1SCHISMTRACKER(1) General Commands Manual SCHISMTRACKER(1)
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6 schismtracker - tracked music editor based on Impulse Tracker
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9 schismtracker [options] [directory] [file]
10
12 schismtracker is a tracked music module editor that aims to match the
13 look and feel of Impulse Tracker as closely as possible. It can load
14 most common tracker formats, supports saving as IT and S3M, and can
15 also export to WAV and AIFF.
16
18 -a, --audio-driver=DRIVER[:DEVICE]
19 Audio device configuration. driver is the SDL driver to use,
20 e.g. alsa (ALSA), dma or dsp (OSS); device is the name of the
21 device itself, for example hw:2 or /dev/dsp1.
22 -v, --video-driver=DRIVER
24 SDL video driver, such as x11, dga, or fbcon. Note that this is
25 different from the video driver setting within the program, and
26 is unlikely to be useful.
27 --video-yuvlayout=LAYOUT
29 Specific YUV layout to use: YUY2, YV12, RGBA, etc. This is
30 probably best left alone under normal circumstances.
31 --video-size=WIDTHxHEIGHT
33 Set the size of the video display.
34 --video-stretch=VALUE
36 Fix the aspect ratio. (Probably does nothing!)
37 --video-gl-path=PATH
39 Specify path of OpenGL library.
40 --video-depth=DEPTH
42 Specify display depth, in bits.
43 --video-fb-device=DEVICE
45 Specify path to framebuffer. Typical value is /dev/fb0.
46 --network, --no-network
48 Enable/disable networking (on by default). Used for MIDI over
49 IP.
50 --classic, --no-classic
52 Start Schism Tracker in "classic" mode, or don't. This is mostly
53 cosmetic, although it does change the program's behavior
54 slightly in a few places.
55 --display=DISPLAY
57 X11 display to use.
58 -f, -F, --fullscreen, --no-fullscreen
60 Enable/disable fullscreen mode at startup.
61 -p, -P, --play, --no-play
63 Start playing after loading song on command line.
64 --diskwrite=FILENAME
66 Render output to a file, and then exit. WAV or AIFF writer is
67 auto-selected based on file extension. Include %c somewhere in
68 the name to write each channel separately. This is meaningless
69 if no initial filename is given.
70 --font-editor, --no-font-editor
72 Run the font editor (itf). This can also be accessed by pressing
73 Shift-F12.
74 --hooks, --no-hooks
76 Run hooks. Enabled by default.
77 --debug=FLAGS
79 Enable some debugging flags (separated by commas). You probably
80 don't need this.
81 --version
83 Display version information and build date.
84 -h, --help
86 Print a summary of available options.
87 A filename supplied on the command line will be loaded at startup.
89 Additionally, if either a file or directory name is given, the default
90 module, sample, and instrument paths will be set accordingly.
91
93 A detailed discussion of how to use Schism Tracker is far beyond the
94 scope of this document, but here is a very brief rundown of the basics.
95 Context-sensitive help can be accessed at any time while running the
96 program by pressing F1.
97 The F3 key will bring you to the sample list. Press enter here to open
99 a file browser, navigate in the list using the up/down arrow keys, and
100 hit enter again to load a sample. You will likely want to get some
101 samples to work with. You can also "rip" from existing modules; see for
102 example http://www.modarchive.org/ for a very large selection of
103 modules. (Keep in mind, however, that some authors don't appreciate
104 having their samples ripped!)
105 Now that you've loaded a sample, press F2 to get to the pattern editor.
107 This is where the majority of the composition takes place. In short,
108 the song is laid out vertically, with each row representing 1/16 note;
109 to play multiple notes simultaneously, they are placed in different
110 channels. The four sub-columns of each channel are the note, sample
111 number, volume, and effect. A list of effects is available in the
112 pattern editor help, but you can safely ignore that column for now.
113 Assuming a US keymap, notes are entered with the keyboard as follows:
114 (Note) C# D# F# G# A# C# D# F# G# A# C# D#
115 | | || | | | || || | | | || | | | || || | | | || | |
116 | | || | | | || || | | | || | | | || || | | | || | |
117 (What you | |S||D| | |G||H||J| | |2||3| | |5||6||7| | |9||0| |
118 type) | '-''-' | '-''-''-' | '-''-' | '-''-''-' | '-''-' |
119 | Z| X| C| V| B| N| M| Q| W| E| R| T| Y| U| I| O| P|
120 '--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'
121 (Note) C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E
122 (Octave 0) (Octave 1) (Octave 2)
123 The "/" and "*" keys on the numeric keypad change octaves, and the
125 current octave is displayed near the top of the screen. Try typing
126 "qwerty" into the pattern - it will enter an ascending note sequence,
127 and you'll hear the notes as they're entered. (of course, assuming you
128 loaded a sample!) Press F6 to play your pattern, and F8 to stop.
129 Other important keys for the pattern editor include Ins/Del to shift
131 notes up and down within a channel, Shift-Arrows to mark a block, Alt-
132 C/Alt-P to copy and paste, and Alt-U to clear the mark. There are well
133 over a hundred key bindings for the pattern editor; it is well worth
134 the effort to learn them all eventually.
135 Now that you have something in your pattern, you'll need to set up an
137 orderlist. Press F11 to switch to the orderlist page, and type 0 to add
138 the pattern you created. Now press F5 to start playing. The song will
139 begin at the first order, look up the pattern number and play that
140 pattern, then advance to the next order, and so forth.
141 Of course, having only one pattern isn't all that interesting, so go
143 back to the pattern editor and press the + key to change to the next
144 pattern. Now you can write another four bars of music and add the new
145 pattern to the orderlist, and the next time you play the song, your two
146 patterns will play in sequence.
147 You may wish to give your song a title; press F12 and type a name in
149 the box at the top. You can also adjust the tempo and a number of other
150 settings on this page, but for now, most of them are fine at their
151 default values.
152 To save your new song, press F10, type a filename, and hit enter. You
154 can load it again later by pressing F9.
155 This tutorial has deliberately omitted the instrument editor (on F4),
157 for the purposes of brevity and simplicity. You may want to experiment
158 with it once you have a feel for how the program works. (Select
159 "instruments" on F12 to enable instrument mode.)
160
162 Storlek began studying Impulse Tracker's design in 2002, noting subtle
163 details of the design and implementation. Posts on the Modplug forums
164 about rewriting Impulse Tracker were met with ridicule and mockery. "It
165 can't be done," they said.
166 Schism Tracker v0.031a was released in July 2003, though very little
168 worked at that point, and it was more of a player with primitive
169 editing capabilities. File saving was hard-coded to write to "test.it"
170 in the current directory, and there was no way to load a sample.
171 The first version that was more or less usable was 0.15a, from December
173 2004.
174 From 2005 through 2009, Mrs. Brisby did most of the development, and
176 implemented tons of features, including MIDI support, mouse support,
177 and disk writing.
178 Storlek "took over" development again in 2009, and has been
180 incrementally rewriting much of the code since then.
181
183 ~/.schism/config
184 Program settings, stored in an INI-style format. Most options
185 are accessible from within Schism Tracker's interface, but there
186 are a few "hidden" options.
187 ~/.schism/startup-hook, ~/.schism/exit-hook, ~/.schism/diskwriter-hook
189 Optional files to execute upon certain events. (Must be
190 executable)
191 ~/.schism/fonts/
193 font.cfg, and any .itf files found in this directory, are
194 displayed in the file browser of the font editor.
195 Supported file formats
197 MOD Amiga modules (with some obscure variants such as FLT8)
198 669 Composer 669 / Unis669
200 MTM MultiTracker
202 S3M Scream Tracker 3 (including Adlib support)
204 XM Fast Tracker 2
206 IT Impulse Tracker (including old instrument format)
208 MDL Digitrakker 3
210 IMF Imago Orpheus
212 OKT Amiga Oktalyzer
214 SFX Sound FX
216 MUS Doom engine (percussion missing)
218 FAR Farandole Composer
220 STM Scream Tracker 2 (partial functionality)
222 ULT UltraTracker (partial functionality)
224 S3I Scream Tracker 3 sample
226 WAV Microsoft WAV audio
228 AIFF Audio IFF (Apple)
230 8SVX Amiga 8SVX sample
232 ITS Impulse Tracker sample
234 AU Sun/NeXT Audio
236 RAW Headerless sample data
238 PAT Gravis UltraSound patch
240 XI Fast Tracker 2 instrument
242 ITI Impulse Tracker instrument
244 Schism Tracker is able to save modules in IT and S3M format, sample
246 data as ITS, S3I, AIFF, AU, WAV, and RAW, and instruments as ITI.
247 Additionally, it can render to WAV and AIFF (optionally writing each
248 channel to a separate file), and can export MID files.
249
251 Schism Tracker was written by Storlek and Mrs. Brisby, with player code
252 from Modplug by Olivier Lapicque. Based on Impulse Tracker by Jeffrey
253 Lim.
254 Additional code and data has been contributed by many others; refer to
256 the file AUTHORS in the source distribution for a more complete list.
257 The keyboard diagram in this manual page was adapted from the one used
259 in the documentation for Impulse Tracker, which in turn borrowed it
260 from Scream Tracker 3.
261
263 Copyright © 2003-2012 Storlek. Licensed under the GNU GPL
264 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free
265 to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
266 permitted by law.
267
269 They almost certainly exist. Post on http://schismtracker.org/scdev/ if
270 you find one. Agitha shares her happiness with benefactors of the
271 insect kingdom.
272
274 http://schismtracker.org/ - main website
275 http://schismtracker.org/sc/ - userbase discussion board
276 #schism on Freenode - IRC channel
277
279 chibitracker(1), milkytracker(1), renoise(1), ocp(1), xmp(1)
280 January 1, 2011 SCHISMTRACKER(1)