Tracker Info

Have you ever tracked songs for frets on fire, using either Feedback or EOF?

Thanks for the interest, we're always looking to bring on new trackers. Have you ever tracked songs for frets on fire, using either Feedback or EOF?

Click the button below to download our sample. Then, using EoF, Feedback, or your favorite editor, track the sample song on all difficulties. Two hints: (1) Synchronization matters more than note choice, and (2) make sure to read our Tracker Guidelines. Tracks that do not meet the guidelines will not be accepted. When you're done, return here to upload your completed sample.

That's fine that you haven't tracked before. Here is how you can get started. Play around with the software, try tracking a few different songs, practice getting the timing right, and then e-mail us your best sample. We'll take a look and either give you access to the tracker resources on JamLegend, or give you some pointers on how to improve.

EoF (Windows, Mac, Linux) and Feedback (Windows only) are the two best pieces of software for tracking songs. For reference, some sites and tutorials will use different terminology: tracking, fretting, or charting a song are all the same thing. We recommend starting with EoF because it is generally eaiser to learn and, once you've tracked a lot, the choice is mostly a matter of personal preference.

Note to OS X users: You will have problems using the MP3 in EoF unless you have installed LAME and Vorbis Tools. An easier way is to convert the MP3 to an OGG file using Audacity, which is free. Just open the MP3 in Audacity, click File > Export and choose OGG as the type. Then, when creating a new project in EoF, select the OGG file and choose "OGG Folder" as the project location.

Check out all of these resources, in order:

• Description of EoF
• Download the current version of EoF
• Tutorial on using EoF

We do enforce certain guidelines for trackings, to make sure that difficulties are appropriate and synchronization is precise. Please READ THE TRACKING GUIDELINES (CLICK HERE) and refer back to them as needed while tracking. We WILL reject tracks that do not meet these guidelines. That said, they are very relaxed guidelines, and give you a lot of freedom to express your personal style.

Beyond the above, there are some good resources hidden in the Frets on Fire forums and wiki.

Here are two tips on starting out. It might be best to read the tutorials and play around a bit to get a feel for the program and the problem, then come back to these and they'll probably make more sense.

1) I cannot emphasize enough how important timing is. Having the notes in time with a song is the most important problem to tackle. When you can, fixed BPMs work best (you'll set the BPM in EOF, which allows you to place notes on beat/bar lines in of the grid, which makes copying/pasting and getting the timing right a lot easier). BUT, as much as we musicians like to think we have internal metronomes, we rarely do and a lot of songs require the use of tempo "anchors" which indicate a BPM change in the song. When using a fixed bpm for the whole song does not stay in time with the band, using anchors makes it MUCH MUCH easier to track. The "Snap to Grid" feature of EOF (it's under the Edit menu) is one of the most useful features, and in songs with tempo changes it is very hard to use the grid without using anchors.

2.) 20ms matters. A lot. There is no such thing as "close enough." Consistency between parts of the song is very important, and very small ms differences can make the difference between a note that is tappable or not. If the guitarist played the same thing twice in the song, it should be tracked the same way twice, and the notes that are tappable in the first should be tappable in the second, and so on. So, again, this means use snap-to-grid, and make sure the downbeat in the song is the downbeat in the tab. If your notes are snapped and the tab is in time with the song, then it should be consistent throughout.

... 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here. Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?

Click the button below to download our sample. Then, track all difficulties according to our tracker guidelines. When you're done, return here to upload your completed sample. Best of luck, we hope you'll be back soon. And remember, if at first your track is terrible, just keep trying.