How to create .mod files?

How to create .mod files?

[Ow W K Danny]

Hi,

I've a couple of .mod files and the sound produced with this format is
very good. Is there anyway to create or convert sound from CD into this
format under Linux? 

Any clue or pointers is very much appreciated.

Thanks.
Danny

Re: How to create .mod files?

[Adam Wiggins]

On Tue, 22 Sep 1998, Ow W K Danny wrote:
> I've a couple of .mod files and the sound produced with this format is
> very good. Is there anyway to create or convert sound from CD into this
> format under Linux? 

If you mean recording them from an existing song that's on CD, forget it.
MOD files originated on the Amiga long before being able to just take long
samples of music was feasible; instead it's a sort of bare-bones MIDI
format which relies completely on fixed samples.  You'd have about as much
luck trying to convert a CD track to a .mid file.

There are a ton of mod players and probably some composers (known as
'trackers') availible for Linux.  Do a search on freshmeat or linuxapps
for "s3m", "mod", "tracker", or "xm".

Re: How to create .mod files?

[David Manifold]

On Tue, 22 Sep 1998, Ow W K Danny wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've a couple of .mod files and the sound produced with this format is
> very good. Is there anyway to create or convert sound from CD into this
> format under Linux? 

MOD files consist of individual instrument samples (small WAV files),
along with when to play which instruments, at what frequency, and with
what special effects.  This allows an extensive musical score to be made
of a small number of samples, reducing size.  CD audio is a continuous
stream of digital frequencies, basically one huge sample.  To convert from
CD to MOD, then, requires advanced AI to separate the sound into
individual notes, individual instruments, and their pitch.  This kind of
conversion cannot be done automatically with the current level of
technology (as far as I know), so making MOD compositions remains an art
for human techno-musicians.  It would be possible to create a file in
valid MOD format from a CD, but it would be very large (basically putting
the whole song into one instrument and saying to play a single note) and
defeat the purpose of the MOD format.

If you are interested in CD quality digital audio, look at MP3 at
http://www.mp3.com or the new upcoming VQF at http://www.vqf.com.
Unfortunately these are both lossy compression formats, so you lose some
sound quality, and they have software patents, so it is hard to find free
encoders.  K-jofol is a free MP3 and VQF player for Win32 that is being
ported to Linux soon.

David Manifold <dem@tunes.org>

Re: How to create .mod files?

[Mike Wyer]

On Tue, 22 Sep 1998, Ow W K Danny wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I've a couple of .mod files and the sound produced with this format is
>very good. Is there anyway to create or convert sound from CD into this
>format under Linux? 
>
>Any clue or pointers is very much appreciated.
>
The only file format I'm aware of with this extension (.mod) is that of
tracker modules- these consist of a bunch of samples, and then the
sequencing information to play them back at the right pitch and tempo
etc. Usually, there is just one sample of each inmstrument used, and the
tracker converts the pitch during playback. As you can see, it's not a
compression system, and creating .mod files is a non-trivial task (you
have the twin joys of sampling AND sequencing before you get anywhere).
They were first used on the Amiga, and the tracker software has been
ported to just about every architecture known to man.

So the simple answer is: No you can't convert CDs to mod files.
(Unless you have hours of spare time per track, and a very good ear for
converting a CD into 4 or 8 track data).
Cheers,
Mike
--
          ///   Mike Wyer : <m.wyer@ic.ac.uk>   \\\
         //\\___________________________________//\\
      "I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather....
 ...Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."