Furnace (chiptune tracker)

the biggest multi-system chiptune tracker ever made!

downloads | discussion/help | developer info | Unix/Linux packages | FAQ

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downloads

check out the Releases page. available for Windows, macOS and Linux.

for other operating systems, you may build the source.

see here for the latest unstable build.

features

• a large selection of sound chips:
  • Yamaha FM chips:
    • YM2151 (OPM)
    • YM2203 (OPN)
    • YM2413 (OPLL)
    • YM2414 (OPZ) used in Yamaha TX81Z
    • YM2608 (OPNA) used in PC-98
    • YM2610 (OPNB) used in Neo Geo
    • YM2610B (OPNB2)
    • YM2612 (OPN2) used in Sega Genesis and FM Towns
    • YM3526 (OPL) used in C64 Sound Expander
    • YM3812 (OPL2)
    • YMF262 (OPL3) with full 4-op support!
    • Y8950 (OPL with ADPCM)
  • ESS ESFM (like OPL3 but with more features)
  • square wave chips:
    • AY-3-8910/YM2149(F) used in several computers and game consoles
    • Commodore VIC used in the VIC-20
    • Microchip AY8930
    • TI SN76489 used in Sega Master System and BBC Micro
    • PC Speaker
    • Philips SAA1099 used in SAM Coupé
    • OKI MSM5232 used in some arcade boards
  • sample chips:
    • SNES
    • Amiga
    • SegaPCM - all 16 channels
    • Capcom QSound
    • Yamaha YMZ280B (PCMD8)
    • Ricoh RF5C68 used in Sega CD and FM Towns
    • OKI MSM6258 and MSM6295
    • Konami K007232
    • Konami K053260
    • Irem GA20
    • Ensoniq ES5506
    • Namco C140
    • Namco C219
  • wavetable chips:
    • HuC6280 used in PC Engine
    • Konami Bubble System WSG
    • Konami SCC/SCC+
    • Namco arcade chips (WSG/C15/C30)
    • WonderSwan
    • Seta/Allumer X1-010
    • Sharp SM8521 used in Tiger Game.com
  • NES (Ricoh 2A03/2A07), with additional expansion sound support:
    • Konami VRC6
    • Konami VRC7
    • MMC5
    • Famicom Disk System
    • Sunsoft 5B
    • Namco 163
    • Family Noraebang (OPLL)
  • SID (6581/8580) used in Commodore 64
  • Mikey used in Atari Lynx
  • ZX Spectrum beeper
    • SFX-like engine
    • QuadTone engine
  • Pokémon Mini
  • Commodore PET
  • TED used in Commodore Plus/4
  • Casio PV-1000
  • TIA used in Atari 2600
    • including software tuning engine (TIunA)
  • POKEY used in Atari 8-bit computers
  • Game Boy
    • including SOFTWARE ENVELOPES (zombie mode)
  • Virtual Boy
  • Game Boy Advance
    • DMA (direct memory access) two channel mode
    • MinMod software driver by Natt Akuma
  • Nintendo DS
  • modern/fantasy:
    • Commander X16 VERA
    • tildearrow Sound Unit
    • PowerNoise
    • Bifurcator
    • SID2
    • Generic PCM DAC
• mix and match sound chips!
  • over 200 ready to use presets from computers, game consoles and arcade boards...
  • ...or create your own - up to 32 of them or a total of 128 channels!
• DefleMask compatibility
  • loads .dmf modules from all versions (beta 1 to 1.1.9)
  • saves .dmf modules - both modern and legacy
    • Furnace doubles as a module downgrader
  • loads/saves .dmp instruments and .dmw wavetables as well
  • clean-room design (guesswork and ABX tests only, no decompilation involved)
  • some bug/quirk implementation for increased playback accuracy through compatibility flags
• VGM export
• ZSM export for Commander X16
• modular layout that you may adapt to your needs
• audio file export - entire song, per chip or per channel
• quality emulation cores (Nuked, MAME, SameBoy, Mednafen PCE, NSFplay, puNES, reSID, Stella, SAASound, vgsound_emu and ymfm)
• wavetable synthesizer
  • available on wavetable chips
  • create complex sounds with ease - provide up to two wavetables, select an effect and let go!
• MIDI input support
• additional features:
  • FM macros!
  • negative octaves
  • advanced arp macros
  • arbitrary pitch samples
  • sample loop points
  • SSG envelopes and ADPCM-B in Neo Geo
  • pitchable OPLL drums
  • full duty/cutoff range in C64
  • full 16-channel SegaPCM
  • ability to change tempo mid-song
  • decimal tempo/tick rate
  • multiple sub-songs in a module
  • per-channel oscilloscope with waveform centering
  • built-in sample editor
  • chip mixing settings
  • built-in visualizer in pattern view
• open-source under GPLv2 or later.

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quick references

• discussion: see the Discussions section, the official Revolt or the official Discord server.
• help: check out the documentation.

packages

some people have provided packages for Unix/Unix-like distributions. here's a list.

• Flatpak: yes! Furnace is now available on Flathub thanks to ColinKinloch.

• Arch Linux: furnace is in the official repositories.

• Chimera Linux: furnace is in the contrib repository.

• FreeBSD: a package in ports is available courtesy of ehaupt.

• Nix: package thanks to OPNA2608.

• openSUSE: a package is available, courtesy of fpesari.

• Void Linux: furnace is available in the official repository.

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developer info

if you can't download these artifacts (because GitHub requires you to be logged in), go here instead.

NOTE: do not download the project's source as a .zip or .tar.gz as these do not include the project's submodules which are necessary to proceed with building. please instead use Git as shown below.

dependencies

• CMake
• Git (for cloning the repository)
• JACK (optional, macOS/Linux only)
• a C/C++ compiler (e.g. Visual Studio or MinGW on Windows, Xcode (the command-line tools are enough) on macOS or GCC on Linux)

if building under Windows or macOS, no additional dependencies are required. otherwise, you may also need the following:

• libpulse
• libx11
• libasound
• libGL
• any other libraries which may be used by SDL

some Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu or openSUSE) will require you to install the -dev versions of these.

having libintl is recommended for locale support, but if it isn't present, Furnace will use its own implementation.

getting the source

type the following on a terminal/console: (make sure Git is installed)

git clone --recursive https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace.git
cd furnace

(the --recursive parameter ensures submodules are fetched as well)

compilation

your typical CMake project.

Windows using MSVC

as of now tildearrow uses MinGW for Windows builds, but thanks to OPNA2608 this works again!

from the developer tools command prompt:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..

then open the solution file in Visual Studio and build.

alternatively, do:

msbuild ALL_BUILD.vcxproj

Windows using MinGW

setting up MinGW is a bit more complicated. two benefits are a faster, hotter Furnace, and Windows XP support.

however, one huge drawback is lack of backtrace support, so you'll have to use gdb when diagnosing a crash.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
mingw32-make

you may use "MSYS Makefiles" instead, depending on how you installed MinGW.

macOS, Linux and other Unix/Unix-like

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

on macOS you may do the following instead:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G Xcode ..

...and then load the project on Xcode or type xcodebuild.

CMake options

To add an option from the command-line: -D<NAME>=<VALUE>
Example: cmake -DBUILD_GUI=OFF -DWARNINGS_ARE_ERRORS=ON ..

Available options:

Name	Default	Description
BUILD_GUI	ON	Build the tracker (disable to build only a headless player)
WITH_LOCALE	ON	Enable language support
USE_RTMIDI	ON	Build with MIDI support using RtMidi
USE_SDL2	ON	Build with SDL2 (required to build with GUI)
USE_SNDFILE	ON	Build with libsndfile (required in order to work with audio files)
USE_BACKWARD	ON	Use backward-cpp to print a backtrace on crash/abort
USE_FREETYPE	OFF	Build with FreeType support
USE_MOMO	auto***	Build a libintl implementation instead of using the system one
WITH_JACK	auto*	Whether to build with JACK support. Auto-detects if JACK is available
WITH_PORTAUDIO	ON	Whether to build with PortAudio.
SYSTEM_FFTW	OFF	Use a system-installed version of FFTW instead of the vendored one
SYSTEM_FMT	OFF	Use a system-installed version of fmt instead of the vendored one
SYSTEM_LIBSNDFILE	OFF	Use a system-installed version of libsndfile instead of the vendored one
SYSTEM_RTMIDI	OFF	Use a system-installed version of RtMidi instead of the vendored one
SYSTEM_ZLIB	OFF	Use a system-installed version of zlib instead of the vendored one
SYSTEM_SDL2	OFF	Use a system-installed version of SDL2 instead of the vendored one
SYSTEM_FREETYPE	OFF	Use a system-installed version of FreeType instead of the vendored one
SUPPORT_XP	OFF	Build a Windows XP-compatible binary
WARNINGS_ARE_ERRORS	OFF**	Whether warnings in furnace's C++ code should be treated as errors
WITH_DEMOS	ON	Install demo songs on make install
WITH_INSTRUMENTS	ON	Install demo instruments on make install
WITH_WAVETABLES	ON	Install wavetables on make install
SHOW_OPEN_ASSETS_MENU_ENTRY	OFF	Show option to open built-in assets directory (on supported platforms)
CONSOLE_SUBSYSTEM	OFF	Build with subsystem set to Console on Windows
FORCE_APPLE_BIN	OFF	Enable installation of binaries (when doing make install) to PREFIX/bin on Apple platforms

(*) ON if system-installed JACK detected, otherwise OFF

(**) but consider enabling this & reporting any errors that arise from it!

(***) enabled by default if both libintl and setlocale aren't present (MSVC and Android), or on macOS

CMake Error

if it says something about a missing subdirectory in extern, then either:

1. you didn't set up submodules, or
2. you downloaded the source as a .zip or .tar.gz. don't do this.

if 1, you may run git submodule update --init --recursive. this will initialize submodules.

if 2, clone this repo.

console usage

(note: if on Windows, type furnace.exe instead, or Debug\furnace.exe on MSVC)

./furnace

this opens the program.

./furnace -console <file>

this will play a compatible file.

./furnace -console -view commands <file>

this will play a compatible file and enable the commands view.

note that console mode may not work correctly on Windows. you may have to quit using the Task Manager.

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frequently asked questions

it doesn't open under macOS!

this is due to Apple's application signing policy. a workaround is to right click on the Furnace app icon and select Open.

it says "Furnace" is damaged and can't be opened!

as of Monterey, this workaround no longer works (especially on ARM). yeah, Apple has decided to be strict on the matter. if you happen to be on that version (or later), use this workaround instead (on a Terminal):

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/Furnace.app

(replace /path/to/ with the path where Furnace.app is located)

you may need to log out and/or reboot after doing this.

where's the manual?

it is in doc/.

is there a tutorial?

a video tutorial (of a previous version) is available on YouTube, made by Spinning Square Waves.

I've lost my song!

Furnace keeps backups of the songs you've worked on before. go to file > restore backup.

.spc export?

not yet! coming in 0.7 though, eventually...

ROM export?

not yet! coming in 0.7 though, eventually...

my .dmf song sounds odd at a certain point

Furnace's .dmf compatibility isn't perfect and it's mostly because DefleMask does things different.

my song sounds terrible after saving as .dmf!

you should only save as .dmf if you're really sure, because the DefleMask format has several limitations. save in Furnace song format instead (.fur).

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footnotes

copyright (C) 2021-2024 tildearrow and contributors.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program 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 more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

Furnace is NOT affiliated with Delek or DefleMask in any form, regardless of its ability to load and save the .dmf, .dmp and .dmw file formats. additionally, Furnace does not intend to replace DefleMask, nor any other program.