The History of Noise Tracker GS
by Charles T. Turley 

I've been fascinated  and involved with sound and music for many years.  I bought
my first Apple IIgs 01 ROM computer, in 1986, because I found it very useful for
my sound and music needs.

As time progressed over the years, I've used all the IIgs' music programs.  The
IIgs is unique, with its built-in Ensoniq 5503 DOC (digital oscillator chip). 
But, I found the limitations of 64k RAM samples with the music composition and
the lack of music program special effects, frustrating.  Compared to some of the
other computers and what they had to offer, with sound and music, I was
seriously considering another computer.

Then, Al Switzer(prof.Zap), the same friend who first introduced me to the IIgs
back in 1986, also introduced me to the first beta v0.30 release of Noise
Tracker GS. As soon as I listened to the music it presented, I knew the
limitations, with all the other music programs, were no longer of any concern to
me.

Noise Tracker GS, with its ability to use both RAM based sound banks and the 64k
Ensoniq RAM banks together, for sample sound presentations, limited only by the
amount of RAM memory available, opened up an entirely new series of creative and
expressive music composition options with the Apple IIgs.

With each updated release of Noise Tracker GS, the abilities of the program
expanded the Apple IIgs' music formats and composition options.  Version 0.70
presented the NT module format, along with refined options for loading
SoundSmith music and importing music modules originally created first, on the
Amiga and Atari ST computers.

The abilities of Noise Tracker GS fascinated me.  I began spending all of my time
studying the program and what it could present with music compositions.  I was
eager to attempt some Virtual (3-D) Audio compositions and needed to use both
right and left channels for such efforts.  I was able to do this, using the RAM
based sound bank.  But, when attempting the same with the Ensoniq RAM bank,
problems developed.

Version 0.70 had certain restrictions.  When attempting to use both right and
left channels together in the Ensoniq RAM bank, the program would lock up on me.

With the release of Noise Tracker GS v1.0, the restrictions with the Ensoniq RAM
bank no longer existed.  The improvements and sound enhancements with version
1.0 were fantastic.  I spent every spare moment available, composing my first
attempts with Virtual (3-D) Audio designed music with it.

I was hoping to see additional functions, improvements and enhancements with
updates to the program.  After waiting for over a year for an update and finding
none available, I decided to write to the programs author, Olivier Goguel, to
ask him when an update to Noise Tracker GS would be released.

I mailed Olivier a package with many of my Virtual (3-D) Audio music
compositions and thanked him for his efforts, in developing such a fantastic
music program for the Apple IIgs.  I enclosed $20 and requested any updates he
had for release of Noise Tracker GS.  I also enclosed a list of improvements and
enhancements, I thought would be useful with updates to the program, for his
review and comments.

I received a reply from him a few weeks later, expressing that he was sorry to
inform me that v1.0 was the final release for Noise Tracker GS from him, because
the FTA was dead, 'FEU' in french and he had no plans to do any more with the
program.  He expressed how much he liked the music I sent him, thanked me for
the $20 contribution and told me how sorry he was that my wishes for an update
to Noise Tracker GS would not be available from him.

Most Noise Tracker GS users assume that the program was an FTA creation and
release. Actually, Olivier Goguel was the programmer and author entirely, for
the program.  He conceived it, developed it, coded it and released it with
music, animation, icons and graphic routines given to him, from his friends and
past members of the FTA, as a final tribute to the memory of the 'FEU' (dead)
FTA.

If you'll carefully check v1.0 of Noise Tracker GS, you'll note that it saves
sound files noted as v0.60, which is actually what Noise Tracker GS v1.0 was
developed from.  When I pointed this out to Olivier in one of our many telephone
conversations and asked him about it, he explained that it was indeed developed
from that unreleased beta version and he forgot to change the reference to v0.60
in the dialog.  We also discussed the possibility of upgrades for Noise Tracker
GS in many of our telephone conversations.

I wrote to Olivier again, expressing how much this computer needed the
continuation with the upgrade and development of Noise Tracker GS, asking him if
I could continue with such efforts.  With his reply  by mail, came the entire
SRC.CODES for Noise Tracker GS, with the rights to continue with development and
upgrades for it.

I continued to keep in close contact with Olivier by phone and mail.  We
developed a warm friendship and co-founded the One World Software Wizards
development team.

I was given rights and SRC.CODES for all of Olivier's programs, music, demos,
routines, (both released and unreleased - finished and unfinished) to continue
with their upgrades and development efforts for the 1WSW team.

The first improvements to Noise Tracker GS resulted when I furnished the
SRC.CODES to our (then) 1WSW team associate, Ken Mock for assistance with
upgrade efforts.  With Ken furnishing the SRC.CODES, Ian Schmidt and James
Brookes made a '24 hour' hasty series of patches, using several epitome attempts
with modifications and improvements, by enhancing the sound abilities, filtering
efforts, improving its abilities to load more imported module formats and faster
swap routines.

With the Release of version 1.20, we eliminated some problems that resulted with
saving and reloading samples from the Ensoniq RAM bank, along with various other
minor sound improvements and many proper dialog changes.

When Dave Swanson joined our 1WSW team, he properly updated Noise Tracker GS to
v1.30, our holiday release in December '93, giving it additional sound
enhancements, filter refinements and faster sound swap improvements, repaired
its abilities to correctly save and load sound samples from both RAM based banks
and Ensoniq RAM banks and some more dialog changes.

Noise Tracker GS has certainly been a well received and favored music program
and a fantastic blessing for this computers music composition abilities.  It's
gone through many changes, having transcended from its very first conceptual
alpha state, as a small binary file named NoiseBlaster II, when it was nothing
more than a simple sound sample loader and preview utility from Olivier Goguel,
to its current upgrades with the current released v1.40, including many internal
improvements by our '1WSW Master Programmer', Dave Swanson.

You could say it's gone through its Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta states, now
progressing on towards its ultimate 'Omega Factor' capabilities, with the
continual upgrade efforts from our 1WSW team members, to improve it to its
fullest abilities.

Tony Morales, has independently developed the NT MOD Player GS/OS application
program for playing the NT music module format, having included the
functionality of tool 220 in the program, thus eliminating the necessity of
tool 220.

Dave Swanson, myself, Tony Morales and several others worked on the next upgrade
and released Noise Tracker GS v2.0, (a complete rewrite of it as a GS/OS desktop
application) with some more amazing enhancement and improvement efforts, along
with many of our other team members, releasing it into the public domain, with
all beta's and src. codes for the program.

Noise Tracker GS lives on in the public domain today, awaiting improvements and
updates by other talented IIgs programmers who want to and can still continue to
push the Apple IIgs to its maximum musical abilities.

With the status of Noise Tracker GS in the public domain today and the new
influx of IIgs programmers looking for new programming projects to undertake,
who knows what might result.  You can't kill a great music program, just like
you can't kill the great computer it was designed for.

There may even be some individual efforts with other programs based on Noise
Tracker GS compatibility on other computer platforms.  You've all got some
amazing music program surprises in store for you in the future.   The best is
yet to come - I hope. So, go for it folks!