A truly great software tool is often an transparent gateway that facilitates easy to use, and powerful control of all that  a chip has to offer.  A great developer needs to combine community input,  in depth knowledge of his platform, and the ability to separate feature glut from usability all in  a tool that makes the creative process easy even for the most basic user. Here are the nominees  for Best Software of 2008

LittleGpTracker – The little LSDJ clone that could kicked it up a notch with tons of usability fixes and more sound design options. With the handheld worlds arguably owned by LSDJ and Nanoloop, more options for different types of sound synthesis and song design are always welcome, and few are as feature rich and usable as LGPT.

maxYMiser – Developer gwEm is one of the Atari ST’s most outspoken advocates and he has produced an extremely well featured and usable sequencer that takes fine advantage of the built in hardware features such as midi and the advanced abilities of the newer ST machines.  Of all the chip platforms, maxYMizer has perhaps the lowest barrier of entry to running your sounds on true hardware, and gwEm is doing his best to let everyone know about it.

Famitracker – Probably the number one entry platform for NES music is turning the corner with experimental support for many expansion chips and advanced midi controls to integrate with an existing studio setup.  With its use in many demo productions, game releases and scene tracks, NSF composition is on a decided upswing, and Famitracker deserves a good portion of the credit.

Hively Tracker – This ambitious new tracker, with cross-platform aspirations shows that the innovation is not limited to retro sound chips alone. With various player support across many devices, 2009 is poised to be a big year for this feature rich and community friendly synth tracker.

Loopy tools for PowerPak – Loopy has given Nesdev and the PowerPak a real shot in the arm with various mapper support, expansion chip additions, and a NSF player that has made it easier than ever to play whatever esoteric NES sound file on true hardware. Its usually a collection of smaller less glamorous tools that really give certain segments of the scene a kick in the teeth, and Loopy has really gone the extra distance for everyones benefit.