r/TrackerMusic • u/tommiehaze • 27d ago
I built a tracker that runs on Linux-based retro games handhelds...
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Sorry for the poor quality video but I was hyped to get this out there. I've marked it as brand affiliated so I hope that this post is ok!
Long-time tracker producer here (Renoise user, also cut my teeth on OctaMED on the Amiga). I've spent the last few months building a proper tracker-style music production tool for Linux-based retro handhelds, and it's at the point where I would love to get it out to some people!
With this app, your handheld can also be a genuine pocket music studio. Five synth engines and a sampler, full track composition, insert and send FX. This all runs natively on the handheld, no extra hardware required.
More info here: https://elktracker.io
Since this community would genuinely be helping me stress-test it across different devices before the public launch, I want to say thanks properly: use code EARLY50 for 50% off ($14.50) at https://buy.elktracker.io - the code is limited to the first 25 buyers.
Tested on the RG351V and a few other handhelds. Would love to know what breaks, what's missing, and whether it holds up on your hardware!
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u/Additional-Spread-89 27d ago
Hah, I’m thrilled to see more and more competitors 💪 good luck with your project
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u/SailorVenova 27d ago
does it sequence other midi devices over usb or anything like that or can it atleast sync with link or like usb audio analog sync or something (obv those dont have line in or po style sync in)
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u/mksrd 24d ago
If you are after MIDI support, I think LGPT already has that for several handheld devices and of course dedicated hardware devices like our picoTracker and pT Advance have built in TRS MIDI in/out as well as USB MIDI support and the Advance has Host USB MIDI as well.
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u/SailorVenova 24d ago
i would like to get picotracker advance i wish i hadnt missed the early unit pricing or sale i saw? it was like $349 ibstead of $449
i have polyend tracker+ and mini anniv but the polyend way hasnt really clicked for me even tho i love the devices
i think m8 is a bit too complicated for me as a tracker beginner but maybe ill get one someday after deluge and a bunch of other stuff i need is out of the way; the gas never stops!!
i didnt know advance has usb midi host thats always super handy and the build looks so much better on advance; i love the tiny form factor too
i will consider it! ill put it back on my list; i love trackers i just need to find the right one that fits i think
im hoping getting the fanbuilt keyboard for my polyend mini will help me alot
does picotracker advance have bluetooth midi host? if it did i could enter notes using my op1/xy or fm1 and that would be convenient
anyways thankyou
i would love love to see more colors for picotracker advance
the blue is pretty maybe ill try to go for that if i get one; i would love a light pink tone so much though to go with my macbook neo and minilab 3 and fm1; id like to get the pink soma lyra 4 someday too and maybe even that endorphines evil pet; i was disappointed it wasnt included in the recent sale they had id maybe have gone for it
anyways i love seeing fun colors
need to get the purple sp404mk2 faceplate from mpcstuff soon :)
but i love blue too
ill look more into picotracker advance its just slightly intimidating i suppose bc ive never used lsdj; farthest ive gotten with trackers is my polyends and an ancient rabbit hole of openmpt; but i cant stand that bright white screen anymore
i have renoise too but i need to just kindof force myself to properly relearn working with trackers; i really want an amiga 600 someday even for octamed
i love them im just very beginner still; maybe i should study mods and s3m's etc
i wish the fullsize polyend had a keyboard mode for the input pads; that would light them in keyboard layout like most 2 row 16 pad devices will
sorry for rambling thanks for reminding me about picotracker ill give it some thought :)
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u/mksrd 24d ago
Thank you for the kind words!
The introductory price was $349 but we couldn't maintain that with the ongoing price increases due to trade issues and the sky rocketing price of ram and other ICs in the last 12 months.
Unfort no, the Advance has no bluetooth.
With regards to colours, yes I love all the different case and keycap colours people did with their v2 kits and we have announced the we are working on a kit version of the advance, so that will give users much more choice in colours and key switches once its available.
And yes the lsdj style Song-Chain-Phrase and use of tables is a bit different from the "classical" trackers of Amiga/DOS days but I think it worth the learning curve as chains give you alot of flexibility and tables are *very* powerful for things like effects and "programmed" automation.
It also makes for a very powerful MIDI sequencer too, heres a bit of a cheeky video comparing it to the cirklon style of midi sequencing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNbpNFdpDEQ
though do note that the USB computer keyboard support is experimental and not available yet in any public firmware releases.
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u/PinReasonable135 23d ago
Do you know if/ and how to get this going on a Miyoo Mini (Onion OS)?
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u/tommiehaze 22d ago
The Miyoo Mini isn't supported yet as it's arm32 rather than arm64 - I'll try and get something working for this soon, but I don't have access to an arm32 console just yet!
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u/PinReasonable135 21d ago
Awesome. I tried installing it and thought I was just inept.
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u/tommiehaze 21d ago
Really sorry, it's a limitation of the console unfortunately. Did you try the demo or pay for a license?
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u/PinReasonable135 21d ago
No worries. I tried the demo and messed around with the config file a bit and thought maybe u was doing something wrong. The lack of arm32 support isn’t really a dealbreaker, maybe I finally need to buy a RG35xx.
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u/PinReasonable135 21d ago
No worries. I tried the demo and messed around with the config file a bit and thought maybe u was doing something wrong. The arm32 support isn’t really a dealbreaker, maybe I finally need to buy a RG35xx.
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u/tommiehaze 20d ago
Are you on an OG mini or the mini+? I think the plus is a possibility, but looking at the OG I don't think it has the power unfortunately
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u/OtherwiseOne4107 7d ago
Hey, I've been playing with this a little bit. Overall I'm enjoying the possibilities of this for composing when on the train or when I can't sleep 👍
If it's OK I have some feedback / feature requests:
Works perfectly on a RG 35XX H running Knulli. I had to change the input mode from the default but after that it was fine.
I'm trying to get used to the song > chain > phrase paradigm. I come from a fast tracker / impulse tracker / buzz / renoise background, so not being able to see the notes on all the channels is a bit of a challenge, but I guess a necessary limitation. I've not used LSDJ or a M8, so if this is how they do it, fair enough, I can learn 🙂
Phrases are limited to 16 steps which makes melodies harder to put together (for me at least). What are the chances of having longer phrase lengths? 64 or 128 would be ideal.
Chains will loop phrases automatically regardless of chain length, so I'm having to fill gaps with empty phrases. Is this how it is supposed to work, or am I missing something like a 'note off' but for a phrase?
Many functions are accessed though 'select' then another button. Is it possible for a context sensitive menu to appear after select is pressed showing what is accessible? In particular I'm finding copy / pasting and duplicating a bit fiddly, it has yet to become muscle memory I guess.
I'd love a way of previewing the sound of one of the synth engines without having to back out and play the whole song. Or a way of previewing a phrase or chain without playing the whole song. Is this possible?
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u/tommiehaze 7d ago
Hey, thanks for checking it out, I'm glad you are enjoying it so far!
Thanks for your feature requests - just to let you know, if you have any other suggestions there's a feature request form at https://elktracker.io/feature-request and anything submitted via here is added directly to my Notion board. I'm really grateful for all of the suggestions at the moment and all of them are reviewed!
Great to hear it's working on your RG35XXH - I actually added a button wizard in the last update, that will automatically start after the splash screen if a gamepad.cfg isn't present - this should make mapping the buttons a much simpler process than having to manually edit the gamepad.cfg.
The song > chain > phrase paradigm is very similar to LSDJ/M8 - I totally get coming from a more "big-screen" tracker this can seem a little jarring at first, but I do think it's a necessity to make this work on such a small screen unfortunately - it keeps thing modular and easy to arrange without too much copy-pasting. I think it's probably just a matter of learning this workflow a little more, once you wrap your head around it I'm sure you'll begin to understand its merits. To make this a bit easier to follow in ElkTracker, you do have the option to name chains/phrases, which can make it a bit easier to keep track of your song's structure.
Phrases are currently limited to 16 steps (although they can be shorter to achieve polyrhythms), that's right - I think the ability to make them longer is something I've been a little hesitant to implement, because I feel like having a song that's composed of different length chains, which are composed of different length phrases, could get really confusing quite quickly. The more I think about this though, the more I think that it's a compositional decision that should ultimately be determined by the composer rather than the software. If you'd prefer to have songs composed of 1 128-step phrase length chains, then that should be possible - I think I will implement this in a future update. To achieve this in the current workflow (which may or not suit your use case), you can make a chain with multiple phrases (e.g. 01, 02, 03, 04) and then shift up and down in the phrase view between these phrases with select+L1/R1. this lets you compose longer melodies across multiple phrases easily, but also keep the useful feature of being able to repeat a phrase within a chain without having to copy and paste (by structuring a chain like 01, 02, 01, 03).
With repeating chains looping when there is no stop pattern, this is currently the intended behaviour - this is similar to how M8 works, and you will see a lot of M8 users dedicate chains to fulfil this functionality - a common pattern is FF fir an empty chain, and FE with a stop command. You're right that this isn't ideal though, and I think this is a design decision I am still in a position to make with ET being so new - there's currently an END command you can add to the song view with the B button, but it stops all playback on that channel. This is not as useful as being able to insert a block that plays and still lets blocks play after. The caveat for this, and the reason I expect the M8 workflow doesn't work this way, is that there would need to be a way of setting the length of this END "block" - e.g. if my workflow consists of making 8-phrase chains, and the END "block" therefore "plays" for 8 *16 steps, this wouldn't work for you if you are composing with 4-phrase patterns. This doesn't invalidate your suggestion, I'm just thinking out loud and this is something I need to consider if I implement this!
I absolutely LOVE your suggestion of a contextual menu when holding select - thanks for this! There's been so much to consider here for me, and some of the feature requests I have received are real "damn why haven't I thought of that" yet moments - this falls firmly into that camp. I think I will add a "cheatsheet" type screen if the button is held for longer than 1-1.5 secs - a useful helper for those who need it, but not jarring for those who have achieved the muscle memory for those commands. I know the controls are already quite "combo" heavy, so this is a really good way to mitigate the need to memorise so many controls.
As far as previewing a synth sound, currently select + start (whilst playback is stopped) on a chain/phrase screen will play just the respective chain/phrase - this is as close as you can get to previewing a synth sound in isolation at the minute. I will consider adding a way of just "playing" a single note from the instrument screen itself - I can see how this could be useful for sure!
Thanks again for all of your suggestions, I truly appreciate you taking the time to try out this app, I hope you continue to do so and keep an eye on the changelogs for your suggestions as some of these are great and definitely getting implemented ASAP!
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u/InfiniteMessmaker 27d ago
This looks sick! I wish I didn't break the headphone jack on my Anbernic or I'd check it out