Frequently Asked Questions about MilkyTracker

Here are some questions answered which get asked on the forum and on IRC from time to time.

1. Where can I find a list of all the effect codes?
   • Read the manual: milkytracker.html
2. Where can I find a list of all the keyboard shortcuts?
   • Read the manual: milkytracker.html
3. How do I reconfigure or add keyboard shortcuts?
   • Edit the source code and re-compile, it is not possible to reconfigure the keys in Milkytracker itself.
   • See also these two forum posts:
     How can i change the keyboard map?
     Additional keyboard-shortcuts / speed up
4. Why does MilkyTracker look different from Fasttracker II?
   • The GUI of MilkyTracker has been adjusted to fit low resolution displays with 320x240 pixels. Thus the screen can be more easily divided into seperate pages.
5. Where are the extended Sample Editor functions (S.E.Ext.)?
   • In the sample context menu, just right-click / tap'n hold in the sample area. The Pattern and Instrument Editors have their context menus too, you know.
6. Why does my .XM sound different from Ft2 in MilkyTracker?
   • MilkyTracker tries to play XMs as accurate as possible but there are still known and unknown issues. Most of them are rare but if you find one, report it to us and we'll try to fix it.
7. Why does my .XM sound different from ModPlug/Schism/WinAMP/xxx in MilkyTracker?
   • MilkyTracker aims to reproduce Ft2 playback as closely as possible while other players/trackers don't do that, so if you think your track is being messed up in MilkyTracker compare it to Ft2 first. If it still sounds weird, see the question above.
8. Why doesn't MilkyTracker load my .XM (created in ModPlug)?
   • Unless the module is otherwise corrupt, it probably features more than 32 channels. In Fasttracker II, 32 is the maximum.
9. Why does MilkyTracker play my IT/S3M/xxx module wrong?
   • Well, MilkyTracker is an XM tracker. It will play all other tunes (except for .MOD) the way Ft2 would do it. Every feature from other modules not being XM compatible will be thrown out when importing the song.
10. What do the buttons SEQ, CLN, F, P, W and L do?
    • SEQ stands for sequence, the button inserts the next unused pattern in the pattern order table.
    • CLN stands for clone, it does the same as SEQ but additionally it copies the data from current pattern to the new one.
    • The F button toggles song following. Disabling it enables you to better edit the song while it is playing.
    • The P button toggles prospective pattern view. When disabled, you see one pattern at a time. When enabled, the patterns show as a continuous strip.
    • The W button toggles pattern wrapping. Basically it either allows you to freely move from pattern to pattern while editing or helps you concentrate on one pattern at a time.
    • The L button toggles live mode. This affects the pattern change behavior. When it's off, changing song positions is instant. In live mode, the change happens after the current pattern has been finished which allows seamless skipping from one part of a song to another. Repetitions, jamming, you know, generic live stuff.
11. What are Jam channels?
    • Jam channels enable you to play notes live on your MIDI or computer keyboard independent of the song channels. If disabled, note polyphony is restricted to whatever number of channels the song has.
12. Does MilkyTracker support MIDI?
    • MilkyTracker supports some basic MIDI INPUT, which means you can use your MIDI device to feed notes into MilkyTracker. See the documentation for instructions on how to enable MIDI In on different platforms.
13. Can you port MilkyTracker to platform xxx?
    • Unfortunately my time is rather limited at the moment so first you need to know some things about MilkyTracker:
    • MilkyTracker is written in a platform independent fashion and uses a rather primitive approach of software rendering to make porting as easy as possible. On the downside this means MilkyTracker needs quite some CPU power. At the bottom end of the desktop version MilkyTracker requires at least around 300Mhz to run MilkyTracker in 640x480x16 bit color. This might seem quite a bit, but actually it's nothing compared to nowadays computer speeds. MilkyTracker was never written with old computer systems in mind. The low resolution version (320x240) will probably run on systems offering 150Mhz or more but 320x240 is the only supported low resolution mode.
    • MilkyTracker is *heavily* mouse centered. And I really mean *heavy*. Controlling MilkyTracker with a few buttons only will not be fun and totally useless and I'm not going to waste time on a port for a device without a mouse equivalent (touch screen etc.). Please understand that porting itself often requires quite an amount of time and still doesn't guarentee MilkyTracker to be fully useable.
    • Now that MilkyTracker is open-source the opportunity exists for anyone with enough motivation to port MilkyTracker to whatever platform they desire.
14. Why isn't there a PSP/NDS port of MilkyTracker?
    • Because noone has had the motivation to write one. Perhaps you do :)
15. Can you tell me a bedtime story?
    • Yes. Once upon a time…

      11:32	anyguy has joined #MilkyTracker
      11:32	pailes yawns
      11:32	<anyguy> Hi
      11:32	<pailes> hi there
      11:33	<anyguy> this sounds terrible, but i just downloaded milky traker and i have no idea how to use it
      11:33	<anyguy> any help?
      11:34	<pailes> load a song
      11:34	<pailes> play it
      11:34	<pailes> maybe watch the video tutorials
      11:34	<anyguy> the vids on youtube were no help
      11:34	<pailes> what was the problem?
      11:35	<anyguy> i have no idea how to work milky traker
      11:35	<pailes> I guess you have to be more specific
      11:36	<anyguy> i cant even make a simple sound or track
      11:36	<pailes> can you load a song and play it?
      11:36	<anyguy> no clue how?
      11:37	<pailes> "load" a song 
      11:37	<pailes> there is a "load" button
      11:37	<pailes> which suggests you should press it to load a song
      11:37	<anyguy> i know, but its all... blah, file types
      11:38	<anyguy> error loading file type
      11:38	<pailes> you can only load songs which have the .xm extension
      11:38	<pailes> i.e. some of the songs which are included in the milkytracker distribution package
      11:39	<anyguy> nice, but how do i edit or build on that?
      11:39	<pailes> first I suggest to press the config button
      11:40	<pailes> then select the misc. tab by pressing the misc. button
      11:40	<pailes> and switch to milkytracker edit mode
      11:40	<pailes> this mode will be easier to use
      11:41	<pailes> for people not having any tracking background
      11:41	<anyguy> so for now on out, trial and error?
      11:41	<anyguy> this is alien to me
      11:41	<pailes> when you have enabled milkytracker edit mode you can edit pattern data by clicking into the pattern, this will focus the pattern editor
      11:41	<pailes> rec. will turn red
      11:42	<anyguy> i see
      11:42	<pailes> which means you can edit pattern data
      11:42	<pailes> you can enter regular notes by pressing keys on your pc keyboard
      11:42	<pailes> c, c#, d, etc.
      11:43	<anyguy> how do i clear it all and use the samples
      11:43	<pailes> pres "zap" and then "song"
      11:43	<pailes> it will preserve the samples
      11:44	<anyguy> so how do i start now?
      11:44	<pailes> try to find which key on the keyboard maps to which note... there are also some documents which you can read to understand how a tracker works
      11:45	<pailes> you can change the octave with the function keys btw. only two octaves of notes are available at a time through the keyboard, if you want to change the octave you need to do it manually 
      11:45	<anyguy> can i change the speed?
      11:47	<pailes> you do that by inserting a speed command in the last column of a track (a track are those vertical units in the pattern)
      11:47	<pailes> everything is done using those commands
      11:49	<pailes> maybe this helps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracker
      11:50	<pailes> although this article is a little bit outdated
      12:06	<anyguy> god i suck at this
      12:16	<anyguy> i dont know what im doing wrong here
      12:17	<pailes> you can't learn tracking in a few minutes... it really takes some dedication and time
      12:17	<anyguy> how do i start though
      12:19	<pailes> reading and trial and error
      12:20	<pailes> and loading songs and listen to them and find out how they're made by altering sample and pattern data
      12:25	<anyguy> blaw
      12:25	anyguy has disconnected: Quit: Saving BACKUP.XM...
      12:26	<pailes> yes, bye bye

      The end.