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1994-11-14
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.TH TRACKER 1 "22 August 93"
.SH NAME
tracker - play soundtracker modules on a Unix machine.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B tracker
[\fB-help\fR]
[\fB-new|old|both\fR]
[\fB-verbose\fR]
[\fB-quiet|scroll\fR]
[\fB-sync\fR]
[\fB-picky|tolerant\fR]
[\fB-mono|stereo\fR]
[\fB-mix \fIpercent\fR]
[\fB-frequency \fIhertz\fR]
[\fB-oversample \fIn\fR]
[\fB-speed \fIhertz\fR]
[\fB-transpose \fIhalftones\fR]
[\fB-repeats \fInumber\fR]
[\fB-start \fIpattern\fR]
\fI filename\fR ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fItracker\fR plays soundtracker music modules on a Unix machine.
Soundtracker modules originated on the amiga, where several composing
playing programs are available, that give results mostly compatible with
each other. \fItracker\fR just plays the specified files in sequence
according with the current options.
.SH OPTIONS
Options can usually be abreviated, and are case-insensitive, so that
\fB-Over\fR will stand for \fB-oversample\fR, for instance.
.IP "\fB-help\fR"
Displays a small useful help message.
.IP "\fB-new|-old|-both\fR"
Selects which soundtracker format to read. Old trackers had only room for
15 samples, instead of the more modern ones with 31 samples. \fB-both\fR
is the default behaviour, which tries to choose automatically between the
old and the new format.
.IP "\fB-verbose\fR"
Shows a dump of the module samples section on loading.
.IP "\fB-quiet|-scroll\fR"
Selects whether a scrolling event table is displayed while the module is
played. Default is to stay quiet.
.IP "\fB-sync\fR"
Tries to keep the audio output in sync with the scrolling display at the
expense of more processor power.
.IP "\fB-picky|-tolerant\fR"
Selects \fItracker\fR's behaviour with regard to erratic problems in some
modules. If you select \fB-picky\fR, only really clean modules will be
played. If you select \fB-tolerant\fR, almost anything will get through
tracker, including pure binary files not related with modules which will
sound as so much white noise. Default behaviour lies somewhat in between.
.IP "\fB-mono|-stereo\fR"
Selects monaural or stereo output (provided your system has stereo capability).
Keeping in mind that some amiga composers don't have stereo output, some modules
will seem to float between the speakers when played in stereo. Also, stereo
needs twice the output bandwidth and can consume much more cpu power.
.IP "\fB-mix \fIpercent\fR"
Sets amount of mixing between the left and right channels in stereo mode to
\fIpercent\fR.
Varies between 0 percent (monaural) to 100 percent (spatial stereo).
.IP "\fB-frequency \fIhertz\fR"
Sets output resampling frequency to \fIhertz\fR, in hertz. That frequency
can be clipped according to your audio equipment ability. The useful range
lies between 8000 and 48000 hertz. It's useless to go any higher since
the amiga is limited at about 33000 hertz, and the human ear doesn't know
the difference anyway. Default depends upon your equipment.
.IP "\fB-oversample \fIn\fR"
Sets oversampling to \fIn\fR. Resampling is used to pitch the sampled sounds
at the right frequency. Oversampling can be used to smooth out aliasing
problems, at the cost of more cpu power. Useful values lie between 2 and 4.
Defaults to no oversampling.
.IP "\fB-speed \fIhertz\fR"
Sets playing speed to \fIhertz\fR ticks per second. The default value is 50,
but 60 may be appropriate for pieces composed in the united states.
Note that changing the playing speed does not change the pitch.
.IP "\fB-transpose \fIhalftones\fR"
Transposes each note of the module by \fIhalftones\fR halftones up. This
migh not work with some modules, or give out strange results since some effects
will be approximate.
.IP "\fB-repeats \fIn\fR"
Repeats each module \fIn\fR times before playing the next. Default is to play
each module once. \fI0\fR makes the next module play indefinitely.
.IP "\fB-start \fIpattern\fR"
Starts playing module at pattern number \fIpattern\fR instead of the default
0.
.SH RUNTIME COMMANDS
At play time, some keystrokes effect a limited control on tracker.
.IP n
Skip to next module.
.IP p
Skip to previous module / restart current module.
.IP "x, e, q"
Exits.
.IP s
Set speed to 50.
.IP S
Set speed to 60.
.IP >
Skip to next pattern in current module.
.IP <
Restart current pattern / Skip to previous pattern.
.IP ?
Toggle event scroller on.
.IP !
Toggle event scroller off.
.SH SEE ALSO
An Amiga. You just \fIhave\fR to see one.
.SH BUGS AND FEATURES
Since the soundtracker format is not a real format at all, some music
modules may not sound as originally intended.
\fItracker\fR only supports soundtracker modules for the time being, not
soundtracker songs with external samples, nor MED or TFMX or StarTrekker8
nor any other amiga-originated format.
Send all complaints/praise/real bug reports to espie@ens.fr
.SH AUTHOR
Marc Espie