introduction
navigating and playing
entering notes
creating instruments
editing the pattern table
reference
hsc-tracker 1.5 looks terrible. it is lacking a lot of features and has some other features that work so unlike how they should that you wish it lacked them. it is slow and clunky to use, and it sounds identical to the other, superior trackers that came later.
hsc-tracker 1.5 is an "adlib tracker", a dos-based tracker that controls the yamaha opl2 chip found inside some old sound cards. dozens of trackers like this were produced, and they all sound much the same. later came the OPL3, bigger, better, and more musical, and some trackers were made for that too. hsc-tracker came first, though.
to run hsc-tracker, navigate to the folder where it is located and type HSCTRACK.exe. welcome.
navigating hsc-tracker is a breeze. there are three main areas you can visit on screen. pressing f5 will take you to the track editor (top left). f6 to the instrument editor (dead centre). and f7 to the pattern table (top right). the other areas on screen are not interactive and are just to display keyboard shortcuts and other information that may have been better off left to a manual like this.
to move around within each area, you use the arrow keys on your keyboard. up goes up, down goes down, and so forth. to play the song, press f8. of course, you don't have a song yet. some other keys do other things.
to enter notes in the track editor, first press ctrl-insert. a green flashing cursor appears. pressing ctrl-insert again toggles the width of this green flashing cursor. when the cursor is fat, entering a note or value moves the cursor along. when the cursor is thin, entering a note or value does not move the cursor. pressing any of the keys z s x d c v g b h n j m here will enter a note, and they represent the musical notes C to B in that order. pressing i enters an instrument change command, which takes up a whole row on its own, and p enters a note-off (rest). + and - change the current octave.
you can change the pattern you are currently editing with pageup/pagedown. in the column labelled 00 you may enter values, also known as "Special Effects in Attribut Byte (Numbers)".
what albmutoric gematria have we here? it's quite simple really:
AM/VIB/EG/KSR/Multi Carrier: choose a frequency multiplier for the carrier from zero to fifteen. add sixteen if you desire envelope scaling on the carrier. add thirty-two if you wish to enable sustain mode for the carrier. add sixty-four if you wish to enable vibrato on the carrier, and another one-hundred-and-twenty-eight if you desire tremolo on the carrier. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
AM/VIB/EG/KSR/Multi Modulator: choose a frequency multiplier for the modulator from zero to fifteen. add sixteen if you desire envelope scaling on the modulator. add thirty-two if you wish to enable sustain mode for the modulator. add sixty-four if you wish to enable vibrato on the modulator, and another one-hundred-and-twenty-eight if you desire tremolo on the modulator. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
KSL/Volume Carrier: choose a carrier volume from zero to sixty-three. choose a keyscaling rate for the carrier from zero to three. multiply the keyscaling rate by sixty-four, add sixty-three and subtract the volume. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
KSL/Volume Modulator: choose a modulator volume from zero to sixty-three. choose a keyscaling rate for the modulator from zero to three. multiply the keyscaling rate by sixty-four, add sixty-three and subtract the volume. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
Attack/Decay Carrier: choose an attack rate and a decay rate for the carrier, both between zero and fifteen. multiply the attack rate by sixteen and add it to the decay rate. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
Attack/Decay Modulator: choose an attack rate and a decay rate for the modulator, both between zero and fifteen. multiply the attack rate by sixteen and add it to the decay rate. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
Sustain/Release Carrier: choose a sustain level and a release rate for the carrier, both between zero and fifteen. subtract the sustain level from fifteen, multiply this by sixteen and add it to the release rate. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
Sustain/Release Modulator: choose a sustain level and a release rate for the modulator, both between zero and fifteen. subtract the sustain level from fifteen, multiply this by sixteen and add it to the release rate. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
Feedback/FM: choose a feedback level between zero and seven and multiply it by two. add one if you want to use the synth additively rather than as an fm synth. convert the result to hexadecimal and type it here.
Waveform Carrier: choose a waveform for the carrier from zero to three. type the waveform number here.
Waveform Modulator: choose a waveform for the modulator from zero to three. type the waveform number here.
in the pattern table you may chain together patterns to make a song. you may use up to fifty unique patterns in your song. typing a number from 00 to 31 in this table adds the respective pattern. typing a number from 80 to b1 jumps back to the respective position in the table (80 -> 00, 81 -> 01 etc). and ff jumps back to the start.
f1: onscreen help
f2: load song
f3: save song
f4: clear song
f5: jump to track editor
f6: jump to instrument editor
f7: jump to pattern table
f8: play/stop song
f10: exit
ctrl-insert: toggle insert mode
pageup: previous pattern
pagedown: next pattern
tab: next channel
+: octave up
-: octave down
alt-c: copy whole channel
alt-p: paste whole channel
insert: insert row (across whole pattern!)
delete: delete row (across whole pattern!)
p: insert note-off
i: insert instrument change command
space: clear cell
z s x d c v g b h n j m: add note
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f: edit value
pageup: previous instrument
pagedown: next instrument
alt-l: load instrument
alt-s: save instrument
alt-c: copy instrument
alt-p: paste instrument
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f: edit value
01: jump to next pattern
1x: slide up with speed x
2x: slide down with speed x
3x: set carrier volume to x
4x: set modulator volume to x
5x: set instrument volume to x
fx: set speed to x (higher is slower)