Best pokey trackers? confusion about pokey.

[Victini123]

Hi I have been using MaxYMiser tracker to create music for ST/ STE but I wanted to try making music for earlier Ataris.

I don't really know where to start because I am confused about the different models and sound chips. This is my (may well be wrong) understanding:

The Aatari 8 bit family has a sound chip called pokey which has 4 channels
The ST has the ym2149 chip which has 3 channels
The ST E has an additional chip which allows for 2 additional channels with 8 bit samples

But I hear people talking about upgrades and 2 pokeys and different configurations and I don't even know if there is a good Windows tracker for Atari 8 bit family... I would like to know what the authentic machines had for each model and what the features were, like what the voices were like, and if there are any good trackers. Please help thanks.

[AdamK]

2xPokey is demoscene standard. You can use Raster Music Tracker on PC: http://raster.infos.cz/atari/rmt/rmt.htm

[Victini123]

2xPokey is demoscene standard. You can use Raster Music Tracker on PC: http://raster.infos.cz/atari/rmt/rmt.htm

Thank you, I will give this a try. So all the Atari 8 bit computers just had one pokey chip? But musicians use two to get more channels? Or did some authentic Atari models have 2 pokeys/ could upgrade??? Sorry if that's a stupid question.

[AdamK]

By default, all 8bit Ataris had single Pokey chip. But it is easy (easy if you can handle soldering iron) to upgrade it to 2 Pokeys, and some people even went to four Pokeys. As I wrote before, demoscene standard is two Pokeys.Yo can buy a kit to do that here: http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=45 I'm no musician, so I can't really tell you what musicians use it for. Making noise I guess