Apparently I'm not picking the right options for exporting it as a .sid file, the players I have aren't playing any sound at all... I added support for everything except disabling optimization and I hit the defaults for everything because I wasn't sure what to pick and picked .sid format.

Oh ok, thanks.

you dont use the speed table to change tempo using the Fxx command

just use F08 in the pattern, for example, then the song will play at tempo 08

if you want to change the tempo at another point in the song put another Fxx command on the pattern where u want to change tempossssssss

if you are using global funk tempo using the Exx command in a pattern, xx points to a line in the speed table.

I still don't get the speed table and how to use it to change the tempo.

Well now I always have the numpad 0 to act as an actual insert key. https://sharpkeys.codeplex.com/

Yeah I think it was mostly the table end of the program that was hard to understand for a while. I'm using goattracker version 2.73.

If you've used another tracker (like Protracker / Famitracker) the composition side should be fairly easy to get into.  I can understand people getting a bit confused with the table side, personally I prefer the 1.x series of GoatTracker though 2.x is a lot more flexible.   With 1.x you have waveforms/pitch/arpeggio within the same table structure which makes things more readable.

Failing that I'd recommend John Player as another tracker with a familiar interface, though that only runs on the machine itself.

Ice Wolf : which version are you using?  there was a keycode fix in 2.71 though it doesn't say what it fixed.   For some tools I've had to change Windows to a different keyset (eg: in FastTracker2 under Dosbox I'm using a US keyboard to get the ALT Gr key to work) though I wouldn't think that'll help in this case.

This program could only make less sense to me if it were literally in japanese.

Necro-update: since practicing with lsdj and maybe when I used klystrack, the goattrack manual I have makes a hell of a lot more sense. Now I can begin the experimentation phase
What do you do to insert though if your only machine is a laptop with a numpad insert key and goattracker refuses to see your insert key?

i second that. i can only make crappy drums in goat tracker.

Wow.. is that zip of drum sounds still floating around? would greatly appreciate it

You might also want to look at a reference chart showing the various registers of the SID chip. There are 29 registers in the SID chip and while goattracker abstracts some of these - you won't have to manually input the frequencies for each channel, you can simply write musical note values - it might help you in understanding how the chip makes sounds.

http://www.oxyron.de/html/registers_sid.html

ok Oh didn't realize the speed table only took one value per table.

Good point on the note creation.

Just like most PSG chips the key to getting any interesting sounds is with the use of tables. Goattracker is a pretty basic wrapper for the playback routine and therefore the way that tables work might be a bit awkward for a musician to get used to.

There are four types of table in goattracker, most function sort of like an assembly routine - the speed table is a little different - but each is designed for a different purpose, to keep the interface a little cleaner. Each of the four tables will just be a long string of operators and arguments - commands and values for those commands to use - and your instruments will contain parameters to jump to these routines that you create. If you think of these tables as little programs that you write to alter values of the SID register you wouldn't be wrong.

To make it easy on yourself, you might want to keep track of the various things you've put into your tables and their beginning address. For example, if you create a wavetable for a bass drum you can make a note somewhere that it starts at 0E, and that there's a that wavetable at 1F is a pulse instrument, etc. Of course, you'll do the same for each table. Perhaps you have a fast pwm at pulsetable 03 and a slow one at 2A, etc.

If you'd like it might even help to write down the entire contents of your tables. Of course you can always save your sounds and import them into new songs but then you're likely to forget how you created a particular sound and you may fall into the trap of using them like presets. Moreover, typing them in each time will help refresh your memory about how a sound is actually made and invite you more to tweak values to suit your need.

pm me yr email, i can send you a zip full of instruments (mostly kicks n snrs) and songs that you can use as templates/steal :P

i still find drums to be the most annoying thing on C64 :)

the speed table is for setting grooves and the speeds of vibratos and slides and pitch bends - just set some bends or vibratos on your track effects, bung some random notes in, to go to the speedtable and bung random numbers in and observe the effects. unlike the other tables you can only have one line in in your speed tables.

also if you have jumps/loops on your instrument tables, pitchbends wont work

http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic. … 1cc7ad27cf

explain that quite well