THERE ARE SO MANY WEIRD TRACKERS!!

Hi, this is a reupload from my blog.

trackers are the grandaddy of music making software. electronic musicians like to use it, they look like a spreadsheet, and they've kinda obsolete.

ignoring all that, here's a ton o' trackers, my opinion on them, and their website in no order at all. (the bottom gets more random and weird, and my thoughts get shorter.)

Protracker 2

this one is a classic. it feels complicated, and it kinda is tbh. it has a layout you'll see a lot, and this is a junglism classic. honestly, this one is cool for having fun, but sucks for anyone who doesn't want to remember when the exact time the snare hits in their break so they can chop it.

NoiseTrekker / ProTrekker

another one with "pro" in the name... this one actually is still getting worked on, and feels more coherent to use. changing your instrument takes ages in my experience, but overall i see the appeal. fullscreen makes everything small, and i'm sure you could fix that, but tbh I'm too lazy. NoiseTrekker is totally a viable option to make music in, it works decently well.

Fasttracker 2

fasttracker 2 is similar to protracker 2, but it is full of everything i need. easy sample chopping, nice UI, not 4:3, a built in snake minigame for when i get bored, and a truckload of features. sure, it requires you to manually put in FX, unlike OpenMPT and every other recent tracker ever, but Fasttracker 2 has oh so much personality, making music feel like a fun game.

Renoise

the professional one. an $80, one time payment, and it's yours forever. even old versions! renoise is the FL of trackers, and the newest version hasn't been cracked, so i can only talk about v3.2.1. renoise has plugins, MIDI, a mixer, more knobs than an airplane, and so many features that i don't use. literally amazing, good pricing, and is used by a lot of people. the community is alive, so no needing to finding a video from the stone age to figure something out! i cannot reccomend it enough. i'm gonna buy it eventually, it's that good.

Med Soundstudio

this one was used by breakcore jesus himself: Venetian Snares! it's very old, lacking a dark mode, and is basically a port of OctaMED to windows (sorry linux users). Haven't used this one tbh, but if you can make rossz csillag allat szulette in it, it must be good.

MilkyTracker

Fasttracker 2 but modern? the ui got fucked up on my win 11 computer, so i'm not that sure how this even holds up. I know songkran dub was made in it though, so it can do great things.

Klystrack

a chiptune tracker. weird ui, but can import c64 files? seems useful for chiptune. (no shit?) also there's a funny cat.

DefileMask

another paid tracker, this one is $10. looks professional, a step up from free ones, but a step down from renoise. haven't bought it, but looks decent for anything tbh.

OpenMPT

really old, no dark mode, and reeking of obsolete. who even uses this in 2025? this tracker feels like it could be cool, but i honestly found it corporate. (not sure why)

SunVox

a digital modular synth with a tracker. looks cool, complicated, and it's on mobile! seems useful for chiptune, making cool stuff, and nerds.

Pata Tracker

a chiptune tracker. looks beautiful, simple, and fun to use. it's built for a game engine, pixelbox which is cool.

WaveTracker

prolly the most recent one here. this is yet another chiptune-focused tracker, but you can draw your own soundwaves into the program. (you can load samples too.) it has a lot of cool features, and the trailer goes in more detail. it's also open source!

Oxide Tracker

another chiptune tracker. it looks clean, cool, and something I might use in the future.

NitrousTracker

a tracker for the DS. it can run MOD and XM files, (albiet no FX besides volume sliding iirc) and is pretty fun to tool around with. I made a couple of shitty tunes, and even chopped some breaks.

SchismTracker

I've never used this, I don't know who uses this, but it looks cool, and I'm sure it is useful. a clone of impulsetracker

ChibiTracker

this one is so obsolete. a clone of impulsetracker. not sure where to download this besides flathub or github.

Quantum Soundtracker

yet another chiptune tracer, very c64 / dos feel to it.

GoatTracker

I have no idea what to say about this one. it looks cool i guess...

Flizzer Tracker

a super minimal tracker. like, 1-bit, tiny resolution. why would you use this?

Moody Tracker

Protracker at home. looks identical... maybe it's diffrent?

H8 TRACKER

a cool tracker. I want to learn this one sometime- it looks sick asf and has a cool thing in the center... (the link downloads the zip when you click on it)

Propulse Tracker

Schism Tracker at home. it can make protracker modules. it's cool i guess.

Checktrakk

for the amiga! looks cool, but only if you do demoscene stuff will you be using this... (imo)

Arkos Tracker

multi-platform, chiptune tracker. very cute and purple. I want to learn this.

PICO-8

pico-8, the fantasy console, has a tracker. it's cute, simple, restricting, and is pretty sick. $15 dollars, but you get a game engine w/ it. good deal. /j

Little GPT Tracker

a tracker for handhelds. perfect format, works well, is cute, and runs on a lot of stuff. pretty good at what it does tho.

LSDJ (Little Sound DJ)

a cute lil' tracker for the Gameboy system. good for chiptune, cute UI, and fun for the whole family.

M4G Tracker

a GBA tracker. very cool, i use this sometimes. it's fun to fiddle around in.

Conclusion

That about wraps it up. I missed a lot, but this is already a long collection. If i missed some big ones you want to see in a volume two (or even this) , contact me via my website.