Goattracker dual sid Pc#

To set speed mode to “2x”, just click on the 1 in the “1x” label that you see the first time you start Goattracker: it will turn into “2x”.Īlso, be sure to set the speed mode to “2x”. I love the real hardware, but I think that using a cross-platform tool such as Goattracker is the easiest way of doing Commodore 64 music. It has some disadvantages, as SID emulation is not perfect, but it is the most used tool among SID musicians.

Still, you can fine-tune your song on the real Commodore 64 by using a special utility, and of course you can listen to your songs on real hardware as much as you want.

Goattracker dual sid Pc#

Goattracker is a simple PC program that you can download here. It is a good tool and it comes with an excellent documentation. A track is a sequence of notes played on a single channel. Since the SID has three channels, there are no more than three tracks.Įach track has a fixed lenght. That is, a maximum number of notes you can enter on it. Each entry on a track may be empty or may contain a note. There’s a fixed line on the screen (usually made of reverse or colored characters). On Goattracker, you see this line as green characters on the tracks. While the tracks are scrolling, for a fraction of seconds you’ll notice that some notes become green. Those are the notes that are being played at the moment. So, if the ideal fixed line encounters an empty entry, it plays nothing (or keeps playing the previous sound), if it encounters a note, it plays it. To realize better what I am talking about, you may do the following. Start Goattracker, by double-clicking the “Goat icon”. Be sure that 1x mode is active (if you are in “2x” mode, just click on the “2” in the “2x” label and you will go back in 1x mode. Browse on the folder “examples” and load the file “everlasting.sng”. To load the file, select it with cursor controls and hit enter. You can stop the music at any time by pressing F4. Listen to the song and please look very carefully at what is happening on the screen. The song is slow and that helps to understand things better. You’ll see that tracks are scrolling upperwards, and the notes being played are highlighted in green. As we said, we can imagine a fixed horizontal line that is being hit by notes.

As long as a note hits that line, it is played.Īs we have three channels, we have three tracks.Īt the very beginning, the first track on the left plays bass sounds and drums. Then, another track appears playing arpeggios. Arpeggios or arps are ringtone-like sounds used as one channel chords. It is used to play the main melody and other things.īe sure to have a look at the upper right corner of the Goattracker window. As you can see, there are three numbers always highlighted in red. Each red coloumn is the pattern being played.