f*ck trackers. MIDI input keyboards and piano rolls in fruityloops are far more intuitive and make 100000x more sense as far as music is concerned. You can visualize your music the same way you would with sheet music.
I really thing trackers were designed for non-musicians to make music. There's nothing in a tracker music interface that makes me think a real musician thought it was a good idea. Probably the product of some self-trained music fan with no concept of playing any instrument or reading music but did happen to have a good ear or sense for sound.
Either way, trackers HAVE produced some good tunes, and they are certainly functional. But they are not ideal.
Anyway, most of the musicians doing these RPG soundtracks were probably working with Yamaha DX7s or something of that sort.