Playing MOD files on a ..ahem... PC

01 March 2003, 21:39

Sorry, don't own an Amiga, but please don't hit me... ;-)

I recently downloaded some MOD files (lha files) but I cannot play them. I have tried DeliPlayer, Mod4Win, ModPlug... What to do? And why can't I play them?

The files I downloaded are to be found here:
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...net/mods/casef

funkyday.lha is one of them.

Thanks
Bengt S, Sweden
03537693@telia.com

CHiEF · 01 March 2003, 22:49

i know it might sound a bit silly, but have you uncompressed them. these files are archived with LHA mate, although I think DeliPlayer should still extract those automatically?

I prefer DeliPlayer on the PC... DeliPlayer rulez

RCK · 01 March 2003, 23:00

even after beeing un-lha-izzed, the mod don't seems to be played by regular players. (deliplayer pc included)

CHiEF · 02 March 2003, 01:42

or an alternative method could be to

1) extract the tune
2) load it up in an Amiga Tracker proggy (whichever loads it)
3) save it back out again

you could of course do that on the emulator if you don't have a real amiga. dunno if it will work, but its worth a try. i'll take a look when i get home

02 March 2003, 03:43

Yep, I un-lha-ized them, but they still won't play... :-(

Will try an emulator, but there must be an easier way...
Or maybe not??

Hope someone finds out something [CHiEF ?].

Cheers

Paul · 02 March 2003, 10:25

Tried funkyday in Octamed Soundstudio but would still not work. Looks like a bad file.

cv643d · 02 March 2003, 14:27

how are they named.
I think if they are named MOD.modname they will not work. Rename them modname.MOD and try again.

Paul · 02 March 2003, 14:36

Found a few which work
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...nfatuation.lha
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...myAndCleve.lha
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine.../Macrocosm.lha
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...hivshfacyt.lha
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...ng_Me_Back.lha
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...ringMeBack.lha

But most files don't seem to work on that list

Akira · 03 March 2003, 01:59

Is there any chance that it migt be packed?
Let me try it out on the 1200

CHiEF · 22 March 2003, 04:41

ok i've looked into this a bit more, looked at the contents of funkyday.mod in a hex editor. it would appear that the file is not packed, since it is still possible to read all the sample text! the header also has "STrkSCPL" written in it, which i am assuming is the format of the mod. i'm still searching but i'm yet to find the name of the tracker that created this file. let me know if anything comes up!

CHiEF · 22 March 2003, 04:50

UPDATE:

just found this info :

.med "STrk" "SCPL" Amiga MED Sound SoundApp
.8med "STrk" "SCPL" Amiga OctaMed music SoundApp
.mod "STrk" "SCPL" MOD Music SoundApp
.nst "STrk" "SCPL" MOD Music SoundApp

created with "SoundApp" by the looks of things.

CHiEF · 23 March 2003, 17:53

SORTED! :

there IS a protracker tune in there, i managed to get it out late last night

anyway, heres how i did it:

1) load up ExoticRipper
2) use the "Read" option to load the module into RAM
3) hunt the memory for mods
4) exoticripper will find a mod called "mod.another_funky_day"
5) use the "Write" option to save it out as a protracker.

its worth noting that this ripped protracker version is actually *smaller* than the original!

ps. uploaded the "mod.another_funky_day" to the zone if you still want it.

CHiEF · 26 March 2003, 20:54

heh don't you just hate it when you slave your ass off and its not even appreciated

he obviously didn't want the mod that badly

oh well its a cool tune anyway

RCK · 27 March 2003, 13:22

nice tracking / ripping

Enverex · 05 May 2003, 19:12

Or you could use Deliplayer which will play them even if they are still in archive format.

/me wants HippoPlayer back

Please do not post your signature in posts - configure it in the User Control Panel instead.

OSH · 26 July 2006, 10:30

I use XMPlay with great DELIX plugin by Sebastian Szczepaniak. This is IMHO the best player for PC (not only for Amiga-MODs)

OddbOd · 18 June 2007, 15:53

Apologies for reviving an ancient thread but I thought it was probably worth adding a definitive footnote as there are many old MOD/S3M/XM files on Aminet that have this problem.

CHiEF, you were 99% there,

for the detective work

funkyday.lha was packed with the Mac version of LHA, this can be confirmed by checking the OS ID byte at offset 0x24 or more simply by using the -verbose listing option in LHA (checked with GNUWin LHA 1.14i). The MOD itself is encapsulated in the original MacBinary format (as documented here) which was designed to retain the Mac filesystem's metadata on systems that do not support it natively.

The correct way to strip off the container without resorting to a module ripper or hex editor is to use a program like MacBinary (Win32) which will correctly remove the header and any resource fork that may be attached to the end of the file. Simply removing the first 128 (dec.) bytes with a hex editor does work but the file will not be it's original (pre MacBinary) size, in the case of funkyday.mod there are 50 null bytes on the end that should be removed.

EmuChicken · 10 July 2007, 16:54

deliplayer suuuuckkkkssssss

... just in my opinion!

... never can get that thing to behaive!

Samurai_Crow · 21 August 2007, 19:00

WinAmp will play music modules but you have to select "music modules" as the filetype in the requester or they won't show up. That means that "all supported formats" is a lie.

samklein · 21 August 2007, 22:37

Well, after doing all that work you can used the old good Fast Tracker 2.. if you are using win 2000/XP or Vista, use FT2 with DOSBox..

s2325 · 21 August 2007, 22:49

or Milky Tracker

derringer · 22 August 2007, 00:31

Madtracker can handle mods like fasttracker 2, and it is running on winxp

Samurai_Crow · 22 August 2007, 18:27

ModPlug Tracker is probably the best tracker for the PC although I also use MilkyTracker since Milky works on AmigaOS 4 also.

CHiEF · 14 November 2007, 22:07

Thanks for the info, OddbOd!
I can't believe it was well over 4 years ago i was looking at this thread.
How time flies!

rkauer · 16 November 2007, 21:12

I use Modplug very often (to check new mods when downloading).

Works every time, even with power-packed mods!

Zetr0 · 16 November 2007, 21:19

I use Modplug and the PC version of Med Sound Studio, damn fine players / creators the pair!

adonay · 27 November 2007, 16:06

What about Winamp ? it will play almost any known mod format , some mods will sound wrong though. In my option the Skale tracker form skale.org is best and second after that comes FT2 that is far behind production i am afraid as it died years ago.....

Samurai_Crow · 28 November 2007, 19:10

Skale tracker doesn't play all FT2 mods correctly. Milky plays them correctly. Milky also has a similar user-interface to FT2.

If you want a tracker that uses VSTi instruments then Skale can work but otherwise I'd go with Milky or ModPlug Tracker.

Zetr0 · 28 November 2007, 20:07

MPT FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!

ahem..... sorry.....

I have noticed that on a few mod types, it doesn't bend the pitch enough compared when it is played through deliplayer or pc medSS....

anyone know why?

RCK · 02 December 2007, 21:07

Winamp classic (2.95) + BASS module plugin for me

Frog · 02 December 2007, 23:18

As Osh, i use XMPlay & the excellent DELIX plugin, with that i can play anything even Hively Tracker mods.

There's a BASS system which is develop by Un4seen developments, same author as XMPlay.

heavy · 03 December 2007, 14:07

yep, XMPlay is very best (It's the only player capable of playing correctly the mod "Manga Part 1" from MangaArt/Arkham slideshow)

Frog · 03 December 2007, 21:38

@Heavy : great slideshow with effectively nice music. Whole slideshow is really well designed.

mabus · 05 December 2007, 18:39

xmms is quite alright and has plugins to play mods and sids and whatever... There is also http://www.soundtracker.org/ - an attempt to create a soundtracker like app for free environments.

OddbOd · 06 December 2007, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by heavy

yep, XMPlay is very best (It's the only player capable of playing correctly the mod "Manga Part 1" from MangaArt/Arkham slideshow)

That's a coincidence not an indication of a better player. The original demo's replayer and XMPlay both use vblank timing, if you try the demo on an NTSC machine (or UAE in NTSC mode) you will see why this is not a good thing

It play's correctly in all players if you remove the F21 command from line 0A of pattern 02 or by playing it in UADE with the -x vblank option.

adonay · 09 December 2007, 12:05

Ahh i forgot to add the best IMO is An amiga so why not run UAE and use some amiga app there ? Ofcource i understand if you want to web browse etc at same time .... Milkyplay maybe then....

Shoonay · 09 December 2007, 13:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

MPT FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!

Indeed. Though the Settlers ingame music get's a serious slowdown on one of the patterns and plays that way until the end...

meynaf · 21 December 2007, 17:22

Why not just using UAE and DeliTracker ?

Shoonay · 21 December 2007, 17:27

Me? Too much waste on the horse power ,while WinUAE play's in the background, and me is browsing the net, communicating and downloading torrents

meynaf · 21 December 2007, 17:34

Are you saying that UAE takes too much cpu ?

Could be a feature request...

01 March 2003, 21:39	#1
bs1954 Posts: n/a	Playing MOD files on a ..ahem... PC Sorry, don't own an Amiga, but please don't hit me... ;-) I recently downloaded some MOD files (lha files) but I cannot play them. I have tried DeliPlayer, Mod4Win, ModPlug... What to do? And why can't I play them? The files I downloaded are to be found here: http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...net/mods/casef funkyday.lha is one of them. Thanks Bengt S, Sweden 03537693@telia.com

02 March 2003, 03:43	#5
bs1954 Posts: n/a	thanks guys, but... Yep, I un-lha-ized them, but they still won't play... :-( Will try an emulator, but there must be an easier way... Or maybe not?? Hope someone finds out something [CHiEF ?]. Cheers

05 May 2003, 19:12	#15
Enverex Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: UK Age: 27 Posts: 1,186	Or you could use Deliplayer which will play them even if they are still in archive format. /me wants HippoPlayer back Please do not post your signature in posts - configure it in the User Control Panel instead. __________________ RetroTracks - Classic Video Game Music

21 August 2007, 19:00	#19
Samurai_Crow Team Chaos Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Pierre, SD USA Age: 38 Posts: 235	WinAmp will play music modules but you have to select "music modules" as the filetype in the requester or they won't show up. That means that "all supported formats" is a lie. __________________ Member: Total Chaos team and AROS Development Team.

22 August 2007, 18:27	#23
Samurai_Crow Team Chaos Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Pierre, SD USA Age: 38 Posts: 235	ModPlug Tracker is probably the best tracker for the PC although I also use MilkyTracker since Milky works on AmigaOS 4 also. __________________ Member: Total Chaos team and AROS Development Team.

01 March 2003, 22:49	#2
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	i know it might sound a bit silly, but have you uncompressed them. these files are archived with LHA mate, although I think DeliPlayer should still extract those automatically? I prefer DeliPlayer on the PC... DeliPlayer rulez

01 March 2003, 23:00	#3
RCK Administrator Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Paris / France Age: 34 Posts: 2,541	even after beeing un-lha-izzed, the mod don't seems to be played by regular players. (deliplayer pc included)

02 March 2003, 01:42	#4
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	or an alternative method could be to 1) extract the tune 2) load it up in an Amiga Tracker proggy (whichever loads it) 3) save it back out again you could of course do that on the emulator if you don't have a real amiga. dunno if it will work, but its worth a try. i'll take a look when i get home

02 March 2003, 10:25	#6
Paul RIP Friends Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: UK Posts: 2,157	Tried funkyday in Octamed Soundstudio but would still not work. Looks like a bad file.

02 March 2003, 14:27	#7
cv643d Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Stockholm/Sweden Age: 35 Posts: 704	how are they named. I think if they are named MOD.modname they will not work. Rename them modname.MOD and try again.

02 March 2003, 14:36	#8
Paul RIP Friends Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: UK Posts: 2,157	Found a few which work http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...nfatuation.lha http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...myAndCleve.lha http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine.../Macrocosm.lha http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...hivshfacyt.lha http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...ng_Me_Back.lha http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/amine...ringMeBack.lha But most files don't seem to work on that list

03 March 2003, 01:59	#9
Akira Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: # Posts: 12,584	Is there any chance that it migt be packed? Let me try it out on the 1200

22 March 2003, 04:41	#10
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	ok i've looked into this a bit more, looked at the contents of funkyday.mod in a hex editor. it would appear that the file is not packed, since it is still possible to read all the sample text! the header also has "STrkSCPL" written in it, which i am assuming is the format of the mod. i'm still searching but i'm yet to find the name of the tracker that created this file. let me know if anything comes up!

22 March 2003, 04:50	#11
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	UPDATE: just found this info : .med "STrk" "SCPL" Amiga MED Sound SoundApp .8med "STrk" "SCPL" Amiga OctaMed music SoundApp .mod "STrk" "SCPL" MOD Music SoundApp .nst "STrk" "SCPL" MOD Music SoundApp created with "SoundApp" by the looks of things.

23 March 2003, 17:53	#12
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	SORTED! : there IS a protracker tune in there, i managed to get it out late last night anyway, heres how i did it: 1) load up ExoticRipper 2) use the "Read" option to load the module into RAM 3) hunt the memory for mods 4) exoticripper will find a mod called "mod.another_funky_day" 5) use the "Write" option to save it out as a protracker. its worth noting that this ripped protracker version is actually smaller than the original! ps. uploaded the "mod.another_funky_day" to the zone if you still want it.

26 March 2003, 20:54	#13
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	heh don't you just hate it when you slave your ass off and its not even appreciated he obviously didn't want the mod that badly oh well its a cool tune anyway

27 March 2003, 13:22	#14
RCK Administrator Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Paris / France Age: 34 Posts: 2,541	nice tracking / ripping

26 July 2006, 10:30	#16
OSH Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Poland Age: 32 Posts: 86	I use XMPlay with great DELIX plugin by Sebastian Szczepaniak. This is IMHO the best player for PC (not only for Amiga-MODs)

18 June 2007, 15:53	#17
OddbOd Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Australia Age: 36 Posts: 623	Apologies for reviving an ancient thread but I thought it was probably worth adding a definitive footnote as there are many old MOD/S3M/XM files on Aminet that have this problem. CHiEF, you were 99% there, for the detective work funkyday.lha was packed with the Mac version of LHA, this can be confirmed by checking the OS ID byte at offset 0x24 or more simply by using the -verbose listing option in LHA (checked with GNUWin LHA 1.14i). The MOD itself is encapsulated in the original MacBinary format (as documented here) which was designed to retain the Mac filesystem's metadata on systems that do not support it natively. The correct way to strip off the container without resorting to a module ripper or hex editor is to use a program like MacBinary (Win32) which will correctly remove the header and any resource fork that may be attached to the end of the file. Simply removing the first 128 (dec.) bytes with a hex editor does work but the file will not be it's original (pre MacBinary) size, in the case of funkyday.mod there are 50 null bytes on the end that should be removed.

10 July 2007, 16:54	#18
EmuChicken Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Nagoya, Japan (moved!) Age: 30 Posts: 703	deliplayer suuuuckkkkssssss ... just in my opinion! ... never can get that thing to behaive!

21 August 2007, 22:37	#20
samklein Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Location: Novo Hamburgo/Brazil Age: 41 Posts: 33	Well, after doing all that work you can used the old good Fast Tracker 2.. if you are using win 2000/XP or Vista, use FT2 with DOSBox..

21 August 2007, 22:49	#21
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 32 Posts: 11,246	or Milky Tracker

22 August 2007, 00:31	#22
derringer Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Budapest/Hungary Posts: 13	Madtracker can handle mods like fasttracker 2, and it is running on winxp

14 November 2007, 22:07	#24
CHiEF Captain Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Sheffield / England Age: 32 Posts: 200	Thanks for the info, OddbOd! I can't believe it was well over 4 years ago i was looking at this thread. How time flies!

16 November 2007, 21:12	#25
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 47 Posts: 3,477	I use Modplug very often (to check new mods when downloading). Works every time, even with power-packed mods!

16 November 2007, 21:19	#26
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 38 Posts: 9,185	I use Modplug and the PC version of Med Sound Studio, damn fine players / creators the pair!

27 November 2007, 16:06	#27
adonay active amiga 1200 user Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Either Haugesund /Norway or Vaxjø Sweden Posts: 184	What about Winamp ? it will play almost any known mod format , some mods will sound wrong though. In my option the Skale tracker form skale.org is best and second after that comes FT2 that is far behind production i am afraid as it died years ago.....

28 November 2007, 19:10	#28
Samurai_Crow Team Chaos Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Pierre, SD USA Age: 38 Posts: 235	Skale tracker doesn't play all FT2 mods correctly. Milky plays them correctly. Milky also has a similar user-interface to FT2. If you want a tracker that uses VSTi instruments then Skale can work but otherwise I'd go with Milky or ModPlug Tracker. __________________ Member: Total Chaos team and AROS Development Team.

28 November 2007, 20:07	#29
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 38 Posts: 9,185	MPT FOR THE WIN!!!!!!! ahem..... sorry..... I have noticed that on a few mod types, it doesn't bend the pitch enough compared when it is played through deliplayer or pc medSS.... anyone know why?

02 December 2007, 21:07	#30
RCK Administrator Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Paris / France Age: 34 Posts: 2,541	Winamp classic (2.95) + BASS module plugin for me

02 December 2007, 23:18	#31
Frog Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: France Posts: 1,145	As Osh, i use XMPlay & the excellent DELIX plugin, with that i can play anything even Hively Tracker mods. There's a BASS system which is develop by Un4seen developments, same author as XMPlay.

03 December 2007, 14:07	#32
heavy Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: europe Posts: 119	yep, XMPlay is very best (It's the only player capable of playing correctly the mod "Manga Part 1" from MangaArt/Arkham slideshow)

03 December 2007, 21:38	#33
Frog Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: France Posts: 1,145	@Heavy : great slideshow with effectively nice music. Whole slideshow is really well designed.

05 December 2007, 18:39	#34
mabus Zone Friend Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 121	For free software systems ... xmms is quite alright and has plugins to play mods and sids and whatever... There is also http://www.soundtracker.org/ - an attempt to create a soundtracker like app for free environments.

09 December 2007, 12:05	#36
adonay active amiga 1200 user Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Either Haugesund /Norway or Vaxjø Sweden Posts: 184	Ahh i forgot to add the best IMO is An amiga so why not run UAE and use some amiga app there ? Ofcource i understand if you want to web browse etc at same time .... Milkyplay maybe then....