Arkos Tracker 2 - Released!

[Targhan]

Hi everybody,


I am very proud to announce the release of the first alpha version of Arkos Tracker 2!


This is most powerful tracker for Amstrad CPC, but it also blow to pieces all the other trackers for ZX Spectrum, MSX, Oric, Vectrex!


Some features:

   
• Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac).
• Manage both standard FM sound (thanks to an accurate AY-3-8912 emulation) and samples without any distinction!
• Unlimited AY count! You can create standard 3-channel songs, or 6, 9, 32 or more if you want!
• 4 columns of effects per channel, including Arpeggio (via a table or inline value), Pitch, slide, glide, change Arpeggio/Pitch/Instrument speed, etc.
• Import from AKS (Arkos Tracker 1), SKS (STarKos), 128 (BSC's Soundtrakker), WYZ (Wyz Tracker), MOD.
• Export to AKG (generic, versatile player (still a WIP)), AKY (a new extremely fast player), AKL (lightweight player), or raw for you to use your own format.
• The AKY player can handle 9 channels for you to use all the power of the PlayCity hardware.
• New sound effect support, shared among songs.
• Exports can be assembly sources or binaries: it makes it easy to integrate the songs in your production.
• Each AY can have its own frequency (including custom ones).
• Replay rate from 12Hz to 300Hz, or custom.
• A song is composed of sub-songs, all sharing the same instruments. Helps you save even more memory!

Here is a little video of a demo song:





A website is up and running, including the manual, tutorials, and even a forum to post your requests and bugs.


There is still room for improvements, so don't hesitate to ask for specific topics to add. Also, tell me if you prefer video or text tutorials, and in which form.


Remember, this is still an alpha! Even though the software already has a lot of possibilities, some are still lacking, so don't be too quick to judge.


I sincerely hope musicians and coders will switch to AT2 in a near future.


Targhan/Arkos.

[reidrac]

Linux? Is that really Linux? Please, explain, because I'm on a rollercoaster of feelings right now  .

I've been using a specific version of WYZ that "works", but the tracker running with Mono on Linux crashes too often 

I'll give this a go when I have some time. If is that good, I may invest the time to use it in my current project.

Thanks!

[Targhan]

It IS Linux. I tested with Mint and Ubuntu, works like a charm. This is really cross-platform. Not some wrapper around some framework to try to make it work. Have a go, you won't come back .

[reidrac]

It IS Linux. I tested with Mint and Ubuntu, works like a charm. This is really cross-platform. Not some wrapper around some framework to try to make it work. Have a go, you won't come back .

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: downloaded, started it and... OH MY GOD. I love you, seriously! Do you accept donations, don't you? I'll be reporting issues etc. Thanks!

[roudoudou]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh, coming with tutorials and manual 


That's great!

[Arnaud]

Congrats,
and the first great feature i see, is i can use it with windows 10 

I have a little question, i see we can open MOD, and export as AKY.

Are the samples converted ? Or only the tracks are exported ?

[Targhan]

Samples are a bit tricky. AKY is only a very fast player for demo, without the management of samples. Right now, there is no player to use the sample ability. The forthcoming AKG (G for Generic) will be able to trigger digidrums though.


If you want to use your own MOD player on CPC, you can export to RAW to get the tracks. There is no option to export the samples for now, though, but that's not hard to do with any software that can load a MOD.

[Targhan]

But note that I will create a MOD player probably once the AKG player is done.

[robcfg]

This is excellent news!


I have to say that it sounds (and looks) impressive and being multi-platform is completely ace!


I'd like to ask if we can report bugs here or should be done in the AT2 web site.


Thank you for this wonderful tool!

[Targhan]

I'd like to ask if we can report bugs here or should be done in the AT2 web site.

As you wish, what is easier for you .

[robcfg]

Well, it's just that the menu options appear disabled on OSX, but you can still use the ones that have keyboard shortcut.


Oh wait, it seems that it only happens the first time you start the app. If you close it and open it again, the menu options are available.

[Ygdrazil]

Great news!


Is it possible to dump the songs in a DMA friendly format for the CPC+ series?


Regards,
Ygdrazil

Hi everybody,


I am very proud to announce the release of the first alpha version of Arkos Tracker 2!


This is most powerful tracker for Amstrad CPC, but it also blow to pieces all the other trackers for ZX Spectrum, MSX, Oric, Vectrex!


Some features:

   
• Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac).
• Manage both standard FM sound (thanks to an accurate AY-3-8912 emulation) and samples without any distinction!
• Unlimited AY count! You can create standard 3-channel songs, or 6, 9, 32 or more if you want!
• 4 columns of effects per channel, including Arpeggio (via a table or inline value), Pitch, slide, glide, change Arpeggio/Pitch/Instrument speed, etc.
• Import from AKS (Arkos Tracker 1), SKS (STarKos), 128 (BSC's Soundtrakker), WYZ (Wyz Tracker), MOD.
• Export to AKG (generic, versatile player (still a WIP)), AKY (a new extremely fast player), AKL (lightweight player), or raw for you to use your own format.
• The AKY player can handle 9 channels for you to use all the power of the PlayCity hardware.
• New sound effect support, shared among songs.
• Exports can be assembly sources or binaries: it makes it easy to integrate the songs in your production.
• Each AY can have its own frequency (including custom ones).
• Replay rate from 12Hz to 300Hz, or custom.
• A song is composed of sub-songs, all sharing the same instruments. Helps you save even more memory!

Here is a little video of a demo song:





A website is up and running, including the manual, tutorials, and even a forum to post your requests and bugs.


There is still room for improvements, so don't hesitate to ask for specific topics to add. Also, tell me if you prefer video or text tutorials, and in which form.


Remember, this is still an alpha! Even though the software already has a lot of possibilities, some are still lacking, so don't be too quick to judge.


I sincerely hope musicians and coders will switch to AT2 in a near future.


Targhan/Arkos.

[mahlemiut]

I find that the open/save menu items either don't do anything, or simply lock up the application.  Other menu items seem to work, however.  Otherwise, it seems to run quite well.
(Using Arch Linux)

[Targhan]

About the disabled menu, I indeed noticed it on Mac this morning, but couldn't reproduce it (it happened only once). I didn't notice it on Linux. Did you try close the app and restart it?

Is it possible to dump the songs in a DMA friendly format for the CPC+ series?

You mean, a list of register+value, is it correct? I don't know much about the DMA, so I would require a more explicit idea of what you need, but this is probably doable. But this would be memory consuming, wouldn't it be worst than YM? Feel free to make a feature request in the forum of the AT website.

[Targhan]

Ah, about the load/save, it indeed happened to me once this morning with Linux Mint, but then I restarted the app and it worked fine. I suspect I will find a lot of strange bugs, I should get used to it .

[mahlemiut]

One more issue I just come across, is that if something else is using audio (at least in this case, Firefox when playing a video), then it crashes on startup.

[Targhan]

Probably related to your driver, I can launch many audio applications at the same time, but it should not crash, so I will check that. Thanks!

[GUNHED]

Thanks Targhan, this is just awesome wonderful!!!

[Ast]

Hi everybody,


I am very proud to announce the release of the first alpha version of Arkos Tracker 2!


This is most powerful tracker for Amstrad CPC, but it also blow to pieces all the other trackers for ZX Spectrum, MSX, Oric, Vectrex!


Some features:

   
• Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac).
• Manage both standard FM sound (thanks to an accurate AY-3-8912 emulation) and samples without any distinction!
• Unlimited AY count! You can create standard 3-channel songs, or 6, 9, 32 or more if you want!
• 4 columns of effects per channel, including Arpeggio (via a table or inline value), Pitch, slide, glide, change Arpeggio/Pitch/Instrument speed, etc.
• Import from AKS (Arkos Tracker 1), SKS (STarKos), 128 (BSC's Soundtrakker), WYZ (Wyz Tracker), MOD.
• Export to AKG (generic, versatile player (still a WIP)), AKY (a new extremely fast player), AKL (lightweight player), or raw for you to use your own format.
• The AKY player can handle 9 channels for you to use all the power of the PlayCity hardware.
• New sound effect support, shared among songs.
• Exports can be assembly sources or binaries: it makes it easy to integrate the songs in your production.
• Each AY can have its own frequency (including custom ones).
• Replay rate from 12Hz to 300Hz, or custom.
• A song is composed of sub-songs, all sharing the same instruments. Helps you save even more memory!

Here is a little video of a demo song:





A website is up and running, including the manual, tutorials, and even a forum to post your requests and bugs.


There is still room for improvements, so don't hesitate to ask for specific topics to add. Also, tell me if you prefer video or text tutorials, and in which form.


Remember, this is still an alpha! Even though the software already has a lot of possibilities, some are still lacking, so don't be too quick to judge.


I sincerely hope musicians and coders will switch to AT2 in a near future.


Targhan/Arkos.

Bravo Julien!

[mahlemiut]

Probably related to your driver, I can launch many audio applications at the same time, but it should not crash, so I will check that. Thanks!

Yeah, some applications have issues with more than one trying to use ALSA at the same time.  I do also have pulseaudio installed, which doesn't have this problem (ie: I can play video in Firefox while also running MAME), although this isn't an option in Arkos.  It's not a major issue for me, but figured the crash ought to at least be looked at.

[GUNHED]

Great to see that it can import some Soundtrakker Songs. 

[Targhan]

I have already received a nice amount of feedback (thanks!), and some people have trouble running Arkos Tracker 2. Two reasons:
- Linux: it seems I have compiled for 64 bits, which is a mistake, it was intended for 32 bits, so I will make another build soon.
- Black screen: some people had a black screen when starting the application: it seems your graphic card driver is a bit buggy and can't stand OpenGL, which is used to accelerate the rendering. I will add an option to allow not using OpenGL.

[beb]

En deux mots, BRA-VO !!!

I join the crowd to congratulate you.
Really very impressive. Specific music-players, demo (fast) and 4kb (compact) are welcome.

As far as the composition is concerned, I imagine that it will simplify even more the task of the musicians on CPC.
Hoping to listen to complex sounds on melodious music soon ... (hoping for BSC tunes too !!!)

Importing and listening amiga mods is really bluffing.
Pray that it does not bring us too many sterile transfers without originality or tons of adaptations "AY style".

Thanks

Edit: "Arkos : The awesomest Amstrad CPC group"
         Even us, we wouldn't have dared

[Matej]

Nice!Now I need 2x or 3xplaycity!!! Will test it in evening! Looks great!

[vtk]

Thanks Targhan looking forward to trying it!