module/tracker music support? Help!

Hi, I noticed BlitzMax seemingly does not natively support MOD, XM, IT, etc. or even MIDI anymore. This makes me really upset because I have always used module/tracker songs in my games (or attempts at games thereof.)

Is there any BlitzMax module or plugin I can get that allows support for tracker and/or MIDI music files?

EDIT: I have found something called MaxMod, which a lot of people on here say is a great way to play module/tracker files. I realize many other people have posted questions regarding module/tracker playback...sorry about that 0_o

I'm not sure MaxMod will work though...

regards,
Dash

Using bass.dll + wrapper allows to play some tracker files (tested with .s3m-files).


bye MB

BlitzMax doesn't support MIDI?!

No. It natively supports WAV and OGG.

Try Maxmod.

MaxMod isn't perfect, MaxMod2 (WIP) is better but still has problems with some mod and xm files (bug reports welcome).

I'll be releasing the next MaxMod2 beta soonish, and after that hopefully I'll be able to spend some time on the much neglected modplayer module.

(but if you need stability now, I'd go with Bass or FMOD)

I have always used BASS and can verify that it works quite well with .mod and .xm files. I am quite sure that FMOD is equally good at it, so it probably boils down to your prefered interface.

Do note that both BASS and FMOD require you to pay licensing fees, while MaxMod is free.

Only if you're using them for commercial purposes. Both are free for use in freeware products.

Another alternative for MOD/XM-support would be uFMOD available at http://ufmod.sourceforge.net/

It's small, it's quite fast, it works on Windows and Linux (sadly no Mac support), it is dependency free, open source and it's free to use even for commercial applications.

Although I recognize that tracker modules save a lot of storage space and load time due to re-use of sound samples, as a form of compression, the future is going to be large sampled audio files like a single ogg file for the whole song. Part of the benefit is with a single audio sample you can vary the audio in any way you like, have as many sounds as you like, play them as many times as you like overlapping any number of times, add all sorts of effects, etc, very fine grained control that you lose with tracker modules. Modules do have limitations like the number of samples, number of concurrent channels, available effects, etc. They really were born in a time of limited resources, lack of memory, lack of storage, lack of cpu power, etc.

I'd say exactly the opposite, tracker music has much more potential.

Sampled music is like a cassette tape, and tracker music is like having a mixing desk to play with, you could even edit the tracker music in game with a bit of effort, tracker wins hands down IMHO.

But due to the added complexity in creating it and the almost insignificant size of full recordings with todays compression algorithms, the days of tracked music are definitely waning.
They were big in the early 90s, but todays MP3's rule supreme.

I do think there is something to be said for having access to the kind of flexibility and freedom that you have at the time of `designing your music`, and being able to manipulate that in-game rather than being locked into a `prerecorded` sound sample. Bit of a tradeoff.

I agree 100%, and for a lot of purposes sampled audio probably is the best solution, but I do think tracker music is a bit of a forgotten art that could be exploited more than it currently is.

You are so right REDi

I do agree, however, that tracker music is really no longer useful to many game developers, but one cannot deny the large fanbase the tracker format has among, for example, those who create chiptunes and retro-sounding game music.

There's just something unappealing about say, a classic-style 2D game with prerecorded, commercial CD-quality music. Purists like me will argue that the limited sound quality, small filesize and long history make tracker THE perfect format for game development, especially of the 2D variety.

In my humble opinion there is just something pleasing about a classic-style game which uses realtime-sequenced music rather than prerecorded music ;)

EDIT: With the combined effort of the tracker format's devoted fanbase, I think a classic format like tracker will be around for a good looooong time. Just think of purist musicians who swear by tube amps and analog recording technology. Due to demand of this niche market, tube amps and analog recording technology is still in production. Indeed I think tracker format music has a future, due to more advanced file formats which support multi-sample mapping, and can use high-quality compressed OGG samples instead of the old, bad-quality 8bit WAV samples.

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to get all this off my chest :P

Just one question... is there a cross-plataform, midi player module for bmax?

Brucey's wxmax module has a wxmidi component.

not sure if it's a player or something else, but all the other wxmax mods appear to be crossplatform, so it might be worth looking into.

There's also the semi-supported BaH.PortMidi. Not so much a "midi player" as something you can use to interact with your midi instruments.

Are you just after something which can turn midi tracks into sound? (like a GM-module?)

Yeah, all I will need is some way to play midi files inside my game (and it should work on Linux too...)