FastTracker II
Ranked 2 of 4 music trackers by recommenders
Recommended for its nostalgic, intuitive, tactile interface, which many people learned music making with. Its PC speaker output option is criticized as poor.
Recommended for its nostalgic, intuitive, tactile interface, which many people learned music making with. Its PC speaker output option is criticized as poor.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Nostalgic and fondly remembered
“For me, Fasttracker II still remains the most nostalgic, intuitive, immersive DAW ever made.”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “User Interfaces of the Demo Scene” “What a nostalgia. I make Finnish dance chart track back in 98 with ft2”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Fasttracker II clone in C using SDL 2” “Anyone who has fond memories of FT2 is a friend of mine!”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “Fasttracker II clone in C using SDL 2” Intuitive, tactile interface
“For me, Fasttracker II still remains the most nostalgic, intuitive, immersive DAW ever made.”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “User Interfaces of the Demo Scene” “how intuitive and tactile it felt to get things done in it”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “User Interfaces of the Demo Scene”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak PC speaker output
“FT2 did have a really shitty PC speaker output option, because almost all of them are shitty”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “Fasttracker II clone in C using SDL 2”
Other music trackers people recommend
The three most recommended other music trackers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renoise | 9 | 1 | 90% | 5 | — | — |
| FastTracker IIThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Orpheus | 7 | 2 | 78% | 7 | 1 yr3 owners | — |
| ScreamTracker | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“What a nostalgia. I make Finnish dance chart track back in 98 with ft2”
“Anyone who has fond memories of FT2 is a friend of mine!”
“FT2 did have a really shitty PC speaker output option, because almost all of them are shitty”
“FT2 was how I discovered anything about music making”
“how intuitive and tactile it felt to get things done in it”
“For me, Fasttracker II still remains the most nostalgic, intuitive, immersive DAW ever made.”
“I'd say that was a very sophisticated piece of software”
“They made great demos and also FastTracker 2!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.