MilkyTracker

Creativity has always found ways to flourish, even out of the most unusual forms. With the evolution of the computer, some creativity forms adapted. For instance, making music isn’t just about playing actual instruments anymore, with programs like MilkyTracker making it possible to create various soundtracks for games and clips.

One advantage in particular is the lack of setup required to make things work, which means you can have it deployed on a USB flash drive in case you want to carry it with you and work on other computers than your own. Registry entries on the target PC are not modified, so the health status remains intact.

Don’t let yourself intimidated by the somewhat outdated visuals, because the style is one of its key features, mostly because it aims to follow in the popular DOS program, FastTracker II. It also includes necessary playback modes for improved Amiga ProTracker compatibility.

Just to get you quickly started, the application comes with several samples, and you can always enrich your collection from the web. Similarly to the likes of FastTracker, the set of controls is minimalistic, but this mostly in design. Built- in editors are easily accessible, showing up in new windows or expanding the existing one, allowing for quick editing of samples, instruments, transposing, or advanced editing.

The preview section is where all instruments and samples are enlisted in up to 10 different channel slots. The note is displayed right above the indicator, so you even get an idea of the song just by looking at it. File support isn’t really abundant, with main focus placed on MOD and XM module files. However, samples you create can be saved as WAV files, and even loaded from these formats.

Bottom line is that the start of the computer gold age seems to be making a comeback, at least as far as computer culture is concerned. As such, MilkyTracker might prove to be just the thing in order to create old-school effects and audio soundtracks for clips and even video games.