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[Jacob Ashcroft]

Hi, I'm a musician and I know that some musicians I like (Aphex Twin, Ceephax...) use Trackers on (for instance) the Commodore Amiga.  I'm interested in trying this.  Should I buy an Amiga computer 2nd hand so that I can use trackers?

Can I download the trackers from the internet and then put them onto the Amiga somehow? What do most people do, I'm interested to know what version of the Amiga you think I should buy and what trackers etc... I've heard of NoiseTracker, SoundTracker...

Can anyone help?

Thanks, James

[Eagle]

You've come to the right place. Yes, the trackers are common on the Amiga, but also on Windows and DOS! So if you want to start tracking, you won't neccesarily have to buy a 2nd hand Amiga (although that's a good idea, the Amiga is a lovelly computer).

Check the Mod Archive's own tracker list:
http://modarchive.org/index.php?LinksSoftwareTracker

Recommended software are MilkyTracker (will probably fit your taste, as it's almost completelly like using ProTracker to some extent) and Open Modplug Tracker (which has a very clean and beginner friendly Windows interface).

You may also go to modland and download some of the more exotic trackers for Amiga/DOS/Linux/Windows:
http://ftp://ftp.modland.com/pub/trackers/

If you get an Amiga emulator like WinUAE-something, you can run those Amiga trackers you were interested in on Windows. But I'll leave the details to someone else.

EDIT: Ops, sorry, I misunderstood your request. If you want a classic Amiga, you may consider a second-hand Amiga 500/600/1200. You may also download ProTracker 1.2, 2.2 or any version between 1.x and 2.x. Warmly recommended. SoundTracker and NoiseTracker are good trackers, too, but more limited.

[Jacob Ashcroft]

Thanks, that's really helpful.  Just a few more questions.  If I bought an Amiga 500 (Which I'm thinking of doing), would the ProTracker versions you mentioned work on that? Plus, I've downloaded ProTracker from the sites you mentioned but how will I get it onto the Amiga.. floppy disk, CD?

Thanks, James

[Saga Musix]

AFAIK amigas are able to handle floppys like recent PCs...

[Eagle]

Uhh, that's not all correct, Saga. YES, the Amiga _can_ handle FAT (windows) formated floppies, assuming that you have drivers for this installed. If you don't get these from start, tough luck, because Windows can only read Amiga disks, but not write. This is due to the amiga floppy formating is more complex than the windows format. There are, however, solutions like catweasel... something, but it will cost.

To answer your question, Jacob, a friend of mine has an Amiga 500 with ProTracker 1.1 and it works fine. I'm sure ProTracker 2.x will work, too. I'm less sure, however, about ProTracker 3.x and 4.x, but those versions are ugly and probably not what you are looking for anyway.

If you want to find both old school Amiga sample disks like the ST-xx series and want find out lots of information about the ProTracker series, have a look at:
http://www.protracker.de
It's in german, but you'll probably manage as it's mostly just an archive.

If you have further questions, I'm sure I can assist. By the way, the old school Amigas don't have CD support, as far as I can. You may be able to get a hold of a harddrive, a browser (Kefka says he has one, yeah, he's the friend who had the Amiga) and an ethernet cable to connect between the amiga and to a hub.

[m0d]

- Amiga disks are 880k formatted. They cannot be read in a PC, thats why the ADF disk-image format exists. These have to be made on an amiga then transferred to a PC via Serial connection (Twin Express, for example).

- You can only read 720k DD (double density) PC formatted disks on an Amiga, and only on Amigas sporting Kickstart 2 and above, then of course is a need for the PC0 disk-dos-drivers to be installed on your workbench.

- Alternativly on older 1.3 kickstart Amigas you need to use a tool called CrossDOS, this tool is shit in comparison to using the above.

- Catweasel, as far as I know, is the disk drive connectivity kit for the C64's 1541 5.14" diskdrive to the PC, not the Amiga or the Amiga's drives.