Tiny music format and compatible tracker

[taj]

Hi all,

lets assume for the moment that instrument sounds in a synth  come from gm.dls or from my own synth. What I need is to avoid the hell of writing another tracker. So question is what music format is tiny and I could use and has a tracker I can use.

Whats my definition of tiny?

4 tracks x 2 minutes = 300 bytes of music data after compression.
(my own format is 8 tracks, plus instruments x 2min = 300 bytes but I want to swap to a more standard toolchain).

Anyone know anything I could use?

Chris

[Rbz]

Hard question Chris 

When I started my little synth I've followed your ideas about making a synth, check the hits on this page , probably I've made half of them . I've made a simple but working tracker and then the reality suddenly kicked me and I said to myself "who will make a music using this besides me and I don't know how to make music"

And then, doing a fast research (easy), demoscene musicians likes those protrackers style programs to make their music ie. Madtracker, Milktracker, Skale tracker etc,  so I started learn a common tracker format called Fastracker (.xm) and how to convert it for my own format.

What I'm trying to say to you is, even if you can find an exotic tracker that produces small sound data probably you wouldn't find a musician that can make a music for you. I don't know if my way is the best but it's very promising so far.

And here another test that I did myself converting an old amiga module to my synth player using gmsamples, it's the popcorn remix , which I guess that every new synth have to have 

Cheers,

[Jim]

it's the popcorn remix  , which I guess that every new synth have to have

Yep!  That, and Blue Monday!

Jim

[.:] Druid [:.]

seems impressive rbraz!  keep it up

[taj]

Rbraz,

I think you have a point. I got two musicians only to ever use my tracker though they both said it was cool once they learnt it. I reckon the best route is to use a normal tracker, output something similar to what you want and then convert to your own format which compresses better. Nontheless I'm now considering MOD format...has anyone got some code to read MOD files?

Chris

[va!n]

@Chris:
What kind of MOD format are you looking for, because there are a lot different so called MOD formata available....   latest Protracker format (4 channels, up to 32 instruments), old Protracker format = 4 channles up to 16 channles (outdated) ...  DigiBooster, XM, FastTracker, Renoise...

If you need infos about Protracker file format, i can give you such infos...

[taj]

Va!n,

I have no idea which one I want.
I would like a format that is:
1. Easy to parse
2. Can easily store music data without samples
3. Has minimum 4 instruments or 4 channels (ie one instrument per channel is ok)
4. Is easy to write a loader for (by easy I mean few bytes)

...suggestions?

Chris

[va!n]

Va!n,

I have no idea which one I want.
I would like a format that is:
1. Easy to parse
2. Can easily store music data without samples
3. Has minimum 4 instruments or 4 channels (ie one instrument per channel is ok)
4. Is easy to write a loader for (by easy I mean few bytes)

...suggestions?

Chris

@chris:

1) Good question... I think at least, if you know the fileformat of any module format, it should'nt be to hard to parse it. Ok, possible there are some cypted and not good documented formats available. (however, i have a lot of docs about a lot of different module fileformats. if you are interested i could send you them as zip)

2) I thnink nearly any format should do this... for example the Protracker format saves the PatternData and InstrumentData into one file (*.mod)... But you could save the Track (all patterns ony) without any samples as a Song instead format... This was used sometimes in the ealier days of SoundTracker, later known as Protracker/NoiseTracker...

3) Nearly all MOD formats i know, have a minimum/maximum of 4 channles only (due fact of the 4 channels stereo sound hardware on amiga)... There are some exotic and modern Trackers which supports 4 to 32 channels (even on amiga too)...

4) Mhhh... i think if you want parse the original mod format to your own format, then its your part to think about a good and compact (packable) format where you need only a few bytes for a loader/decoder ^^



However, for a nice compact four channel format (pattern datas + values for synth samples like C64 instruments) you could take a look to the THX, later known as AHX SoundSystem by Abyss on the Amiga... The AHX Modules are nice small!

But if you can wait some days, i will post an idea for a nice and small soundformat i began some time ago for someone...

[Rbz]

If you want to make a 4k synth there's no way to avoid making a special tracker/editor  .
...
...
So, a personalized tracker/editor here we go

I've deleted what I said here, because, when speaking about programming, *everything* is possible...