PocketTracker is a music tracker for Android-based devices — a retro gaming handheld or a smartphone will work. It carries on the spirit of trackers like LSDJ and LGPT. It's free, open-source, and runs on hardware you've probably already got — the goal is to put a capable music-making tool in anyone's pocket.
Note: This project was developed with AI assistance. If that bothers you, this project isn't for you.
Status: 0.9.3 — public beta
License: GPL-3.0
Two instrument types: a sampler that loads WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC, OGG and Opus files, and a SoundFont player for SF2 files.
Just screen record stuff from YouTube or your favourite video games and sample it with the built-in video-to-WAV converter!
Manipulate the waveform, add effects, repitch, STRETCH (can't wait to hear your jungle tunes), slice (destructively or just add slice markers to your sample).
PocketTracker is made for gaming handhelds with physical buttons. For phones and other touchscreen devices, there's an on-screen control layout.
Overdrive, bitcrusher, filters, EQs, reverb and delay (as send channels), and a master bus with OTT (aggressive soundgoodizer) or DUST (a special blend from Skoomabwoy to squish your tracks and make them more lofi-ish). All of them can be applied to your samples in the sample editor!
Arrange a song across eight stereo tracks and balance it on a mixer with per-track sends and true dBFS meters. Export the finished mix as a WAV, or export each track as a separate stem.
Record selected sequence part into a new sample — for layering drums, freezing a chord into a pad, or flattening a section to build on.
There are a few options to customize the app interface. The top bar has six visualizer modes that vary from a ProTracker2 look to a Pioneer-style stereo tower. There are also interface color themes and a theme editor to make your own. As a bonus, phones come with an Amiga-inspired touchscreen button skin.
➡️ Full feature list: docs/features.md
Almost any Android gaming handheld or phone.
Minimum requirements: Android 8.0 (API 26) · 64-bit (arm64-v8a / x86_64) · ~512 MB RAM · ~50 MB storage · 640×480 screen
Tested on the Miyoo Flip (1 GB RAM, GammaOSCore Android 13), Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini (3 GB RAM, Android 11), Fairphone 6 (8 GB RAM, /e/os v3.0.4 Android 15) and Xiaomi 12T Pro (8 GB RAM, LineageOS Android 16)
One-click (recommended): install Obtainium, then tap the badge below on your device. PocketTracker is added straight from GitHub Releases and Obtainium keeps it up to date automatically.
If the badge doesn't open Obtainium, add this URL as an app source inside Obtainium instead:
https://github.com/conanizer/pockettracker
Manual: download the latest APK from Releases and open it on your device (allow "install from unknown sources" if asked).
| Document | Contents |
|---|---|
docs/quick-start-guide.md |
Quick start — from install to your first beat |
docs/manual-en.md |
Full user manual |
docs/input-system.md |
Complete controls reference |
docs/features.md |
Feature overview |
docs/technical-architecture.md |
Architecture overview |
A standard Android + NDK project — the native audio engine builds via CMake as part of the normal Gradle build:
- Clone the repo and open it in a recent Android Studio.
- Let Gradle sync; it provisions the SDK and the pinned NDK
27.0.12077973. - Run the app configuration on a device/emulator, or build an APK with
./gradlew assembleDebug.
Debug builds need no signing setup — release builds fall back to the debug key when keystore.properties is absent.
- Bug reports → GitHub Issues
- Feature requests / questions → GitHub Discussions
- Or reach me on Discord for any kind of feedback
PocketTracker is built on excellent open-source work — Oboe, DaisySP, TinySoundFont, KissFFT, dr_libs, libopus, and more. Inspired by M8, LGPT, and LSDJ.
Full attributions, licenses, and DSP algorithm references: CREDITS.md.
Third-party license notices for everything compiled into the audio engine — the code that ships
in both the Android app and the Linux handheld port — are reproduced in full in
licenses/THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
PocketTracker is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later as published by the Free Software Foundation.
It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty — without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for details.
Full license text: LICENSE.
PocketTracker statically links several third-party components, each under its own license (BSD-3-Clause,
MIT, LGPL-2.1, and public-domain dedications). Their copyright notices and license terms are reproduced
in licenses/THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, which also ships inside the
Linux port's release archive.
