Impulse Tracker
More info
- Platform
- MS-DOS
- Released
- 1995
- Type
- Music tracker
- Creator
- Jeffrey Lim
- Format
- IT
- Channels
- Up to 64
The best-sounding DOS tracker — 64 channels, resonant filters and the IT format that effectively ended the tracker wars.
Impulse Tracker was written by Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim and released in 1995, late in the trackers' golden age. Its interface inherited the grid from FastTracker 2 and Scream Tracker, but the program overtook both on sound quality: up to 64 channels, resonant filters, and New Note Actions that let notes ring out naturally instead of being cut off abruptly.
Its IT format (Impulse Tracker) extended XM and S3M with more channels and effect columns, and became the PC scene's quality choice. Anyone chasing the cleanest sound picked Impulse Tracker, while FastTracker 2 kept the edge on ease of use. Development tailed off around the turn of the millennium, as module music gave way to MP3.