Trackman

MIDI Sequencer for the Atari ST/TT

What's new? I've added Trackman's companion, MIDIman.

In March 1986 I started playing the SynthAxe. This amazing instrument can produce so much MIDI data that one touch of the wammy bar would crash almost any sequencer available at the time. The SynthAxe also needs 6 MIDI channels recorded at once, a pretty rare feature.

It took about 6 months to get a prototype up and running. A few friends were also using it so the requests for new features started rolling in. It soon grew to a full blown commercial product and was released as Trackman for the Atari ST. It closely mimics the operating procedures of the LINN 9000 (rather expensive and quite amazingly unreliable integrated sequencer and drum machine) I was using previously, but is very stable and obviously includes many things you cannot do with a 2 line LCD display.

Trackman enjoyed rave reviews from all the music magazines and much acclaim from users. In the studio I continue to use Trackman in preference to more recent PC based sequencers. It's very quick and intuitive to use so you spend your time making music instead of fiddling with the computer. If you have an Atari ST/TT/Falcon download Trackman (90K) and try it yourself.

NB: This is the full commercial version 2.5 release but with the copy protection removed. Trackman is not a current Hollis Research product and there is zero technical support. The Trackman trademark is now owned by Logitech SA.

A number of people have requested some documentation. You can now download the manual but the chapters are in Calamus (.cdk) format so will not be of use unless you happen to have Calamus. Alternatively, we do have a few copies of the original 60 page A5 printed manual (punched but without binders). It will cost you £10 to get someone here to fetch a copy out of the basement and post it to you! Email me, john@hollis.co.uk if you want a copy.

Trackman's Main Page

Trackman's Screen Editor

MIDIman

MIDIman is a universal editing controller supplied as a desk accessory. It comes complete with over 40 profiles for different synths and general purpose MIDI control. It integrates fully with Trackman enabling you to connect them together in various ways. You can download MIDIman and the zip file is only 93K. There's no docs yet but I'll look them out when I can.

Back to John's Obsessions.

Revised and Verified: December 1st, 1997
Please send comments to: john@hollis.co.uk