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Topic: XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it. (Read 4471 times) previous topic - next topic
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XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Ok, an electro artist friend of mine sent me tons of idea tunes that were awesome, in XM format. I use FooBar2000 to play 'em, but how can I convert them to WAVs? Also, in WinAMP, it isn't k, it has a bitrate in C. What is good and what isn't? These files sound awesome and are incredibly small.....

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #1 –
C means 'channel' in winamp. Easiest way would be to use winamp's diskwriter plugin.

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #2 –
Quote
I use FooBar2000 to play 'em, but how can I convert them to WAVs?

You should be able to convert them to .WAV by using the diskwriter component (the one in foobar2000).

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #3 –
Quote
Quote
I use FooBar2000 to play 'em, but how can I convert them to WAVs?

You should be able to convert them to .WAV by using the diskwriter component (the one in foobar2000).

Ahhh, thank you.  It'll be forever before he gives a copy out for sale on MusicBuilder, so I wanted to hear some of these on CD now.

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #4 –
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Use XMPlay, and check if that supports diskwriting. The fb2k mod decoder isn't best of breed really. If I remember correctly, its powered by BASS.DLL - which is pretty good but not stupidly over the top accurate.

Songs wont sound too bad in general, but those with major sample trickery may fall over.

Definately some songs by Nagz (google it) will cause it to have a fit.

Ruairi
rc55.com - nothing going on

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #5 –
It seems to me like Differenciam is asking what XM is exactly... if not, here's some info for you others anyway.

XM is a module format, like MOD, S3M, and IT files. Programs used to write module files are called "trackers" (not encoders), and the files are literally played (not decoded). So what exactly is a module? Think of a MIDI file, but using WAV files as instruments... the WAVs are played at different rates to simulate notes, with the original WAV being middle-C on a keyboard.

Modules contain multiple channels, which are mixed at play time. XM modules can support up to 32 channels. Each channel can be mapped to a certain stereo position (I think in 64 steps, where 0 is full left, 63 is full right). Different formats also allow for several effects for each note played, such as tremor, fade, etc... "chipper tunes" were highly respected, as they only consisted of a single sine wave as an instrument, and used different effects and many channels to create complex sounds.

You can equate module formats to 'open source music', since you can take the files apart and examine the tracks and instruments with the freely available tracker softwares.

Most techno songs in module format consist of several WAVs recorded from synthesizers (Roland 303, 808, and 909 were popular, as well as Moog)... usually, several copies of the same note were used, each with different Resonance and Cutoff settings.

To achieve any reasonable level of complexity and quality, XM and IT files quickly became larger than MP3 recordings, so many tracker groups started releasing those instead. I think there are also trackers available that can use MP3s as instruments, which would make these songs REALLY small.

Some of my favourite tracker groups of old played some insane techno, house, and (my favourite at the time) goa music. Groups I listened to include Kosmic, Onyx, and UltraBeat. I think they're all dead now.

That was such a long time ago... these days, I listen to rock/metal/alternative music.

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #6 –
Quote
It seems to me like Differenciam is asking what XM is exactly... if not, here's some info for you others anyway.

. . . .


Some of my favourite tracker groups of old played some insane techno, house, and (my favourite at the time) goa music.

Precisely the level of knowledge I wanted to see out of this response. I always wondered why MODs were called trackers.

Any of those goa files freely available?
"Droplets of Yes and No, in an ocean of Maybe"

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #7 –
There's a huge archive of MOD (& other formats) files at scene.org. 

As for players: the best player for XM (fasttracker files) is XMPlay and the only player that can play IT (impulse tracker files) accurately is MikIT. 

Both can be found at Maz-Sound.

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #8 –
Quote
the only player that can play IT (impulse tracker files) accurately is MikIT.

Where did you dig that up?

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #9 –
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Where did you dig that up?


I used to compose a large amount of music in IT format, and tested my files in most players to see which ones were capable of reproducing it so it sounded the same as in Impulse Tracker.  Only MikIT was reliable.  Many other players fail on a few specific features, most notibly the pattern repeat command and some of the sample sustain / looping commands.

Mind you, this was 3+ years ago, so perhaps some other players have improved now?

I can supply you with a few files (+ an ogg/mp3 rendered from Impulse Tracker for reference) which are good for testing various mod player's support of IT files if you're interested.

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #10 –
Ok, I recant my claims!  I just tested some of the IT tracks I've known to be problematic in other players with the foobar2000 bass.dll-based plug-in and it did a great job.

XM? I have a player, I could use some info on it.

Reply #11 –
Another bit of info: of the big advantages of XM, or more popularly, the MOD format that preceeded it, was that it could be played in and by hardware on certain computers, with very little CPU overhead. This was important when CPU Mhz were very low. Namely the amigas, iirc. A lot of people used the standard amiga soundset (or parts of it) to make the files, a tradition which has stayed to this day, giving us that classic MOD/XM sound, which you hear in a lot of demoscene productions.