Music tracker

A music tracker, or simply a tracker, is a type of <a href="/facts/Music_sequencer/VhLzSPhr">music sequencer</a> software for creating music. The music is represented as discrete <a href="/facts/Musical_notes/spIQyV4T">musical notes</a> positioned in several <a href="/facts/Audio_signal/rFSTI9IF">channels</a> at chronological positions on a vertical timeline.
A music tracker's user interface is traditionally number based. Notes, <a href="/facts/Elements_of_music/e3ywYVAP">parameter</a> changes, <a href="/facts/Effects_unit/XhTKhJQC">effects</a> and other commands are entered with the keyboard into a grid of fixed time slots as codes consisting of letters, numbers and <a href="/facts/Hexadecimal/02ohQW22">hexadecimal</a> digits.
Separate patterns have independent timelines; a complete <a href="/facts/Song/wm7uRPzQ">song</a> consists of a master list of repeated patterns.
Later trackers departed from solely using <a href="/facts/Module_files/sauWN2o1">module files</a>, adding other options both to the sound synthesis (hosting generic <a href="/facts/Synthesizers/NrmdVrPa">synthesizers</a> and effects or <a href="/facts/MIDI/tblhmeFV">MIDI</a> output) and to the sequencing (MIDI input and recording), effectively becoming general purpose sequencers with a different <a href="/facts/User_interface/e9sPEWVD">user interface</a>.
In the 2010s, tracker music is still featured in <a href="/facts/Demoscene/yKunscS7">demoscene</a> products for old hardware platforms and demoparties have often separate tracker music competitions. Tracker music may also be used in games which <a href="/facts/Retrogaming/HJCx4v04">borrow aesthetics from past decades</a>.

Music tracker open-in-new

Music tracker