DIGITAL TRACKER v2.03 by Jaccard Emmanuel

I am not very musically inclined and could not create a decent tune
if my life depended upon it, so my trying to review a music package
as comprehensive as Digital would be like a non-driver trying to tell
you about the latest car.  While I can give you a brief users guide
to it, I can't say if it is suitable for making music with.  So its
up to you to make your choice between the plethora of soundtracker
creation programs that are available these days.

Where Digital differs most is in the amount of channels you can use. 
Traditionally the ST sound-chip was capable of three channel chip
music, then they succeeded in pushing 4 channel sampled music out
like the Amiga was famous for.  These soundtracker modules usually
consisted of 12hz samples (or less) sequenced together to give a
refreshing and more life-like sound.  The Amiga owners went one step
better, or should I say four channels better, with the likes of
Octamed an 8-channel module creator.  But it was the PC scene that
really took off with regard to soundtracker modules, they used a
higher quality sample rate, 8 channels as standard and developed all
kinds of new formats including SM2 and FastTracker.

So how does Digital compare?  Well the chances are you have already
got an early version of this program in your collection.  But this
time Jaccard has decided to try and really push the Falcon and you
can now select any number of channels between the original 4 and 24. 
Yes you did read that right!  You can now have 24 channels of 50khz
stereo samples with an 8 or 16-bit sample base.  I don't proclaim to
know how this is achieved although I suspect some astounding
programming skills and maybe even the DSP comes into use.  The
problem with 24 channels (or 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 or 22 for that
matter) is that there are no modules available for you to listen to! 
So its a case of create your own or watch with fascination as you
know your Falcon can do these things, you just can't prove it!

Digital works well on an RGB or VGA monitor with or without NVDI
installed.  The user interface always has been cluttered and rather
difficult to use but at least in this version things are a little
more organised and neatly laid out.  If you drag the mouse down to
the bottom of the screen, the whole display scrolls into the bottom
section which appears to be a detailed sample editing suite.  Digital
seems to be quite happy loading AVR sample formats which is the Atari
standard and whats more unlike ProTracker they are not limited in
size to 69K, indeed they can be huge!  That's one thing about these 8
channel modules, you'll notice the size of them immediately!!

It makes you feel quite guilty running 4-channel modules through it
and watching those other blank channels just sit there doing nothing.
 But I for one can't wait for the time when composers start making
use of the full capabilities of Digital Tracker 2.  Just imagine a
piano sample on one channel, a guitar on another, a bass on the
third, a drum kit, one cymbal, one snare, one snap drum all on their
own channels, plus perhaps a few synths for keyboard effects and
maybe even a channel for some singing or vocals.  These are the
possibilities we now have thanks to Digital Tracker.