Tracker's Song- / Pattern- / Instrument-Files Documentation / Specifications

[Sandroid]

As of Firmware 1.7 the .mod and .it format support has been removed.

We’ve already seen utilities that have reverse engineered the .pti format, but this was based on trial and error, blood, sweat and tears (shoutout to Jaap Roes for his work on that).

This is a formal request to Polyend, to create a living document that details these files so that community developers could create utilities for the Tracker and / or converters so that Tracker Files could be used in other Software Trackers or Tools.

What is the problem?

• As of FW 1.7 there is no more importing or exporting to a common file format
• There is no official documentation / specification to the Trackers Project / Song / Pattern / Instrument Files

What do you want to achieve?

• Allow the community and 3rd party developers to create tools that would benefit the Tracker Ecosystem
• Allow the community to create Conversion Utilties for other popular tracker formats

To do this, it would be helpful if we knew the specs/structure/content of the following files:

• project.mt - The Project File
• pattern.mtp - The pattern files
• instrument.pti - The instrument files

Are there any workarounds?

• Reverse engineering

Any links to related discussions?

Could I get a description of what is exported within the instrument in the .it file?

This one is for the Polyend development team. I was hoping you could provide me with a description of what is exported in the .it file, specifically the instrument data. I have been experimenting with using the Polyend Tracker with efficient game audio Unity3D and exporting to Renoise for mastering. While some tracks work well, some of my more complicated songs sound not so much. I just would like to know what is and isn’t included in the .it file to build a roadmap for making dynamic audio for…

Any references to other products?

Possibly the Deluge? This wish is not about opensourcing the firmware though. This is purely about opening up or documenting the files that make up a tracker project so developers could build tools for them or around them.

[thephatconductor]

I AM SO SAD ABOUT THIS

I had JUST bought Renoise last night so I could open these

[Sandroid]

You still can. Stay or downgrade to 1.6 and import your old projects. Save them as tracker projects. Once done, upgrade to 1.7.

Unless you want to export back to .mod or .it . Then you would have to stay or downgrade to 1.6 again.

[thephatconductor]

1.7 projects are not reverse compatible with 1.6 though, correct? That seems like a deal breaker IMHO.

Maybe if you had an Easter egg mode in the OS where users in the know could access the export as an unsupported legacy feature?

[Sandroid]

@thephatconductor

1.7 projects are not reverse compatible with 1.6 though, correct?

I’m not entirely sure, i’ve done some testing and it seemed to work. But you are right, eventually this will become an issue, the further along we go with the updates.

I personally would love if Polyend would open up the Fileformats for the Projectfiles (Song, Pattern, Instrument) so that Devs in this community could actually build tools for the Tracker to enrich the ecosystem.

This could include importers/exporters to the now infamous .mod and .it files, but go even further with support for maybe Renoise or even other software.

It would be a benefit for the community and a benefit for Polyend, since their Team could focus on other tasks, while the community can geek out and build all sorts of funky tools.

[thephatconductor]

Hell yeah!

I mean… if they did that you might get the Tracker to behave as an Ableton Push style controller for various tracker software on the PC!

That would be NEXT LEVEL, especially if later iterations allowed you to easily bring projects back and forth (certain functions excluded).