MilkyTracker Documentation

Hello and welcome to this very first version of MilkyTracker a platform independent FastTracker II "clone"

Currently supported platforms are:
- Windows
- Mac OS X
- PocketPC (Windows CE 3.0 and above)

I'm also working on a pure SDL port which is supposed to run under Linux as well but it will take some more time.

Important:
Right now MilkyTracker is under heavy development so use it at your own risk.
I'm not responsible for any loss of data and or hardware damage caused by MilkyTracker.
Lots of functionality is still missing.

Quick Overview:

Due to request MilkyTracker features two edit modes:

I. MilkyTracker edit mode:
The MilkyTracker mode basically a bit more "modern" because you can focus on different parts 
(e.g. Pattern Editor, Instrument Listbox, Sample Listbox etc.) and when you're pressing
keys they're routed to the focused control.
Also keyboard shortcuts are more standard, you can select by pressing the SHIFT key
and navigating with the cursor keys, cut, copy & paste with using CTRL+X/C/V etc.
I think users who are new to tracking will find this a bit more intuitive.
The edit mode can be changed in the config screen (Misc. tab)

Right now a few common keyboard shortcuts are supported in the MilkyTracker edit mode:

Global shortcuts:
Space: 			Toggle pattern editor focus (edit mode on/off)
Enter: 			Play song from current order
Ctrl+Enter:			Play current pattern from beginning
Shift+Enter:			Play current pattern from cursor position
Shift+F9			Play current pattern from beginning (same as Ctrl+Enter)
Shift+F10			Play current pattern from position after the first quarter of the pattern length
Shift+F11			Play current pattern from position after the second quarter of the pattern length
Shift+F12			Play current pattern from position after the third quarter of the pattern length
ESC: 				Stop playing
Ctrl+O: 			Load new song
Ctrl+S: 			Save song
Ctrl+Shift+S: 		Save song under new filename

Transpose:
Shift+F7: 			Transpose current instrument in track down
Shift+F8: 			Transpose current instrument in track up
Ctrl+F7: 			Transpose current instrument in pattern down
Ctrl+F8: 			Transpose current instrument in pattern up
Alt+F7: 			Transpose current instrument in block down
Alt+F8: 			Transpose current instrument in block up
Shift+F1: 			Transpose all instruments in track down
Shift+F2: 			Transpose all instruments in track up
Ctrl+F1: 			Transpose all instruments in pattern down
Ctrl+F2:			Transpose all instruments in pattern up
Alt+F1: 			Transpose all instruments in block down
Alt+F2: 			Transpose all instruments in block up

Pattern Editor:
Cursor keys: 		Move around
Tab: 				Jump to next channel
PgUp/PgDn: 		16 rows up/down
Home/End			Guess what
F1-F8: 			choose octave
F9				Jump to position 0 in pattern
F10				Jump to position after the first quarter of the pattern length
F11				Jump to position after the second quarter of the pattern length
F12				Jump to position after the third quarter of the pattern length
Ctrl-Z: 			Undo
Ctrl-Y: 			Redo
Ctrl-X: 			Cut
Ctrl-V: 			Paste
Ctrl+A: 			Select entire pattern
Shift-M: 			Mute current selected channel
Ctrl+Shift-M: 		Invert current muting
Ctrl+I: 			Interpolate values
Delete: 			Delete note/instrument/volume/effect/operand
Sh+Del: 			Delete note, volume and effect at cursor.
Ctrl+Del: 			Delete volume and effect at cursor.
Alt+Delete: 			Delete effect at cursor.
Insert: 			Insert a new note slot at current cursor position
Shift-Insert: 		Insert an entire row at current cursor position
Backspace: 			Delete note slot before current cursor position
Shift-Backspace: 		Delete entire row of notes before current cursor position

Try to play around with pressing other keys to find out what notes they're mapped to =)

II. FastTracker 2 edit mode:
The FT2 edit mode is for the die-hard FT2 user and is propably not so intuitive to use,
but I think FT2 users don't care about that.
Please note that not all FT2 shortcuts are implemented yet and some may differ because
of various reasons.
Also note that this edit mode is not working very well on a PocketPC because of limited
input devices. 

Right now the following FT2 keyboard shortcuts are supported in the FastTracker edit mode:
(copied straight out of FT2 manual ;))

5.1 Cursor moves:

PageUp 	Jump 16-lines upwards.
PageDown 	Jump 16-lines downwards.
Home		Jump to line 0.
End  		Jump to last line.
Tab  		Jump to next track.
Sh+Tab  	Jump to previous track.
Alt+Q..I 	Jump to track (0..7) MOD N-Channels.
Alt+A..K 	Jump to track (8..15) MOD N-Channels.

5.2 Cut/Copy/Paste:

Del		Delete note or volume column at cursor.
Sh+Del		Delete note, volume and effect at cursor.
Ctrl+Del	Delete volume and effect at cursor.
Alt+Delete 	Delete effect at cursor.
Ins  		Insert note at cursor.
Sh+Ins  	Insert line at cursor.
Backsp. 	Delete previous note.
Sh+Backsp	Delete previous line.
Alt+Cursor	Mark block.
Sh+F3 		Cut track.
Sh+F4 		Copy track.
Sh+F5 		Paste track.
Ctrl+F3 	Cut pattern.
Ctrl+F4 	Copy pattern.
Ctrl+F5 	Paste pattern.
Alt+F3		Cut block.
Alt+F4 		Copy block (yes even under windows =)).
Alt+F5 		Paste block.

Additional shortcuts (not FT2):
Ctrl-Alt+Z 		Undo
Ctrl-Alt+Y 		Redo
Ctrl+Alt+A 		Select entire pattern
Shift-M 		Mute current selected channel
Ctrl+Shift-M 	Invert current muting
Shift+I 		Interpolate values

5.3 Miscellaneous:

Right Ctrl 		Play song from current order (only works under Windows)
Enter: 		Play song from current order
Right Alt 		Play current pattern from beginning (only works under Windows)
Ctrl+Enter:		Play current pattern from beginning
Shift+Enter:	Play current pattern from cursor position
Space			Stop/Edit
ESC			Stop all playing
F1..F8 		Select octave
F9			Jump to position 0 in pattern
F10			Jump to position after the first quarter of the pattern length
F11			Jump to position after the second quarter of the pattern length
F12			Jump to position after the third quarter of the pattern length
Shift+F9		Play current pattern from beginning (same as Ctrl+Enter/Right Alt)
Shift+F10		Play current pattern from position after the first quarter of the pattern length
Shift+F11		Play current pattern from position after the second quarter of the pattern length
Shift+F12		Play current pattern from position after the third quarter of the pattern length
Caps-Lock		Enter Keyoff-"note" (only works under Windows)
Sh+Left 		Increase song position
Sh+Right 		Decrease song position
Ctrl+Left 		Increase pattern number
Ctrl+Right 		Decrease pattern number

Window switching:

Ctrl+
A 		Advanced edit.
C 		Configuration.
D 		Disk operations.
I 		Instrument editor.
S 		Sample editor.
T 		Transpose.
X 		Main screen. (almost alt+X)
Z 		Show/Hide scopes
R		Disk recorder

5.5 Instrument select (Numeric keypad):

Sh+Up 		Select previous instrument
Sh+Down 	Select next instrument
Sh+Alt+Up 	Select previous sample
Sh+Alt+Down 	Select next sample

You can also quick-type the hex-number of the instrument you want to select
on the numeric keypad, the layout is like this:

0..9 	= Digit 0..9

PC Keyboard:
/ 	= Digit A
* 	= Digit B
- 	= Digit C
+ 	= Digit D
Enter = Digit E
, 	= Digit F

Mac Keyboard:
= 	= Digit A
/ 	= Digit B
* 	= Digit C
- 	= Digit D
+ 	= Digit E
Enter 	= Digit F

5.6 Command/Volume macro:

Alt+1..0 	Write command/volume at cursor.
Sh+Alt+1..0 	Read command/volume at cursor.

5.7 Transpose:

Sh+F7 		Transpose current instrument in track down
Sh+F8 		Transpose current instrument in track up
Ctrl+F7 	Transpose current instrument in pattern down
Ctrl+F8 	Transpose current instrument in pattern up
Alt+F7 		Transpose current instrument in block down
Alt+F8 		Transpose current instrument in block up
Sh+F1 		Transpose all instruments in track down
Sh+F2 		Transpose all instruments in track up
Ctrl+F1 	Transpose all instruments in pattern down
Ctrl+F2		Transpose all instruments in pattern up
Alt+F1 		Transpose all instruments in block down
Alt+F2 		Transpose all instruments in block up.

5.8 Other:

Ctrl+V 		Volume scale pattern
Alt+V 		Volume scale block
Shift+V 	Volume scale track

(please note that under Mac OS X the "Apple" key is used instead of the Ctrl key)

If MilkyTracker crashes or does something really stupid I'd really like to hear from you
and it would be even cooler if you can reproduce the problem as closely as possible.

Known issues:
Some things work different in MilkyTracker and some dialogs may look different ;)

Okay that's all for now, a more detailed explanations of all the functions will follow later.
(In the meantime why don't you check out the official FastTracker 2 document?)

Donate:
If you like MilkyTracker and you're looking for a way to support me developing it, 
why don't you donate something using PayPal?
My PayPal account: donate@milkytracker.net
Any donation will be appreciated and it keeps me going. Also, when donating, your
feature requests will always be on top of my list, isn't that a neat offer? 

Don't worry MilkyTracker will always be free because I really enjoy working on it,
but you should remember that FT2 wasn't real freeware either 

Contact me:
support@milkytracker.net
or visit
http://www.milkytracker.net

Thanks to anyone who has contributed:
Kenet (for the amazing logos), Kmuland (for always supporting me), 
raina (for the nice icons), Svenzzon (for his nice example tune) 
the entire Titan crew for supporting my work and everybody else 
who dropped me a letter...

Have fun...