This FAQ will hopefully sort out the most commonly asked questions about Adlib Tracker. If you have any further questions on your mind, or something that you feel should be presented in this FAQ, please contact us.
Q: So, what is Adlib Tracker II, or AdT2 for short, anyway?
A: It is an 18-channel FM tracker for the OPL3-chip (or compatible) generally found on the older Soundblaster soundcards from Creative Labs. In other words - a tool for making music with FM-synthesis. You might ask 'WHY?'. Let's use the words of Jens-Christian Huus, which is one of the more wellknown people of C64- and Adlib programming, as well as the author of EdLib:
"People begun to actually hate FM sounds. The arrival of GUS and AWE32 made wavetable techniques very popular and indeed it sounds very good, but there are some things in the old FM standard that is unique. You can't fiddle with samples in the same way as you can with FM. I personally never quite liked sampling, I find it downright boring. With a FM chip it is like on a C64; you have a few parameters and everything you do has to be done within these parameters. These boundaries makes it funny to make music, to see how far you can actually push AdLib. To do sounds on FM requires expertice but if you're good at it, almost any instrument can be reproduced properly, except perhaps drums."
Adlib Tracker II features:
- Supports 4-operator instruments, melodic and percussion instruments
- Supports up to 255 instruments, 128 patterns, 128 order list entries, 86 effect commands, and 16 extended commands
- Features 2 effect columns and instrument macro-definitions
Q: What fileformats does AdT2 cover? Can I import the tunes I created with Amusic?
A: Sure you can! Actually, AdT2 covers a lot of file formats and will import most classic Adlib-song formats, staying true to how the music sounded in the original programs (read the included manual for more info on this subject).
AdT2 loads the following song formats:
- A2M (AdT2)
- A2P (AdT2) [pattern]
- A2T (AdT2) [tiny module]
- AMD (Amusic)
- CFF (BoomTracker 4.0)
- DFM (Digital-FM)
- FMK (FM-Kingtracker)
- HSC (HSC AdLib Composer / HSC-Tracker)
- MTK (MPU-401 trakker)
- RAD (Reality AdLib Tracker)
- S3M (Scream Tracker 3.x)
- SAT (Surprise! AdLib Tracker) {ver.1,5,6}
- SA2 (Surprise! AdLib Tracker 2.0) {ver.8,9}
- XMS (XMS-Tracker)
Loads the following instrument formats:
- A2I (AdT2)
- A2F (AdT2) [w/fm-register macro]
- CIF (BoomTracker 4.0)
- FIN (FM-Kingtracker)
- INS (HSC-Tracker/RAD-Tracker, SAdT, Amusic/AdLib instrument)
- SBI (Creative Labs FM instrument)
- SGI (Sound Generator 3.0)
Loads the following bank formats:
- A2B (AdT2)
- A2W (AdT2) [w/macros]
- BNK (AdLib instrument bank) {ver.1.0}
- FIB (FM-Kingtracker)
- IBK (Creative Labs FM instrument bank)
Q: What computer and equipment do I need to run AdT2?
A: The performance of the computer needed to run Adlib Tracker are very moderate. The main criteria is that the computer can handle ISA-cards to be able to use those Soundblaster cards that contains the OPL3-chip. Here is a preferred setup:
- Pentium processor
- SVGA PCI card
- SVGA monitor (VESA DDC/2B compliant)
- 400k free conventional memory
- 8MB+ free extended memory
- Sound Blaster 16/AWE32/AWE64
- mouse driver installed
- MS-DOS 6.20
Although AdT2 is a DOS-program, it will also run in any Windows (9x, 2000, XP) environment.
Q: Which cards are compatible with AdT2 and contains the OPL3-chip?
A: From the mid 90s and forward there have been many alternative soundcards (and built-in soundchips on motherboards) claiming to be "100% Soundblaster compatible". These claims don't always measure up with the reality, which amongst other problems can result in FM-music not sounding the way it is supposed to (Encore remembers one time when he made a song in Amusic using a built-in soundcard, where the instruments sounded completely different on the real deal). Also more recent Creative cards (like the Soundblaster Live!-series and possibly Audigy as well) will emulate the FM-synthesis by software in a much lower sample resolution. Therefore a list of compatible soundcards which are known to sound decent is needed.
These are cards that we know for sure are compatible and contains OPL3 (Yamaha YMF262)-chips:
- AdLib Gold
- Creative Labs Soundblaster Pro 2.0
- Creative Labs Soundblaster 16
- Creative Labs Soundblaster AWE32
- Creative Labs Soundblaster AWE64 Value / Standard / Gold
Note: All these cards are ISA-cards. At the moment we're not sure if any PCI-cards with OPL3-chip exists.
Q: I don't have any old Sound Blaster-card or any computer with ISA-ports. Are there any other options left for me?
A: The big issue these days is that most new computers does not support the old ISA-standard and are therefore not compatible with the old Sound Blaster-soundcards. The following PCI-based soundcards from Creative (like the SB Live!-series, Audigy, etc.) do not contain any OPL3-chip, even though they've included software drivers simulating the OPL3-chip (for the Live!-series at least), but at a low frequency rate.
There are 3 other options left for you:
- The first option is to get an old computer. Buying an older PC with an OPL3-based Sound Blaster-card is surely an option for the ol'skoolers and not a very expensive option either. People often throw these old machines away. This is also the best alternative if you're specific on that the FM-synthesis should sound 'just right', and as it did in the old days. However, we can understand that not everyone has the space for an old computer sitting around, exclusively for FM-tracking and other retro stuff (...or can we?). ;-)
- The second option requires a fast modern computer. Using DOSBox (external link) you can simulate a complete PC, including a Sound Blaster-soundcard. This will work with any soundcard available. DOSBox is pretty heavy on the CPU, but there are ways to configure it to prioritize the sound over f.ex. graphics. The OPL3-simulation in DOSBox is great and comes pretty close to the original sound (even though we can tell the difference on some specific sounds). There are some cosmetical issues using AdT2 with DOSBox, but these have been dealt with in the most recent version (revision 37) of the tracker.
- Also, there's a third option, though not a recommended one. You can use VDMSound (external link) to get Adlib-emulation in Windows XP/2000 using any soundcard available. VDMSound only simulates the soundcard part so it's theoretically lighter on the CPU than DOSBox, even though it requires some tweaking. However, the emulation is by our experience not good enough as it doesn't support 4 Op-instrumentation and only simulates 9 (OPL2) of the 18 voices an OPL3-chip has. Old (OPL2) modules will probably sound okay but the new ones definitely won't. We really recommend using DOSBox for OPL3-emulation since it comes the closest to the original.
The most slim and ultimate driver for non OPL3-users would probably be a future version of VDMSound, using the portion of DOSBox's excellent Sound Blaster-emulation. Maybe one day? :-)
Q: Is there any way that I can play the songs I created with AdT2 in Winamp and maybe share it with others more easily?
[updated: 2007-08-14]
A: Yes sir, there is! Combining the OPL3-emulation from DOSBox with Subz3ro's player routine, Da!NyL have released an A2T-plugin for Winamp! (Also available is a standalone A2T-player for Windows & Linux). Putting it simply, this is a plugin that supports the best working (in terms of sound, nearly perfect) OPL3-emulation and the most recent fileformat of Adlib Tracker 2. As a note, the plugin only plays A2T-files (tiny module format) as this is what the player routine originally supports. Luckily though, all the tunes from the Adlib Tracker II-package are also included. Go visit Da!NyL's webpage immediately for this and more Adlib-goodies!
Adlib Tracker 2 Input Plugin for Winamp 2 & 5 (external link)
Q: Is AdT2 freeware?
A: Yes, it can be freely used, shared, spread, whatever - as much as you like, and as long as it makes you having a good time. :-)
Q: Can I get the source for AdT2?
[updated: 2012-01-21]
A: Yes, since late 2010, the full sourcecode for Adlib Tracker has been released - please see the download page.
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