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PocketTracker — Feature Overview

Everything you can do with PocketTracker.

Making Music

  • Write melodies and rhythms in a 16-step phrase editor, chain phrases into longer patterns, arrange everything in an 8-track song
  • LGPT-style controls: directional buttons + modifier combos, fast editing with A+direction for value changes, key repeat for scrolling through values quickly
  • Transpose phrases per chain slot — sequence the same phrase in different keys
  • Select cells, rows, or entire screens and copy, cut, paste, or delete them (M8-style selection)
  • Set swing and shuffle per track or globally with groove patterns
  • 256 phrases, 256 chains, 8 tracks, 128 grooves
  • Use HOP to jump between phrases mid-sequence — create odd time signatures and generative loops

Sequence Effects

Write these into any phrase step to shape how a note plays:

  • Arpeggio — cycle through note intervals automatically (up, down, ping-pong, random)
  • Volume — ramp volume within a step
  • Pan — set a note's stereo position; the next note reverts to the instrument pan
  • Kill — stop the note, immediately or after a set number of ticks
  • Retrigger — stutter the sample with optional volume ramp
  • Playback direction — play a sampler note backward or forward; flip it live to "scratch"
  • Pitch slide — glide to the next note (portamento)
  • Pitch bend — continuous pitch movement up or down
  • Vibrato — wobble pitch at standard or extreme depth
  • Pitch offset — transpose a note by a fixed number of semitones (never affects slice index)
  • Slice index — jump straight to a specific slice (works even when slice mode is off)
  • Latency — push a note's trigger forward by N ticks
  • Reverb / delay send — send a single note to the reverb or delay bus, independent of the instrument
  • EQ (per note / mixer) — apply an EQ preset to one note, or automate the master EQ across the song
  • Chance — probability gate: set odds the note actually plays
  • Randomize — randomize any other FX value on the fly
  • Table override — switch which table an instrument follows
  • Groove assign — set groove pattern per track from a phrase step
  • Tick rate — control how fast the instrument table advances

Instrument Tables

Each instrument has its own 16-row mini-sequencer. It loops continuously while the note plays and lets you automate volume, pitch, and effects row by row — great for programmed arpeggios, tremolo, and rhythmic gating without using up phrase FX slots.

Instruments

  • Sampler: load any WAV, MP3, FLAC, OGG, Opus or M4A file (mono or stereo); set root note, detune, volume, pan
  • SoundFont: load SF2 files; edit envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release), filter cutoff and resonance
  • Loop modes: no loop, forward loop, ping-pong loop
  • Reverse playback
  • Non-destructive start and end point trimming
  • Per-instrument real-time effects: low/high/band-pass filter, 3-band EQ, overdrive, bitcrusher, sample rate reduction (Lo-Fi)
  • 4 modulation slots per instrument: envelope shapes (AHD, ADSR) and LFO targeting volume, pitch, filter, pan, and more
  • Save and load instruments as preset files (.pti) — bundles all parameters, table, and modulation settings together

Sample Editor

  • Waveform display with zoom and selection
  • Stereo source mode: use the left channel, right channel, both stereo, or averaged mono — without modifying the file
  • Non-destructive editing: crop, copy, cut, paste within the waveform
  • Reverse, normalize, fade in, fade out, silence a selection
  • Undo last destructive operation
  • Apply effects permanently: overdrive, bitcrusher, 3-band EQ, OTT compressor, dust (vinyl noise/wear)
  • Pitch-shift to match a BPM target without changing length (repitch)
  • Time-stretch to match a BPM target without changing pitch — Akai SOLA algorithm (same "jungle chop" character as the S950/S1000)
  • Auto-detect transients to place slice markers, or divide manually
  • Slice markers embedded in the WAV cue chunk — compatible with M8, Blackbox, Reaper, Logic
  • Export all slices as separate WAV files (CHOP)
  • Assign slice playback mode on the instrument: trigger individual slices by note, play from slice to end, or standard pitch mode

Resampling

Record what's currently playing in the sequencer into a new sample — capture a phrase or a whole section and resample it into an instrument slot.

Mixing & Effects

  • Mixer screen: volume for each of the 8 tracks and the master, plus send amounts to reverb and delay
  • True dBFS peak meters per track
  • Two send effects: reverb (Schroeder-Moorer algorithm) and a stereo delay
  • Route delay output into the reverb — wet delay signal feeds the reverb input with no extra latency
  • Reverb and delay each have their own 3-band EQ
  • Master bus: OTT 3-band compressor or DUST (lofi/vinyl texture) — switchable, with wet/dry depth control — followed by a soft peak limiter
  • Per-instrument EQ also accessible from the instrument screen

Export

  • Export the full song mix as a stereo WAV file
  • Export each track as a separate stereo WAV stem, with reverb and delay send returns rendered alongside
  • Offline render: same DSP chain as real-time playback, sample-accurate

File Management

  • Built-in file browser: navigate folders, sort files, preview samples before loading
  • Convert video files to samples — extract the audio track (.mp4, .mkv, .webm, .3gp, .mov) to a WAV right in the file browser, with a preview before converting
  • Rename files (SELECT+A to enter rename with on-screen QWERTY)
  • Delete files and folders (SELECT+B with confirmation)
  • On-screen QWERTY keyboard for naming projects and files
  • Projects saved as .ptp files in /Documents/PocketTracker/Projects/
  • Instruments saved as .pti files in /Documents/PocketTracker/Instruments/
  • Samples stored wherever you put them; paths stored in the project
  • File move — move files and folders to a different location from within the browser

Look & Feel

  • Theme editor: full RGB palette for every UI color; save and load themes as .ptt files
  • Several built-in themes to start from
  • 6 visualizer modes for the top bar: oscilloscope, flat line, octascope (one scope per active track), full octascope (all 8 track scopes forced on), frequency spectrum, spectrum with peak hold

Controls

  • Full physical button support (tested on Miyoo Flip and Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini)
  • Touch layout: virtual buttons in portrait orientation
  • Virtual button clicks: choose a sound and volume
  • Haptic feedback on button press (toggle on/off)
  • Auto-detects physical vs touchscreen device on launch