A chiptune tracker in your pocket.
WBTRK is a music tracker for iPhone, inspired by LSDJ and the Dirtywave M8. Write phrases, stack them into chains, arrange six channels into a song — anywhere, offline, with nothing leaving your device.
Download on the App StoreWhat it is
A tracker is a sequencer where music is written as text in a grid: each row is a step in time, and each cell holds a note, an instrument, and effects. Trackers powered the demoscene and the Game Boy era, and they're still one of the fastest ways to write electronic music — especially with two thumbs.
WBTRK brings that workflow to the iPhone. The synth engine, the sequencer, and your songs all live on the device: it works in airplane mode, sends nothing anywhere, and asks for no account. Songs export as .wbtrk files and render to .wav audio through the normal iOS share sheet.
Made in Sweden by hejluxom.
What's inside
Going deeper
Mix six channels live.
Every channel gets a fader from 0 to 150%, with mute, solo, and pan. Faders slide under your thumb, double-tap a pan to re-centre, and it all saves with the song. Press play right on the page and balance the track as it runs.
Loop one channel, free the rest.
Place an STP to mark a loop start and a JMP to send a channel back to it. That channel cycles on its own — a held drone, a drum ostinato — while the other five play the arrangement straight through. Each channel follows its own path on one shared clock.
00 00 03 ·· 08 ·· STP
01 00 03 ·· 08 ·· 10
02 01 04 06 09 ·· 10
03 01 04 06 09 ·· JMP
04 02 05 07 ·· 0A ··
Make it breathe.
The RANDOM effect rolls fresh dice every time a note plays. Turn on any target — pitch, octave, detune, volume, the envelope, pan, or whether the note sounds at all — and give each a chance and a range. Two notes are never quite the same. The fastest way to humanise a stiff pattern.
Different speeds, one clock.
Drop a TEMPO effect to shift a channel's speed by a set number of BPM — faster or slower than the song, and only that channel. It holds until another TEMPO changes it. Run a half-time bassline under a double-time lead; everything stays locked to the same pulse.
How to use it
Three ideas carry the whole app: notes live in phrases, phrases stack into chains, and chains line up across six channels in the song. Everything else — instruments, effects, tables — decorates those three.
Three gestures do the editing everywhere: tap moves the cursor, double-tap places a value (or clears one), and long-press opens a picker with every option. Every page has a ? button with its own help.
The app opens with a small demo song — press play on the SONG page first, just to hear it working. Then build your own:
1 · Write your first phrase
The phrase page is the note grid. Double-tap the first note column on row 00 to drop a note, or long-press it to choose one — the picker has octave buttons and previews every note as you tap it. Put notes on rows 00, 04, 08 and 12 for a simple one-bar riff.
Press the play button to loop the phrase while you edit. A phrase row can hold up to four notes — a chord — plus an instrument and two effects.
2 · Pick a sound
Long-press the I column on your first note and choose instrument 00. Then open the INS page: step through the ten engines with the ◀ ▶ arrows — try PULSE for that Game Boy bite — and shape it with the volume, envelope, and engine controls. The play button previews the instrument as you tweak.
3 · Stack phrases into a chain
A chain plays phrases in order. On the CHA page, double-tap row 00 to place phrase 00, then place it again on rows 01–03. The TRSP column transposes a row in semitones — set row 03 to +12 and the riff jumps an octave for the last bar.
4 · Arrange the song
The song page is six channels wide. Double-tap channel 1, row 00 and your chain lands there. Press play — that's your song playing from the top. Add a bassline: write a low phrase (try the SUB engine on a new instrument), chain it, and drop that chain onto channel 2. Want a channel to loop on its own? Drop an STP where the loop starts and a JMP to send it back — that channel cycles while the rest play on.
5 · Add movement with effects
Back on the phrase page, long-press the FX1 column on a note and pick an effect slot. The FX page works like the instrument page: arrows choose the effect type — VIBR wobbles the pitch, ARP rolls a chord, DELY echoes, RANDOM rolls fresh dice on every note, TEMPO shifts the channel's speed — and steppers set its parameters. Each note carries up to two effects, and effect slots are shared, so one tweak updates every note that uses it.
6 · Balance it on the mixer
The MX page lays out all six channels side by side. Slide each fader to set its level (up to 150%), mute or solo channels to focus while you work, and pan them across the stereo field. Press play right here and mix the whole song as it runs — every setting saves with the project.
7 · Tables, when you're ready
Tables are the deep end: a 16-row sequence attached to an instrument that runs on every note. The TRANSP column re-pitches per row (a +0 / +3 / +7 cycle is an instant arpeggio), VOLUME shapes per-row dynamics, and the FX column switches an effect on and off as the table runs. Assign a table on the instrument page and every note using that instrument comes alive.
8 · Keep it, share it
Your song auto-saves on the device and reopens where you left off — no save button needed. When it's done, the PROJ page exports it as a .wbtrk file (open it on any device running WBTRK) or renders the whole song to a .wav you can share anywhere. Start fresh any time with new song.
Tips: the OPT page has 26 themes and a colour-by-colour theme editor. Every page's ? explains exactly what you're looking at. And if you make something — send it over, I'd genuinely love to hear it.
Support & contact
Questions, bugs, ideas — email [email protected]. Common questions are answered on the support page.
WBTRK collects no data, so there's nothing to unsubscribe from and no account to delete. Details in the privacy policy.