Xsoundtrack

So, the last release will be 0.0.6, some bugs in there, but well, if you really want a tracker go get soundtracker.

This program is a soundtracker, designed to work under GNU/Linux. It is based on X-window system (Xlib).

A soundtracker is a program used to create music, using samples. We play different samples at the same time, with different frequencies and different effects on it. This comes directly from the demo scene, first starting on amiga, now the PC is well represented on it.

This particular program recognize the xm format.

Problems :
A problem may appear, depending of your configuration. You can have this message when running the program :

X Error of failed request:  BadName (named color or font does not exist)

  Major opcode of failed request:  45 (X_OpenFont)
  Serial number of failed request:  34
  Current serial number in output stream:  78

To solve this problem, you'll have to edit the file interface/interface.c and replace the fonts' names with others. Dave Phillips (creator of the "linux MIDI and sound applications", see links at the end of the page) did this :

I've successfully compiled and run Xsoundtrack on a RedHat 5.2 system, kernel 2.0.36 (my compile). I made one repair: on first compile the app died immediately on opening, with an X error advising a bad or missing font. I grep'd for 'font' in the interface directory, found the LoadFont stuff in interface.c, and discovered (with xfontsel) that I did not have the utopia-medium font. So I switched it to the utopia-regular which I do have and the application now opens and runs fine. Thanks, Sed !

What's new :

• 0.0.6 (Tue Apr 6 1999) :
  The amiga frequence stuff was buggy in 0.0.5, that's the first reason of this new release. Then, it now uses "select", so the behavior may appear strange at some places. Please contact me if you find any strange thing in there. And i have done an assembler mixer too, so there may be some new bugs, even if i used it without noticing any. (Note that the assembler stuff needs nasm, the netwide assembler, which makes asm coding easier for all people who have learned it with intel syntax, not at&t one.) (Note that a precompiled assembler mixer is included in the distribution, do "make with-asm-precompiled" to use it.)
  player : The player now uses an assembler mixer, which speeds up things of a factor of 50% (yes, the C one was ugly). But it is still far from the performances of midas, but in the future, things will change.
  interface : No change, except that the "select" may introduce strange behaviors. Contact me if you find any, thank you.
• 0.0.5 (Thu Apr 1 1999) :
  Some bugs fixed. Surely lot none.
  player : I changed things a little, so if you find a problem playing your modules please tell it to me, so i can correct this (or better, correct this yourself and tell me what to change :)). Auto vibrato and auto fadeout are done. So, it's almost finished. Rest interpolation to do. But i am absolutly not sure if all is correctly handled. In the next releases, there will be some assembler, because the player is very very slow. It now opens /dev/dsp only when playing, which is the way all sound programs should do to coexist.
  interface : No big changes, a little with file selector, so now you can give a path name directly, it will jump to it when you press "escape".
• 0.0.4 (Mon Jan 4 1999) :
  Some bugs fixed.
  player : A lot of the effects are now implemented (all, except E5x), but i am not very sure if they are well handled, so i need big feedback. Ripper's module is still not well played, but he has done it in a way not compatible with specifications i think, so. Not yet done is interpolation of samples and auto vibrato/fade out of an instrument.
  interface : Nothing new, the next releases will surely contain news here.
• 0.0.3 (Mon Dec 28 1998) :
  Some bugs fixed.
  player : Added some effects (all the jumps, all what's related to panning and volume). There is a module from Ripper which is only well played by Xsoundtrack (all other trackers and players i've tried (ft2, mikmod, soundtracker, xmp, usmp, it) bug) (well, a little bug not yet fixed makes me say wrong things, but 0.0.4 will be ok),
  interface : Nothing new.
• 0.0.2 (don't remember the date) :
  Initial release.
  player : Features stereo, almost full instrument implementation. A lot remains to do (no effects, mixer is 44100Hz 16b stereo with no choice of other resolution),
  interface : Features full pattern editor, full instrument editor, sample editor (misses a lot, effects on sample to do, some bugs here and there), file selector. Need an option editor (for interface setting and mixer setting).

Download :
Here you can download it; choose the release you want (the latest is the best, of course) :

• Xsoundtrack-0.0.6.tar.gz (165401 bytes) or Xsoundtrack-0.0.6.tar.bz2 (131992 bytes) (a statically linked binary is here (321085 bytes, gzipped). Don't believe your netscape, it will take away the .gz extension, but it is still gzipped, you'll have to do a "mv xsoundtrack.static xsoundtrack.static.gz" then the famous "gunzip xsoundtrack.static.gz", and don't forget to "chmod a+x xsoundtrack.static") (You still may need the source for documentation.)
• Xsoundtrack-0.0.5.tar.bz2 (123756 bytes)
• Xsoundtrack-0.0.4.tar.gz (141528 bytes)
• Xsoundtrack-0.0.3.tar.gz (131329 bytes)
• Xsoundtrack-0.0.2.tar.gz (114363 bytes)

Documentation :
And you can find a  documentation on how to use the program.

Screen shots :
I was asked about screen shots. Here it is (0.0.4 release under fvwm).

Links :
Related links about sound under linux, soundtracker :

•  SoundTracker - a music tracker for the X window system  : there, you'll find others links, go browse it, it's very good.
• Linux MIDI and sound applications (very good site, with most of what exists today under linux, related to sound).
• Linux.scene.org : good site about demo and linux (a module has to deal with demo, nope ?).

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