So I e-mailed my buddy Coplan (the guy behind SceneSpot) about a thought I had.
I'm finally annoyed enough to do something about this. I really want to write some music again, but I've got so much I need to do before I can. I'd love to have a modern tracker for Linux or preferably MacOSX. Here's what I wrote:
I've got something either for you to put in Static Line, or for your demo group, if you want something to work on... =)
The thing that keeps me from tracking right now is inertia. I had to base my Windows box a while ago and I pretty much lost everything I had been working on. I've got no samples, I've got none of my half-finished songs, I've got nothing but what I've already released and made downloadable. Nothing sucks the muse out of you more than having all your tools die. Every time I even feel the slightest desire to track, I can feel the heavy weight of a week of putting a #$*&@# machine back together and trying to get enough samples together to do something interesting. And even when I'm done, it'll still be a Windows box, which I have no desire to run. It's only a means to an end, and as time goes on, just the fact that all the tools I'm familiar with are on Windows just makes it harder to even want to boot the thing up.
I'm looking for a truly portable tracker that will run on Linux and MacOSX. The state of tracking on either platform is horrendous. The closest thing to a real tracker is Cheesetracker, with SoundTracker not too far behind, but both of them are buggy and incomplete, and are not terribly portable. I've got cheesetracker building on MacOSX, but it dies a horrible death as soon as you try to load a module. There's issues in the code, but it looks like the author doesn't have much desire to work on it.
I'm willing to chip in money to someone willing to put together a decent tracker that's portable across Linux and MacOSX that isn't abandonware or out-of-date. Hell, I'm willing to put $300 up if it means I can do what I used to do in MacOSX. I bet there are others who feel the same way, and would be willing to put money into a fund for someone to do it.
Think that's doable?
So what do you think? Any of you reading this willing to take me up on my offer? It may very well be enough to make some updates to cheesetracker. I'm serious about the money. Inertia is a powerful force. It's worth $300 to me to not need to learn a whole new set of tools, especially when tracking is much more suited to the way I write than the standard audio tools out there, which are much more geared towards linear editing, or sequencing fixed-sized chunks of audio.
My newest MP3 is dated April 14th of 2002 (my birthday, incidentally). Help me get that date updated. =)
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hi.
i agree.
player pro sucks….it looks like the best thing will be renoise (www.renoise.com) when they finally get around to porting it to mac. i tried it on pc and its sweet, the best thing since protracker on the amiga.
im also looking hard to find ports of unix/linux trackers onto mac osX……figuring out if im able to do it with a bit of learning!!??…..but shouldnt waste my time reinventing the wheel……..WHY IS THERE NO GOOD SOUND TRACKERS FOR MAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if anyone hears of any ports or trackers…please mail me and end my long and painful search…..im off to buy a pc…..peace…