I finally made something decent with famitracker

After 6 or so failed attemps at doing anything with FT, which I feel is un-user friendly, I finally managed to understand how the program works and port some songs I liked.

So I ported my favourite NES/Famicom song (and no it's not MM2-Wily 1) : FTM NSF

I also ported the first stage of Batman : FTM NSF

I know 2 songs isn't much but so far the pros of famitracker :

- Everyone uses it (hardly a pro but it's still convenient to use a program more people know)
- No need for a compiler or an emulator to be opened when tracking - FT itself is sufficient
- The view of all voices in parallel makes it easier to do effects on multiple tracks - for example to simulate toms I use both a square channel and the noise channel, it's easier to do in a tracker than in PPMCK
- You can hear the notes when you're typing - if you do a wrong note you'll notice it immediately
- It's harder to do rythm errors than with MML

But the things that pissed me off / that I missed from PPMCK :
- Copy / paste is harder to do
- The pattern editor is really, really user-unfriendly, chances are your patterns will end up in a random order. Also it's impossible to re-use a pattern from another track.
- Controlling the tempo is complex/weird
- You have to use a "vibrato" effect for each individual note you want a vibrato, instead of defining it once with a delay parameter
- Impossibility to use comment in your songs
- I had 2 octaves available with my keyboard, but reaching other octaves is a pain in the ass, I have to go to a menu, and then when I try to type new notes I happen to hit a number and it change the octave again. This really pissed me off a couple of times. I miss the simple > and < from MML.
- Having to reach the < key for a rest is counter-intuitive (I had to look up tutorials on youtube to know how to have my notes shut up, I don't remember seeing this anywhere in the docs), but I eventually got used to it.
- The keys are hardwired which is very problematic with people with non-american keyboard layout. Personally I have the Y and Z keys exchanged which means I had the upper As exchanged with the lower Cs. I can't word how annoying this is. Really.

So as a conclusion I think FT is really cool but it has those problems which make me prefer PPMCK. However I understand people who like FT.

Weirdness from its being a tracker
There should be keybindings to adjust that: File/Configuration/Shortcuts: KP_Divide and KP_Multiply (changeable)
Do you mean "Note release" = "\" (the thing that inserts a single heavy horizontal line)? USA keyboards don't have a <> key. (If so, this is at least configurable in File/Configuration/General/Keys)

Most of the other points I agree with, but I started with screamtracker and impulsetracker.

If you want to give an instrument vibrato, simply use the pitch properties of the instrument.

Try this for pitch for a 2A03 instrument:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 4 4 0 -4 -4 -4 -4 0 4 4

The pattern editor does suck. It's better than it used to be, but still bad. I generally try to avoid using it much, putting a unique set of frames at each order, copy-pasting, and letting the exporter figure out which frames are identical for me.

Copy and paste isn't that bad if you learn the keyboard commands to select all / select channel and switch patterns. If you're just trying to do it with the mouse or just shift + cursor keys it is very awkward, but with key shortcuts like ctrl+up/down / ctrl+A / home / end / shift it can be very easy.

I map octave up/down to ]/[ on my keyboard. I also put note off (---) on 1, and note release (===) on ~. I dunno what the defaults are, but it is easy to change octave once you learn the key for it.

If I want a delayed vibrato but don't want to fiddle with individual notes, I make a pitch macro for that instrument with gradually increasing vibrato.

Aside from the piano keys (which should be customizable, I agree), every other key is customizable, I think. Check the config menu.

Tempo control is always annoying in trackers, i.e. having to enter tempo in hex, or understand how the row subdivision works. In Famitracker, generally I leave the tempo at 150, and control "speed" only with the Fxx command using low numbers, i.e. at tempo 150 in NTSC the speed = number of NMI frames per row. So, F06 means the current tempo is 6 frames per row, if I want in-between speeds I might alternate rows of F06/F05 or something like that.

You think FT is inconvenient? Back in my day, we would've been grateful to have copy/paste, let alone a clickable interface.



Rockin' it retro.

I recall being able to redefine the keys when I was using my laptop (which is indeed the Windows computer I use)... and that came in handy for me to make it a bit more convienient. However, FamiTracker is not my regularly used tracker since I'm on my Mac much more often.

I recently switched to Dvorak layout and nearly all music programs became unusable from it.
Almost all my own programs read out keyboard scancodes and act based on them, which makes the keys stay in place regardless of keyboard layout. Text input is still based on character input. Windows makes use of scancode input a lot more hassle though, but benefits are too good.
No idea if other OS' allow scancode input...