.TH tracker "" "" "Command"
.PC "Play Amiga .mod files"
.PP
\fBtracker [\fIoptions\^\fB] \fIfile\^\fB.mod\fR ... \fIfile\^\fB.mod\fR
.II ".mod files"
.II "Amiga .mod files"
.II "sound^.mod files"
The command
.B tracker
plays
.B .com
files, as generated on a Amiga system, on an ordinary, PC-quality sound card.
.PP
``Soundtracker'' is a family of music-composition programs used
on the Amiga.
The resulting data files, or
.IR modules ,
have been appearing on ftp sites for some time now.
These customarily have the suffix
.BR .mod .
.B tracker
emulates the Amiga's audio hardware in real time, and plays those modules.
.SH "Command-line Options"
.B tracker
recognizes the following command-line options:
.IP "\fB\-add 012 ... abcd\fR"
Add samples to the audio output.
.IS "\fB\-both\fR"
Auto-detect the format of the Soundtracker file \(em either
.B new
or
.BR old ,
described below.
.IP "\fB-cut 012 ... abcd\fR"
Suppress samples from the audio output.
.IP "\fB\-frequency \fIfreq\fR"
Set the normal output frequency to
.IR freq .
Your hardware will round this to the nearest available value.
.IP "\fB\-mix \fIpercent\fR"
On stereo output, set the mixing of the left and right channels:
zero yields spatial stereo (no mixing), whereas 100 yields monophonic
(total mixing).
The change tends to be exponential,
so you should experiment with values around 90.
.IP \fB\-mono\fR
Generate monophonic output.
.IP "\fB\-new\fR"
Select the new, 31-instrument Soundtracker format.
.IS "\fB\-old\fR"
Select the old, 15-instrument Soundtracker format.
.IP "\fB\-oversample \fIn\fB"
Set the oversampling to
.IR n ,
which usually is one, two, or three.
Try to use one-, two-, or three-sample values
to render a given sample accurately.
Changing the frequency usually works better,
but there may be cases where two or three yields
a better rendering for a given module.
NB, this option consumes many CPU cycles.
.IP \fB\-picky\fR
If any problem occurs while playing a
.B .mod
file, bail out.
.IP "\fB\-repeats [\fIn\^\fB]\fR"
Repeat the
.B .mod
file
.I n
times.
If
.I n
is set to zero, or if this option is invoked without an argument,
play the file forever.
.IP \fB-scroll\fR
Scroll-display the module being played.
.IP "\fB\-speed \fIn\fR"
Change the base tempo to
.IR n .
The normal value is 50, which is the default for PAL video.
Some modules have been written on a buggy NTSC composer,
so you may wish to use
.BR "\-speed 60" .
Weird values like
.B "\-speed 10"
or
.B "\-speed 2000"
are allowable, but don't expect anything aesthetic from them.
Note that unlike a record player, changing the tempo does not change
the pitch, so using this option may not generate what you expect.
.IP "\fB\-start \fIn\fR"
Start the module at pattern
.I n
instead of zero (the default).
.IP "\fB\-stereo\fR"
Generate stereo output.
This is the default.
.IP \fB\-sync\fR
Try to synchronize the scroll display with what you hear.
NB, this option requires many CPU cycles.
.IP \fB\-tolerant\fR
Keep playing the
.B .mod
file even if problems arise.
.IP "\fB\-transpose \fIn\fR"
Transpose the
.B .mod
file by
.I n
semitones.
A positive number value of
.I n
transposes the sound up; a negative number transposes it down.
NB, this does not work correctly most of the time.
.IP \fB\-verbose\fR
Show a sample listing for the module.
.SH "Run-time Commands"
As you run
.BR tracker ,
you can give it the following commands:
.IP \fB>\fR 0.3i
Fast forward through the \fB.mod\fR file.
.IS \fB<\fR
Rewind the \fB.mod\fR file.
.IS \fBe\fR
Exit immediately.
.IS \fBn\fR
Jump to next track.
.IS \fBp\fR
Restart the current track or go to previous track.
.IS \fBq\fR
Quit immediately.
.IS \fBS\fR
Use NTSC tempo (60).
.IS \fBs\fR
Use PAL tempo (50).
.IS \fBx\fR
Exit immediately.
.SH "Environmental Variables"
You can set the following environmental variables to control
.BR tracker 's
operation:
.IP \fBFREQUENCY\fR
This sets the audio output at a specified frequency,
if the hardware supports it.
The hardware decides which frequency to use,
according to other external parameters.
.IP \fBMODPATH\fR
The path along which
.B tracker
should look for
.B .mod
files.
This variable should be set to the full path name of one or more
directories, with directories separated by a colon `:'.
.IP \fBMONO\fR
Force
.B tracker
to generate monophonic output.
This does not sound as good as stereo, but consumes fewer CPU cycles.
.IP \fBOVERSAMPLE\fR
This variable controls the accuracy of reproduction \(em that is,
the number of samples used to output one audio word.
The higher this value is, the better the quality of sound \(em but also,
the more CPU cycles
.B tracker
consumes.
The default value, one, is good at high frequencies;
but does not work well on some hardware.
If sound quality is unacceptably poor, try a higher setting, e.g.,
two or three.
There is no any noticeable improvement in sound quality above three;
nor will the program able to keep up with the output rate.
Note that
.B tracker
is special-cased for the default value,
which should be significantly faster on some architectures.
.IP \fBTRANSPOSE\fR
Transpose each note by the defined number of semitones.
A positive number transposes the sound up; a negative number transposes
it down.
This is useful with hardware that does not handle low frequencies well,
or if you want to play your music in baroque pitch (A=415).
.SH "See Also"
.B
commands,
sound card
[other sound apps]
[sound driver]
.R
.SH Notes
.II "Espie, Marc"
.B tracker
was written by Marc Espie (espie@ens.fr).
.PP
The author asks you to note the following:
.PP
``\fBtracker\fR is a giftware program,
it is not guaranteed to do anything at all, either useful or useless.
You have been warned, use it at your own risk.''
