Hiya, guys! I have kinda a problem here...
Everyone kept talking about that Fasttracker program, so finally I came to download it. It's really a good tracker, if may I tell you, but...
All I have found is version 2, still DOS-exe. In Windows XP, I just can't hear the sound of DOS apps (and that's what tracking's all about, eh? ).
Actually, I found a beta version of Fastracker 3 as well, but this release (0.25) is only intended for bugtesting, not saving your compositions.
On the way of my hunt, I got to Fasttracker home site, wich stands for http://fast3.org (or at least it should), but it seems to be currently offline.
So I end here, not having success on my search. I write this here asking for help.
If anyone who reads this knows where I can find a Windows version of Fasttracker, please tell me! I'm in a desperate search for that silly little utility...
Thanxx for the attention!

1. What does this have to do with Allegro?
2. Modplug might be a good enough Windows alternative
3. If you need to play an XM/IT in Allegro, checkout DUMB

Thanks miran, I'll check that two apps. They really do work in Win XP, yeah?
(Many people who compose music for use with Allegro use Fastracker, or that's what I heard, heheh.)
Thanks for the big help!

IIRC ModPlug and DUMB can play the same XM differently.

Personally, I'm using MadTracker.

Modplug tracker works fine with Win XP. DUMB is not a program, it's a library for programmers who want to put trax in their Allegro games...

I also used MadTracker, but, as above mentioned, Fasttracker and it play differently the same files. That's not good for me. I never made it to add a new instrument in Madtrackeer too, I only used existing ones

If you like Fasttracker, you can try SkaleTraker. It has a very similar interface and it's for Windows. I haven't done anything real myself because I can't compose music (:'(), but it looked great

It's a shame they abandoned FT3.
Though I'm not a muician.
My greatest accomplishment in FT2 was winning the nibbles game. On easiest difficulty, while listening to I Want to be a Hippy all the time.

Hey guys.

I used to use ModPlug Tracker. Its decent for a beginner, but it has very limited soundfont support. This is why I switched to Fruity Loops. I was wondering if any of you know of a free tracker that has full soundfont support.

Modplug for music composing, and dumb for playing inside your game is the best choice, imho.

If you really want a FastTracter 3 program, check out Renoise. AFIAK it'svery compatible with FastTracker2 and as long as you don't use any of the more advanced features you can also save backwards compatible XM files too...

And if you're going to do that (use ModPlug Tracker and DUMB), I suggest you use .it files instead of .xm files. And when you've finished, go and load the .it file into Impulse Tracker itself and save it back out again; that'll compress the samples for you. Just read the modplug.txt file that comes with DUMB (viewable online), to familiarise yourself with the ways in which ModPlug Tracker differs from the original Impulse Tracker. (DUMB will try to mimic the original.)

(I wonder if I should attempt to make that document sound less biased against ModPlug Tracker ...)

Do play around with the low-pass resonant filters too (.it only; activate them with Z00-Z7F to set the cut-off and Z80-Z8F (not ZFF) to set the resonance, and deactivate by setting cut-off to max and resonance to min). They can add a professional touch. Just beware that these too differ a bit

[EDIT]
Renoise can save .xm files now? Wow, cool. Still, .it files are more advanced than .xm files. (Renoise's own are more advanced still but you won't be able to incorporate those into your game.)

Not IMO. Format hijacking is evil, and ModPlug should get its due critisism for as long as it does it.

I'm not sure to be honest but I think it can, or maybe I was thinking of some other program. If it doesn't, then it sucks...

Well, being able to open, edit and save many existing formats is a good thing. The bad part is that it changes those formats with its own extensions...

I should start tracking again after.. what.. 6-4 years... I used Impulse Tracker.. and Scream Tracker III... Or was it II.. no matter. Those were differend times back then..

Which is what format hijacking is. And MODPlug doesn't only add its own extensions, it changes behavior just because.

I'm using modplug. It's not stellar, but it does the job.

here, listen to my music.

Also, I highly recomend the fmod library for music and sound playback. You should use that if you don't plan on selling your game (or even if you do). It's the library that has it all, it's not specifically made for allegro, but it is for video games.

I don't recommend FMOD, unless you're using some obscure OS/system. FMOD has serious issues with version compatibilty (you don't tihnk you can just upgrade that DLL, do you? ha). Even the API breaks on occasion. Not to mention, there's been problems using FMOD with ALSA in Linux, and FMOD doesn't playback .it's properly (it opts to emulate MODPlug, instead of properly copying the original tracker).

I agree with that. If you want tracked music in your game, use DUMB. It's more easily portable, integrates seamlesly with Allegro and plays less files wrong (although it does break its teeth on some)...

Mark, I listened to your "transition cue", and, man, what a pro sound you've got there! My dreams to make such wonderful compositing... could you please tell me what programs you used to do that?

Modplug layout is really close to FT2 one. Generally ModPlug GUI looks like any other 'tracker' GUI : that is each column stand for a track, and you read each track from top to bottom.
Moreover i find ModPlug general GUI more intuitive.

If you never used FT2, then you can begin with ModPlug directly.

I'm using Modplug (and DUMB to play tracks in my allegro progs) under Win XP and this is working perfectly.

I tried Buzz a few years ago; it was, great but my old machine was too slow to do anything proper with it. There seems to have been a lot of progress in it's development, judging by the web site. Too bad it's for Windows only, although the faq states that it can be run on Linux with Wine.

As far as I can tell, this is how he did it:
1) Use pen & paper to compose the piece
2) Use some MIDI sequencing program (like Logic, Cakewalk, Cubase or the like) to play it on a sampler or sound module
3) record that & pack into mp3 file.

The key to this kind of orchestral sound are the samples. Use good samples, and a good composition will sound almost natural. Use crappy samples, and you can forget the whole thing.
Anyway, I would rather like to hear this stuff from a real orchestra.

For an open source clone of Buzz, try PSYCLE.

Sk@le Tracker is basically a clone of FT2 with some enhancements. I use it for most of my tracking now. XM files exported from the current version of Sk@le don't work with DUMB, however, so you'll have to load the XM file in another editor and resave it to get it to work.