I used in MS-DOS something called MODEDIT. It supported the famous .mod
4-track format. THere were also other formats, like s3m (I used
InertiaPlayer for those). Currently, as Steve says, lots of tracker groups
Post by Steve the FiddleMIDI and MOD (modules) are very closely related.
Post by Steve the FiddleFrom very early days of computer music, computers have been used to
play sequences of audio events - the fundamental concept of a
"sequencer". The first "music computer" I recall seeing was a
Fairlight CMI in a small London studio in the early '80s. I remember
being utterly astonished by this machine, with its ability to perform
"automatic double tracking", digital delay, and a "huge" library of
hundreds of sounds. This was before the arrival of MIDI, but a
continuation of the development from step sequencers and early drum
machines. Later versions of the Fairlight CMI supported MIDI.
Roll on a few years to the (much more affordable) Atari ST and
"trackers" were all the rage and remained popular into the '90s (I was
using ModPlug Tracker in the late '90s on Windows 3.11). Standards for
MOD files were "flexible" in the sense that there were many
variations. "Impulse Tracker" (running under MS-DOS) had its own .IT
file extension. "Fast Tracker" introduced the XM and XI formats and
"Scream Tracker" brought the S3M format. The formats were similar
enough that more "modern" (late '90s) trackers like ModPlug could
support all of the variants.
As MIDI became more widespread there was less need for sequencers to
handle sampling / synthesis, and MIDI sequencers controlling separate
(hardware or software) sound modules, gradually replaced trackers.
Trackers still remain as a niche interest, with at least one tracker
still under development - OpenMPT, the direct descendant of ModPlug
https://source.openmpt.org/browse/openmpt/
(I feel all nostalgic now ;-)
Steve
Post by Steve the FiddleAs I understand it, the point about MOD files (or tracker files as they are
sometimes called) is that they actually have PCM samples in them.
The file describes how to repeat/rearrange the samples.
I guess FFmpeg is figuring out the arranging without having the audio
data to do it with, so is trying to do so with the MIDI information on its
own.
Gale
Post by Paul LicameliI know nothing about .mod files. No relation to .mid files? Or is it a
similar enough format?
What do we think is happening? Does ffmpeg misinterpret .mid files as if
some other format?
Somehow the bad renderings I hear get the melody somewhat right, but the
timbres wrong, and there are loud clicks in the result. It's weird.
PRL
On Sat, Apr 1, 2017 at 2:28 PM, Steve the Fiddle
Post by Steve the FiddleAnd the prize goes to Robert :-)
Yes it's a mod file.
I think the reason that FFmpeg gives some sound from MIDI files is an
accident. My guess is that libmodplug is trying to read them and is
using a generic "beep" tone in the absence of any audio data in the
file.
I've not found anything about MIDI support in FFmpeg, other than
everyone saying "FFmpeg does not support MIDI", but FFmpeg DOES
support MOD files via libmodplug.
So in response to Paul's question, I don't think we should drop mod
file support. I think we should make it work on all platforms and
document it.
Steve
2017-04-01 17:36 GMT+02:00, Steve the Fiddle
Post by Steve the FiddleTry dragging this file into Audacity on Windows with FFmpeg.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p1d0ahqtt0qvg6n/GSLINGER.mid?dl=0
Sounds pretty good.
Is it some kind of mod file?
Robert
Post by Steve the FiddleSteve
Post by Paul LicameliShould this awful thing be available on all platforms or on none?
As
now,
neither is the case.
As I said, there is some code specific to Mac, probably put there
for
other
reasons, but incidentally blocking import of MIDI by FFmpeg.
PRL
On Sat, Apr 1, 2017 at 10:27 AM, Steve the Fiddle
Post by Steve the FiddleThat's amazing, I never knew FFmpeg could do that.
OK, so it's awful, truly awful, but could be of interest for people
wanting an easy way to make "chiptunes".
Steve
2017-04-01 13:01 GMT+02:00, Paul Licameli
Post by Paul Licamelit
The rendering is so poor, perhaps we should disable this on
Windows as
on
Mac. Did you try it? Awful.
Someone on the Audacity4blind mailing list mentioned it some weeks
ago.
I did the same investigation as you with the same result.
It's really not worth keeping it until it is an official feature of
FFMpeg.
To me, it sounds like some sort of "audio thumbnail".
Robert
Post by Paul LicameliOn Friday, March 31, 2017, Pokechu22
Huh, that's really odd.
I don't know why ffmpeg supports midi suddenly. Their site
makes
no
claims about midi support, and I can't find anything in the
source
that implies it should...
(https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=midi&type=
shows support for midi sample dumps (no clue what those are,
but
the
extension is sds), but not midi itself). Yet it works (both in
audacity, and with the standalone ffmpeg).
It also works via Import->Audio with "all files" selected, but
not
when "all supported files" or "ffmpeg-compatible files" is
selected.
I have no clue how... interesting find.
--Poke
On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 8:14 PM, Paul Licameli
Post by Paul LicameliI just compiled Pokechu22's branch on Windows and imported
a
MIDI
file
and
Post by Paul Licamelibasic playback worked.
But I also made a discovery. I can drag and drop a .MID
file
onto
the
Audacity window and it renders (but badly, with wrong
timbres!)
as
a
waveform. This happens even in master. Debugging showed
me
the
FFmpeg
import plugin was doing it.
Did we know we had this feature? I didn't!
The same does not happen on macOS. Instead I get an error
dialog
telling me
Post by Paul Licamelito use Import MIDI... in the menus. The reason for the
difference
may
relate to the conditional compilation in class DropTarget
in
Project.cpp.
PRL
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
Post by Paul LicameliCheck out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's
most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
audacity-devel mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel