they miss something you need?


Last edited by kokoko3k on 3 July 2020 at 5:22 pm UTC
axredneck Jul 3, 2020
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: uraxhornyx...
I still don't get it 100%, seems like an XY problem.
Do you need the file format to be compatible with common tracker formats or do you want an efficient format? Or something else?
I dont know about Musescore, but it seems to be bound to midi instruments (it is not a daw, but just a notation software).
But afromentioned lmms does indeed produce small files and has a pianoroll, and i bet there are a lot of sequencers that uses efficient file formats.

Do they miss something you need?
Yes, i need creating small files, not necessary "tracker" ones but ones playable with commonly used players.
Musescore and Muse are two different softwares.
slaapliedje Jul 15, 2020
I still need to find the time to play with Cubase on my Falcon...
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