music tracker
A music tracker (sometimes referred to as just tracker for short) is a type of music sequencer software for creating music. The music is represented as discrete musical notes positioned in several channels at discrete chronological positions on ...
(
music sequencer
A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or O ...
). Originally released in 1995 by Jeffrey Lim as
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...
with commercial extensions, it was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform.
In 2014, on its 20th anniversary, Impulse Tracker became
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Ope ...
and the
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...
was released.
History
''Impulse Tracker'' was authored by Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim for the DOS/ x86- PC platform. ''Impulse Tracker'' was coded in Assembly language, and the GUI was heavily influenced by that of '' Scream Tracker 3''.
The first version was released in 1995 and included example music, provided by Jeffrey Lim and Chris Jarvis. The software was distributed as
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...
, though extra features, such as support for stereo WAV output and a personalized version of the driver for co-editing songs over IPX networks, were provided for a fee. After the stereo WAV writer plugin was publicly pirated, the original author announced that he would discontinue development after version 2.14. The latest version was v2.14 Patch #5 released on April 8, 1999.
On February 16, 2014, Jeffrey Lim announced that he would release the complete source code of Impulse Tracker as part of its 20-year anniversary. On October 19, 2014, the first part of the source code was released on a Bitbucket repository. On December 25, 2014, the missing parts (sound drivers) were added and the code was officially released under the
BSD license
BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD li ...
.
Functionality
Like in most module editors, music is arranged on a grid of ''channels''. Each supports note on and note off instructions similar to
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, an ...
. ''Impulse Tracker'' modules use the
.IT
.it is the national top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Italy.
Registration is open to organisations and individuals of legal age who are citizens or residents of/headquartered in the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), the Vatica ...
file extension.
New Note Actions (NNAs) is a feature that handles commands received on the same channel as another instrument which is still playing. NNAs allow the user to customize the subsequent action:
* Cut: The new instrument replaces the current instrument.
* Continue: The old instrument continues to play using its ADSR curve.
* Off: The old instrument begins the release section of its ADSR curve.
* Fade: The old instrument fades out to 0 volume at a designated rate overriding the ADSR curve.
''Impulse Tracker'' supports hardware MIDI channels on the Gravis Ultrasound, InterWave and Sound Blaster 32 card families (provided enough RAM is available).
IT file format
The .IT file format is the format native to Impulse Tracker. It is similar to older formats such as
.MOD
MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga which doesn't rely on filename extensions; instead, it reads a file's head ...
, but features new additions such as new note actions which allow the user to customize subsequent actions on receiving commands from the same channel as the one playing.
Some player software supports the .ITZ format, which is a renamed
zip
Zip, Zips or ZIP may refer to:
Common uses
* ZIP Code, USPS postal code
* Zipper or zip, clothing fastener
Science and technology Computing
* ZIP (file format), a compressed archive file format
** zip, a command-line program from Info-ZIP
* Zi ...
file that contains a .IT file.
Compatible software
Other music-playing software that supports the IT file format include '' Cowon jetAudio'', ''
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as ...
''*¹, ''
MikMod
A music tracker (sometimes referred to as just tracker for short) is a type of music sequencer software for creating music. The music is represented as discrete musical notes positioned in several channels at discrete chronological positions on a ...
'', ''
ModPlug Tracker
OpenMPT is an open-source audio module tracker for Windows (with an intended Wine-functionality for UNIX and Linux x86-systems). It was previously called ModPlug Tracker, and was first released by Olivier Lapicque in September 1997.
'' ...
Schism Tracker
A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
Winamp
Winamp is a media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev by their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired by Radionomy in 2014. Sin ...
'', and '' XMMS''.
*¹ - Supported only on x86(32bit) versions of application.
Usage and impact
Erez Eizen of Infected Mushroom and Shiva Shidapu composed his first trance music on Impulse Tracker. Ian Stocker used IT with other software in his collaboration for the music in the Nintendo DS version of ''
The Sims 2
''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims.'' The game was released for Microsoft Windo ...
''.
The
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
s ''
Pocket Tanks
''Pocket Tanks,'' often abbreviated as PTanks or simply as PT'','' is a 1-2 player computer game and mobile game developed by Michael P. Welch from Blitwise Productions. It was originally released for Windows and Mac OS X in 2001 and was late ...
'' and '' Grid Wars'' use the IT format for some of their songs. Various games by
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, ...
Deus Ex
''Deus Ex'' is a series of role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technologies in a ...
'' used the IT format in a " UMX" container format.
The
video game composer
Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led ...
and demoscener Andrew Sega (Necros) used Impulse Tracker extensively in his
demoscene
The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visua ...
days.
C418
Daniel Rosenfeld (born 9 May 1989), better known by his stage/online name C418 (pronounced "see four eighteen"), is a German musician, producer and sound engineer, best known as the composer and sound designer for the sandbox video game ''Minec ...
began making music in Impulse Tracker, before moving to eJay, MTV Music Generator and eventually Ableton Live, which he used to compose the Minecraft soundtrack.
Trance producer Sean Tyas began his music production career using Impulse Tracker.
Electronic rock
Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry- ...
musician Blue Stahli has revealed to have used Impulse Tracker and other trackers in the past.
Deadmau5
Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces ...
's career began in the mid 1990s with a chiptune and
demoscene
The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visua ...
movements-influenced sound with Impulse Tracker.
Machinedrum
Travis Stewart, better known as Machinedrum, is an American electronic record producer and performer from North Carolina.Ableton Live.