I am a tracker musician, and I primarily use FTII-derived key control layouts, which are heavy around the keyboard, though in a different way from typing and video games.
This is a mock-up of what the layouts generally look like (based off of a mixture of Renoise, Milkytracker, and Famitracker default bindings, using
this image as a reference)
Purple keys are note keys, numbers denote which octave they are. It is important that these be in US standard as very few trackers are written to be compatible with other key layouts.
Keys with blue on them are used for value entry in the instrument/volume/effect parameter columns.
Keys with teal on them will modify the pattern by removing notes, adding whitespace, or adding different forms of note stops.
Keys with red on them modify the view/note mode the tracker is in.
Keys with bright orange on them are navigation keys.
Keys with green on them are used for inputting effect calls when in the effect number/letter column.
Keys with a black blob on them vary from tracker to tracker but are used for shortcuts to keep your hand from the mouse, different depending on tracker.
And any keys that were not blanked out but do not have a colour on them have a use but I forgot it, since they are probably not used in Renoise.
In order of importance:
1. Typewriter area and arrow keys
2. Insert and backspace
3. Delete (massive speedup in most cases when present)
4. Home/End
Every other key does something you can do with the mouse in modern trackers and are therefore not vital.
The most optimal layout for tracker usage puts all of the navigation keys in generally the same place, lines the top and bottom with mode keys, puts the numpad on the left side instead of the right (doesn't matter really since you can just get any keyboard without a numpad and a separate numpad and it's really mostly my own preference to have it on the left), and doesn't put any of the top-4 importance keys in an FN layer.
