PokeyForge

Audition, inspect, and curate Atari RMT instrument files.

PokeyForge is a standalone Windows tool for working with .RTI files — the instrument format used by Raster Music Tracker (RMT) on the Atari 8-bit. It lets you:

• Browse a whole folder tree of .RTI files at once.
• Play any instrument across the keyboard at different pitches, so you can hear what it actually sounds like without opening each one in RMT.
• Inspect an instrument's internals — its parameters, AUDCTL flags, envelope, and note table — laid out on a single screen.
• Edit an instrument in place: move a cursor through any field, type new values, rename it, and hear the change immediately.
• Collect the ones you like into a 64-slot bank, audition any slot, then save it as both a set of individual .RTI files and a single .RMT module that RMT can open.
• Reload a saved bank later, switch between instrument libraries, and pick up where you left off — PokeyForge remembers your last library and the last instrument you were on.

The sound is produced by the exact same emulation RMT itself uses (the Altirra POKEY and 6502 cores plus the RMT tracker driver), so what you hear in PokeyForge is what you'll hear in RMT.

How edits are saved: PokeyForge never overwrites your original .RTI files. Edits live in a working copy; to keep them, put the instrument in the bank (+ or Ctrl+Ins) and save the bank (F2). Anything modified-but-unsaved is marked orange so you can see what still needs saving.

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Features

Authentic sound

• Plays instruments through the real RMT signal chain — an emulated 6502 running the RMT tracker driver into an Altirra-grade POKEY core — so the output matches Atari hardware and RMT itself.
• PAL/NTSC clock toggle; ±octave transposition.
• Live master oscilloscope showing the channel-1 waveform as it plays.

Browse a whole library at once

• Recursive folder scan of every .RTI under a directory.
• Multiple list views: Folders, By Category, All, and No dupes.
• Type-to-search filter bar to jump to an instrument by name.
• Automatic categorisation (bass / lead / percussion / noise-FX / pad) and duplicate detection across the library.
• Directory scrollbar with a draggable thumb on the right edge of the tree pane — drag, click the track to page, or use arrow keys.
• The category/folder containing the current selection auto-expands so the highlighted instrument is never hidden under a collapsed parent.
• Right-click any directory entry to drop it straight into the bank (same effect as +, but without changing the instrument you're editing — and sound-identical duplicates are detected and just highlighted rather than re-added).
• Drag-and-drop a folder or a single .RTI onto the window to load it.

Audition

• Play any instrument chromatically across the keyboard (a–z, 0–9).
• Browse with the arrow keys / mouse wheel; Esc silences without exiting.
• Sample any bank slot in place with Ctrl + an audition key.

Inspect & edit

• Every instrument laid out on one screen: parameters, AUDCTL flags, envelope, and note table.
• Move a cursor through any field and edit with hex/decimal entry, Shift+↑/↓ nudge, or right-click bit toggles — and hear the change immediately.
• Rename instruments inline.
• Full undo / redo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y).
• Export an edited instrument as a new standalone .RTI (Ctrl+S).

Build a bank

• Curate a 64-slot bank; copy / cut / paste / reorder slots in EDIT mode.
• Right-click any bank slot for a context menu (New / Clear / Export RTI / Import RTI) — build instruments from scratch, replace a slot in place, or export a single slot to a standalone .rti. Clear and Export are greyed out on empty slots; hovered items light up so it's obvious which option you're about to pick.
• Save the bank as a set of individual .RTI files and a single RMT-compatible .RMT module (plus a manifest).
• Reload a saved bank, switch libraries on the fly, and resume where you left off — the last library, bank, and instrument are remembered between runs.

Standalone & self-contained

• Single Windows .exe, no installer and no MFC — built in C++17 with SDL3.
• App icon, splash screen, in-app About and F1 keybindings overlay, and friendly error dialogs.

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Getting started

Launch with a folder

PokeyForge.exe "C:\path\to\your\instruments"

PokeyForge scans that folder and all its subfolders for .RTI files and opens ready to play the first one.

Launch with no folder

PokeyForge.exe

If you've used PokeyForge before, it reopens the last library you browsed and jumps back to the last instrument you were on. If there's no remembered library (first run, or the saved folder no longer exists), a folder-picker dialog appears — choose the folder containing your .RTI files. Cancelling the dialog on first run exits the program.

You can change libraries any time with F4 (see Switching libraries below).

Launch with a single file

PokeyForge.exe "C:\path\to\bass1.rti"

PokeyForge loads the file's parent folder and jumps straight to that file.

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The screen at a glance

PokeyForge shows everything on one screen — there are no separate tabs or windows to switch between. As you move through the directory, every panel updates to reflect the currently selected instrument.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Save F2][Load F3][Library F4][Help F1]   Clock:PAL Oct:+0 Bank:03/64  |  <- Menu bar / header
+--------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
|  Directory         |  Instrument: "bass1" v1 (NN ATA bytes) file:b... |
|                    |--------------------------------------------------|
|  v drums/          |  Parameters         AUDCTL [15kHz][HPF1]...      |
|    B kick.rti      |  Tbl Len : 04  ...                               |
|      snare.rti     |--------------------------------------------------|
|  > leads/          |  Envelope                                        |
|    bass1.rti  <--  |   VolR  [F][F][E][C]...                          |
|    bass2.rti       |   VolL  [F][F][E][C]...                          |
|                    |--------------------------------------------------|
|                    |  Note table   [00][04][08]...                    |
|                    |--------------------------------------------------|
|  12 / 87 files     |  Bank  [00-kick][01-bass][02-..][  ]...          |
+--------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| F2 Save F3 Load F4 Library | Ctrl+key sample  Ctrl+Ins set  Ctrl+Del  |  <- Command bar
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

When you turn on Edit mode (F6), the focused panel gets a bright white frame and an edit bar appears above the command bar, naming the field under the red cell cursor, its value and range, and what it does.

Panels:

Panel	What it shows
Menu bar / header	Clickable buttons — Save (F2), Load (F3), Library (F4), Analyse (F7), About, Help (F1) — plus status (PAL/NTSC clock, octave shift, bank fill count, [EDIT] / MODIFIED), and a small live scope in the top-right corner showing channel 1's waveform as it plays.
Search bar (bottom of the right column)	Type-to-filter the instrument list by name (press / or click it).
Directory (left)	The folder tree. > is a collapsed folder, v is expanded. The highlighted row is the instrument you're auditioning. A B next to a file means it's in your bank. Long names are shortened with a trailing ~; the full filename always appears in the instrument header.
Instrument header	The selected instrument's internal name, RTI version, ATA byte size, and the source filename (handy when the tree truncates it).
Parameters	The instrument's 12 main parameters (table length/goto/speed/type/mode, envelope length/goto, volume fade/min, delay, vibrato, frequency shift) plus the 8 AUDCTL flag toggles.
Envelope	The 8-row envelope grid (volume left/right, filter, command, distortion, portamento, X, Y) across each step. Brighter cells = higher values. A red marker shows the envelope's loop (goto) point.
Note table	The instrument's note/frequency table; the loop (goto) step is highlighted.
Bank	Your 64 collected instruments as an 8×8 grid, each tile labelled NN-name (e.g. 00-kick). Saved slots are green; orange slots are added/edited but not yet saved to disk; the slot holding the current instrument has a red border; the selected slot (for Ctrl operations) has a yellow outline.
Command bar (bottom)	Quick reminders of the file/bank actions (F2 Save, F3 Load, F4 Library, the Ctrl bank verbs), the current library path, and transient confirmations like "Saved drums.rmt + 12 .rti".
Edit bar (when editing)	Appears above the command bar in Edit mode: names the focused panel and field, shows its current value + range, and a one-line description of what the field does, plus the editing controls.

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How to use it

Hearing an instrument

Press any letter or number key to play the currently selected instrument at a pitch:

• a–z then 0–9 form one long chromatic scale — 36 semitones in total, from low to high. a is the lowest, 9 is the highest.
• Use [ and ] to shift the whole keyboard down or up by an octave, so you can hear the same instrument in a very low or very high register.

Notes play one at a time. Each instrument plays out according to its own envelope and fade — you don't need to release the key. Press Esc at any time to cut the sound.

Moving through the directory

• ← / → or ↑ / ↓ — step to the previous / next instrument. Hold the key to scroll quickly.
• Mouse wheel — fly through the list (3 instruments per notch).
• Click any instrument in the tree to select it; click a folder to expand/collapse it, or a category header to collapse it.
• PageUp / PageDown — jump 10 files at a time.
• Home / End — jump to the first / last file.
• / — search: start typing to filter the list to instruments whose name contains what you type. Arrows still move through the matches; Enter keeps the filter, Esc clears it.
• Enter — collapse or expand the folder that the current file lives in, to tidy up the tree as you work.

The directory list always wraps around — going past the last file brings you back to the first (via the arrows) — and every panel refreshes as you move.

Building a bank

The bank is your shortlist of favourite instruments — up to 64 of them.

Selecting a slot: click a bank tile with the mouse, or press Tab / Shift+Tab to move the yellow selection cursor. The selected slot is the target of the Ctrl operations below. Clicking a filled slot also loads it as the current instrument (so you can edit it).

Adding:

• + (or =) — add the current instrument to the next free bank slot.
• Ctrl+Ins — copy the current instrument into the selected slot, overwriting whatever was there.

Auditioning a slot:

• Ctrl + an audition key (a–z / 0–9) — play the selected bank slot at that pitch. Plain keys (no Ctrl) still play the current instrument, so you can A/B the two.

Removing:

• - — remove the instrument you're currently auditioning from the bank.
• Ctrl+Del — remove the selected slot. (Plain Delete does nothing to the bank, to avoid accidental deletions.)

Right-click context menu: right-click any slot for a small popup with:

• New — replace the slot with a fresh blank instrument (PAR_TBL_SPEED=1, full-volume pulse on envelope column 0 so it's audible immediately), load it as the current instrument, and drop straight into edit mode on its name.
• Clear — wipe the slot (with a yes/no confirm). If the cleared slot was the current instrument, the engine is silenced and its emulated-RAM page is zeroed so a key press can't replay the stale data. Greyed out on empty slots.
• Export RTI — save the slot's stored ATA blob to a standalone .rti file via a Save dialog. Greyed out on empty slots.
• Import RTI — load a .rti from disk directly into this slot (with a confirm if the slot was occupied).

Sound-identical duplicates are detected on every add: if you press + or right-click a directory entry whose ATA blob matches an existing bank slot, the bank cursor jumps to the existing slot and a notice tells you where — no second copy is created.

Added or edited slots show orange until you save the bank, then turn green.

Saving:

• F2 — opens a standard Windows Save As dialog. Type a name and choose a location.

PokeyForge then writes two things at that location:

• <name>.rmt — a single RMT module containing all your bank instruments (with a silent placeholder song). Open it directly in RMT; the instruments populate the instrument table.
• <name>_rti/ — a folder of one .RTI per filled slot (00_kick.rti, 01_bass1.rti, …) plus a manifest.txt. Load these individually in RMT with File ▸ Load Instrument.

Reordering:

• Ctrl+C copies the selected slot, Ctrl+X cuts it, Ctrl+V pastes into the selected slot. Cut + paste moves an instrument to a different slot.

Loading:

• F3 — opens a file picker. Choose either a .rmt file (PokeyForge reads its instrument table) or a saved bank's manifest.txt (PokeyForge re-reads the individual .RTI files). The bank is replaced with what you load.
• The last bank you saved or loaded is reopened automatically on the next launch (remembered in pokeyforge.json).

Editing instruments

Press F6 to toggle Edit mode (the header shows [EDIT]). Browse mode is unchanged; nothing is editable until you turn this on.

In Edit mode:

• The focused panel (Parameters, Envelope, Note table, or Name) gets a bright white frame, and a red cursor marks the exact cell you're changing. The edit bar at the bottom names the field, its value and range, and what it does.
• Tab / Shift+Tab — move between the four panels.
• Arrow keys — move the cell cursor.
• 0–9, A–F — type a value (two-digit fields compose); + / - nudge by one.
• Mouse wheel over the instrument panels (anywhere outside the directory pane) also nudges the focused field by ±1 — handy for sweeping a single parameter without leaving the mouse. Over the directory pane the wheel still scrolls the instrument list.
• Right-click any binary field — an AUDCTL flag, the table type/mode, or an envelope filter/portamento cell — to flip it between 0 and 1 instantly, without typing. (Left-click any field to put the cursor there.)
• Switching to a different instrument exits Edit mode, fully stops any ringing note, and silences the engine so the new instrument starts from a clean slate.
• In the Name panel, type to insert characters, Backspace / Delete to remove (hold to repeat), arrows to move the caret.
• Ctrl + an audition key — hear the instrument you're editing at that pitch; Space re-triggers the last note. Changes are applied and audible live.
• Ctrl+Ins drops the edited instrument into the selected bank slot; Ctrl+Del clears the selected slot.

Edits never touch your original .RTI files. The header shows MODIFIED while a working copy has unsaved changes. Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y undo / redo your edits. If you navigate to another instrument with unsaved edits, PokeyForge asks Keep in bank / Discard / Cancel (click the buttons or press K / D / C) — "Keep" stores the edit into the bank, where it stays orange until you save the bank with F2.

To save an edited instrument on its own (not via the bank), press Ctrl+S to export it as a new .RTI — a Save dialog lets you choose the name and location. The original file is left untouched.

Switching libraries

F4 opens a folder picker so you can point PokeyForge at a different folder of .RTI files without restarting. The tree, file list, and panels refresh to the new library, and the choice is remembered for next launch. (Your bank is left untouched when you switch.)

Analysing & organising

PokeyForge analyses every .RTI in your library to:

• Find duplicates — two instruments are duplicates if their sound definition is byte-identical, regardless of filename or instrument name. The first one (alphabetically) is kept; the rest are hidden from the browse list and tree. Your files are never deleted — F9 shows/hides the duplicates again at any time.
• Categorise each instrument (Bass / Lead / Percussion / Noise-FX / Pad / Other) from its parameters and envelope. F8 toggles the directory pane between the normal folder view and a grouped-by-category view.

The results are cached in analysis.json in the library folder, so the next time you open that library the categories and de-duplication are restored automatically.

When analysis runs. PokeyForge runs analysis automatically the first time a given library is opened (startup, F4 Switch Library, or drag-dropping a folder onto the window) and whenever the classifier has been bumped since the cache was written. A "Analysing instruments..." splash appears while it works — typically a fraction of a second per hundred files. Subsequent opens with a matching version read the cached analysis.json instantly. F7 (or the Analyse menu button) is an explicit re-run — use it after adding or removing files in the library folder.

Cache versioning. analysis.json carries an integer "version" field that's compared against Analysis::kAnalysisVersion in the source. When we ship a release that changes the decision tree or adds a category, the constant bumps and your cached file is treated as missing — so every user's library gets re-analysed on the next launch without manual intervention.

How categorisation works. PokeyForge runs each .RTI through a fixed set of heuristics over its parameters, envelope, and note table; the checks fire in order and the first match wins, so a single instrument can only land in one bucket. The 13 buckets are: Bass / Lead / Lead (vibrato) / Arp / Chord / Pad / Bell / Kick / Snare / HiHat / Perc / Swept FX / Noise / FX / Other.

Signals used:

Signal	What it measures
Channel join	AUDCTL bit JOIN_1_2 or JOIN_3_4 — POKEY pairs adjacent channels into a 16-bit-period bass voice.
Dominant distortion	The most common POKEY distortion value (bits 1–3 of AUDC) across the used envelope columns. 0x0/0x8 are noise/poly; 0xA is the pure tone (square pulse).
Distortion transient	The distortion at the first column compared to the dominant of the rest — a snare hits with a pulse and rings out as noise; this signal catches that pattern.
High-frequency AUDCTL	15KHZ, 179_CH1, or 179_CH3 bits — POKEY's bell-like / bright modes.
Note table variation	The number of distinct values in the used range of noteTable[]. ≥ 3 distinct values (or ≥ 2 across ≥ 3 entries) is an arp / chord.
Vibrato	PAR_VIBRATO non-zero — periodic pitch wobble applied by the driver.
Filter sweep	The FILTER envelope row is non-constant across the used columns.
Envelope length	PAR_ENV_LENGTH — number of envelope columns the instrument actually plays through.
Loop point	PAR_ENV_GOTO < envLen — does the envelope loop back to an earlier column instead of running once and stopping?
Volume fade	PAR_VOL_FADEOUT — per-frame volume decay applied after the envelope ends. ≥ 8 is a fast fade (short tail).
Filename hint	Common tokens in the file's name (kick, snare, bd, hat, bass, lead, pad, arp, bell, fx, ...) — used only when every other rule above has fallen through.

Decision tree (top-down, first match wins):

1. Channel join is on → Bass.
2. Note table has ≥ 3 distinct values (or ≥ 2 with a length of ≥ 3) → Arp / Chord (melodic pattern baked into the instrument).
3. High-frequency AUDCTL bit set AND distortion is pure tone (0x0A) → Bell (bright tonal voices).
4. Envelope ≤ 5 columns AND fast fade — drum-kit branch:
   1. Distortion transient between start and tail (noise ↔ pulse) → Snare.
   2. Dominant noise AND envelope ≤ 2 → HiHat (very short noise hit — hats, shakers, cymbals).
   3. Non-noise distortion AND 2–5 columns → Kick (pulsey transient drum).
   4. Anything else short + fast → Perc (claps, woodblocks, generic blips).
5. Filter row sweeps (non-constant) AND not looping → Swept FX.
6. Dominant noise distortion (longer than a drum hit) → Noise / FX.
7. Envelope loops AND not fading quickly → Pad (sustaining tones).
8. Pure-tone dominant AND vibrato non-zero → Lead (vibrato).
9. Pure-tone dominant → Lead.
10. Filename token matches a known category keyword → that category.
11. Everything else → Other.

The classification is still heuristic — treat the categories as a helpful rough grouping, not a strict taxonomy. Authoritative definitions live in src/Analysis.cpp (Analysis::Classify).

Audio-rendered features (v3). Beyond the parametric signals above, PokeyForge now also renders each instrument through the engine for ~186 ms at startup-analysis time and pulls back audio features from the resulting PCM:

Feature	What it measures
RMS profile (early / mid / late)	Volume envelope shape - peak-up-front + quiet tail = percussive; sustained mid+late = pad-like.
Zero-crossing rate	Direct measure of noisiness from the rendered waveform.
Peak position	Where the loudest sample sits in the window - 0 = attack-heavy, 1 = swelling.
Spectral centroid	Brightness in Hz (mid-window FFT). Catches bell / mallet sounds whose AUDCTL bits aren't set but which sound bright via high-pitched note tables.
Spectral roll-off	Frequency below which 85% of the signal energy sits.
Spectral flux	Frame-to-frame magnitude change - high values mean an evolving / swept timbre.

These features are conservative: they refine the parametric tree but never override it on their own. They catch four specific cases the parametric rules miss: (a) percussive sounds with unusual envelope lengths; (b) ambiguous-distortion hits where ZCR confirms noise; (c) animated FX with no explicit FILTER envelope; (d) bright tonal voices whose AUDCTL didn't set the high-frequency mode.

The audio thread is paused while analysis runs, so the shared engine isn't contended; the live instrument is reloaded when analysis finishes and audio resumes seamlessly. Analysis time is ~10-30 ms per instrument, so a 500-file library takes a few seconds. The splash shows a live "N / M (X%)" counter while it works.

Category colours. Once a library is analysed, instrument rows in the directory tree are tinted by their effective category so you can see the mix at a glance without switching to Category view. The palette is deliberately soft — enough hue separation to read groupings, not enough to turn the pane into a rainbow:

Category	Colour
Bass	Cyan
Lead	Amber
Lead (vibrato)	Deeper amber
Arp	Green-yellow
Chord	Green
Glide	Teal
Pad	Soft purple
Bell	Pale yellow
Kick	Pink-red
Snare	Salmon
HiHat	Grey-pink
Perc	Dusty rose
Swept FX	Light blue-grey
Noise / FX	Grey-blue
Other / unanalysed	Default text grey

A row is dimmed toward the panel background when the classifier's confidence score is 1 (just one signal voted for the result) — those are your "manual review please" rows. The selection highlight always reads white-on-accent regardless.

Two extra markers appear next to the file name:

• B — this instrument is already in your bank.
• M — this instrument has a manual category override (see below). B takes precedence when both apply.

Clusters view. Categories tell you what kind of instrument something is; clusters tell you which other instruments it sounds like. After analysis, PokeyForge runs k-means over the 8-dimensional audio-feature vector of every non-duplicate file and groups the library into N clusters of sonically-similar instruments. Features are standardised per dimension before clustering, so the result isn't dominated by whichever feature has the widest raw range; k-means++ seeding keeps the result deterministic.

• F10 (or the Clusters view-tab) groups the directory tree by cluster instead of folder or category. Each header reads Cluster N (count); unclustered files (duplicates and any that the audio render couldn't capture) land in a separate (unclustered) group at the bottom.
• The number of clusters defaults to ceil(sqrt(N/2)) clamped to [3, 12] — small libraries get 3 clusters, very large libraries cap at 12.
• Ctrl+] / Ctrl+[ override the cluster count for the next analysis run (the notice bar shows the active value). Press F7 to re-analyse with the new k. Ctrl+] … Ctrl+[ … Ctrl+[ back to 0 goes back to the automatic choice.

Two instruments in the same cluster mean the analyser's audio measurements (RMS shape, ZCR, spectral centroid / rolloff / flux) sit near each other in feature space — i.e., they share an overall sonic character, even if they have different POKEY parameters or live in different categories.

Manual overrides. When the classifier puts a file in the wrong bucket, you can override it without re-running analysis:

• Right-click any directory file → Override category ▸ opens a colour-coded picker listing every category plus a Clear override (auto) row.
• Ctrl+R on the current file cycles its category through every value and then back to "use auto" — fast when you're flipping a few files without leaving the keyboard.
• Ctrl+Shift+R clears every manual override in the library at once (with the count shown in the notice bar — there's no confirm, but setting overrides again is trivial).

Overrides are persisted as a manual field in analysis.json and survive across analysis re-runs. The tree shows an M marker next to overridden files; the instrument header's second line shows Cat: Lead [M] so you can see at a glance that the displayed category isn't the analyser's automatic guess.

Instrument header readout. While an instrument is loaded, the panel header now shows a second line of analysis metadata:

Cat: Lead (conf 3)   Tags: bright, animated   Cent 2.1k  RMS 0.15  ZCR 0.22  Flux 0.08

• Cat — the effective category (manual override beats automatic).
• conf — confidence (count of signals that voted for this category). [M] appears after the category when an override is active.
• Tags — the sub-tag bitmask, comma-separated. Tags are orthogonal to the category and can include vibrato, bright, dark, loud, quiet, animated, highfreq, ascending, descending.
• Cent / RMS / ZCR / Flux — the four most informative audio features cached from the analysis render (centroid in kHz, mean RMS across the three windows, zero-crossing rate, spectral flux).

The line is hidden when no analysis data is available yet (a freshly opened library before its first F7).

Search by tag. The search bar accepts a special @tag syntax to filter by sub-tag instead of filename:

• @bright — only instruments tagged bright.
• @bright,loud — only instruments tagged both bright and loud (AND semantics).
• Plain queries (kick, bass1, …) still do case-insensitive substring matching on filenames.

CSV export. Every analysis run also writes an analysis_report.csv next to analysis.json, with one row per instrument (path, category, confidence, cluster, duplicate flag, tags, and all 8 audio features). Drop it into Excel / pandas / a script to slice your library outside the app.

PAL vs NTSC

F5 toggles between PAL (50 Hz, European Atari) and NTSC (60 Hz, US Atari). This subtly changes the pitch and the speed at which envelopes advance — match it to the system your music targets. PokeyForge starts in PAL.

Display

• F11 — toggle fullscreen. The layout scales to fit and stays correct at any size.
• F1 — show or hide the on-screen keybindings. While it's open, F1 or Esc closes it.

Quitting

Close the window (the title-bar close button or Alt+F4). Esc does not quit — it silences playback so you can stop a long sound without leaving the app.

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Keybindings

Browsing & auditioning

Key	Action
a–z, 0–9	Play the current instrument at chromatic pitches (low → high)
[ / ]	Octave shift down / up
← / → or ↑ / ↓	Previous / next instrument (hold to repeat)
Mouse wheel (over tree)	Move the selection quickly (3 instruments per notch)
Mouse wheel (over edit panels)	Nudge the focused field by ±1 (Edit mode only)
Click a tree row	Select that instrument (or expand a folder / collapse a category)
Right-click a tree row	Add that instrument to the bank (dedups by ATA blob)
Drag the directory scrollbar	Free-scroll the tree (click track above/below to page)
PageUp / PageDown	Jump back / forward 10 instruments
Home / End	First / last instrument
/	Search — filter the list by name (type, Enter keeps it, Esc clears)
Enter	Collapse / expand the current file's folder
Esc	Silence playback (or close the help overlay)

Bank

Key	Action
Mouse click	Select a bank slot (filled slot also loads it)
Tab / Shift+Tab	Move the bank selection cursor forward / back
Ctrl + ← / →	Move the bank cursor by one slot
Ctrl + ↑ / ↓	Move the bank cursor by a row (±8)
+ (or =)	Add the current instrument to the next free slot
-	Remove the current instrument from the bank
Ctrl + a–z/0–9	Sample (play) the selected bank slot
Ctrl+Ins	Copy the current instrument into the selected slot (confirm if occupied)
Ctrl+Del	Delete the selected slot (confirm)
Right-click a slot	Open the context menu (New / Clear / Export RTI / Import RTI)
EDIT button (bank panel)	Toggle bank-edit: when on, Ctrl+C/X/V move slots; when off they play
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V	(EDIT on) copy / cut / paste a bank slot (cut + paste = move/reorder)

Editing (F6 to toggle Edit mode)

Key	Action
F6	Toggle Edit mode
Tab / Shift+Tab	Move between Parameters / Envelope / Note table / Name
Arrows	Move the cell cursor (follows the on-screen grid layout)
0–9, A–F	Type a value into the cell
+ / - or Shift+↑ / Shift+↓	Nudge the value up / down
Type / Backspace / Delete	Edit the name (Name panel; hold to repeat)
Left-click a field	Put the edit cursor on that field (enters Edit mode)
Right-click a field	Toggle a binary field (AUDCTL flag, type/mode, filter)
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / redo the last edit
Ctrl+S	Export the current instrument as a new .RTI file
Ctrl + key	Audition the instrument being edited; Space replays

Files & display

Key	Action
F1	Toggle on-screen help
F2	Save the bank (.rmt + .rti folder) via Save dialog
F3	Load a bank (.rmt file or saved bank folder)
F4	Switch to a different instrument library folder
F5	Toggle PAL / NTSC
F7	Analyse: classify instruments + hide duplicates (writes analysis.json)
F8	Toggle folder view / group-by-category
F9	Show / hide duplicate instruments
F10	Toggle Clusters view (k-means group-by-similarity)
Ctrl+R	Reclassify the current file - cycle its manual override
Ctrl+Shift+R	Clear every manual override in the library
Ctrl+] / Ctrl+[	Increase / decrease the k-means cluster count (0 = auto)
@bright in search	Filter by tag (combine with commas: @bright,loud)
F11	Toggle fullscreen
About button	Show the about / credits popup (any key or click closes it)
Drag & drop	Drop a folder (open as library) or a .RTI (open its folder + select) onto the window
Close window	Quit

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Requirements

• 64-bit Windows.
• The program ships with everything it needs next to the executable: the SDL3 library, the POKEY and 6502 emulation libraries, and the RMT tracker driver. Don't separate PokeyForge.exe from those files.
• On first run PokeyForge writes a small pokeyforge.json next to the executable to remember your last library, last bank, and last instrument. Deleting it just resets those memories; it's safe to remove.
• Running Analyse (F7) writes analysis.json into the library folder (the categories + duplicate list for that folder). It's also safe to delete; it just gets regenerated next time you analyse.

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Building from source

Toolchain: Visual Studio 2022 (v143 toolset), x64, C++17. SDL3 (3.4.8) is vendored in the repo under lib/, so there's nothing extra to install.

MSBuild PokeyForge.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

(or open PokeyForge.sln in the IDE and build). The produced executable is PokeyForge.exe.

Output lands in build\Release\, and a post-build step copies the runtime assets (SDL3.dll, sa_pokey.dll, sa_c6502.dll, rmt_driver_v2.obx) next to the exe so it runs in place. See tech.md for the full architecture and internals.

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Roadmap

• Done: browse, play, inspect, and build banks; save banks as .RMT + .RTI files; reload banks; switch libraries; remember your place between sessions; in-place editing of parameters, envelope, note table, and name with live audition and undo/redo; bank slot sampling and Ctrl bank operations; search, auto-categorisation, and duplicate detection; directory scrollbar with auto-expansion of the current selection's parent; right-click context menu on bank slots (New / Clear / Export RTI / Import RTI) with hover highlighting; right-click on a directory entry adds it to the bank (ATA-blob deduplication); mouse wheel nudges edit fields when over the instrument panels.
• Possible future work: stereo (8-channel) playback, multi-voice/chord audition, and selectable RMT driver versions.

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Credits

PokeyForge reuses the audio core from Raster Music Tracker (by Raster / Radek Štěrba, with later work by VinsCool and others) and the standalone POKEY and 6502 emulators (sa_pokey.dll, sa_c6502.dll) from Avery Lee's Altirra. PokeyForge itself is an independent front-end built on top of those components.

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License

The PokeyForge application code (everything under src/) is released under the MIT License — see LICENSE. Copyright © 2026 RetroCoder.

The bundled runtime components are not covered by that license and remain under their respective authors' terms:

• SDL3 — zlib license (Sam Lantinga / the SDL contributors).
• POKEY & 6502 cores (sa_pokey.dll, sa_c6502.dll) and the RMT tracker driver (rmt_driver_v2.obx) originate from Altirra and Raster Music Tracker respectively; consult those projects for their licensing. They are redistributed here for convenience as PokeyForge depends on them at runtime.

If you intend to redistribute PokeyForge, review the upstream licenses for these third-party components.