Fasttrakker II is a powerful music program created for MSDOS by Triton Productions in 1996. It allows sampled sounds to be played at diferent frequencies with various effects. With this approach, you could take a sample of one piano key being struck, and then use it as a piano instrument in Fasttrakker. You could also sample a drum loop, and use it for drums.
32 samples can be played simultaneously in 16 bit stereo. Songs in fasttrakker are a combination of sequencing data and instrument samples. This is called a module or mod. Mod music formats have been around since the days of the Amiga which had 8 bit stereo sound. Mod music has been used for years to produce stunning music for demos, intros, and games.
Fasttrakker also has MIDI capabilities. Instead of "playing" your PC keyboard to sequence your songs, you can record live sequences from a MIDI capable piano keyboard.
The following is a list of effects from the Fasttrakker II documentation:
Arpeggio
Portamento up
Portamento down
Tone portamento
Vibrato
Portamento + Volume slide
Vibrato + Volume slide
Tremolo
Set panning position
Sample offset
Volume slide
Position jump
Set volume
Pattern break
Fine portamento up
Fine portamento down
Set glissando control
Set vibrato control
Set fine-tune
Jump loop
Set tremolo control
Retrig note
Fine volume slide
Note cut
Note delay
Pattern delay
Funk it! (Not implemented)
Set speed
Set global volume
Global volume slide
Set envelope position
Panning slide
Multi retrig note
Tremor
Extra fine portamento
Volume column
Set volume
Volume slide
Fine volume slide
Set vibrato speed