E-Tracker
by Andrzej Siuda, Maciej J. Woloszyk, Adrian Parker
FRED Publishing
1992

FRED Publishing
£29.99
0382 53593
Reviewer: Steve Anderson

Soundtrackers. Music sequencer programs. Roll those words around your mouth. I'm sure you all know the story behind these darned 'trackers, but for those of you who take five year long holidays in Mozambique, here's the story. (Steve sways from side to side in ultimately unsuccessful attempt to reproduce cinematic flashback effect.)

In the beginning there was the Amiga, and an all-round good egg called Karsten Obarski. Being such a nice fellow, Karsten came up with Soundtracker. It was popular, to say the least, and was ripped off quite a bit. (Yikes.) Then Mahoney and Kaktus did Noisetracker, Fairlight did Startrekker (ho ho) and various other people did their little bits to help the soundtracker concept evolve to its full potential, or something.

One bright, crisp, Polish day, BZYK decided to copy it to the Speccy, because all other music creation programs, especially Wham! The Music Box were complete crap. (Yea verily.) And, to put it frankly, the world of Spectrum demos was changed overnight. Well, obviously 'overnight' is a relative term. It probably was an overnight revelation if you happened to live within BZYK's postal district, thus ensuring your copy of the prog arrived within 24 hours. Programmers further afield had to wait a little longer, so perhaps it would be fairer to call it an 'over a variable amount of time' revelation. Yes. Sorry, where was I?

Life went on, and the SAM was released. But lo! There was no tracker on the Coupe! So, one equally bright, crisp, Polish day, Mat and Kaz of ESI took the production of the wonder program into their hands, and after numerous late nights, E-Tracker was born. (Lo! Yea! Etc.)

The SAM has been crying out for a decent music package for ages, as far as I recall. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's only been The Sound Machine and that made little more than a shallow dent in the huge lump of Silly Putty that forms the SAM user base. Let's hope that this one is received a little better.

Okay, so on first glance it looks more like a freaky monitor than a music program, with its six windows displaying lots of pure hex. This is what has made the 'tracker family popular, believe it or not. Rather than traditional music notation, the whole caboodle is organised as a rather funky sequencer, and the hex gives you near total control over the entire soundchip. What distinguishes E-Tracker from the Speccy's dearly beloved Soundtracker is the fact that it's a piece of commercial software. (The original was PD and - shriek! - free.) However, this isn't as bad as it might sound to prospective owners, as you get the benefit of a well-written manual into the bargain. People who have used Speccy Soundtracker will be performing leaping handstands at this news, because the original came with, er, nothing. You had to figure out this immensely complicated program for yourself. Anyone who could actually do it qualified for tea with the Queen, or something, but now, thanks to the wonder of modern science and manuals and things, you can quite happily design instruments and trigger ornaments with little more than a GCSE in Maths.

Of course, it would be pretty useless if you couldn't use the tunes you slaved over outside the program, so, just as with the Speccy Soundtracker, you get a compiler as well. Just write your song, squirt it through the compiler and you've got a standalone routine to call every frame. Hassle-free and fussless.

Now, I know E-Tracker will be a success. It's just right for really lazy demo coders, and I'm speaking from experience here. Six channels - eee, luxury. Bundled with the prog are a few useful bits and bobs: a nice conversion of Enola Gay by OMD and a token version of Axel F (with the obligatory wrong bit in the middle), several instruments and a warbling ornament. That little lot should set anybody off quite nicely, and before you know it you'll be tweaking the instruments and everything.

Faults? I've found a few. The prog as a whole seems pretty well debugged (although I'm sure someone will be smugly pointing out something or other before the ink's dry on the issue) but the, er, classically-styled interface is a bit clunky. You have to scroll through all the options on a menu rather than being able to get to one straight away - glerp. Still, can't quibble over the results - all you need is talent, as they say. And a bit of patience. And lots of time. Er, and a SAM might be handy.

---

REVIEW BY: Steve Anderson

Blurb: CALL YOURSELF A MUSIC PROGRAM? E-Tracker is pretty useless when it comes to some of the more practical elements of music-making. It can't: - Create that heavy, industrial sound made famous by The KLF with 'It's Grim Up North'. - Make acidic rasping sounds like the weird Hoover noise The Prodigy use Perform live at Castle Donnington. - Throw guitars at amplifiers like Nirvana. - Become an international star like Rolf Harris. (Rolf! I think you're fab! Ed) - Oh, and sound like The Orb.