FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) LIST FOR ALT.BINARIES.SOUNDS.MODS official release v2.6 dated 13.11.95 (DDMMYY) READ THIS BEFORE POSTING A QUESTION TO A.B.S.MODS, IT MIGHT BE ANSWERED HERE Maintained by jester (Tobias Reckhard), jester@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Copyright notice: This FAQ is copyright (c) 1995 by jester (Tobias Reckhard), all rights reserved. Sections not written by myself are copyright (c) by the respective authors. This FAQ may be posted to any Usenet newsgroup, on-line service or BBS as long as it is posted in its entirety, includes this copyright statement and is the most recent version (reasonable effort to obtain this is required). This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain. It may not be included in commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the maintainer. Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is believed to be correct, but the originators will not be held responsible for any negative effects of its contents. Anything positive is, of course, our doing ;) (Main sections are separated by a line of 78 equal signs (as below), subsections by 78 minusses, sub-subsections by 39 times "- " (corny ;) ) ============================================================================== [0] Table of Contents [1] General [1.1] Motivation/Purpose of the FAQ [1.1.1] Submitting to the FAQ [1.2] Modules [1.3] Terminology used in this FAQ [1.4] Commonly Used Abbreviations [2] Types of Modules [3] Playing Mods [3.1] Amiga [3.2] Atari ST [3.3] Mac [3.4] MS-DOS [3.5] OS/2 [3.6] UNIX (Sun/Linux/NeXT) [3.7] Windows [4] Creating Mods [4.1] Trackers [4.1.1] Amiga [4.1.2] Atari ST [4.1.3] Mac [4.1.4] MS-DOS [4.1.5] OS/2 [4.1.6] UNIX (Sun/Linux/NeXT) [4.1.7] Windows [4.2] Converters [4.2.1] from MIDI [4.2.2] Mod Format Converters [5] Samples [5.1] Acquisition [5.1.1] Sampling [5.1.2] 'Ripping' [5.1.3] Conversion From Other Formats [5.2] Sample Editors [5.2.1] Amiga [5.2.2] Atari [5.2.3] Mac [5.2.4] MS-DOS [5.2.5] OS/2 [5.2.6] UNIX (Sun/Linux/NeXT) [5.2.7] Windows [5.3] FTP Sites with Samples [6] Obtaining MODs [6.1] FTP Servers [6.2] BBSs [6.3] Newgroup(s) [6.4] WWW [6.5] CD-ROMs [7] Distributing Mods [7.0.1] Compression [7.1] Usenet Posting [7.2] FTP Uploads [7.3] BBS Uploads Appendix A: Contributors/Credits/Greetings Appendix B: Common Properties of Module File Formats Appendix C: Mods and MIDI Appendix D: Musicians Appendix E: All-Time Faves Appendix F: the MOD Charts Appendix G: Availability of Compressors/Archivers Appendix H: Table of Note Frequencies Appendix I: Overview of Effects Used in Digital Music Modules Appendix J: Answers to as yet Unanswered FAQs ============================================================================== [1] General This is the official FAQ for the UseNet Newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds.mods. Should the date on this document be over a month old, you might want to check for a current version. Availability: - It is posted to alt.binaries.sounds.mods, alt.answers and news.answers every two weeks, on Mondays. When this is not possible, the next possible day will be used. - You can also obtain the most recent plain text version of the FAQ by Internet finger, dumping the answer to a file, as in: finger jester@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de > modfaq.txt . If your system fails to find my host, try specifying a terminal number in my address, such as jester@hp21.rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de instead (Or any hpXX, except our servers with designations hp56, hp57, hp88 and hp89). You can also use a finger-by-mail server. Send the following message: Subject: FINGER jester@hp21.rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de To: infobot@infomania.com Message Body: *none* and you will receive the latest plain text version of the FAQ in your mailbox. Note that you will receive the complete FAQ (i.e. both parts), even if the header states otherwise. - Zigg (Matt Behrens) maintains a WWW HTML version of the FAQ at http://www2.gvsu.edu/~behrensm/absm-faq/index.html (This version is always at least slightly behind the ASCII FAQ) - It is archived at rtfm.mit.edu as /pub/usenet/news.answers/sound-file-format/mod-faq/part1 and /pub/usenet/news.answers/sound-file-format/mod-faq/part2 Changes from previous version (v2.5): - removed section on accessing news by email because service has been shut down (6.3.1) - updated Mod4Win version number to 2.30 (3.7) - updated Cubic Player version to 1.5 (3.4) - corrected archive file name for PMP (3.4) ToDo's (contributions on the following topics are either present or in preparation, but didn't make it into this release): - update of Player Pro (Mac player) - AWE32 players ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.1] Motivation/Purpose of the FAQ The newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds.mods (hereafter referred to as a.b.s.mods) is being flooded by a lot of questions lately, most of them cropping up over and over again. These, commonly referred to as Frequently Asked Questions (hence the term FAQ, but you knew that already), are pretty bugging after a while, so this is an attempt at answering them. What is the purpose of this FAQ? Well, it is centered around a.b.s.mods, of course, and deals with the problems that are usually encountered there. It is supposed to help new readers of the group find programs and modules, decode the posts, make contributions of their own and give pointers on where to find further information. This FAQ does NOT attempt to teach you how to make music. As of now, I am also not planning to devote sections of this FAQ to the explanation of certain editors/trackers/players. Should a question concerning a specific program come up very frequently, it would of course qualify as an FAQ, but I do not consider it my job to teach you how to use ScreamTracker, for example. That's the .DOC's job. Keep in mind, please, that I manage this FAQ in my private time, which isn't much anyway. I only know my own hardware platform (MS-DOS/Windows/GUS/SB), so I am dependent on your feedback and contributions. If you have something you feel belongs here or any other form of constructive criticism, don't hesitate to email me with it (see 1.1.1). I check my mail folder almost every day, except on weekends, when I don't have Internet access at all. You can reach me at: jester@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Note: I am NOT Jester/Sanity). If you've contributed to the FAQ, your name and address (optional) will be listed in the contributors section. You will also be entitled to a list of your favourite mods and composers (might be dropped in the future if it becomes too large). Thank you. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1.1.1] Submitting to the FAQ As I already stated, the information included in this FAQ is believed to be correct. If you happen to find errors, inaccuracies or out-of-date information though, don't hesitate to inform me of it. The same applies to suggestions you may have concerning additions or omissions. When submitting to the FAQ, be sure to include all information that is necessary. The easiest way for me is if you take the present FAQ as a guideline. Pre-written and ready-to-use submissions are a lot less prone to errors I could make in editing and summarising your information, helping both of us. Be sure to state which version of the FAQ and which section you are referring to. I archive all versions since beta v0.7. Chances are that if you are submitting to an old version of the FAQ, the information may already be there. So if you think you have something to say, try to obtain the most recent version before going to the trouble of writing a submission. Expect me to ask you to give me more information than is in your submission. So please supply me with a valid email address if my simply replying is not reliable. If an email of mine containing further questions bounces, I will not attempt to find you. I might try some other address specified in your email's header, but don't count on it. Suggestions implying complete rewrites of sections will be considered, but you'll need some damn good reasons. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.2] Modules (What are mods?) Modules are digital music files, made up of a set of samples (the instruments) and sequencing information, telling a mod player when to play which sample on which track at what pitch, optionally performing an effect like vibrato, for example. Thus mods are different from pure sample files such as WAV or AU, which contain no sequencing information, and MIDI files, which do not include any custom samples/instruments. Mods are extremely popular in the demo world and offer a way of making music of an acceptable level of quality rather cheaply. With the advent of high-quality sound hardware, new generations of mods may even rise to a sound quality nearing that of professional equipment. Mods' sequencing information is based on patterns and tracks. A pattern is a group of tracks with a certain length, usually 64 rows (see 1.3). The tracks are independent of each other, meaning that a four track mod can play four voices or notes simultaneously. The patterns can be sequenced in a playlist, so that repeating the same sequence of patterns doesn't require rewriting of them. This makes mods a hybrid between pure sample data files such as WAV, VOC or IFF/8SVX and pure sequencing information files like MIDI. One of the most frequently asked questions is "how do I convert a WAV to MOD?". This can be done, but is rather senseless. The other way around might be interesting for people with enormous hard drives, so they could listen to what used to be a mod at higher quality than before at the cost of several megabytes of drive space (10 MB/min. at 16 bits, 44.1kHz, stereo), or for those who want to show off a mod to others who don't have a mod player (or worse, can only play 8kHz AU files.. ;) ). SoundApp for the Mac, Multiplayer 2.0 for MS-DOS and the upcoming Mod4Win 2.20 are programs that do this. For SoundApp and Mod4Win, see the appropriate sections in this FAQ. The URL for Multiplayer is: ftp://musie.phlab.missouri.edu:/pub/trs/tandy1000/sound/multip20.zip It runs on any 286+ PC (not just Tandy). Numerous mods have been released in the past year that were basically huge samples off a CD (is there a connection to CD-ROM drives gaining increasing popularity?), the only parts actually sequenced were the chorus bits. Most of these mods were some form of top ten hit. These are, in effect, WAV to MOD conversions. I don't mind them floating around, but it is a widely acknowledged opinion that these kinds of mods defeat their own prupose. I therefore don't recommend their making (but this is my opinion). Note that this is NOT the same as using sampled drum loops or riffs in mods. While I don't like these myself either, these do require a lot more sequencing than huge 64KB chunks of a complete song. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.3] Terminology used in this FAQ - Throughout this FAQ, modules will be referred to as 'mods'. This term will be used for all types of modules, be they M.K., 8CHN, ULT, S3M, XM or anything else. IMPORTANT: Note that the term MOD (i.e. capitalized) refers to the group of mods that have this filename extension. - A 'track' is a module voice. The number of tracks denotes the number of notes/instruments/voices that can play simultaneously. - A 'pattern' is the largest sub-unit modules are composed of. Patterns are arranged in an order or sequencing list, so a pattern can be played several times within the same module. Patterns have a fixed length in most formats, but can also be of variable length in others. The standard M.K. pattern is 4 tracks by 64 rows, for example. - A 'row' is the smallest unit of time measurement in which notes can be placed on tracks. A M.K. pattern has 64 rows. OKT and FAR, for example, can have patterns of differing length in the same mod. - A 'slot' is an element of a row, dedicated to hold a specific piece of information. These are notes, volume and effects, for example. - A 'column' is an element of a track, such as the note column, the volume column and the effect column. A 'column' is a group of 'slots' of one type in a common track. - A 'sample' is a digitized sound included in the mod, which serves as an instrument. As mods don't use a fixed instrument set (as General MIDI does), anything can be used as an instrument, including noises or human voices. - A 'channel' is a source of emitted sound. Channel and track are often used interchangeably in the mod community. I'd prefer to define a channel as one of a few sound sources, as in stereo or quadro channels, but this would only prove confusing here. - A 'player' is a program that decodes mods and ouputs these on a sound device. - A 'tracker' is a program that enables creation of mods. Trackers usually feature a 'player'. - A section saying 'NHY' isn't there yet (NHY = Not Here Yet). I don't have any information on the topic. If you do, get back to me immediately! (see 1.1.1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.4] Commonly Used Abbreviations (see section 2 for mod type abbrevs) BPM - Beats per minute. When used in mods, this usually refers to how many groups of four rows are played per minute at default tempo (i.e. ticks per row) settings. This default tempo is 6 in MOD and S3M. Setting the tempo to 3 means that as many groups of eight rows are played per minute as set by the BPM set command. CxSpd - Sampling rate at which a sample is reproduced by a tracker/player when it encounters the note C in octave x. DAC - Digital to Analogue Converter. Digital sound output medium used with the parallel port of a computer. DMA - Direct Memory Access (method of transferring data quickly across the computer's bus, DMA channel is a sound card parameter) FM - Frequency Modulation sound synthesis (used by Adlib and SB in FM mode) FT1 - Mr.H/Triton's FastTracker 1.xx, MS-DOS MOD tracker FT2 - Triton's FastTracker II GUS - Gravis Ultrasound (sound card) Hz - Hertz, metric unit. 1 Hz = 1/sec. Used to express frequencies. IRQ - Interrupt (not only, but also a sound card parameter) PAS - Pro Audio Spectrum (sound card) PT - ProTracker (Amiga tracker) SB - SoundBlaster (sound card) ST3 - PSI/Future Crew's Scream Tracker 3.2 ============================================================================== [2] Types of Mods This is a brief summary of mod types. For further information, see the documentation of file formats and/or the associated trackers' documentation. This is probably the best place to mention that the most common filetype today on the Amiga is still MOD, while S3M and MTM have taken over on PC's. XM is expected to gain popularity pretty quick. In this list, Name refers to the identifier string found in modules of this type or a term, which unambiguously identifies the module format type. The Default Extension is the filename extension typically given to the mod type. Note that, even though they are often used, extensions do not clearly define formats. The No. of Tracks is pretty obviously the number of tracks mods stored in this format can have. The No. of Samples states how many instrument (sample) slots are available in the format. The Sample Properties denote the no. of bits (i.e. the resolution) the format can store and wether the CxSpd is fixed or variable. The Associated Tracker entry is only meant as an example. Name Default No. of No. of Sample Associated Extension Tracks Samples Properties Tracker M.K. MOD 4 31 8 bits/fixed ProTracker xCHN MOD 6/8 31 8 bits/fixed FastTracker 1 FLTx MOD 4/8 31 8 bits/fixed StarTrekker NST MOD 4 15 8 bits/fixed Noise Tracker 669 669 8 64 8 bits/fixed Composer 669 UNIS 669 8 64 8 bits/fixed UNIS669 MTM MTM 1-32 31 8 bits/fixed MultiModuleEdit 1.01b (63)*** (16 bits)*** STM STM 4 31 8 bits/var ScreamTracker 2.xx S3M S3M 16+9** 99 8 bits/var ScreamTracker 3.2 (32)* (255)* (16 bits)* ULT ULT 1-32 64 8/16 bits/var UltraTracker 1.6 XM XM 2-32 128 8/16 bits/var FastTracker II FAR FAR 16 64 8/16 bits/fixed Farandole Composer 1.00 WOW WOW 8 31 8 bits/fixed Grave Composer OKT OKT 4-8 255 7/8 bits/fixed Oktalyzer DMF DMF 32 ?? ?? X-Tracker 0.3 MED MED 4-8**** 32 8 bits/fixed MED/OctaMED**** * - The S3M format is capable of storing these, but there isn't a tracker there yet to implement them. ** - S3M can store 9 FM-based channels (Adlib). *** - MTM supports these, but the current version of MMEdit doesn't allow for them. **** - There are several versions of MED (MMD0, MMD1, MMD2 and MED). MED is the file format prior to OctaMED. All MEDs can be saved as so-called song files, i.e. w/o actual intrument sample data. ============================================================================== [3] Playing Mods This section only features a maximum of 6 players per system. An extended list is available separately (not in this release, but to come). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.1] Amiga This section supplied by Steven Innell , Christian Stieber and Heikki Kantola . All of the following players can be found on aminet in mus/play/ (see 6.1). All of the following players are proper applications, i.e. they use windows and don't hack the hardware (except for the sound hardware). All of the following players use external players to allow for an unlimited number of formats (provided that somebody writes a player). All of the following players support Pro/Noise/SoundTracker, ScreamTracker, FastTracker. I believe that most of the players support MultiTracker and TakeTracker as well (DeliTracker does). - Delitracker V2.14 As with Eagleplayer, a majority of the program has been re-written to speed it up, as well as adding several new players (Deli-AY being one), and improved S3M support. There are also a host of new "Genies", such as the Christmas Snow-Scene, and The Dr-Who genie. Fast Tracker II XM support has been added in version 2.14. This player is my personal favorite (editor's note: Steven Innell speaking), having a better gui, and nicer "feel". It too is a shareware production, costing around $20 (or 20 DM) again to register for. All features are available in the demo version. FTP: mus/play/Delitracker214.lha (757K) - EaglePlayer1.54c This player now has been re-written in areas, making it faster, and better looking. It also added several new "eagleplayers" which has increased the number of mod/music formats which it will play. It currently supports a majority of PC mod formats (S3M, MTM, FastTracker V1) and many Amiga style mods (too numerous to mention). You can also use some of the players from Delitracker, although some do not work, or are already included with the distribution archive. This is a Shareware production, and most features are available (except saving of configs, and mods) in the demo version. The registration fee is around $20. FTP: mus/play/Eagleplay1.54c.lha (807K) - D.A.S.ModulePlayer 3.5b Plays M.K., NST, 6CHN, 8CHN, MTM, S3M, Quadracomposer, MED, FutureComposer, SoundMon 2.0, FRED, MusicAssembler and David Whittaker mods. New formats may be added via external player libraries. Requires MUI for its GUI. Requires AmigaOS 2.0+. Crippled shareware 25 AUD, 70 FIM, $15. FTP: mus/play/DMODP35b.lha (449K) - PS3M V3.12 V3.12 of this player is now the first player to support the PC Fasttracker2 XM style mod. It also supports the other PC favorites (S3M - hence the name, MTM and Fasttracker V1), as well as the standard Amiga MOD format, and also PlaySid format, providing you have the playsid.library in your LIBS: directory. FTP: mus/play/PS3M312.lha (32K) - Hippoplayer V2.12 This is the second player to support the FastTracker 2 XM mods. It is also one of the only players that will uncompress ZIPped files (as well as LHA - as do Eagle/Deli, and LZX'ed files) saving you the bother of having to do it 8*). The sound quality from this player in most cases is IMO the best for the higher channel numbered PC mods (8-16 Ch in XM and S3M formats). It also supports the standard protracker format, and Playsid (providing you have the Playsid.library as with PS3M). In fact, the XM support was taken from PS3M, and so the player routines for the PC format mods are nigh on identical to those from PS3M, the difference being Hippo has a better front-end, making it nicer, and easier to use. Hippoplayer now incorporates directory opus Right Mouse Button selection boxes and external "Scopes" such as the PT-Note scope and various equalisers. Several enhancements and additions have been made to the program in this latest release. FTP: mus/play/HiP212.lha (118K) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.2] Atari Thanks to Dan for this information. Note: To the best of Dan's knowledge, the programs mentioned here can be downloaded via ftp from atari.archive.umich.edu/pub/atari/ and its mirrors. A lot of them are also available from micros.hensa.ac.uk, but gopher of WWW access to this site is mich preferred to ftp as they have a weird directory structure. Atari ST: This machine is very bad at playing MODs 'cause its sound basically isn't up to it. However, a player does exist. It is called Paula and is now at version 2.4. In order to run on the base ST you also need a driver called Petra, which is distributed with Paula. This will handle 4 track PT MOD format. Atari STE/TT/Mega STE: These Ataris have massively improved sound abilities, roughly equivalent to the Amiga. You can use Paula (mentioned above) to playback 4-track PT MODs at a very respectable quality. Other 4 track players are DeskTracker and StarTracker. Atari Falcon030: This latest of Atari's computers has a sound system as standard which blows away all but the most expensive of PC soundcards. It has 8-voice 16-bit stereo sound at 50kHz. This means it is very good at mod playback. It also has a Motorola 56001 DSP chip installed as standard - this chip can mix voices very fast, making 32 track mod playback possible at unbelievable quality. There are literally hundreds of 4-track MOD players out there, ranging from Paula through BSW, CPU_MOD and many more. There are fewer 8-track players and only one 32-track player. The best players for sound quality are: CPU_MOD - Handles 4-track PT MODs only, but gives the best sound quality I've heard. Will run in the background but is expensive on CPU time. BOBTracker - Handles 4, 6 or 8-track mods in a variety of mod formats (not S3M or MTM though). Sound playback uses the DSP for mixing and quality is good and very little CPU time is used. The DSP is also used to improve the sound quality of the samples in realtime and boost the bass and/or treble if desired MegaPlayer - Handles up to 32 tracks, virtually and mod format ever, including S3M and MTM. DSP is used for mixing, so little CPU time is used. Distributed with MegaTracker (see 4.1.2) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.3] Mac See below (i.e. after the descriptions of the players) for solutions to the "Mac and mod" FAQ par excellence, "how do you play S3M on a Mac". For a description of Player Pro and Sound Tracker, the obviously most popular Mac programs, see section 4.1.3 Rich "Akira" Pizor notes: * The Macintosh-tracker. This freeware program plays MODs compatible with the Mar Epsie's Tracker, Player-Pro and the Sound-Tracker. It also features icons courtesy of Skaven and the Future Crew. * Alpha-Tracker. This system extension is a tiny, faceless application that automatically plays randomly selected MODs in the background while you work. Slightly old, supports most 4-track formats. * MusicBox XCMD. This XCMD for HyperCard adds a very functional MOD player to a HyperCard stack, allowing the more adventurous Mac owner to quickly and easily design their own MOD player. Supports most 4-track formats. * Mod Player 1.3.1. Newly added to the info-mac archives, this program is designed to play mods with as small a footprint in the system memory heap as possible. There are no bells and whistles, but this little gem is great for anyone running a low-end system. Compatible with most mods that work with Sound-Trecker. Lyman Green adds on 21 Dec 1994: * SoundApp 1.5.1 by Norman Franke will play or convert sound files dropped onto it. Currently, it supports: SoundCap, SoundEdit, AIFF, AIFF-C, System 7 sound, Sun Audio AU, NeXT SND, Windows WAV, Creative VOC, Amiga MOD (including Oktalyzer, MED/OctaMED and some other variations with up to 32 tracks), Amiga IFF/8SVX, Sound Designer II, DVI ADPCM, Studio Session Instruments and any 'snd' resource file. SoundApp can convert all of these formats to System 7 sound, sound suitcase, AIFF, WAV and NeXT formats. SoundApp can also convert QuickTime soundtracks and audio CD tracks to AIFF, System 7 sound or suitcase formats. Mod playback is PowerPC-accelerated on Power Macs. The following paragraph is from the SoundApp help file: Amiga MOD: This is not really a sound format but a music format. it stores digitized instruments and contains a musical score which produces a lengthy composition with a very small amount of data. There have been various extensions to this format, but SoundApp only supports those which Sound Trecker 2.2 supports. These include Amiga SoundTracker, StarTracker, NoiseTracker, ProTracker (4-track), Amiga StarTracker (4- and 8-track), Oktalyzer (4-8 track), Amiga MED/OctaMED (4-16 track MMD0/1/2 formats), IBM FastTracker (4-, 6- and 8-track), IBM TakeTracker (1-32 track). SoundApp does not support MTM or S3M formats. Native code will be used for MOD playback on a Power Macintosh. Righto, here we go, "how DO you play S3M on a Mac?". What follows contributed by Rich "Akira" Pizor on 22 Apr 95. Yes, S3Ms are the current standard for mods. No, there's not a lot of support for them on the Mac. So, without getting into platform politics, here's what you need to know. As of this writing (4/22/95), there are only two ways to play a S3M format mod on a Mac of any model: 1) Use PlayerPro (see above). For those of you looking for a cheap way to download a free S3M player though, think again. PlayerPro only handles S3M files via import and until you pay the shareware fee, the import feature is disabled. 2) Find a friend with a different platform of computer, one that supports S3Ms. Give them the file you want. Have them save it in a format compatible with the player you prefer (Safest is M.K. or M!K!, but most Mac Players also support MED and a few other formats). (Note by jester: This is a way, *but* converting S3M to MOD will most definitely irrevocably lose you information, if it is at all possible, as S3M is a much more advanced format than MOD.) *3*) A handful of Mac models have an option for a DOS compatibility card, essentially putting a PC clone in the same box as your Mac and allowing you to start up in either OS. If you're a technonerd with bucks to spend, this may be an option. MacModPro (version 3.2.2 as of this writing) promises S3M support in its next release. It's promised that since 3.0.1. Have faith, but don't hold your breath if it's of serious importance to you. A note about SoftWindows: For those of you with monster systems, $200 laying around and 23 megs of disk space, you can get a DOS/Windows emulator called SoftWindows. However, a machine slower than an 80 MHz PowerPC, trying to play an S3M in a DOS or Windows program in SoftWindows will not be terribly attractive to listen to. If you've got access to SoftWindows, you can take advantage of S3M -> MOD conversion, but not much else. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.4] MS-DOS - Inertia Player 1.21 IPlay plays MOD, STM, S3M, 669, FAR, MTM, UNIS, ULT, WOW on GUS, PAS16, Windows Sound System, SB16(ASP), SB Pro, SB, Covox(DAC8) on LPT1, Stereo-on-1 on LPT1, Adlib, PC Speaker, General MIDI. Looks pretty spiffy and features 256x oversampling. Has a built-in file selector and playlist support. As of version 1.21, most (if not all) of the formerly ignored enhanced S3M commands are supported (Sxy commands). Freeware. By Stefan Danes and Ramon van Gorkom of Inertia. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/iplay121.zip NOTE!!: The Assembly '94 CD version of Inertia Player 1.21 seems to be virus-infected (with a Tai-Pan virus, the infected file is claimed to be the ISETUP.EXE). The archive at Hornet (the ftp site named above) seems clean (I use it, no problems so far). If you want to be on the absolutely safe side, fetch the older (buggier) version: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/iplay120.arj Or issue a cold reboot (i.e. reset button or turn the computer off) directly after using ISETUP, before any EXEs can be infected. - Dual Module Player 4.00 DMP plays MOD/NST, STM/S3M, 669, FAR, MTM and AMF on PAS16, SB16, SB Pro, GUS, GUS MAX, Windows Sound System. Has software filters (reverb/echo, lowpass)and quality mode, supports both flavours of MOD and S3M stereo panning, now has a 'handy module file selector'. Archiver support has been removed in v4.00. The overall accuracy of DMP's playback seems to have improved a great deal. Careware and/or cardware. By Otto Chrons. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/dmp400.zip Note: The archive contains both the 'normal' and the 32-bit protected mode version of DMP. - CapaMOD 2.25 CMOD plays MOD and S3M files. Gravis Ultrasound ONLY! Claims to be the most ProTracker-compliant MS-DOS player. S3M support has been added in version 2 and is pretty good by now (S8x and Xxx panning, mono/stereo detection). This player is rubberware (you're supposed to send the dude a condom). :) By Heikki Ylinen (flap/Capacala). ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/cmod225.zip - Starplayer 2.22 A protected mode (i.e. 32-bit coded, 386 or higher required) MOD, S3M and MTM player for the GUS and SB (mono, 44kHz). Starplayer can load up to 64 (!) songs into expanded memory and these can be flipped even from a DOS shell (background playing). Starplayer now features a sile selection menu and volume bar displays. You can load modules from within a DOS shell. Built in MOD / MTM -> S3M conversion is also featured. The executable is only ~20KBytes in size. Freeware. By jedi / oxygen. ftp://peace.wit.com/kosmic/oxygen/starp222.zip http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/oxygen/starplay.html - Cubic Player v1.5 A protected mode player for XM, S3M, MTM, MOD/NST/WOW, OKT, 669, ULT, DMF, PTM, AMS (and MIDI, using GUS patches, also on SB!) on SB/2/Pro/16, GUS/DB/MAX, PAS, WSS, quiet. This player is large in program size, but features a lot of fancy scopes (FPU required for some) and is the only full-fledged player with XM support so far! Supports archives (ZIP and ARJ), has an integrated fancy file selector, echo/reverb and filter effects. There is a 'normal' and a 'lite' archive. The 'lite' archive is considerably smaller and contains only those files that changed from the previous version (1.4), so download it if you still have the old archive. Freeware. By pascal / doj / ?hook. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/cp15.zip ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/cp15l.zip - Triton's PMP (no version number) Don't confuse this one with the DSMI-originated PMP, the old protected-mode companion to DMP. This one plays XMs, MODs and S3Ms (on GUS for sure, has anybody tried other cards?), but S3M support is poor at best. Packaged with FT2.03, it features no documentation at all. :( At least, I haven't been able to find any. This player has NO frills at all, it doesn't show or tell you anything apart from the size of your memory. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/ft204.zip - OmniPlayer v0.99 Plays MOD/NST, WOW, OCT, MED (MMD0), STM, S3M, MTM, ULT, FAR and 669 on GUS, SB, SB Pro, SB16 and PAS. By Edward Schlunder and/or Zilym Limms (I dunno..) ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/oplay099.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.5] OS/2 This section from David E. Wach on 10 Nov 1994, DMPlayer part updated by Doug White 2 Sep 1995: Digital Music Player 1.3 by Keith Murray : Digital Music Player is a native, multithreaded OS/2 Presentation Manager application that plays MODs, MIDs, WAVs, AVIs, and any other format that MultiMedia Presentation Manager/2 (MMPM/2) supports. Supports any soundcard that works with OS/2 (which is most). DMPlayer can play sounds at a maximum of 16-bit 44.1kHz stereo output. Output is placed in a buffer to keep the music playing during high system activity, and contains priority management to increase priority when the buffer drops below a specified point, and drop it down when the buffer is increased. DMPlayer plays from a songlist, which supports drag-n-drop and saveable songlists with a variety of sort and display options. The songlist can contain any playable format, as well as archived files. DMPlayer comes set up for gzip and zip files, but any archiver that can extract files to standard output is supported. DMPlayer's main screen looks like a CD player, with a songlist, buffer size, current and total tracks, and song title. DMPlayer contains a sub-panel for adjusting the volume, balance, bass and treble for drivers that support it. An info panel displays the sample names/message, module format and source filename. DMPlayer supports 4 track, 31 and 15 instrument Protracker/Noisetracker modules, 4 and 8 track Startrekker modules and 6 and 8 track Fasttracker modules. The shareware version can't save the settings or playlists, registration is $25 and the key is sent back via EMail. I've (editor's note: 1st person narrator is Doug White) used DMPlayer extensively and, unfortunately, it isn't very tolerant of broken MODs, archives or errors. It usually ends up locking and requiring a system reboot to unfreeze. Hopefully these problems will be addressed in the next release. ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/mmedia/dmplay13.zip There is also ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/2_1/mmedia/tracker.zip which is another .mod-only player, but it is rather buggy. However it includes the source code, so it might be of interest to hackers. One last thing at hobbes.nmsu.edu in /os2/2_1/mmedia is pmixos2.zip which is a Pro-Audio Spectrum 16 mixer for os/2. Don't know how good it is, i have a SB16! By the way, i was a little mis-leading. I CAN run Mod4Win in a WinOS/2 session. DMPlayer is the only NATIVE OS/2 mod player i know of. The only thing i have to do to Mod4Win to make it run with os/2 is to reduce its number of buffers. And I usually run it in a full-screen WinOS/2 session (which makes some win apps. a little more stable). -dave Eric Lowe told me on 18 April 95: DMP v4 (see section 3.4) runs correctly under OS/2. I use DMP32.EXE, though DMP will run too, just not as well. The catch is that you can't run DMP32.EXE from an icon directly, for some reason OS/2 doesn't recognize it as a valid executable, so I created a dummy batch file DMP32S.BAT that I put in an icon that just shells and runs DMP32. In fact, DMP32 runs better under OS/2 in a VDM than the native Presentation-Manager DMPlayer and supports a heck of a lot more formats. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.6] UNIX (and Sun, NeXt, Linux) Thanks to Aaron J. Luz , Mike Muuss and Andrew Robinson for this information. The players mentioned here are ftp'able from sunsite.unc.edu (and probably its mirrors) in /pub/Linux/apps/sound/players. A Sound-HOWTO is in it's alpha stages at tsx-11.mit.edu, which mentions mod-players. - GMOD 2.0 GMOD is a music module player for Linux and the GUS. Supports MOD, 669, MTM, ULT and S3M. Requires a GUS and VoxKit v3.0-proto or later sound drivers. Xgmod adds an X interface. By Andrew J. Robinson . Freely distributable. ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/players/gmod+x-2.0.tgz - S3MOD 1.05 This is a trackered music player. It is capable of playing S3M files in addition to 4, 6 and 8 track MOD files. Requires either a /dev/dsp compatible device or a GUS (/dev/sequencer) and the VoxWare sound drivers by Hannu Savolainen. By Daniel L. Marks . Freely distributable and usable source code, copyright retained. ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/players/s3mod-v1.05.tar.gz - Tracker 4.31 This is a fully-fledged protracker/soundtracker module player that is mostly portable. It now runs successfully on the Amiga, Silicon Graphics, Sparc, Linux... ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/unix/tracker-4.31.tar.Z - PGMOD (version number not contributed) Linux player (XM, MOD, S3M, 669, MTM) for the Gravis Ultrasound (Max), comes with GUS low level driver, very good quality and low CPU overhead, still under development. ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/players/(filename not contributed) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3.7] Windows - MOD4WIN 2.30 Plays MOD/STM/S3M/669/FAR/MTM/UNIS/OKT/WOW/XM on a Windows asynchronous wave driver (no PC speaker) or GF1- (GUS/MAX/ACE) or OPL4-based card (direct support). Direct to Disk Recording is also available (WAV recording of a mod). Up to 16 bits, 48kHz. Features surround sound (also with GF1 for mods with up to 8 tracks), IDO2, panning, integrated file selection, playlists, file management and archiver support. Perhaps the most accurate player for PC's. A 'light' archive is available, which contains only the English help file and only one example mod to save download time.By Kay Bruns, Uwe Zaenker and Jens Puchert. Shareware $30 (new user fee, update prices range from free to $15), runs for 30 days. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/m4w230sx.zip ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/m4w230sl.zip - MIDAS for Windows 1.03á Plays 4-track MOD and (up to) 16-track S3M files using the Windows WAV device for output to any Windows compatible sound card. Supports the GUS directly. Supports 16 bit mixing and stereo. Supports mixing rates of 11.025, 22.05 and 44.1 kHz. Supports Dolby (TM) surround sound panning for S3M files. Supports Microsoft Windows Media Control Interface (MCI). By Petteri Kangaslampi, Jarno Pannanen and Benjamin Cooley. Freeware for non-commercial applications. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/misc/wmidas13.zip - WinMOD Pro (current version 0.04á) This information supplied by Frenchy (Tim Fries) : Plays MOD/NST/STM files in Windows 3.1 or greater through a sound card's asynchronous sound driver (most cards except PC Speaker and AdLib Drivers). Plays up to 44,000kHz in Stereo. Features playlists, drag and drop and archive support. Doesn't run too well in the background, especially at anything over 8,000kHz, mono. Postware (send a postcard to the author). Written by James Holderness (holderne@beastie.cs.und.ac.za). ftp://ftp.cica.indiana.edu/pub/win3/sound/wmp004b.zip - WinMOD Very simple player capable of playing MOD (which subtypes is unknown to me) files on 386SX and better computers running Windows 3.1 and equipped with a sound card capable of playing digital samples and an according driver. This is a very small, rather basic and absolutely no-frills player. Programmed by Norbert Unterberg. ftp://ftp.cica.indiana.edu/pub/win3/sound/winmod10.zip ============================================================================== [4] Creating Mods I consider it pretty normal for most people to tire of simply listening to the tunes others have made after a while and to decide to use (perhaps waste) some time in composing some of their own. This is where you need a tracker. You might also want to convert this fabulous MIDI arrangement you downloaded from someplace to a mod so you could muck around with it a bit, or simply to be able to listen to it with digital instruments (if you're stuck with SB/Adlib FM MIDI). You then need a converter and probably a tracker for post-processing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [4.1] Trackers - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.1] Amiga This section supplied by Steven Innell on Thu, 24 Nov 94, updated/corrected by Sir Fitz on Fri, 10 Feb 95: - Protracker V3.15 ( / V3.10b - see the note below) Probably the most used tracker until recently (with people using versions of Octamed in preference). This tracker is the most up-to-date mod creator for the amiga, based on the original Soundtracker interface (although highly upgraded). This version was re-written by Cryptoburners, and has plenty of editing options including simple sample manipulation (sampling, reverb, reverse, cut/paste etc.), but, as of yet, does not have a midi option, nor does it support any form of synthetic sound generation. It does however have an option for using 14-bit samples, although these are few and far between. It is a daunting program to use at first, especially if you have never had the experience of using any tracker on the amiga (e.g. Soundtracker/Noisetracker/ Protracker V1-2.3), since this version uses the sample effect commands found in those older version...and unlike the older versions, this does not have on-line help listing the effects, and what they do. Protracker is Freeware, with no form of registration/shareware fees to be paid. A new version (3.20) was supposed to be out, but as of yet I have been unable to find it. It can be found on Aminet under mus/edit/pt315.lha. NOTE: On Wed, 17 May, Markus Weichselbaum contacted me (jester), saying (excerpt): "The last official version was PT3.10b, available on ftp.funet.fi. PT315 is an internal version never meant to be released (...). PT3.15 has been removed from Aminet, however there is a PT2.3 available. There are simply no '14-bit' samples released. The so-called 'DYN 14bit' system was working to some extent, but since the 'DYN' system was entirely rewritten, the development of PT315 was stopped. Only 2 or 3 test mods have been released, but no samples or documentation (...). I recommend use of PT310b which essentially has the same features as PT315. PT310 is indeed freeware, but PT3.15 is NOT." When I (jester) asked Steven Innell about this, he replied (excerpt): "I've had the program for 2 years. (...) I know U4IA, who once was a member of Cryptoburners, and also tested a lot of the original trackers out, and he has never said that PT3.15 was a leaked version never intended for release...in fact, a while back he told me they were working away on a commercial V4." Finally, on 28 Sep 1995, Steven Innell mentioned the subject again, saying (excerpt): ".. and I can now confirm that the release of most of the V3 series were not intended to be available as soon as they were (the exception being V3.00). However the programmer of V3.15 didn't seem to be worried (...) that PT was available, ... BTW, V3.10 is very unstable and unusable on accelerated machines but if you (or anyone else) feel that V3 should not be available, then the next best valid release that works is V2.3b AGA, which was fixed to run on AGA machines." Now, all I (jester) have to say is that I don't mind anyone using whichever version they wish and I hope the above, especially the last note, clears up any confusion that may have been created. - OctaMed (V6) This is the latest version of this series of Trackers by Teijo Kinnuen. Several changes have been made to the program, the first and most notable being that OctaMed now opens its screen on the WorkBench screen, using whatever ScreenMode was being used by the WB. Amongst the many features added are better/or new SoundCard support (Aura/Tocatta) improved 8 channel handling, completely new interface (as mentioned above - sortof) The New features are numerous, and if you are a med fan, you are advised to Download the demo of Version 6 from Aminet, and read the large documentation that comes with it. Note that OctaMed is a Commercial Program, and can be Purchased from Ray Burt-Frost software at: RBF Software 169 Dale Valley Road HollyBrook Southampton SO1 6QX England (01703) 785680 - Voice/Answerphone (01703) 703446 - Fax Email: rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk (c) Teijo Kinnuen & RBF Software (FAQ editor's note: the rest of the OctaMed description is retained from the former entry concerning V5, as it offers more details) This tracker started way back as a clone of Soundtracker 2.5, and was called MEDV1.13. It grew and changed till V3 became the basis of octamed (an 8-channel tracker). Med all versions up to OctaMed V4.00g are freeware. This program (V5) is now fully protracker compatible, in that it now imports protracker modules, and will play them at the correct speed. It also has the option for using some of protrackers shortcut keyboard commands. This version of Octamed also now has a vastly improved front end. It opens its own window on the Workbench, and uses proper intuition gadgets/menus. It is very easy to work around, and comes with on-line amigaguide help. (There is also the manual on disk - as a guide if you wish to look up something). Octamed allows for the creation of synthetic sounds via its own special editor, which may take a while to get used to. It also has good sampling capabilities and editing of samples. This program also allows for the use of midi equipment, providing 16-channels of midi on to of the 4/8 amiga channels. However, be warned...using 8 channels slows the machine, and reduces sample quality..it is not advised. There is a High Quality mode which tries to increase the quality of samples when played in 8 ch mode, but it requires a 68020 or higher to be in your machine (030 really at least). Octamed also has the ability to vary the length of patterns up to a maximum of 999 rows/pattern. This allows for better structuring of the way you create your tune, so whereas before you may have had to shove a patternbreak in a few rows before the end of the pattern, now you can just increase the length of the pattern et voila!. Octamed has a variety of ways of saving the tunes you create in it. It can save as its format (MMD2), Octamed2-4 (MMD1) or Protracker. You can also use compression, the two modes being offered are LH (requires Lh.library) or Powerpacker (requires Powerpacker.library v35 at least). You can save with/without instruments, although you'll probably end up saving as a tracker mod, as this is more widely playable on other formats....be warned however...protracker doesnt support some of the commands available in Octamed (8 ch mode - midi - extended/shortened patterns - synthetic sounds) so if they are used, they will not appear in the tracker version, and so the mod will not sound/behave as you may have expected. A freely distributable version of Octamed can be found on Aminet under: Octa5.lha mus/edit 618K - demo of V5 OctaMedv4.lha mus/edit 299K - Music editing software, 8 voices - Noise/Soundtrackers - see above on protracker, as these are all alike except v2.6 of soundtracker..which used a different approach to making the mods. - StarTrekker (Vers unknown sorry ;-) This is a mod editor in the same vain as Octamed. It has a layout the same as the old sound/noisetrackers, but also has the ability to use 8 channels...hoever 8 channel mode sounds really bad, and you are better off using octamed, or protracker. Availability of the above: almost nill....some PD houses may still stock them - FTM (Face The Music) This is an 8 channel mod editor. The mods it produces are usually of very good quality (even on a straight A500), although the program itself is very fiddly to use. I cannot say much about this program as I havent really used it much at all. There is a demo of it on Aminet though, under: FTM_Demo.lha biz/demo 381K It is a shareware demo...and I cant remember the Reg. fee...sorry =8*) - Future Composer V1.3/4 This is a wholly synthetic mod editor (saying that..it does allow the use of samples). It does not import/export tracker mods though. This program is very old (1989 ish) and is very fiddly to use..even with the manual printed out and In front of me. The tunes this "tracker" generates sound a lot like the 8-bit machines tunes (eg C64 music). Some of the tunes are however very nice sounding, its just a shame the program is so damn hard to use ;-) Availability: almost nill...some PD houses may have them...but apart from that I cant say where they can be obtained... They are freeware though. - Art Of Noise This is a recent mod Editor for the Amiga. It is a shareware demo of the program, the full version costing 79 DM (available only from the author). First of all, it is 100% protracker compatible (load-format !) That means, that you don't have to get used to new shortcuts to old (protracker) functions ! But that doesn't mean, that this tracker is just another protracker clone! You might already have noticed, that AON has got dozens of new functions. If you load AON for the first time, you might be slayed by all these new functions, but it's worth taking a look at them. I think it would be the best to list up a few of them: + OS-2 graphical environment ! Reqtools-Requester ! + Supports euro-72 monitors !! + 8 channels! But in contrary to startrekker/octamed/oktalyzer this time REAL 8 channels, that means free volume/pitch-settings on EVERY channel, loops ofcourse also possible (achieved by real-time Mixing of channels) + maximal number of instruments increased to 61 ! + maximal number of patterns increased to 128 ! + maximal number of positions increased to 256, including restartposition !! + wavetable & sampleinstruments. + 'macro' instruments possible: E.g. 10 instruments can share the same waveform, but the samplestart (for example, there is certainly a greater number of possibilities offered by this feature!) can vary from instrument to instrument ! Wavetable instruments can be used to create 64er-like sounds, but they are also great for big resonance-pads etc. !! + number of player-commands increased from 28 (protracker) to 45 ! And there are ofcourse a lot to come in future versions ! + Supports powerpacker and STONECRACKER (the best cruncher around!) + Arpeggio (maximal 7 notes!) + any other effect, arpeggio speed changeable + Remark (normal textfile/ansi) linkable to module !! + FM-Synthesis ! + Drumsequencer! Make your own drumlines with up to 16 tracks !! + Big sampleeditor ! Features samples>128k, multisampling, sample-trigger digital-filter with selectable depth, flanger, phase-distortion, direct 'freestyle' sampleediting: paint your own waves ! + supports external-synchronizing, e.g. for demos or other presentations! + Player is easy to build in in own programs. + Turbo-Player available, takes about 1-2 rasterlines (faster than any other player!) + Update service for future versions! The whole handling has been changed ofcourse, so just check out the preview ! If you like this program, please don't copy it. A program worth using is a program worth buying ! Contact me at the following address: BASTIAN SPIEGEL TRUPERMOORER LANDSTRASSE 17A 28865 LILIENTHAL GERMANY or call: 04298-30731 or 04298-4873 (16h-22h) (if other line is busy or nobody picks up) The full-version will cost 79DM and features a very nice printed manual plus 4 disks (program/workshop/instruments/demomods) ! The preview version lacks of save-routines, but all effects and functions are useable! Demo Available on Aminet As: FTP: mus/edit/ArtOfNoise.lha (1.3M) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.2] Atari ST Thanks to Dan for this information. Note: To the best of Dan's knowledge, the programs mentioned here can be downloaded via ftp from atari.archive.umich.edu/pub/atari/ and its mirrors. A lot of them are also available from micros.hensa.ac.uk, but gopher or WWW access to this site is much preferred to ftp as they have a weird directory structure. Atari ST: There is a port of ProTracker from the Amiga. This will allow you to create 4-track MODs. Atari STE/TT/Mega STE: To create mods on these machines, you basically have a choice of two programs - ProtrackerSTE or Octalyser ProtrackerSTE is an upgraded port of ProTracker from the Amiga. It handles only 4 tracks, but has the full PT command set and gives good quality playback. (Note there are also a bundle of PT clones for these machines, such as Esion) Octalyser is an 8-track tracker. You need a fast STE or a TT to playback all 8 tracks though. Octalyser will let you create or play back 4, 6 or 8 track mods. It will load many different mod formats, but not S3M or MTM. Sound quality is quite good. Atari Falcon030: For creating mods on this machine, there are basically three main choices: Octalyser (mentioned above) has drivers for the enhanced sound system, thus giving good quality playback, but only 4, 6 and 8 track mod formats, not S3M or MTM. MegaTracker - 32 track tracker. All tracker commands and practically all mod formats are supported including S3M and MTM. Unbelievable speed and quality are produced by the DSP mixing. Unfortunately, the instructions have not yet been translated from french, but it is only a matter of time. Digital Tracker - 32 track tracker. Supports almost all tracker commands and formats, although it hangs on some S3Ms. this is commercial software and only a demo is available, which has certain restrictions. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.3] Mac This section by Barry Nathan and Rich "Akira" Pizor . Barry writes on Thu, 17 Nov 1994: The programs mentioned here are available from: info-mac: ftp://ftp.sumex-aim.stanford.edu/pub/info-mac/ umich: ftp://mac.archives.umich.edu/pub/ However, sumex (info-mac) itself is hardly accessible, and one of its mirrors (like ftp://ftp.hawaii.edu://mirrors/info-mac/snd/util) will be better. Player Pro 4.4.1: Can access the sound chip directly, so it takes less processor time than SoundTrecker. It'll still work when new Macs with new sound chips come out, because it can also use the regular Sound Manager 3.0 if necessary, like when the PowerMacs came out and Player Pro didn't support their sound chip. Only edits its own format, MADF, but it can import and export MOD, S3M, MIDI, and some other formats I can't remember right now. PlayerPro has a very mixed track record for some of its more obscure import and tracking options, but reportedly plays many of the basic mod formats better than the other Mac heavyweight, Sound-Trecker 2.2. PlayerPro is shareware and until you pay the $20 registration fee, most tracking/editing features are turned off (including import and save) and it will automatically quit after having been open for 20 minutes. A CD-ROM version is also available for $40, which comes with a library of mods and instrument samples. Upgrades are free, except for the upgrade from the disk to the CD-ROM version, which will cost $20 for an upgrade. Unlike Sound-Trecker, it is fully PowerMac-native, which means it FLIES by on a PowerMac. Sound-Trecker: $40 shareware. Partially, but not fully, PMac native, but it can do simulated surround sound for headphones or (I think...) Dolby Surround decoders. However, with the Surround option, the fact that it's not fully native really shows, as you hear clicks when you try to do other stuff. However, the slowdown isn't that severe on normal Macs. The two other advantages are that it can play (Okta)MEDs, which Player Pro can't handle, and some MODs play better with it than Player Pro. Keep in mind that with the extra features and bug fixes with Player Pro 4.2, most MODs play -much- better with Player Pro, though, and PP is cheaper. Rich "Akira" Pizor adds: Sound-Tracker is a shell program which plays formats based on plug-ins, providing for maximum flexibility, since plug-ins can easily be written whenever a new format is introduced. Currently, most of the standard 4- and 8-track MOD formats are supported. Also available is a plug-in that makes it PowerPC native. It is also known for having one of the better interfaces of Mac MOD players. The resoucres for creating/editing MODs are present, yet the appropriate menu items are geryed out. I've not met anyone who could explain this anomaly to me. The two theories I've heard are that you get editing capabilities if you register the program (German ReadMe not too well understood) or that the resources are simply sitting there while the author learns how to integrate the corresponding features into a later release of the program. MacMod Pro is currently on release 3.22. It is a complete player and tracker for the Mac, capable of creating mods from 4-32 channels. (The jury is still out on the file type, but it seems to save currently in standard ProTracker (M.K.) format.) It features all of the player options of Sound-Trecker 2.2, and the version currently on the info-mac archives also includes a sample mod that's quite good, along with 5 instrument samples so you can get going right away. Since version 3.0.1, the help system has been improved tremendously. The staff editor and S3M compaitibility options haven't yet been implemented, but these are promised for the next release. The interface has also markedly improved. Looks like the author got some help from a more experienced programmer. MacMod Pro is shareware. A $25 registration fee is required to unlock the Save option, but all other functions work off the shelf, so you can get a good feel for how the program works and for what it takes to make a mod. ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac/snd/util/mac-mod-pro-322.hqx Meditor 0.55 Delta: The first freeware tracker for the mac has arrived! Unlike PlayerPro or MacMod Pro, Meditor gives you full access to all its features right from download, so there's nothing to stop you from editing to your heart's content. It supports all the sound formats supported by Sound-Trecker as well as a new one called MMF; a Sound-Trecker plub for MMF format is included, but to my (editor's note: i.e. Akira's) knowledge there is no IBM-compatible program that supports this format. (About time Macs had one that IBM didn't! ;) Meditor uses a variation of the "classical" editor, with no option for staff editing or digital editing. Supports all the standard effects and octave ranges, and allows up to 32 channels (more in MMF format, but why would you need more than 32?). Only one file can be open at a time and it's a little buggy, but hey - it's free. (editor's note: no URL/filename supplied) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.4] MS-DOS MS-DOS users have quite a few trackers available to them nowadays, with capabilities superior to first-generation mods. Beta releases and unpopular trackers are not mentioned, the ones listed should suffice to get you started. That'd include: - Scream Tracker 3.21 - programmed by PSI of Future Crew. Supports GUS, SB, SB Pro. Edits up to 32 digital tracks (but plays only up to 16), 99 instruments (S3M format supports 255), features a superset of the ProTracker command set (but some effects are handled a little different), 8 bit samples with adjustable C4Spd (S3M format allows for 16 bit ADPCM packed stereo samples), 9 Adlib FM channels (only playable on SB or SB Pro) and 8 octaves. Features separate volume column (and track panning available in most players). Extensive block commands and editing capabilities make this one of the best trackers around nowadays. Version 3.2 is extensively bugfixed over the previous release. Writes in S3M and MOD formats (but S3M to MOD conversion is NOT recommended!). Reads S3M, STM (perfect), M.K., 6CHN, 8CHN, Oktalyzer MOD, 5 to 10 track MOD (pretty good MOD loader) and a proprietary import format. Has an own sample format, which it shares with Advanced Digiplayer, but ST3 can also read raw 8-bit samples (signed and unsigned). MOD samples (signed 8-bit) can be imported by loading a MOD that uses them into ST3 (all information is retained). Freeware. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/s3m/scrmt321.zip - FastTracker II - programmed by Mr H and Vogue of Triton. Supports GUS, SB and SB Pro. Edits up to 32 tracks, 128 instruments, multi-sampled intruments (up to 16 samples per instrument), volume and panning envelopes for instruments, instrument panning, 4 GB maximum sample size, bidirectional looping, variable pattern length, built-in sample editor and sampler, 256 patterns, separate volume/panning/vibrato column, claims full MIDI support. Imports MOD, STM, S3M type mods (S3M import is buggy, and imported MODs and S3Ms lose panning info), imports GUS patches, raw samples (signed and unsigned) and IFF samples. Samples can be 8 or 16 bits. Sample tuning by finetune and relative note value. Shareware $20. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/ft203.zip Note: Due to numerous problems with FT2, Triton has seemingly decided to write an FAQ for it. Check comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos for up to date information. The filename is supposed to be similar to FT2FAQ10.ZIP. - MultiTracker Module Editor 1.01b - programmed by Daniel Goldstein aka Starscream of Renaissance. Supports GUS, SB and SB Pro. Edits up to 32 tracks, 31 instruments, features the PT command set (which is not completely compatible), 8 bit samples (MTM format can store 16 bits). Features track panning. Imports raw samples and GUS patches (only registered). Loads MOD, 669, MTM and FAR mods, more formats planned. Right now, loading anything but MTM is not recommended (FAR and 669 sound bad). Shareware $24.95 ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/mtm101b.zip - Farandole Composer 1.00 - programmed by Daniel Potter of Digital Infinity. Supports GUS only. Edits 16 tracks, 64 instruments, an own command set (does not claim to be PT-compliant), 8 and 16 bit sample support, sample size up to 1 Meg, imports MOD, 669, GUD PAT and ST3/Digiplayer samples. Features separate volume column and track panning. Loads MOD, 669, ULT (buggy) mods. Uses SVGA to display all tracks on screen simultaneously in 132x50 mode. Has a built-in sample editor. Shareware $15. The FAR format is not very well supported (outside this tracker). ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/far100.arj - UltraTracker v1.6 - programmed by MAS of Prophecy. Supports GUS. Edits up to 32 tracks, 8 and 16 bit instruments, variable C2Spd with finetune, bidirectional looping, instrument panning, 255 patterns, subset of the PT commands, two effect slots per note. Built-in sample editor. Imports S3M, MOD, 669, FAR and MTM mods. Imports IFF, PAT, WAV, FSM, SND and raw sample types. Mouse driven. Shareware $20. The ULT format is not very well supported (outside this tracker). ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/ultra160.zip - FastTracker 1 - programmed by Mr H of Triton. Supports SB, SB Pro, Soundplayer, DAC, Internal Speaker. Edits 4, 6 or 8 tracks, 31 instruments, 8-bit samples of 64KB maximum size, ProTracker command set, track panning supported by external players, 100 patterns. Relatively simple, easy to use tracker, which is good for starters, but it suffers from its output formats' deficiencies. Partly mouse driven. Freeware. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/ftracker.zip - ModEdit (current version reported to be v3.01) - programmed by Norman Lin. Supports SB, DAC and the internal speaker using Mark J. Cox's playing routine (it runs even on 286 PC's). Edits only M.K. format. Mouse-driven menu interface. This editor's main quality is its sort-of-musical notation. Whereas almost all other trackers display the tracks vertically and notes are only discernible by their key character, ModEdit displays the current pattern horizontally and the notes on a vertical spread. This editor is old but could suit some people to get started on. It has a very good documentation, which can unfortunately be a bit misleading at times, however. Shareware $?? ftp://ftp.uni-jena.de/pub/msdos/mix/modedit.zip - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.5] OS/2 NHY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.6] UNIX (Sun/Linux/NeXt) Thanks to Andreas (?) for this information. With the new version of DOSEMU (ver. 0.60), quite a number of trackers work under Linux. Since DOSEMU does not support DMA, sound output is in general not possible, unless the tracker supports LPT-DAC output or internal speaker (i.e. ScreamTracker 3.2 works fine under Linux + DOSEMU 0.60). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.1.7] Windows - EasyMod for Windows 1.0 The features of this seemingly only Windows tracker are unknown to me, as I couldn't maintain a link to the ftp site. All I know is that it's coded by Captain Apathy <75713.2012@compusrv.com> for PlayItSoLoudItHz Productions and that the URL is: ftp://ftpp.iinet.com.au/pub/users/bsouth/ezmod.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [4.2] Converters Conversion between mod formats and especially conversion from/to non-mod music file formats is pretty sure to lose some information of the original piece. In most of the cases, there is no way around this. You can't, for example, convert a 16-track S3M using Qxy and excessive volume commands to a 4-track M.K.. The M.K. just can't hold the information. It is possible, on the other hand, to convert a M.K. to S3M very accurately. There are a few minor incompatibilities, but these would hardly be noticeable by many. Conversions to and from MIDI are also very difficult to get done right with today's mod formats. MIDI files, while seemingly similar, have a very different command set from mods. Only one of the differences is that the MIDI output device 'knows' how to process its sounds when it receives commands from the MIDI file/player, for example how fast to decay a piano waveform. This information is not stored in the MIDI file itself, but a mod would have it included. A converter has no means of asking the MIDI device how it would handle a certain situation (this is not completely correct, at least when using a GUS, the patches could be parsed), so it has to assume certain things. I suppose, however, that better converters could do the trick if they were programmed for certain situations (I think a converter that creates mod instruments by itself from a GUS' patches, for example, could accurately convert from MIDI to an advanced mod format such as S3M, XM or ULT). But did you want to know any of this? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.2.1] from MIDI - PTMID 0.3 - converts General MIDI files to MOD (i.e. M.K., 6CHN and 8CHN) and MTM files. To do this, it relies on a configuration file which specifies the samples to be used, the number of tracks to generate and the resolution to use. A careful setup is therefore absolutely necessary if anything good is going to emerge. The resulting mods will generally still require some re-editing in a mod editor. Seems like it's freeware. By Andrew Scott (ascott@tartarus.uwa.edu.au) ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi:/pub/msdos/programming/convert/ptmid3.zip MS-DOS ftp://ftp.mm.se/playerpro/ptmid_0.3_folder.sit.bin Mac - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [4.2.2] Module Format Converters Amiga (this subsection supplied by Heikki Kantola ): There's several "exotic" mod formats for Amiga which are usually just differently packed ProTracker variants and therefore pretty easy to convert to normal PT format. There are at least the following mod converters on Aminet (see section 6.1; unless a path is given, the files mentioned below reside in mus/misc/): - Perverter-V1.41.lha - Converts exotic mods to MOD - Pro-Wizard.lha - Convert many music formats to PT - xmodule26b.lha - Music module converter v2.6b And then also a bit weirder ones: - mus/edit/smus2mod.lha - Convert SMUS music files to MOD files - mus/midi/Mod2Midi10.lha - Convert MODs to General MIDI type 1 files MS-DOS: - Mtm2S3m 0.91á - converts MTM to S3M modules. Doesn't convert samples >64K yet, but this is planned for the future. By Zab/DA ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/converters/m2s091b.zip - M2AMF - supplied with DMP (see MS-DOS players), this generates an AMF file from all file formats understood by DMP. AMF files are generally smaller than the corresponding MOD files. However, DMP is the ONLY player for these files and conversion of AMF to other formats isn't possible yet, so it's a one-way street. And we all know that DMP, versatile as it may be, doesn't play anything (except AMF) right. By Otto Chrons. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/players/dmp400.zip - ScreamTracker 3.21 contains the option to save mods as M.K., 6CHN, 8CHN, S3M. MOD output is, however, slightly inaccurate, since S3M commands are not fully ProTracker-compliant. Another deficiency arises from the variable C4Spd available in S3M. ST3 tries to finetune the samples, but doesn't perform any resampling or note adjustments. This means that an instrument with a C4Spd of above 8795Hz or below 7902Hz (or integer multiples of these) will sound off tune if the note isn't adjusted in the resulting MOD. By PSI/FC. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/trackers/scrmt321.zip - 669 to MOD v1.0 - converts 669 to 8CHN mods - (c)1993 by Kenneth Galbraith ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/converters/6692mod.zip - MOD to 669 - converts PT mods to 669 - (c)1993 by DTown Inc. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/converters/mod2669.zip - MTM to MOD v1.1 - converts MTM to MOD - (c) Daniel Goldstein (StarScream) ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/converters/mtmmod11.zip (also packaged with MultiModule Editor 1.01b) - STX2STM v1.0 - converts STX (STMIK 0.2) back to STM - (c)1994 by Lutz Roeder ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/converters/stx2stm.zip - TOAMIGA - converts STM to PT MOD. Comes with the old MOD-Player MP219b by Mark J. Cox ftp:?? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5] Samples Samples are of crucial importance in mods. Good samples make the difference between a quite-good and a great mod. And since custom samples are one of mods' greatest advantages, a lot of attention should be paid to a wise choice in samples. It is important to know the main two qualities a sample has, the resolution, i.e. number of bits, and its sampling rate. The number of bits in a sample denote its ability to distinguish between levels of amplitude, a higher number of bits can grasp a sound more accurately than a low one. The sampling rate is directly related to the highest frequency that can be reproduced by the sample. A sample with a sampling rate of 40kHz, for example (kHz means 1000Hz, 1Hz is one oscillation per second), can reproduce sounds of up to 20kHz. This means that low sampling rates can be used to reproduce low sounds, but reproduction of high frequencies (cymbals, but also pianos) require higher sampling rates. The theory behind this is known as the Nyquist theorem. Another aspect of mods is the maximum size a sample is allowed to have. This varies in the file formats from 64 Kilobytes to virtually unlimited size. Note that some trackers impose harsher limits on sample length than the formats they output. The solution offered to the sample size problem is sample looping. Well placed loop points make quite a difference in sustained instruments, so spend enough time here. Sample formats seem to be a very confusing subject in the mod community. Especially SAM and SMP don't seem to be at all well understood. Keep in mind that filename extensions can be arbitrarily chosen and changed in most operating systems, so they lose any identifier quality. Thus I consider sample formats those files which can be identified by some sort of header. SAM and SMP, when meaning MOD (i.e. M.K., xCHN, FLTx, NST, etc.) samples, do not have any header. They are simply data assembled in a file. A tracker using them decodes them to 8-bit raw signed sample data. But it assumes a playback rate to be used. Normally, finetune and loop values can not be stored in MOD samples (Fasttracker 1 circumvents this problem by abusing the file's date and time stamp). The only safe method to exchange MOD samples is to use these in MOD files and exchange these (if there are other safe ways on the Amiga or another platform, please correct me). See section 5.1.3 on how to convert to "SAM format". Additional information can be found (and is strongly recommended) in: The Audio File Formats FAQ by Guido van Rossum , posted to alt.binaries.sounds.{misc,d} and comp.dsp once a fortnight, and available in distributed hypertext form as http://voorn.cwi.nl/audio-formats/a00.html. PATREF24.ZIP - Windows Help file describing how to convert a variety of samples to GUS-usable patches. Most of the information supplied is very handy in any type of instrument sample conversion. 2PAT is also supplied, a Windows sample conversion utility (great!). This file is available at the GUS sites, see section 6.1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [5.1] Acquisition - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.1.1] Sampling This section supplied by Andy Church . Although the specific methods used for sampling vary from platform to platform and program to program, the general procedure is the same. The first thing you need to do is connect your sound source, such as an electronic keyboard, to the input of your sampler. Then you should start up your sampling program (if you haven't done so already). Many programs have a "monitoring mode" where you can listen to what you will be recording before you actually record. If possible, take advantage of this so that you can adjust the sampler's input level and your sound source's volume before sampling to avoid problems with volume (see below). When you have adjusted the volume, or if you do not have a monitoring mode, you can actually sample the sound. Usually this just involves clicking on a "Start" button, playing the sound on the sound source, and clicking on "Stop". Then you will probably be taken to an editor screen where you can see what you have recorded. You may discover one of two problems with your sample at this point (especially if you couldn't monitor the signal ahead of time): - If the overall volume is too low, you lose resolution and clarity in the sample. Generally, if the maximum amplitude of your sample (on a typical waveform display, represented by vertical distance from a central axis) is less than three-quarters of the total window height, your sample is too soft. For sounds that you want to be soft, you can adjust the volume later inside the module. - If the volume is too high, you get "clipping" when the input sound exceeds the limits of the sampler. If you see flat lines at the top and/or bottom of your sample display, or if you hear a lot of distortion, your sample is being clipped; you should reduce the volume or the sampler's input level and sample again. Once you have successfully sampled a sound, what you do next depends on what kind of sound you have sampled. If it is a "one-shot" sound - a sound that only plays once and does not repeat, such as a drum - you are done, and you can save the sample to disk, ready to be loaded into your module. However, if the sample is a continuous or repeating sound, like a flute, you will need to determine where to place the looping section of the sample. Determining the loop start and end points is usually a matter of careful listening and a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you will be able to look at the sample or a part of it and determine what part of the sample is repeating; often, however, you will just have to make a guess and play with the begin and end points until the sample sounds good. One thing to note when adjusting the loop points: since the sample right before the end point is immediately followed by the sample at the start point, those two samples should be very close if not equal in amplitude. Usually, this can be done by looking for "zero points" - places where the sample's waveform crosses the zero-axis - but any value will do. If the two samples are very different in amplitude, the result will be an audible "click" when the sample reaches the end of the loop. This is one easy way to tell whether your loop points are well-placed or not: if you hear a click while the sample is playing back which was not in the original sound, you need to move your loop points. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.1.2] 'Ripping' Using samples made by other people and acquired by saving out of their mods is generally known as ripping. I won't debate on the ethical aspects of this subject and I suggest nobody does. It has been discussed before. Just about any tracker enables you to save the samples in a mod. So all you've got to do is load the song you want a sample from into a compatible tracker and save it. There are other programs that enable you to rip samples from mods too, one of them being DMPC, Dual Module Player Companion by Brad Meier of Psychic Software, a mod player shell for MS-DOS. While most trackers save samples in their own proprietary format or as raw MOD-compatible samples, DMPC saves to WAV/VOC/RAW. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/frontend/dmpc260.zip If you don't have a tracker or a ripper, you can still obtain the samples in mods by loading the file into a sample editor capable of loading raw sample data. You will have to set the number of bits and style (signed or unsigned) according to the format you're loading (MOD is signed 8 bit, S3M is unsigned 8 bit, for example). You will be presented with some static, which is the header and pattern data, followed by the samples in the mod. Any decent sample editor should enable you to cut out the individual samples. The next step would be to get the sampling rate right, otherwise the samples will sound off key when used. MOD samples generally use a sampling rate of 8363Hz for a C in the second octave, so try this for starters (or an integer multiple). The more advanced formats with variable CxSpds pose more of a problem, you're basically left with your ears and perhaps a musical instrument to get them right. Note that a lot of MOD samples are not tuned to C. Quite often, an A is played instead when a C should be. See appendix H for a table of note frequencies to help you calculate the appropriate sampling rate for transposing wrongly tuned instruments. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.1.3] Conversion From Other Formats Sample conversion is covered in detail in the Patch Reference and the Audio File Format FAQ (see section 5 on their obtainability). The most general sample file converter is probably SOX, SOund eXchange utility. It is available on most FTP servers as C source code and will run on almost any platform. An MS-DOS compiled version exists under the name SOX7DOS.ZIP. Note that version 10 is also available, but seems to contain some bugs. See the audio file format FAQ for details. Another MS-DOS utility is CONVERT, it features a wide range of input and output formats. An interesting quality for this FAQ is its ability to extract samples from mods of various formats. Conversion of samples to mod formats is a bit lacking, though, but this is due to the rather large differences in the formats concerned (GUS patches don't convert at all well, for example). ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/converters/convert13.zip Generally, most trackers read at least some form of raw sample data. If they output to some form of MOD format, they most probably read 8-bit signed data, while some PC trackers (most notably ST3) prefer unsigned samples. The more modern trackers which read 16-bit samples will most probably read some standard headered sample format, which makes conversion (with SOX, for example) pretty easy, so I won't elaborate on it. See your sample editor's or converter's documentation. To convert a sample from one filetype so that you can use it in a tracker for which only raw 8-bit data is suitable, you need: - an input file (yeah, why else would you be reading this, but you do need it) - a sample converter or editor that can write raw 8-bit data. - if this program can't read your input file you need another program to convert it to an interchangeable format type, such as WAV, IFF/S8VX or VOC, which are readable by most converters and editors. Go about it this way: If necessary, convert the input file to the interchange format, leaving its attributes untouched, if possible (which are the number of bits, channels and sampling rate). Now check to see if the sample will be suitable for the tracker. The main things to look for are sample size in converted state and the sampling rate. A lot of formats still impose limits on the sample size they are willing to deal with. Let's assume you have a limit of 64 KB, i.e. 65536 bytes. And that the tracker (or rather the format) uses 8-bit sample data. Assuming further that you have an input file that is a 16-bit stereo sample, you must divide that sample's size by four to estimate its size when converted so that it suits your tracker ('s format). Four because you divide by two when converting 16 to 8 bits, and by two again because your tracker can only use mono samples (sorry for having forgotten about this before). If the resulting approximate filesize (which is approximate because you haven't accounted for the file header in the calculation) is larger than your limit, write down your result and look at the sampling rate of the input file and the note that it plays at that sampling rate. It could well be that your tracker ('s format) uses a fixed sampling rate to reproduce a C in a certain octave and calculates the sampling rates to use for other notes with reference to this "master C playback sampling rate" (also known as CxSpd). So, if you have a sample with a different sampling rate than this CxSpd, the sample will sound off tune. Remember that the C is THE reference point in the tracker. This is getting too complicated, so I'll give an example. Say I want to convert this great Kurzweil 2000 patch for use in a M.K. tracker, in my case FastTracker 1 (as it imposes even harsher limits than PT). I know that FT1 only uses up to 64KB of a sample and that it uses raw 8-bit signed mono data. I also know that M.K.'s root C is the C-2 and that the playback sampling rate used for that note is 8287Hz for PAL Amiga systems (and I'm in Europe and NTSC Amigas are far too rare for me to care about). That's all I need to know about the target. I know that my source KRZ file is a multi-sample with five 16-bit signed mono samples in it. I use 2PAT or another program to tell me the KRZ file's information, which gives me the number of individual samples in the file, their note range, playback sampling rate and the note this rate represents. I then use 2PAT to extract the individual samples to WAV files (actually I already did that and looked up the information in the description file that was generated simultaneously). I like the third of the five samples and want to convert this one. The description reveals that it is 16-bit, mono and plays an A at a sampling rate of 32kHz. I want to tune my sample to C, so I look up appendix I in the MOD-FAQ and find that an A is associated to 440Hz and a C to 261.7Hz. From this I gather that I have to play the sample at ( 32000 * 261.7 / 440 = 19033 )Hz so it sounds like a C. So that's the first thing I do, I change the sample's playback rate to 19033Hz (NOTE: only changing the SPEED of the sample, no resampling involved). In my specific case, the sample I'm converting is not well suited to be played at more than one octave (this is the case with a lot of real-instrument samples). So I allow myself to use only the top M.K. octave (from C-3 to B-3) and resample from 19033Hz to 16574Hz (2 * 8287Hz), which represents a C-3 in M.K.. I do this while still in the 16 bit domain because of the larger precision (aliasing faults are less severe and interpolation is more exact). Then I convert the sample from 16-bit to 8-bit. If the input sample was pretty quiet, I'd probably maximize its volume first, thereby taking advantage of the 16 bits of resolution and reducing rounding errors. If my sample is now still larger than 64KB, I have four choices. I can resample the sample to 8287Hz (no aliasing errors induced, as this is downsampling by an integer) and halve the sample's size at the cost of losing high frequencies. I can also resample to a different note somewhere in between the C-2 and C-3, at the cost of having to transpose the instrument in the M.K. later (i.e. pitch shifting, as the note shown by the tracker isn't correct). My third choice is to crop the sample and find a good loop. My final choice is to apply a volume envelope to the sample and have it fade out fast enough to fit into the limit. Which method I choose depends on the sound I am converting. Quite often a combination of several processes will yield the best results. When I've finished the sample editing process, I either save it in an interchange format (if the editor doesn't support output in raw signed 8-bit mono data) which my converter understands, or I write the sample data to disk in raw signed 8-bit mono style. In the first case, I ask my converter to perform the just described conversion. Assuming I have written a WAV file and want to convert it to FT1-usable, I'd use SOX in the following manner: sox -V infile.WAV -ts8 outfile.SMP <- issued on the command line I could then load outfile.SMP into FastTracker 1. Hope this helps. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [5.2] Sample Editors - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.2.1] Amiga NHY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.2.2] Atari NHY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.2.3] Mac This section by Matthew E Centurion . Sound Samplers/Editors for the Mac aren't too easy to find.. but the best Sound Editor for the Mac is "Macromind SoundEdit" (Versions include: SoundEdit, SoundEdit Pro, SoundEdit 16" etc..) This has to be one of the best sound recorders and editors for mac.. it has most if not all the options from all the other programs listed for other platforms and it can do more stuff.. It has tons of effects and other options: reverb, bending, speed, pitch, flanger, noise, equalizer, mixer, backwards, tone generator, FM Synthesis, precision mapping, spectrum/waveform/dots, up to 44kHz sampling rate 8/16 (and even 24 methinks) bit recording, notes/tags on specific sections of samples, variety of formats AIFF, System 7 Sound, Resources, WAVS, Instrument, au, etc.. etc..) I still think that SoundEdit WITH SoundApp is a good combination because SoundApp let's you save in more formats than SE can... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.2.4] MS-DOS - Advanced Digiplayer 3.0 by PSI/Future Crew * SB & MS-DOS only sample editor * reads mono raw 8-bit and ST3-compatible samples and writes ST3 samples * features filters (hi- and low-pass), resmpling, volume commands (maximize, set, slide and smooth ends), DC shift, reverse, reverb, echo, cross fade, robotize, flange, chord making * two waveform editing windows * unofficial freeware ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/samplers/dos/dp30.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [5.2.5] OS/2 NHY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.2.6] UNIX (Sun/Linux/NeXT) Thanks to Andreas (?) for the info on: - MiXViews X11 sample editor and processor, very powerful and easy to use, supports many data formats. http://www.ccmrc.ucsb.edu/~doug/htmls/MiXViews.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [5.2.7] Windows - Cool Edit v1.5 by David Johnston / Syntrillium Software Corporation (P.O. Box 60274; Phoenix, AZ 85082-0274; USA) Editing functions: * multiple instances (copies of Cool) can be loaded, copied to, and pasted from in any mixture of wave formats * waves of any size can be edited, limited only by hard drive space * supports PCM, MS ADPCM and IMA/DVI ADPCM .WAV, Creative Labs .VOC, raw PCM, SMP, ASCII Text, AU, Apple AIFF and more * batch processor * cue list and play list for playing portions of a wave in any order, with looping (in .WAV) * built-in CD player when MCI CD Audio driver loaded and audio CD in drive * support for unlimited wave formats by user-definable file filters * support for unlimited effects by user-definable effect modules * undo * customizable toolbar * support for (user definable) presets in most functions * high quality sample rate conversion * support for descriptive information and bitmaps in .WAV Effects: * flanger * echo, 3D echo chamber and reverb * stretch * delay * compressor (compress/expand/limit dynamic range) * DC bias filter * normalize, fade, (volume) envelope, pan * noise reduction * ring modulation * distortion * 8-band quick filter (equalizer) * FFT filtering and spectral view for audio analysis Sound generation: * synthesis of noise and tone signals * music generation * brainwave synchronization * DTMF tone generator Cool Edit is three-flavour shareware: $25 for Cool Edit Lite (no 'fancy' effects), $50 for Basic Registration, $100 for Preferred Registration (automatic shareware (?) updates). Unregistered versions may only use a limited number of tools in one session. ftp://ftp.ep.se.cool/cool150.zip Cool Edit home page: http://www.ep.se/cool/ Mirrors: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/win3/sound/cool150.zip ftp://ftp.switch.ch/mirror/simtel/win3/sound/cool150.zip ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/oak.oakland.edu/Simtel/win3/sound/cool150.zip ftp://archive.orst.edu/pub/mirrors/simtel/win3/sound/cool150.zip - GoldWave 2.1 by Chris Craig * up to 5 waveforms editable in one session * undo function for all operations (can be turned off to save time) * support for AU (8/16 bits, U-Law), Amiga 8SVX/IFF, Matlab .MAT, raw or NeXT .SND, Microsoft RIFF .WAV, Creative Labs .VOC (no support for ADPCM compression) * functions include echo, transpose (using notes), filter, volume (fade in/out, shape, pan), mechanize, resample, interpolate, DC shift, invert, reverse * powerful expression evaluator to create new waveforms using mathematical expressions (this makes GoldWave very diverse, as it is thus possible to create own functions, given enough knowledge) * fully operational shareware $25 ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs/samplers/gldwav21.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [5.3] FTP Sites with Samples Kurzweil 2000: - ftp://ftp.uwp.edu/pub/music/lists/kurzweil/sounds EMAX: - ftp://sweaty.palm.cri.nz/emax/emax1 SDS (Sample Dump Standard): ftp://alf.uib.no/pub/midi/sds/samples ftp://sweaty.palm.cri.nz/sds/samples EPS-16+: - ftp://ftp.reed.edu/eps/samples (these are also available on the WWW at URL: http://www.acs.oakland.edu/oak/eps/eps.html) TX16W: - ftp://ftp-ls7.informatik.uni-dortmund.de/tx16w/samples AIFF: - ftp://ftp.reed.edu/eps/samples/aiff Roland Disk Images: - ftp://lotus.waterloo.ca/pub/sgroups/samples Yamaha SY-85 and 99: - ftp://louie.udel.edu/pub/midi/patches/SY99 Microsoft WAV: - ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sounds/wav/samples ftp://doc.ntu.ac.uk/pub/sounds/samples ============================================================================== [6] Obtaining Mods ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [6.1] FTP Servers General: The FTP servers mentioned hereafter allow for anonymous FTP. Log into the server by specifying 'ftp ', tell it 'ftp' when it asks you for a login and supply it with your email address as a password. Alternatively, use 'anonymous' as login and your email address as password. Please remember that ftp is a privilege, not a right. Restrict your calls to (the site's) non-business hours whenever possible. The largest repository of mods is probably the Aminet. There are numerous FTP servers all over the world mirroring it. A list follows: >These are the members of Aminet and have the files from here. All mirrors >have the new files but most delete old files, however ftp.wustl.edu and >ftp.cdrom.se keep all files. Whenever possible, use the mirror that is the >closest to your place. Most mirrors get updated three times a day. > >USA (MO) ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 pub/aminet/mods >USA (CA) ftp.cdrom.com 192.153.46.2 pub/aminet/mods >USA (TX) ftp.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20 pub/aminet/mods >Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 pub/aminet/mods >Switzerland ftp.eunet.ch 146.228.10.16 pub/aminet/mods >Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 pub/aminet/ (*) >Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.3.2 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.uni-bielefeld.de 129.70.4.55 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.uni-oldenburg.de 134.106.40.9 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.uni-stuttgart.de 129.96.8.13 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.uni-siegen.de 141.99.128.1 pub/aminet/mods >Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 pub/aminet/mods >UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.1 pub/aminet/mods > (*) closed 6:30am to 4pm weekdays Another good site for new mod releases is ftp.cdrom.com (Hornet/Wasp, formerly based at ftp.eng.ufl), the main Internet site for PC demos and related material. Mods can be found in the /pub/demos/music/songs directory, sorted by format type. Note that due to diskspace limitations, mods usually don't stay on this site for longer than a month. Hornet is mirrored by ftp.uwp.edu (131.210.1.4) USA, ftp.luth.se (130.240.18.2) Sweden, ftp.sun.ac.za (146.232.212.21) S.Africa, ftp.uni-erlangen.de (131.188.2.43) Germany, ftp.uni-paderborn.de (131.234.10.42) Germany and ftp.cdrom.com (192.216.191.11) USA. Hornet also publishes DemoNews on a weekly basis, it includes demo-related news and a list of uploads and deletions. To subscribe, send email to listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za with "subscribe demuan-list YOUR_NAME" (w/o quotes) in the body of the message, substituting YOUR_NAME with, guess, yeah, your name. You will then receive DemoNews weekly, it is sent out each Sunday morning. The GUS FTP sites also have a number of mods in their directories. Mods can be found in the subdirectories 'sound/*'. The sites are: Main N.American Site: archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound European Callers ONLY: theoris.rz.uni-konstanz.de pub/sound/gus Submissions: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound/submit Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound Mailserver for Archive Access: Email to Following is a list of ftp servers taken from the MOD Charts list (these have not been validated): archie.au /micros/amiga/incoming/mods ftp.germany.eu.net /pub/comp/amiga/mods ftp.informatik.uni-rostock.de /pub/amiga/mods ftp.uni-kl.de (131.246.9.95) /pub/amiga/wuarchive/mods /incoming/amiga/mods ftp.uni-muenster.de /pub/sounds/ ftp.uni-oldenburg.de /pub/amiga/incoming/mods ftp.brad.ac.uk /misc/mods/ and /incoming/mods/ ftp.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) /pub/amiga/audio/modules geocub.greco-prog.fr /pub/incoming/amiga/mods ftp.luth.se (130.240.16.3) /pub/OS/amiga/mods lysator.liu.se /pub/amiga/mods ftp.uwp.edu (cs.uwp.edu) /pub/music/sounds/mods /pub/music/lists/btl/mods /pub/incoming/sounds/mods /pub/incoming/msdos/modplayer/mods ftp.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59) /pub/amiga ftp.mcs.kent.edu /pub/SB-Adlib/ntmods wuarchive.wustl.edu /systems/amiga/incoming/mods (128.252.135.4) /systems/amiga/audio/music /mirrors4/amiga.physik.unizh.ch/amiga/mods KFMF, formerly KLF, the world's leading PC mod group, has two ftp sites: ftp://freedom.wit.com/klf/songs/ ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/misc2/kosmic/songs On hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/32bit/multimedia/mod is a sizable archive of modules (of various formats) available for ftp - Dave Wach opus.mac.cc.cmu.edu maintained by Matthew E Centurion contains some mods from a.b.s.mods and ftp sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [6.2] BBSs See Appendix F, the MOD Charts, for a list of BBSs with mods. You can also check the comments in archives you get, they usually contain some BBS adverts. The Venom BBS has almost 5000 SoundTracker/PT/NoiseTracker MODs in its archives: (603) 624-9451 16.8k DS (603) 644-8263 14.4k v32/v42 Contact: BBS - (603)-624-9451 FidoNet - 1:132/155.0 Clink - 911:6400/6.0 Internet - galf@mv.MV.COM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [6.3] Newsgroups Naturally, alt.binaries.sounds.mods is THE Usenet newsgroup for mods. Binary posts to this group are usually split into several parts and uuencoded. If that doesn't make sense to you, that doesn't matter. Just read on. Here's how to extract the mods from the text garbage. How you do it exactly is up to you and the newsreader you're using. I will cover NN, RN and TIN here, as well as telling you how to cope with dumb uudecoders. Thanks to Stan Greene (Merlin) for supplying the information initially. NN: Let's assume you have a list of five articles on screen, identified by consecutive letters a through e, of which the last four are the file example.mod. First, tag (i.e. mark) the parts by pressing the appropriate letters (b through e). Then type the following: ':decode'. Choose any directory you wish when prompted for the Decode Directory, this is where the decoded file will go. At the next prompt (Decode test2/ Article (* +):, for example), enter '*' to specify the previously selected articles. NN will then decode the files for you. RN/TRN: Assuming that the file is in multiple parts, go to the first part and press 'e'. Continue going through all of the parts, pressing 'e' for each. As you do each part, you should see 'Continuing filename.ext: (Continued)'. When you get to the last part and press 'e', you're done. It knows that the file is complete. TIN: We will assume the same setting as in the NN example. The first thing you do is move the scrollbar to the first part of the file you want, this'd be the 2nd article in the list. Now press 't' to tag the file, the plus sign in front of the article should turn into a '1' and the scrollbar should move to the next line. Tag all the parts of the file in the same manner, watching out so you keep the order correct. When you're done, press 's', which gives you the following prompt: 'Save a)rticle, t)hread, h)ot, p)attern, T)agged articles, q)uit: T'. The default should be a captial T, which is what youy want anyway, so just hit return. TIN will prompt you for a filename, you can use anything, basically, keeping it simple should prove helpful (to you). Done that, TIN asks you for post-processing options. Most of the time, you will want to uudecode the binaries, so press 'u'. Done. BY HAND: OK, there are two possibilities here. Either you have a smart uudecoder (such as UU, UNPOST or UUMASTER for MS-DOS, or WinCode for Windows), or you're stuck with a basic dumb type. - SMART: This is pretty simple. Just save your articles to a common file and feed it to your smart decoder. Using UU, this'd look like this, after having saved some articled to a file called mods.uue: 'uu /i /s mods.uue'. UU will do the rest. Note that it is good to have several smart decoders at hand in case one of them refuses to decode a file. You can then always try the others. - DUMB: This is tedious. Save the articles, preferrably and for your own sanity's sake, to separate files, using some form of numbering scheme so you'll know which part is which later on. Then call your favourite text editor (as in ASCII) and trim out anything from the files that isn't a valid UU line. This includes everything up to, but not including, the line saying 'begin 640 blabla.mod', which should be in the first part, and everything after the line saying 'end', which should be in the last part. You also need to trim out any checksum info, mail/posting headers and signatures (these should be at the end of the files). When you've done all that, concatenate (i.e. join) the files, but keep them in the correct order! Feed the resulting file to your dumb decoder. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [6.4] WWW Zigg (Matt Behrens) told me on 5 Dec 1994: Here's a little-known fact concerning the Web (one that I've picked up on and sprinkled liberally throughout the links to Aminet): Aminet is available in a few spots via HTTP. The home site, being ftp.wustl.edu, of course, is accessible at http://ftp.wustl.edu/~aminet/index.html. All aminet files are accessible through wuarchive's http system (eliminating the need to wait "for usage to go down") at http://ftp.wustl.edu/systems/amiga/aminet/*. Extending this information on 5 May 95, Zigg tells us that another way to Aminet via HTTP is by accessing freedom.wit.com at: http://freedom.wit.com/mirrors/amiga/... Zigg has also set up the Virtual Music Page, which you'll find at: http://www2.gvsu.edu/~behrensm/vmp/index.html. Dan (Maelcum/KFMF) wrote to the KLF-List on 2 Feb 95: The KFMF WWW site will soon be: http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/ It might (still) be: http://freedom.wit.com/~klf/klfhome.html and/or http://ftp.luth.se/pub/misc2/kosmic/www/ And Jason M. Spangler tells us on 31 Oct 1994: Just thought I'd tell everyone I updated, re-organized, and moved my module FTP site page... it's now at: http://www.ysu.edu/~jasons/mod/index.html Kaushik Ramakrishnan says: Site for introductory info about mods: http://www.phantom.com/archives/mods.html Tracker binary (for Sun2s): http://www.phantom.com/archives/tracker.sparc Tim Gerchmez posted to a.b.s.mods on 28 Apr 95: Check out my MOD page on the Worldwide Web. As far as I know, it's now the best and most comprehensive source of info on MODs (jester's note: Ahem! ;) ) and related topics on the Web. It can be accessed via a graphical browser (recommended) and is also Lynx-friendly. http://www.eskimo.com/~future/mods.htm David McConville let us know on 3 Mar 95: Just letting you know that we've got a full mirror of the funet.fi mod archive at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/multimedia/mods ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [6.5] CD-ROMs Aminet CD 4 * Contains 330 MB of software that has appeared since Aminet CD 3 (15-Jun- 94), 230 MB of mods, 100 MB of top downloads consisting of 1700 mods, 1600 utilities, 250 games, 100 demos and 80 animations. * Availability: shipping (whatever that means - jester) * Avilable in two versions, Aminet Gold and Aminet Share. The higher priced version includes a donation o the otherwise unpaid makers of the CD, the lower one doesn't (donations are still accepted). * Compatible with all Amigas including CDTV/A570. Not compatible with CD32 plus Communicator. Compatible with CD32 plus SX1. Compatible with all Amiga OS versions for the access software. Compatible with all operating systems, except some MS-DOS CD-ROM file systems that can't handle mixed case filenames. * Ordering (credit cards ok): Germany: Stefan Ossowski USA: Fred Fish Tel: +49-201-788778 Tel: +1-602-917-0917 Fax: +49-201-798447 Fax: +1-602-917-0917 Email:stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de Email:fnf@amigalib.com Aminet Gold: DM 29.80 Aminet Gold: $19.95 Aminet Share: DM 19.80 Aminet Share: $11.95 (Prices exclude shipping) * More information is available in the text file docs/misc/CD-Orders.txt on Aminet. A complete index of Aminet CD 4 is found in disk/cdrom/Aminet-CD-4.lha Aminet CD 5 - CDTV/CD32/UNIX (unix music only) * contains all the Uploads to Aminet over the last few months, which includes several thousand utilities and Modules (including S3m's). (see also Aminet CD's 1-4 - since although contents differ, they are in the same style/format) * Availability: Weird Science EPIC Marketing PDSoft 1 Rowlandson Close First Floor Offices 1 Bryant Avenue Leicester 138-139 Victoria Road Southend-on-Sea Leics. LE4 2SE Swindon ESSEX England Wilts SS1 2YD SN1 3BU UK England Email: pdsoft@mymagic.demon.co.uk Tel: 0116 234 0682 Tel: 01793 490988 Tel: 01702 466933 Fax: 0116 236 4932 Fax: 01793 514187 Fax: 01702 617123 (All Sell the CD at #14.99 (UKP)) 10,000 Sounds & Songs * Volume 0 of the Digital Data Archives * this CD contains 850 selected MODs * also countless other Multimedia files (.wav, .mid, .avi, .fli, .voc, .sam, and much more) * price: $15 * For more information or to order contact: Walt Perko P.O.Box 640608 San Francisco, CA. 94164-0608 phone: (415) 771-1788 email: wperko@netcom.com Mystical MOD Madness * Volume 1 of the Digital Data Archives * Contains about 3000 MODs, S3Ms and 669s * price: $25 * Contact information (Walt Perko) see "10,000 Sounds & Songs" Sound Site CD-ROM * large collection of music files taken from the Saffron archives * including over 1350 MOD files * nearly 500 MIDI files, and also 669, STM and other files * price $19.95 + $5 s/h * For more info or to order contact: Island CD Creations 1960 Kapiolani Blvd. Suite 113-592 Honolulu, HI 96826 email: duane@shell.portal.com (Duane Takamine) Town of Tunes CD * a compilation of the best 820 MOD music and melody files * it takes about 70 hours to hear them all * carefully picked from approx. 4000 files worldwide in a two-year period * includes 21 of the newest and hottest tunes from "THE PARTY" in Denmark Winter 1994 * also some of the newest S3M music/melody files, 100 MB of the latest spectacular VGA graphic demos, and more * price: $35 + $6 s/h * For more information or to order contact: Wichman Consult Hovmalvej 78-6 2300 Copenhagen S., Denmark phone: +45-3151-3187 Fax: +45-3122-2744 email: ecjowh@hp3.cbs.dk The Ultimate MOD Collection * contains more than 1700 MODs * a bunch of players & utilities (editors, etc.) for all sorts of computers * some 669, STM, MED, and other file formats * price $29 * for more information contact: The Marketplace phone: (800) 289-1766 or (314) 521-4862 EuroScene 1 - CDTV/CD32/UNIX (unix music only) * contains 600 MB of amiga demos and music. This CD is literally loaded with music by author, demo crews etc...there is tonnes of it all packed with Lha. The demos are from all periods in time, though mainly the last few years - 1991 onwards.. there are even a few AGA demos on there. * availablity: Almathera Systems..17-Bit Software.. a few other places ;-) * Almathera Can be reached at: Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham CR4 3TD England SoundMOD * A 650 meg collection of over 3,700 sound files in 669, MOD, S3M, MTM, FAR and ULT formats. * This disc has files.bbs and 4DOS descript.ion files with the song name and track count of each module. * Play the files right from your CD-ROM or place them onyline for your BBS callers. * Released 1-6-95 * Price: $20 * Contact orders@fourstar.mi.org or (517)865-8075 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST ============================================================================== [7] Distributing Mods When you're sick of listening to other people's creations, have mastered a tracker and finally come up with something you consider brilliant or at least good enough for other people to enjoy, you want to spread it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [7.0.1] Compression Thanks to Rich La Bonte for suggestions concerning this section. It is always a good idea to compress a module before you distribute it. Especially when using telecommunications systems (i.e. telephone lines or networks), data compression can reduce a lot of transmission time and bandwidth. The two main archivers used in compressing mods are LHA/LHarc and PKZIP. LHA is used mainly on Amigas, but compatible archivers/dearchivers exist on just about any platform. The same goes for the MS-DOS originated PKZIP. Other archivers may perform better compression, but aren't a good choice if you want your file to be decodable by as many people as possible. Note though that even though LHA/LHarc's archiving is generally compatible across platforms, users should be aware of the limitations of other systems. While flipped orders of filename and extension is rather easy to fix and is not a problem (by which I want to express that I discourage discussions about efficiencies and deficiencies of the various platforms), there are several incompatibilities which hinder distribution. LHA/LHarc for Amiga can store attributes that prevent MS-DOS LHA from dearchiving the files contained. A filename beginning with a period has the same effect, as MS-DOS uses the period to symbolize the current directory only. Mac files include a header containing a resource and a data fork. The resource fork is absolutely Mac-specific and is incompatible with any other system (AFAIK). Please prove netiquette - compress your mods with LHA, PKZIP or compatible compressors and use a method which will enable your recipients to dearchive them. See appendix H for a list of sites for these programs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [7.1] Usenet Posting (to a.b.s.mods) This being the FAQ for the group, it is natural that postings to it should find a place here. Usenet poses some difficulties concerning the transmission of binary data, as mods are. Only 7-bit ASCII is transmitted, while binaries are 8-bit files. This means that mods need to be encoded before they can be posted to Usenet. There are several encoding methods, the most common being uuencoding. Others include MIME, XX and a few others, but these are not recommended (you want as many people as possible to hear your creations, don't you?). Don't even attempt to post a binary to usenet without having encoded it to ASCII. Use of encoding methods other than uuencoding is strongly discouraged. Uuencoding is the de-facto Usenet standard and tools exist to deal with it on virtually all platforms, while other standards, while perhaps being better in some respects, are bound to cause problems for a lot of users. Another problem is that some news servers don't read more than a certain amount of lines in usenet postings. This is why most posts are split into 'small' chunks. A maximum of 1000 lines seems sensible (this is roughly 64 KBytes). It is considered good netiquette and STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to supply a part zero of howevermany including a description of the posted file. I hereby declare the following as the FAQ-standard part zero for a.b.s.mods: - example cut here - - - - - - - - - - - FILE NAME: example.mod SONG NAME: The exemplary Song ARCHIVE: PkZip 2.04g MOD TYPE: 8CHN COMPOSER: Nobody METHOD: Original MUSICAL STYLE: ambient deep techno house POSTER: Nobody too UPLOADED TO: ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/incoming/example.zip COMMENTS: This is just an example - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -cut here- Explanation of the above: - FILE NAME: This is pretty clear. I suggest the original mod's extension be stated, as the archiver is stated further down. - SONG NAME: The name given to the song in the mod's songname field. Or the full name of the song if that field didn't suffice (example: "I'm gonna be infectious" by Romeo Knight) - ARCHIVE: The name of the archiver used. Only LHA/Lharc and PkZip and compatible programs are encouraged. It is important to specify the version number here. - MOD TYPE: The exact mod type. MOD is not exact! See section 2 for a list of exact mod type definitions. - COMPOSER: The person who made the mod, if known. - METHOD: The method with which the mod was made. There are four categories here, Original, Conversion, Transcribed and Sampled. + An Original is any original composition, music that originated in a mod type. Pieces originated in one mod type and then transferred to another also qualify for this term. + A Conversion is a composition that has been converted from another type of music format (e.g. MIDI, ROL, CMF) to a mod type format. Slight re-edits of the mod file are still to be considered Conversions. + A Transcribed mod is a transcription of music that originated in a non-computer form, such as sheet music or as music on CDs and/or cassettes. + Sampled mods are pieces of music strung together in a mod format by sampling parts of a song (usually from CD or cassette) and playing them at a constant speed. - MUSICAL STYLE: A rough approximation of the style the song is in. No attempt should be made to try to fill this entry out exactly, as it just isn't absolutely possible. However, an estimation of the style should be supplied, as this is possible in most cases. - POSTER: This is you. Your name and/or handle and/or email address should go here. - UPLOADED TO: Where else the mod is available, per ftp for example. - COMMENTS: Write anything you feel should be said about your posting and/or its contents here. Use subject lines that include the filename of your posting and the part number, the latter either in brackets (recommended) or in the form "part x of y". If you feel like it, put a very short description in the subject line. However, if you follow this guideline, a subject line saying simply "EXAMPLE.abc (x/y)" should suffice. The above example would have the following subjects, assuming that the uuencoded data took four parts: Subject: EXAMPLE.MOD (0/4) Subject: EXAMPLE.MOD (1/4) Subject: EXAMPLE.MOD (2/4) Subject: EXAMPLE.MOD (3/4) Subject: EXAMPLE.MOD (4/4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [7.2] FTP Uploads Most of the ftp servers you can download mods from will accept uploads too. These usually go in an /incoming directory somewhere. Be sure to upload a text file with a short description (similar to part zero in section 7.1) along with the mod. Also remember to specify 'bin' for binary transfer, or your mod might be transmitted as a 7-bit file, thereby completely corrupting it. Making an announcement in a.b.s.mods about your upload will most probably be welcome. See section 6.1 for a list of ftp servers with mods. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [7.3] BBS Uploads I don't know anything about this (except some BBS names). But if you managed to download something from a BBS, you probably know how to upload something too. ============================================================================== Appendix A: Contributors and Credits This FAQ is maintained and mainly written by myself, jester (Tobias Reckhard). Thanks go to (in no particular order): Harald Zappe Todd Walsh Barry Nathan Matt Behrens (Zigg) Dan Nicholson Rich "Akira" Pizor Jens Puchert (Jensi) Jason M. Spangler Aaron J. Luz Dave Wach Matthew E. Centurion (Mashoe) Dan John Roland Christian Stieber Steven Innell Tim Fries (Frenchy) Rich La Bonte Heikki Kantola Lyman Green Sir Fitz Ryan Kyle Henry Huang Jeffrey L. Hayes Eric Lowe ============================================================================== Appendix B: Common Properties of Module File Formats They're all chunks of bytes. Heh heh. ;) OK, seriously now. All mod files contain a header identifying the file and its format. It also mentions song name and number of patterns in the song. The header is usually followed by the pattern and sequencing information. Finally, the file also contains the sample data. This usually takes up most of the space in a mod. With today's file formats advancing more and more, those are just about all the common properties worth mentioning, IMHO. For further information on particular mod types, refer to the format description. This is usually found in the same archive as the tracker it is connected to. You can also check ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/text for some docs. Following format specs are available there: MOD - modform.zip FTK - musfmt10.zip SSS - musfmt10.zip PSM - psm-form.zip MED - musfmt10.zip STAR- musfmt10.zip S3M - s3mformat.zip MOD - musfmt10.zip TT - musfmt10.zip ULT - ultform.zip MTM - musfmt10.zip ULT - musfmt10.zip 669 - musfmt10.zip OKT - musfmt10.zip WOW - musfmt10.zip DMF - musfmt10.zip P16 - musfmt10.zip FAR - musfmt10.zip S3M - musfmt10.zip ============================================================================== Appendix C: Mods and MIDI Here is a good posting made by Jens Puchert on the subject, slightly edited by myself to retain the FAQ's terminology. Supplied to me by Harald Zappe. In article oneshot@dorsai.org (jason_wong) writes: >Pls, No flames. What format is better? Which sounds better and is more >popular? I'm not choosing one over another but I do like whole songs in >MIDI then the usual re-mixes as mods. But you don't have to shell out >$$$ for a wave-table sound card to play mods. This discussion seems to be older than "What was there first, the chicken or the egg?" Anyway, we can't answer either of those important philosophical questions to the full satisfaction of everybody. You should realize that mod and MIDI are inherently different things that cannot be compared easily with each other (a famous phrase about two fist-sized fruits comes to mind). The major difference is that digital music modules (also popularly known as mods) contain sampled instruments while MIDI files don't contain any instruments at all and rather rely on your sound hardware to synthesize them (by various means of course). So that yields another big difference. Modules are hardware independent, they (should) sound the same on just about every piece of hardware (excluding cases in which the player screws up and doesn't do what it's supposed to, cases where playback is attempted on totally inappropriate devices such as the PC squeaker, and cases where playback is attempted on devices that don't provide sufficient quality such as a mono Sound Blaster). On the other hand, MIDI devices are free to generate instruments to their liking, some of those will sound better (Roland Sound Canvas) and others will sound unbearable (AdLib comes to mind). Both devices however are perfectly fine MIDI compliant. Also, those MIDI instruments are standardized into a set called General MIDI. With most MIDI devices you'll be limited to use the 128 pre-defined instruments from this GM set. A plus for MIDI is the availability of very professional, sophisticated composition tools that are not available in this variety and quality to create modules. As far as remixes, cover versions, and original creations concerns, all of them can be done and found in either the MIDI or the module format, so there's no inherent connection between format and musical style and origin. So to sum this up, if sophisticated composing software and professional quality is important to you go for MIDI, if device independance and therefore easy exchangability, custom instruments and voices, and lower cost are important to you then you should go for modules. Hope this helps... Jensi ============================================================================== Appendix D: Musicians Note: This list reflects the opinions of the contributors and is guaranteed not to be objective. If you've contributed or want to contribute to the FAQ, feel free to send a note along with your all-time faves. They'll be included, as long as they take no more than two lines. This thing is way too big as it is. (Note: If you supply me with more than two lines, I'll strip any group names first, then start removing names, putting them into the notables section if that's what they are) jester's favourite composers: Purple Motion, Nuke, RuffKut, Skaven, Romeo Knight, Lizardking, Zane, Weasel, Maelcum. Steven Innell's fave musos: Jester/Sanity, Mantronix&Tip, U4IA, Sidewinder, Jogeir Liljedahl, Strobe, (me heh ;-)), Nuke&4-mat, Chris Huelsbeck other notables: Ng Pei Sin, Moby, Captain, pkk, Firelight, tR/\Sh. The world leading PC mod group today is KLF, consisting of (musician-wise) Maelcum, iNSPEKDAH DECk, I.Q., the Hacker, Phoenix, Balrog, Basehead, Maral, Krystall, Lurch, Necros, Khyron, Nemesis, Mental Floss and Piromaniak. ============================================================================== Appendix E: All-Time Faves Note: This list reflects the opinions of the contributors and is guaranteed not to be objective. If you've contributed or want to contribute to the FAQ, feel free to send a note along with your all-time faves. They'll be included, as long as they take no more than five lines. This thing is way too big as it is. jester: Boesendorfer P.S.S./Romeo Knight, World of Plastic/PM, Shhh.../pkk, Serenity/jester, Mercury Rain/Skaven, Space Trax/Maelcum, Underwater Breathing/PM, Trans Atlantic/Lizardking, Waiting for Rain/RuffKut, Gold Return/Nuke, Space Debris/Captain, Joyride/tip, Daisy Chain 2/uncle tom, When The Heavens Fall/PM, Dreaming of the Girl/Fencer Jensi: Estranged/Khyron, Defloration/emax, Crystalline Tears/Nemesis, Here It Is For You/Maelcum, Poetry In Motion/Basehead, Tribal Quest/Inspekdah Deck, Amazonas/Skaven, Adrenalin/tR/\Sh, Backwards/Firelight, When The Heavens Fall/Purple Motion, Knulla Kuk !!!/moby, Face Another Day/Jogeir Liljedahl, Now What 3/Dr. Awesome ============================================================================== Appendix F: the MOD Charts The MOD Charts are a Top 100 list of mods, maintained by Oliver (oliver@math.uni-muenster.de, a.k.a. HITMAN on IRC, #modcharts). Multitrack formats have recently been allowed into the charts. For further details, connect to your nearest supporting site (see list below) and download the informational files. I am aware of this list being from last year, I don't plan to update it every time it is released anew. If you notice incorrect information, tell me (jester) about it and I'll grab the newest info and update this section. MODCHARTS SITE LIST November 1994 AUSTRALIA: archie.au /micros/amiga/aminet/mods/chart GERMANY: ftp.uni-muenster.de /pub/sounds/modcharts, /MODPLAYER (pc) ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de /pub/aminet/mods/chart ftp.informatik.uni-rostock.de /pub/amiga/mods/charts ftp.th-darmstadt.de /pub/aminet/mods/chart ftp.uni-erlangen.de /pub/aminet/mods/chart ftp.uni-kl.de /pub/aminet/mods/chart ftp.uni-paderborn.de /pub/aminet/mods/chart SWEDEN: ftp.luth.se /pub/aminet/mods/chart SWITZERLAND: ftp.eunet.ch /pub/aminet/mods/chart litamiga.epfl.ch /pub/aminet/mods/chart GREAT BRITAIN: src.doc.ic.ac.uk /computing/systems/amiga/mods/chart U.S.A.: ftp.etsu.edu /pub/aminet/mods/chart ftp.wustl.edu /pub/aminet/mods/chart wasp.eng.ufl.edu /pub/msdos/demos/music/MOD_CHARTS wuarchive.wustl.edu /pub/aminet/mods/chart BBS'es: Art-Line (Wuppertal, D) /---Art-Line---/musik/charts (@wupper.de) Top10 + newcomer dl-free ++49-(0)202-595055 2400-19200/ZyXEL MNP5/V42.bis ++49-(0)202-596003 2400-19200/ZyXEL MNP5/V42.bis ++49-(0)202-2456013 64000 ISDN X.75 V.110 BeetleJuice (Duelmen, D) /modules/modcharts ++49-(0)2594-89861 2400-14400/V42.bis MicroBe (Weert, Netherlands) /soundblaster/modcharts ++31-4950-46180 1200-28800 Music Power (Bischheim, France) /modcharts, all chartfiles dl-free +33 - 88.83.63.59 2400-14400/ZyXEL MNP5/V42.bis Portal (Winnindoo, Australien) /modules all chartfiles download-free +61-(0)51-992869 1200-28800 MNP5/MNP10/V42.bis Proton Palace (Ottawa, Ontario) /? 613-829-0909 14400-19200 SAC (Bratislava, Slovakia) /Modchart 42-7-2048232 19200/ZyXEL MNP5/V42.bis Stardate (Telgte, D) /Box-Ebene/Binaer/Musik/Mod-Charts ++49-(0)2504-5107 1200-14400/V42.bis The Abyss (Stuttgart, D) /Gallery/Modcharts ++49-(0)711-617291 9600-19200/ZyXEL MNP5/V42.bis ++49-(0)711-6159399 2400-14400/V32.bis MNP5/V42.bis Tup-Off-Box (Goeppingen, D) all newcomer-mods download-free ++49-(0)7161-57382 ++49-(0)7161-57869 ++49-(0)7161-57960 2400 bps Visitor (Muenster, D) /modcharts, all chartfiles dl-free (@westfalen.de) ++49-(0)251-295014 9600-16800/V32.bis/V42.bis 38400-64000/V.110/X.75 ++49-(0)251-922227 1200-2400/V24.bis ++49-(0)251-922229 9600-28800/U.S.R./V34.bis 9600-14400/V32.bis/V42.bis FIDOs: Linie13 2:241/595 flags: zyx,xa,cm (@demon.escape.de) online: 24h except zmh Portal 3:632/345 Request: ModList SAC 2:422/80 Star Fortress 2:2494/340 Flags: ZYX, XA, MO online: 00:00-09:00 CET Request: FILES, MODCHART ============================================================================== Appendix G: Availability of Compressors/Archivers from the comp.compression FAQ lha for MS-DOS: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/archiver/lha213.exe (exe) ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/archiver/lha211sr.zip (sources) ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/arcers/lha255b.exe lharc for Unix (can only extract from version 1.xx .lzh files): ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/misc/unix/lharc102a.tar-z ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/unix/arcers/lha101u.tar.Z lha for Unix (docs in Japanese): ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/misc/unix/lha101u.tar-z ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/unix/arcers/lha-1.00.tar.Z lha for Mac: ftp://mac.archive.umich.edu/mac/utilities/compressionapps/maclha2.0.cpt.hqx ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/info-mac/cmp/mac-lha-213.hqx (note: the first section of the 2nd URL can be replaced with any of the multitude of info mac shadows) lha for Amiga: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/amiga/utilities/archivers/LhA_e138.run pkzip 2.04g for MS-DOS: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/zip/pkz204g.exe ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/arcers/pkz204g.exe zip 2.0.1 and unzip 5.12 for Unix, MS-DOS, VMS, OS/2, Amiga,...(compatible with pkzip 2.04g): ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/zip201.zip (source) ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/unzip512.tar.Z (source) ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/MSDOS/zip20x.zip (MSDOS exe) ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/MSDOS/unz512x*.exe (MSDOS exe) ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/VMS/zip20x-vms.zip (Vax/VMS exe) ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/VMS/unz512x-vax.exe (Vax/VMS exe) ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/OS2/* (OS/2 exe 16&32 bit) See also AMIGA, ATARI, MAC, NT, SCO_UNIX, LINUX, Ultrix-MIPS, WINDOWS and SOLARIS2 subdirectories. ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/unix/arcers/zip201.zip (source) ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/unix/arcers/unzip512.tar.Z (source) ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/arcers/zip20x.zip (MSDOS exe) ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/arcers/unz512x3.exe (MSDOS exe) for Macintosh: ftp://mac.archive.umich.edu/mac/util/compression/unzip2.01.cpt.hqx ftp://mac.archive.umich.edu/mac/util/compression/zipit1.2.cpt.hqx ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/MAC/unz512.hqx ============================================================================== Appendix H: Table of Note Frequencies Use this to calculate sampling rates for mistuned instruments. For example, if you have an instrument at 8363Hz that plays an A-2 but you want it to play a C-2, the appropriate sampling rate is 8363 * 261.7 / 440 Hz = 4974 Hz All values are given in Hz. (supplied by Chris Craig, author of GoldWave) C - 261.7 E - 329.6 G# - 415.3 C# - 277.2 F - 349.2 A - 440.0 D - 293.7 F# - 370.0 A# - 466.2 D# - 311.1 G - 392.0 B - 493.9 Bear in mind that doubling the sampling rate raises a sound by one octave, halving the rate lowers the note by one octave. ============================================================================== Appendix I: Overview of Effects Used in Digital Music Modules This section supplied by Jens Puchert. The following covers all ProTracker and ScreamTracker 3 effects. The effect commands are given for ProTracker first, and then for Scream Tracker. Fast-, Take-, and MultiTracker also use the ProTracker command set. The parameters are given as "x", "xx", or "xy". "x" means there's a single parater for this effect. "xx" means there's a single parameter composed of two digits. "xy" means there are two independent parameters for this effect. PT effect S3M effect 1. Effects that change the pitch of the currently playing note * Arpeggio 0xy Jxy * Portamento Up/Down 1xx/2xx Fxx/Exx * Fine Portamento Up/Down E1x/E2x FFx/EFx * Extra Fine Portamento Up/Down - FEx/EEx * Portamento To Note 3xx Gxx * Vibrato 4xy Hxy 2. Effects that change the volume or pan position of one or more channels * Set Volume Cxx * Volume Slide Axy Dxy * Fine Volume Up/Down EAx/EBx DxF/DFx * Set Global Volume - Vxy * Set Panning (finesteps) 8xx Xxx * Set Panning E8x S8x * Stereo Control - SAx * Tremolo 7xy Rxy * Tremor - Ixy 3. Effects to influence flow control and speed * Set Speed Fxx (x < 20h) Axx * Set Tempo Fxx (x > 1Fh) Txx * Pattern Break Dxx Cxx * Pattern Jump Bxx Bxx * Pattern Loop E6x SBx * Pattern Delay EEx SEx 4. Miscellaneous effects to influence playback of a single note * Set Finetune E5x S2x * Sample Offset 9xx Oxx * Regrigger Note E9x Q0x * Cut Note ECx SCx * Note Delay EDx SDx * Invert Loop EFx SFx 5. Miscellaneous effects to set global variables * Set Filter E0x S0x * Glissando Control E3x S1x * Vibrato Waveform E4x S3x * Tremolo Waveform E7x S4x 6. Combinations of other effects * Portamento + Volume Slide 5xy Lxy * Vibrato + Volume Slide 6xy Kxy * Retrigger + Volume Slide - Qxy ============================================================================== Appendix J: Answers to as yet Unanswered FAQs This section is still under construction and will probably always stay that way. FAQs that don't quite fit into any other section will be assembled here. Because of this, this appendix will appear very unsorted and messy. Suggestions for additions, corrections or deletions are welcome. 1) How is MOD played back correctly One would think that MOD is a standard format. Unfortunately, it isn't anymore. While the only real reference for this format remains the Amiga's ProTracker, even in the early stages of MOD, incompatibilities came around through the different timing methods in PAL and NTSC Amigas. The advent of all sorts of trackers writing in MOD formats, by which I mean all formats complying to PT's way of storing header, pattern info (not restricted to 4-track though), sequencing list and sample data, have brought about more complications since a lot of their players prove to be PT-incompatible. The problem is that the composer of a MOD relies on his song's sound using his tracker (even though some tailor theirs for certain players), so, assuming tracker XX is not PT-compliant in its player, a song made in tracker XX will not sound the way its composer wanted it to when played in ProTracker, which is accepted as THE standard for MODs. As it is, ProTracker remains the only reference for MOD playing. A decent documentation on the exact specifics of MOD is not available yet, to my knowledge. All (I dare to say this) PC players, and probably those on all systems save the Amiga which benefits from MOD being designed around its hardware, play MODs wrong in some way or the other. The main two points to look for are accuracy and sound quality. Absolute accuracy isn't there yet, but there exist vast differences. BTW, even the format specs on MOD vary in a lot of cases. Don't believe any specification but the ProTracker one to be correct. 2) How do I calculate mod playback speeds This applies to MOD and S3M (and probably to most other module types). There are two playback speed settings in mods, one being the ticks-per-row (hereafter referred to as TPR) and the other the BPM (beats per minute) setting. The BPM statement denotes the amount of time that is to be spent on one tick. At default BPM speed of 125 decimal (7D hex), one tick equals to 0.02 seconds. Thus, tick-time = (0.02 * 125 / BPM) seconds = (2.5 / BPM) seconds. The TPR speed groups a specified number of ticks into a row. Specifying a TPR speed of four groups four ticks into a row, for example. So, if you set a BPM speed of 150 and a TPR speed of 4, one tick will last for 1/60th of a second and four such ticks will be one row. Thus a row will last for 4/60ths of a second and a 64-row pattern will take 64/15 (=4.2667) seconds to play. MOD speeds are set using the Fxx command, where xx is a hexadecimal. Where xx ranges from 01 to 1F (in hex), TPR speed is set. F20 to FFF denotes BPM speed. A speed setting of zero should be ignored. The corresponding S3M commands are Axx (TPR speed) and Txx (BPM speed).