Composing in Amiga-Friendly formats

[manossg]

So I have been wandering for the past few weeks if I could contribute to the Amiga community as a musician (for game projects that require original music, maybe?).

I had used some Amiga notation programs (Deluxe Music something?) back in the 90ies, but cannot for the life of me go back to such programs now, since I am quite fond of Musescore and, before that, Finale.

So, my question is, is there any program that could convert Musescore, Finale, or just simple midi files to Amiga-dev-friendly formats (ie formats that a game coder could use in his/ger game)? Or would plain .mid be ok?

[Hewitson]

A MID file certainly wouldn't be very usable on the Amiga, you could possibly create the music with a midi composer and then convert the notes to a MOD-type format, you'd need to load in the samples manually.

[manossg]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

A MID file certainly wouldn't be very usable on the Amiga, you could possibly create the music with a midi composer and then convert the notes to a MOD-type format, you'd need to load in the samples manually.

Thanks for the reply!

So, no midi...I feared that would be the case! Is there any Linux, PC or Amiga tool for easy .mid to .mod conversion? Also, where would one find some samples suitable for the Amiga?

[no9]

OpenMPT lets you to load midi files and save files as 4 channel module or vice versa. I don't know accuracy of such conversion. But why don't you just learn Protracker. It is not so complex after all and you don't need to use all it's features from the beginning.

[manossg]

Great, I will give these 2 a shot and maybe keep this thread updated!

Thank you so much!

[saimon69]

OpenMPT or Milkytracker are the best tools of the trade on windows; while OpenMPT let you do the format transition, milky is more limited but is small and has all basic tools you might need;

I don't remember if renoise can export in mod but you have to use 8 bit samples and only four channels max; composing for Amiga -especially for games - is a different paradigm than composing for modern PC indies; you have tight memory and hardware constraints (limited octaves range in example) depending on the target machine and - if the game requires sound effects - you might, despite some sound mixing routines available, use only three channels or maybe just two like this example below.

For samples you can use the collections on Aminet - if you using protracker, or use the wav samples in soundradar once you downsapled it, converted 8 bit and lowered the bitrate (11025/22050 ideal); you can use those in OpenMTP, milkytracker and protracker windows.

The web site of Milkytracker has links to several sample banks too, some in .wav and other in .xi format (fasttracker instrument format, might need some work to disable advanced features)


[ Show youtube player ]

[manossg]

Originally Posted by saimon69

OpenMPT or Milkytracker are the best tools of the trade on windows; while OpenMPT let you do the format transition, milky is more limited but is small and has all basic tools you might need;

I don't remember if renoise can export in mod but you have to use 8 bit samples and only four channels max; composing for Amiga -especially for games - is a different paradigm than composing for modern PC indies; you have tight memory and hardware constraints (limited octaves range in example) depending on the target machine and - if the game requires sound effects - you might, despite some sound mixing routines available, use only three channels or maybe just two like this example below.

For samples you can use the collections on Aminet - if you using protracker, or use the wav samples in soundradar once you downsapled it, converted 8 bit and lowered the bitrate (11025/22050 ideal); you can use those in OpenMTP, milkytracker and protracker windows.

The web site of Milkytracker has links to several sample banks too, some in .wav and other in .xi format (fasttracker instrument format, might need some work to disable advanced features)


[ Show youtube player ]

Great stuff, saimon, thank you!

(How is this example 2 channels only? What kind of sorcery is involved?)

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by manossg

Great stuff, saimon, thank you!

(How is this example 2 channels only? What kind of sorcery is involved?)

Use of timing pretty precise, multiple chord samples, a "trompe l'oreil" approach (your brain fills up sometimes for carefully placed gaps) and lot of practice

Plus the fact that Martin Iveson is a genius counts too...

[no9]

Originally Posted by saimon69

converted 8 bit and lowered the bitrate (11025/22050 ideal);

Ideal situation is when sample rate of instruments stick to frequencies discussed here
https://www.pouet.net/topic.php?which=8628

[daxb]

It depends it depends. In most cases halve a 16 bit 44,1 kHz sample is good enough. A perfect sample frequency isn't needed. Most or all(?) tracker software support finetuning and BPM adjustment for drumloops (for example) what can be used. I can agree what Photon wrote.

[manossg]

So....downloaded OpenMPT, did some MIDI import, with mixed results.
Found the Amiga samples here:
https://archive.org/details/AmigaSou...mplePacksst-xx

But I am not sure if these will work on the Amiga and manually 'fixing' the samples to be compatible seems like a lot of work-can anybody help?

I am thinking that working in an Amiga native tracker would be the best option, to avoid compatibility issues with the samples (and giving me a chance to actually do some productivity on the miggy). Does Protracker allow for MIDI import?

[Wavemaker]

I suggest what I always used, OctaMED Studio v5. This version is often overlooked even by MED users themselves, yet it's able to save in MOD format and provides a more powerful and system friendly alternative to Protracker. It does support working with notation as well as MIDI too.

[manossg]

Originally Posted by Wavemaker

I suggest what I always used, OctaMED Studio v5. This version is often overlooked even by MED users themselves, yet it's able to save in MOD format and provides a more powerful and system friendly alternative to Protracker. It does support working with notation as well as MIDI too.

Actual notation support is very important to me, so I will definitely give this one a go!

Does it use the same aminet samples as protracker?

[Wavemaker]

Originally Posted by manossg

Actual notation support is very important to me, so I will definitely give this one a go!

Does it use the same aminet samples as protracker?

I'm not sure what you mean. You can use any samples in 8SVX format, just like in Protracker and pretty much any other tracker in existence save for the synth based ones (even the PC trackers will load amiga 8 bit samples). There's tons of them in Aminet, back in the day I used to steal them from other modules but you also have a big collection of them available in this site's file server.

[Nishicorn]

I suggest what I always used, OctaMED Studio v5. This version is often overlooked even by MED users themselves, yet it's able to save in MOD format and provides a more powerful and system friendly alternative to Protracker. It does support working with notation as well as MIDI too.

This was always my choice as well, it's just so user-friendly, multi-tasking and smooth to use, I struggled whenever I tried to use any version of Protracker after that. Plus, it seems to fit more on the screen. It also has intuitive menus.

Also, it supports 6 and 8-channel modes (though they can sound a bit low quality sometimes9.

The MIDI-stuff works so well, I am even able to use (albeit with WinUAE) real SID chips through MIDI on OctaMED very easily!

OctaMED V5 has pretty much everything a composer would want in a tracker, and did I mention it multitasks nicely, so you can do other stuff simultaneously very easily, while Protracker multitasking can sometimes be a bit dysfunctional.

Other music software on the Amiga that I found interesting:

- AHX (Can do a bit SID-like 'live synth' instrus, but lacks in the drum department, and can't use samples. Still, four channels of synth is always interesting, and it also produces very small files so you can use it in games, intros and demos without wasting memory, and still have good quality, sweeping sounds in your music.

- DigiBooster (The first software I used on the Amiga that had a really good-quality multichannel support - making 8-channel music with this thing is fun and easy, and the result will be almost indistinquishable from an s3m or XM song, if you use good quality samples - I think this can also utilize a 14-bit mode, giving a boost in sound quality, and it can use skins so you can customize it a lot to your liking, plus, it's very versatile. It's one of the rare things on the Amiga side that lets you use MORE than just eight (8) channels, but I don't remember what the limit is. I think I once made a 14-channel song, at least.)

- MusicLine Editor (This is not really a tracker, since it doesn't have the usual 'track structure' (it only shows one track at a time), but it's like enhanced AHX, with powerful synth capabilities, and can also do either 4-channel or 8-channel 'live synth' sound. The possibilities with this thing are almost endless, you can make it sounds like so many things, AND it lets you use samples mixed in with the synth - I think you can even use a sample and synth in the same instrument simultaneously! The downside of this is that it's a CPU hog, so it takes a lot of power to get maximum result out of it, and it's a bit cumbersome and difficult to use because of the 'editor' nature of things. But listen to the demo songs and you'll be convinced that in the right hands, it can sound absolutely amazing!)

I use my Amiga mainly for graphics-creating (Brilliance is just perfect for pixelling), gameplaying, demowatching, and sometimes just 'using the Amiga-experience' that's so soothing to the troubled soul - but there are many ways to create good music on the Amiga, as it is the computer for the creative mind, after all.

[manossg]

Originally Posted by Nishicorn

This was always my choice as well, it's just so user-friendly, multi-tasking and smooth to use, I struggled whenever I tried to use any version of Protracker after that. Plus, it seems to fit more on the screen. It also has intuitive menus.

Also, it supports 6 and 8-channel modes (though they can sound a bit low quality sometimes9.

The MIDI-stuff works so well, I am even able to use (albeit with WinUAE) real SID chips through MIDI on OctaMED very easily!

OctaMED V5 has pretty much everything a composer would want in a tracker, and did I mention it multitasks nicely, so you can do other stuff simultaneously very easily, while Protracker multitasking can sometimes be a bit dysfunctional.

Other music software on the Amiga that I found interesting:

- AHX (Can do a bit SID-like 'live synth' instrus, but lacks in the drum department, and can't use samples. Still, four channels of synth is always interesting, and it also produces very small files so you can use it in games, intros and demos without wasting memory, and still have good quality, sweeping sounds in your music.

- DigiBooster (The first software I used on the Amiga that had a really good-quality multichannel support - making 8-channel music with this thing is fun and easy, and the result will be almost indistinquishable from an s3m or XM song, if you use good quality samples - I think this can also utilize a 14-bit mode, giving a boost in sound quality, and it can use skins so you can customize it a lot to your liking, plus, it's very versatile. It's one of the rare things on the Amiga side that lets you use MORE than just eight (8) channels, but I don't remember what the limit is. I think I once made a 14-channel song, at least.)

- MusicLine Editor (This is not really a tracker, since it doesn't have the usual 'track structure' (it only shows one track at a time), but it's like enhanced AHX, with powerful synth capabilities, and can also do either 4-channel or 8-channel 'live synth' sound. The possibilities with this thing are almost endless, you can make it sounds like so many things, AND it lets you use samples mixed in with the synth - I think you can even use a sample and synth in the same instrument simultaneously! The downside of this is that it's a CPU hog, so it takes a lot of power to get maximum result out of it, and it's a bit cumbersome and difficult to use because of the 'editor' nature of things. But listen to the demo songs and you'll be convinced that in the right hands, it can sound absolutely amazing!)

I use my Amiga mainly for graphics-creating (Brilliance is just perfect for pixelling), gameplaying, demowatching, and sometimes just 'using the Amiga-experience' that's so soothing to the troubled soul - but there are many ways to create good music on the Amiga, as it is the computer for the creative mind, after all.

Wow, now that is what I call an inspiring post!

I have watched some YT Octamed tutorials and it seems very intuitive! Next step is to actually try it!

[alcomatt]

There is also ReNoise which is a MIDI friendly tracker, it is commercial though (very affordable).