h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I'm certain there's a proliferation of tracker fans around the globe so perhaps we can get a thread going here.

I'd categorize (very generally) the evolution of trackers into three main groups...

Genesis: I'm a bit hazy on pre Protracker / Fasttracker but suffice it to say the genesis of trackers began on the commodore/Amiga platforms.

2nd Generation: I'd place this stage at the point where the first Creative SB cards became available and trackers jumped platforms to PC's. Notably ScreamTracker and FT2. Just after this point things all became a bit confusing. With the potential growth of PC technology - scores of extended trackers appeared (ie more than 4 channels). Offhand I can recall ; X-Tracker (german?) , Impulse Tracker (Australian), hmm I'm sure there were others , what were the names of the trackers that wrote .MTM and .669 - anyone??

3rd Generation: I've used the yardstick of platform jumping to delimit these categories, so the third generation I would place with the move from DOS to WinDoze. I've heard argued that Rebirth is a new-generation tracker...I do not agree - it's a virtual synth. "Fruity loops " is the software I've seen most recently that complied to my tracker mentality (and I have grand schemes to write a .XM to FruityLoops format converter - so I can really get the most out of my old Fasttracker mods). Fruitloops is a pattern based, sample/sequence arranger but instead of the conventional note fx byte column - there are pitch and volume and filter envelopes all over the place.

Well, that's my 2 cents worth on tracker evolution - Anyone care to add???

Tracker mad people may also like to scope my h2g2 introduction (I'm trying to write a 'intelligent' [hah!] pattern generator for FT2)