The Rohans — Music
A free tracker DAW built for Linux, Steam Deck, and eventually Raspberry Pi. Same grid, same keyboard-driven workflow, just running somewhere other than macOS.
A tracker was designed to run on hardware with almost nothing to spare, a few hundred kilobytes of RAM on the original Amiga builds. That's not far from how a lot of Linux users already think about their own machines: small tools, low overhead, nothing running that you didn't ask for.
Traqueur keeps that footprint. It's one window, driven entirely from the keyboard or a gamepad, with no plugin browser and no background services to slow down a Steam Deck or a Raspberry Pi. The Linux build ships as a Flatpak and is free to install while it's in beta.
Traqueur isn't the only tracker you can run on Linux, and it isn't trying to replace all of them. Here's roughly where it sits:
| Option | What it is | On Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Schism Tracker | Free, open source Impulse Tracker clone | Native, terminal-style interface, developed on Linux for years |
| Renoise | Paid, full-featured tracker DAW | Native Linux build, with mixing and a plugin host |
| OpenMPT | Free, Windows-first tracker | Runs under Wine, no native Linux build |
| Polyend Tracker | Standalone hardware sequencer | Not software at all, no OS involved |
| Traqueur | Free (beta) tracker for portable hardware | Native Flatpak, plus Steam Deck and gamepad support |
Schism Tracker is the closest thing to a spiritual predecessor: free, open source, and it has run on Linux in something close to its current form for years. If you want the exact Impulse Tracker feel, that's the one to grab.
Renoise sits at the other end: a full paid DAW with real mixing and a plugin host, at a price point Traqueur isn't trying to compete with.
The Polyend Tracker comes up in a lot of the same searches, but it's a different category entirely: a physical device with its own screen and buttons, not software you install. If what you're after is something that runs on your own Linux machine, the Polyend isn't really a Traqueur alternative so much as a different kind of purchase.
Traqueur's own angle is narrower than any of those: a free tracker built around gamepad and keyboard control for portable Linux hardware, Steam Deck first, with a Raspberry Pi build coming.
The Linux build is a Flatpak, self-hosted from this site rather than published on Flathub, so you add the repo once and update from there afterward. The full walkthrough, including the graphical Software Center path and Steam Deck's Discover store, lives on the main Traqueur page. The short version from a terminal:
SteamOS is Arch Linux under Valve's desktop shell, so the same install works there once you switch to Desktop Mode, and it's how Traqueur reaches Steam Deck today: through Discover, no separate build required. The gamepad-first control scheme was designed around a controller like the Deck's from the start, not added on for one platform afterward.
A Raspberry Pi build is next. It's still Linux with an ARM chip underneath, and a tracker's resource needs were shaped by decade-old hardware long before anyone was running one on a Pi.
Traqueur looks for a personal sample library at ~/samples
by default on Linux, no configuration required. Create that folder
in your home directory and drop .wav files into it, and it's the
first place the Instrument view's import browser opens.
That's separate from the samples folder each project keeps for
itself. When you start a new song, Traqueur creates its own
samples subfolder next to the project file and copies
in only what that song actually uses, so a finished project stays
self-contained and easy to move around. Think of
~/samples as your working library, and each project's
own folder as what ships with the song.
Not every WAV file loads the same way, and getting the format right upfront saves a round trip through an audio editor later.
| Setting | What works |
|---|---|
| File format | WAV, PCM only (not MP3, FLAC, OGG, or compressed WAV) |
| Bit depth | 8-bit or 16-bit (24-bit and 32-bit float will not load) |
| Sample rate | Any rate loads, but only 44.1kHz plays back at the pitch you recorded |
| Channels | Mono or stereo |
The sample rate one catches people off guard. Traqueur doesn't resample an imported sound to match the session, it plays it back at a speed set by the ratio between the sample's own rate and whatever rate the audio engine is running at, exactly how the original Amiga trackers handled it. Import a sample recorded at 48kHz into a session running at 44.1kHz and it plays back slightly pitched up, not broken, just not what a modern DAW would give you after auto-resampling on import. Bounce your samples at 44.1kHz going in and this never comes up.
Traqueur runs natively on Linux through a self-hosted Flatpak, and it's free to install while the Linux build is in beta. It also runs on Steam Deck through Discover, with a Raspberry Pi build in progress.
By default, in a samples folder in your home directory:
~/samples. Create it and drop .wav files in, and it
becomes the starting point for the Instrument view's import
browser. Each project also keeps its own samples subfolder with
just the sounds that song actually uses.
WAV files only, PCM, 8-bit or 16-bit. Sample rate isn't converted automatically, so a sample recorded at anything other than 44.1kHz will play back at a shifted pitch instead of being resampled to match.
The Polyend Tracker is a standalone piece of hardware with its own screen and buttons, no computer involved. Traqueur is software that runs on Linux, macOS, and Steam Deck, so it's a different kind of purchase: an app rather than a device.