Impulse tracker

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Impulse tracker

Impulse Tracker screenshot.png
Screenshot of the Impulse Tracker
Basic data

Maintainer Jeffrey Lim
Current  version 2.14
(April 8, 1999)
operating system MS-DOS
programming language Assembly language
category tracker
License BSD license
http://www.users.on.net/~jtlim/ImpulseTracker/
Schism Tracker as a representative impulse tracker - clone / successor:
everything : GUI interface generated from (almost) exclusively ASCII characters, as was common in the 80s and 90s for trackers like IT
above : general track properties
in the middle : command list for the channels (along the line) and the time sequence (along the columns), the white bar cursor marks the current point
in time middle-bottom : channel list with samples
left-bottom : current volume per channel
right-bottom: stereo separation per channel ( panning )

Impulse Tracker , or IT for short , is a tracker , i. H. a multi-track sequencer for digital sound. Impulse Tracker has been free software under BSD license since October 2014 .

properties

It runs under DOS and was written by the Australian Jeffrey Lim - but no further development from version 2.15. It was available as freeware , but the author also offered additional functions for a fee, e.g. B. to save tracks as stereo WAV files or the option of using an IPX network mode. Impulse Tracker was one of the most famous trackers of its time, successor and inspired by Scream Tracker 3 and FastTracker . It contains various import filters e.g. B. for the MOD format, the S3M format, the XM format and for XI instruments. The possibility of porting to other systems is made more difficult by the fact that Impulse Tracker is written in pure assembler .

As with all MOD editors, music is defined using a sequence table, the columns of which represent channels that contain key-on and key-off instructions, similar to MIDI . The instruments are defined by samples of natural sounds, which can be used via pitch shifting (implemented as resampling ) to generate any tones . The functional unit that performs the pitch shifting in real time during playback is known as the sampler and is of crucial importance for the sound quality of a mod player or tracker.

Effects command extensions

One of the features that made the Impulse Tracker special were NNAs (New Note Actions). If a key-on instruction appears on a channel where an instrument is already playing, NNAs allow the user to determine how to proceed with the old instrument:

  • Cut: The old instrument sound breaks off abruptly; the new one replaces the old one.
  • Continue: The old instrument continues to play according to its ADSR curve.
  • Off: A key-off is initiated for the old instrument. The release phase of the ADSR curve begins.
  • Fade: The old instrument fades out at a pre-determined rate, overwriting the ADSR information.

IT tracker module format

With the Impulse Tracker, a new tracker module format was also defined, which further broke away from the hardware-based Mod format. It was based on predecessors like . S3M or . XM went beyond that in terms of skills, with z. B. possible compression of the samples. The file extension of the format is .IT and it is still considered a current tracker format, which is reflected in the support provided by current trackers such as the ModPlug Tracker , the BeRoTracker or the Schism Tracker.

Known uses

Erez Aizen from the Infected Mushroom composed his first trance music with the Impulse Tracker. Ian Stocker used u. a. the IT for the music of the Nintendo DS version of The Sims 2 . Also Deadmau5 his career began in the mid 1990s with a chiptune and Demoscene influenced sound on the Impulse Tracker . Trance producer Sean Tyas began his music career using the Impulse Tracker.

Some computer games from Epic Games such as Unreal , Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex from Ion Storm use the IT format, encapsulated in a "UMX" container format and supported by the Galaxy Sound Engine . The games Pocket Tanks and Grid Wars , as well as Block Breaker 3 Unlimited , at least in the Android version, use the format for some of their songs.

Alternatives / clones

ChibiTracker is a GPL -lizenzierter Impulse Tracker Clone , who Windows , Linux and Mac OS X is running. Another IT-inspired multiplatform tracker is the Schism Tracker , which is developed with a focus on good IT format compatibility . The MadTracker for Windows can also read Impulse Tracker files, but the playback is faulty, but it can integrate VST plugins. For a comparative overview, see the list of trackers .

Web links

Commons : Impulse Tracker  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b License of Impulse Tracker on bitbucket
  2. ^ Andrew Leonard: Mod love . In: Salon.com . Salon Media Group. April 29, 1999. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  3. ^ A b Claudio Matsuoka: Tracker History Graphing Project . helllabs.org. November 4, 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2011: " Tracker History Graph "
  4. ↑ What is IT? IT format description
  5. ↑ a b c Player abuse tests ( English ) schismtracker.org. August 1, 2009. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
  6. ↑ ITTECH.txt , IT Format Specification (English)
  7. ↑ Sean Davidson: Trance Mushrooms to Infect Pune ( English ) In: The Times of India . January 3, 2003. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
  8. ↑ Andy Jones: From a Distance: The Virtual Collaboration that Helped Score The Sims 2 DS / GBA ( English ) In: Gamasutra . January 10, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
  9. ↑ Todd L. Burns: Deadmau5: It's complicated ( English ) residentadvisor.net. September 30, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2014: “ I was in my Mom's basement tooling away on Impulse Tracker on a 386 just doing Nintendo music until some Loop Library company hired me as a producer. "
  10. ↑ http://pulserusher.blogspot.de/2012/09/sean-tyas-interview.html
  11. ↑ Information about IT files and unreal games - Alexander Brandon , epicgames.com (1999, English)
  12. ↑ Interview with Alex Brandon. deusex-machina.com, accessed on January 10, 2009 .
  13. ↑ Deus Ex & Unreal Game Music .umx, .it, .xm . renoise.com. December 21, 2004. Retrieved February 2, 2011.