Before I can get started on the tracker review series, I need to set things up properly in a few add’l preamble posts. Let’s start with which trackers I’ll be examining. <\/p>\n
As of right now, these are the 15 (count ’em, fifteen!) tracker apps I plan to examine \/ review in detail as part of the tracker review series (listed alphabetically, definitely NOT in the order I’ll be reviewing them – that order will be decided as I go along):<\/p>\n
Buzz (aka Jeskola Buzz)<\/a> The primary criterion for inclusion is that the app in question must<\/i> run on at least one modern desktop platform<\/b> (WinXP and later, OSX, and\/or Linux). (Note: LSDJ doesn’t technically meet this criterion as a desktop-native application, and is really primarily meant for the Nintendo Gameboy family– but it does<\/i> run suitably under certain GB emulators for multiple platforms, and the developer makes the emulator-ready ROM file available for direct download.)<\/p>\n Beyond that, these fifteen trackers made the grade on the basis of meeting at least one of the two following sub-criteria:<\/b> There are a couple (to-be-left-unnamed) tracker apps here that barely<\/i> meet one criterion or another from where I sit, and I reserve the right to change up this list accordingly if I end up feeling that SketchyHackyTracker 0.004a isn’t keeping up with the JonesTrackers in terms of ongoing development or ongoing popularity when I finally get around to dealing with it. <\/p>\n I mean, seriously, to evaluate each tracker fairly and thoroughly is a lot of work– I’m currently guessing 1.5-3 weeks of fairly serious usage and learning per app. So if the devs and the users for a given app aren’t continuing to bother, I won’t either. This review series is meant to be about the future<\/i> of trackers, and attracting curious new users to the genre (to say nothing of helping them sort wheat from chaff before they embark on their own<\/i> journey), so picking apart executable deadwood \/ flogging dead binary horses is a waste of everyone’s time. <\/p>\n If you’re an active \/ avid tracker user and you would like to suggest a tracker you think I missed which meets the above criteria<\/i>, please mention it in the comments. I am definitely<\/i> open to amendment! (By the way, special thanks to plusminus of the Soundevotion compo\/community<\/a> and elsewhere for looking over my initial proposed list and throwing a few other suggestions into the mix.)<\/p>\n More on my actual review process in the next post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I can get started on the tracker review series, I need to set things up properly in a few add’l preamble posts. Let’s start with which trackers I’ll be examining. As of right now, these are the 15 (count ’em, fifteen!) tracker apps I plan to examine \/ review in detail as part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tracker-reviews","tag-tracker-list"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blargh.lossfoundation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nChibiTracker<\/a>
\nFamiTracker<\/a>
\nKlystrack<\/a>
\nLGPT (LittleGPTracker)<\/a>
\nLSDJ (Little Sound DJ)<\/a>
\nMadTracker<\/a>
\nMilkyTracker<\/a>
\nNeil<\/a>
\nOpenMPT<\/a>
\nPsycle<\/a>
\nRadium<\/a>
\nRenoise<\/a>
\nSchism Tracker<\/a>
\nSunVox<\/a><\/p>\n
\n1)<\/b> The app is at least sufficiently mature for some form of self-contained music-making at this time and<\/i> is still<\/i> being actively developed,
\nand\/or
\n2)<\/b> the app is still “popular” \/ in visible regular use amongst a given userbase. (“Popular” could mean as few as 10-20 active \/ apparent users trafficking in related forums \/ mailing lists, as assessed by an outside lurker i.e. me. With this particular genre of software, 10-20 fans avid enough to participate in continuing online discussion of the software suggests that the software must have some<\/i> review-worthy level of merit.)<\/p>\n