I know what you're thinking, gentle reader.
You see the timestamp of this submission. You see the number of Plus/4 (Minus/60) entries. And you, my friend, are smiling a bit as you think, "Oh, heh, I get it, this guy threw together a quickie at the last minute just to maybe gain an ill-earned trophy in an under-entered format! I, the reader, perhaps slightly appreciate that hustle, even as I deeply deplore the tactic being used on a website about friendly and honorable competition".
Dear reader, oh how I wish you were right.
It pains me to admit it, but I spent a total of several hours spread out over the course of, well, the entire competition, wrangling with Knaecketraecker. This was the very first project (if the result can even be called that) I started, and it will be the very last one I submit.
Look, I get it. Knaecketraecker is meant for hardcore individuals. I can understand a hardcore individual tracker using hex for its row notation. I can understand a hardcore individual tracker forcing me to type "PT (downarrow)" a bunch of times in lieu of copy-pasting. I can understand something that's touching the raw hardware of Commodore's deservedly-maligned "Minus-60" being a little bit, shall we say, non-standard in how it implements tempo and swing timing.
No note off command? Well, that's, uh, something, but I can just create a blank instrument, it's not the end of the world.
No row shading, though? So I have to memorize which hexadecimal numbers correspond to whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes? That was the penultimate straw, and a straw that was the final straw of many an individual Knaecke session. But, you know, I managed to chin up and slog through it and even brush up on my hexidecimal a little bit.
But no way to insert pattern rows? So if I want to add a few measures early on, I have to basically delete everything and retype it? No. Nuh-uh. Forget it. Nope. That's it. Game over. You win, Knaecketraecker. Enjoy the hours of my time, and I will suffer the indignity of admitting to my peers that this collection of ear-splitting beeps that only begins to develop the raw semblance of a groove at the very end is the best I can manage.
You are a rare format for a reason, mister Plus/4.
