Because you are curious why you should care about madtracker or how to use it,
I wrote this little helpfile.

First of all, get the latest madtracker from :

http://madtracker.i4music.net/madtracker/

the current version is 2.0.5.

Install it to any directory and start it.

The first thing you should do is pressing ctrl-f to bring up the configuration 
menu. In general, browse through the list at the bottom left und unmark 
"multi-channel edit". Then click on audio, choose your driver (I recommend an 
directx driver with the computersymbol left to it, *not* an driver with the 
directx symbol). Mark the option "Minimum Delay".

Then load a song, play it (if it does not play automatically, press right ctrl
(just like in ft2 :)) und press ctrl-f again. If you sound is stuttering, 
increase the buffersize under audio, and press apply after each change. If the 
sound is not stuttering finally, increase the size by ten again (you never 
know :) and thats it.

Okay, now you can listen to tunes.
But why should you use Madtracker to make musics ? Easy, because it really
*rox* !

Some of the great features it contains :

Most of all, it is very similar to Fasttracker 2. Some keys have been changed, 
but most are exactly the same.

There are Lowpass Filters, :)

You can use effects on a single track, namely delay, stereo delay, flanger or 
distortion. I mostly admit the both delays, no need to waste one or more 
channels for delays anymore. Stereo samples are possible too.

New Note actions just like in IT.

The Automation is great. For every track and every instrument you can draw an 
envelope for the pattern which defines volume and filtercutoff/resonance. So 
you wont need to have a command volume command every line to slowly bring a 
sample in, just draw the envelope.

There is a drumeditor, where you can make your drums using a matrix. 

Loads of other useful things like the sample synchronizer, no need to finetune 
drumloops any more, just give the number of beats and madtracker automatically 
plays the loop at the right pitch for every bpm. Only if the loops is cutted 
right, of course :)

Oh, and one of the best things : you can load XM files and convert them to MT2, 
great for playing around with existing tracks,

So, I really can recommend to give Madtracker a try, it is a great tool. Oh, 
and keep it around, there will be more MT2 releases coming from TDR.

Looza/TDR (ajoscht@gmx.de)






