Provided by: schism_20190805-3_amd64 
NAME
schismtracker - tracked music editor based on Impulse Tracker
SYNOPSIS
schismtracker [options] [directory] [file]
DESCRIPTION
schismtracker is a tracked music module editor that aims to match the look and feel of Impulse Tracker as
closely as possible. It can load most common tracker formats, supports saving as IT and S3M, and can also
export to WAV and AIFF.
OPTIONS
-a, --audio-driver=DRIVER[:DEVICE]
Audio device configuration. driver is the SDL driver to use, e.g. alsa (ALSA), dma or dsp (OSS);
device is the name of the device itself, for example hw:2 or /dev/dsp1.
-v, --video-driver=DRIVER
SDL video driver, such as x11, dga, or fbcon. Note that this is different from the video driver
setting within the program, and is unlikely to be useful.
--video-yuvlayout=LAYOUT
Specific YUV layout to use: YUY2, YV12, RGBA, etc. This is probably best left alone under normal
circumstances.
--video-size=WIDTHxHEIGHT
Set the size of the video display.
--video-stretch=VALUE
Fix the aspect ratio. (Probably does nothing!)
--video-gl-path=PATH
Specify path of OpenGL library.
--video-depth=DEPTH
Specify display depth, in bits.
--video-fb-device=DEVICE
Specify path to framebuffer. Typical value is /dev/fb0.
--network, --no-network
Enable/disable networking (on by default). Used for MIDI over IP.
--classic, --no-classic
Start Schism Tracker in "classic" mode, or don't. This is mostly cosmetic, although it does change
the program's behavior slightly in a few places.
--display=DISPLAY
X11 display to use.
-f, -F, --fullscreen, --no-fullscreen
Enable/disable fullscreen mode at startup.
-p, -P, --play, --no-play
Start playing after loading song on command line.
--diskwrite=FILENAME
Render output to a file, and then exit. WAV or AIFF writer is auto-selected based on file
extension. Include %c somewhere in the name to write each channel separately. This is meaningless
if no initial filename is given.
--font-editor, --no-font-editor
Run the font editor (itf). This can also be accessed by pressing Shift-F12.
--hooks, --no-hooks
Run hooks. Enabled by default.
--debug=FLAGS
Enable some debugging flags (separated by commas). You probably don't need this.
--version
Display version information and build date.
-h, --help
Print a summary of available options.
A filename supplied on the command line will be loaded at startup. Additionally, if either a file or
directory name is given, the default module, sample, and instrument paths will be set accordingly.
USAGE
A detailed discussion of how to use Schism Tracker is far beyond the scope of this document, but here is
a very brief rundown of the basics. Context-sensitive help can be accessed at any time while running the
program by pressing F1.
The F3 key will bring you to the sample list. Press enter here to open a file browser, navigate in the
list using the up/down arrow keys, and hit enter again to load a sample. You will likely want to get some
samples to work with. You can also "rip" from existing modules; see for example
http://www.modarchive.org/ for a very large selection of modules. (Keep in mind, however, that some
authors don't appreciate having their samples ripped!)
Now that you've loaded a sample, press F2 to get to the pattern editor. This is where the majority of the
composition takes place. In short, the song is laid out vertically, with each row representing 1/16 note;
to play multiple notes simultaneously, they are placed in different channels. The four sub-columns of
each channel are the note, sample number, volume, and effect. A list of effects is available in the
pattern editor help, but you can safely ignore that column for now. Assuming a US keymap, notes are
entered with the keyboard as follows:
(Note) C# D# F# G# A# C# D# F# G# A# C# D#
| | || | | | || || | | | || | | | || || | | | || | |
| | || | | | || || | | | || | | | || || | | | || | |
(What you | |S||D| | |G||H||J| | |2||3| | |5||6||7| | |9||0| |
type) | '-''-' | '-''-''-' | '-''-' | '-''-''-' | '-''-' |
| Z| X| C| V| B| N| M| Q| W| E| R| T| Y| U| I| O| P|
'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'
(Note) C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E
(Octave 0) (Octave 1) (Octave 2)
The "/" and "*" keys on the numeric keypad change octaves, and the current octave is displayed near the
top of the screen. Try typing "qwerty" into the pattern - it will enter an ascending note sequence, and
you'll hear the notes as they're entered. (of course, assuming you loaded a sample!) Press F6 to play
your pattern, and F8 to stop.
Other important keys for the pattern editor include Ins/Del to shift notes up and down within a channel,
Shift-Arrows to mark a block, Alt-C/Alt-P to copy and paste, and Alt-U to clear the mark. There are well
over a hundred key bindings for the pattern editor; it is well worth the effort to learn them all
eventually.
Now that you have something in your pattern, you'll need to set up an orderlist. Press F11 to switch to
the orderlist page, and type 0 to add the pattern you created. Now press F5 to start playing. The song
will begin at the first order, look up the pattern number and play that pattern, then advance to the next
order, and so forth.
Of course, having only one pattern isn't all that interesting, so go back to the pattern editor and press
the + key to change to the next pattern. Now you can write another four bars of music and add the new
pattern to the orderlist, and the next time you play the song, your two patterns will play in sequence.
You may wish to give your song a title; press F12 and type a name in the box at the top. You can also
adjust the tempo and a number of other settings on this page, but for now, most of them are fine at their
default values.
To save your new song, press F10, type a filename, and hit enter. You can load it again later by pressing
F9.
This tutorial has deliberately omitted the instrument editor (on F4), for the purposes of brevity and
simplicity. You may want to experiment with it once you have a feel for how the program works. (Select
"instruments" on F12 to enable instrument mode.)
HISTORY
Storlek began studying Impulse Tracker's design in 2002, noting subtle details of the design and
implementation. Posts on the Modplug forums about rewriting Impulse Tracker were met with ridicule and
mockery. "It can't be done," they said.
Schism Tracker v0.031a was released in July 2003, though very little worked at that point, and it was
more of a player with primitive editing capabilities. File saving was hard-coded to write to "test.it"
in the current directory, and there was no way to load a sample.
The first version that was more or less usable was 0.15a, from December 2004.
From 2005 through 2009, Mrs. Brisby did most of the development, and implemented tons of features,
including MIDI support, mouse support, and disk writing.
Storlek "took over" development again in 2009, and incrementally rewrote much of the code through 2015.
In 2016, Schism Tracker was moved to GitHub under shared maintainership. Since then, many people have
contributed improvements and bug fixes to the codebase.
FILES
~/.schism/config
Program settings, stored in an INI-style format. Most options are accessible from within Schism
Tracker's interface, but there are a few "hidden" options.
~/.schism/startup-hook, ~/.schism/exit-hook, ~/.schism/diskwriter-hook
Optional files to execute upon certain events. (Must be executable)
~/.schism/fonts/
font.cfg, and any .itf files found in this directory, are displayed in the file browser of the
font editor.
Supported file formats
MOD Amiga modules (with some obscure variants such as FLT8)
669 Composer 669 / Unis669
MTM MultiTracker
S3M Scream Tracker 3 (including Adlib support)
XM Fast Tracker 2
IT Impulse Tracker (including old instrument format)
MDL Digitrakker 3
IMF Imago Orpheus
OKT Amiga Oktalyzer
SFX Sound FX
MUS Doom engine (percussion missing)
FAR Farandole Composer
STM Scream Tracker 2 (partial functionality)
ULT UltraTracker (partial functionality)
S3I Scream Tracker 3 sample
WAV Microsoft WAV audio
AIFF Audio IFF (Apple)
8SVX Amiga 8SVX sample
ITS Impulse Tracker sample
AU Sun/NeXT Audio
RAW Headerless sample data
PAT Gravis UltraSound patch
XI Fast Tracker 2 instrument
ITI Impulse Tracker instrument
Schism Tracker is able to save modules in IT and S3M format, sample data as ITS, S3I, AIFF, AU, WAV, and
RAW, and instruments as ITI. Additionally, it can render to WAV and AIFF (optionally writing each channel
to a separate file), and can export MID files.
AUTHORS
Schism Tracker was written by Storlek and Mrs. Brisby, with player code from Modplug by Olivier Lapicque.
Based on Impulse Tracker by Jeffrey Lim.
Additional code and data have been contributed by many others; refer to the file AUTHORS in the source
distribution for a more complete list.
The keyboard diagram in this manual page was adapted from the one used in the documentation for Impulse
Tracker, which in turn borrowed it from Scream Tracker 3.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2003-2019 Storlek, Mrs. Brisby et al. Licensed under the GNU GPL
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
BUGS
They almost certainly exist. Post on https://github.com/schismtracker/schismtracker/issues if you find
one. Agitha shares her happiness with benefactors of the insect kingdom.
INTERNETS
http://schismtracker.org/ - main website
#schismtracker on EsperNet - IRC channel
SEE ALSO
chibitracker(1), milkytracker(1), protracker(1), renoise(1), ocp(1), xmp(1)
Jun 14, 2019 SCHISMTRACKER(1)