EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 October

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/ EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 October / EnigmA AMIGA RUN 01 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-10][Aminet 7].iso / Aminet / mus / play / tracker_4_31.lzh / tracker / Docs / protracker.fmt < prev next >

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Text File | 1995-05-11 | 12KB | 304 lines

File format ----------- Offset --------------------------------------- 0 20 bytes Song Name (9) 20 22 bytes Sample name 42 1 word sample length (2) 43 1 byte finetune (3) 44 1 byte volume (4) 46 1 word looping start point 48 1 word looping length --------- 30 bytes (1) 20+30*n 1 byte length of song (5) 21+30*n 1 byte number of patterns to load (6) 22+30*n 128 bytes pattern indices (7) 1080 4 bytes signature (31 samples modules only) 150+30*n 1024 bytes each pattern (10) 150+30*n sample data (8) +1024*p Notes ----- (1) There are 15 sample info entries in old soundtracker files, 31 in newer protracker/noisetracker ones. The difference lies in the signature. Valid signatures are M.K. / M!K! (for Mahoney & Kaktus), FLT4/FLT8 for startrekker modules. (2) Sample length, looping start point, looping length is normally stored as a number of words. Occasionally, in very old modules, the looping start point might be stored in bytes (case in point: kawai-k1). Checking looping start point + looping length against sample length might discover the problem. (3) Finetune does only exist for protracker modules: if the signature isn't M.K./M!K!, it should be 0. Normal values are 0-15. See below for a discussion of finetunes. Signature M!K! should only occur if the number of patterns is greater than 64. (4) This is the sample default volume, when no specific values have been given. Normal values are 0-64. Some songs include out of range values. (5) Range 1-128 (6) Do not trust this byte ! Very old trackers used it to indicate the number of pattern indices, so it's set to 127 by protracker to enable old trackers to load this module. Noisetracker uses this byte for restart. (7) This is a sequencing order: like in play pattern #2, then #4, then #2 again, and so on... (8) Sample data is given for each existing sample. Non-existing samples have a length of 0 or 1 (usually 1). - sample values are signed bytes, in 2-complement notation. Each sample length is a multiple of 2 in bytes. (9) Song names and sample names will be converted to a null-terminated string. Be very careful as to what to allow there... (10) We use the highest pattern number in the pattern indices table to determine the number of patterns p to load. Older trackers saved it as `number of patterns to load'. Decoding pattern info --------------------- Each pattern holds 64 sets of 4 events, one for each amiga track, numbered 0 to 3 in the usual amiga way (0-3: left channels, 1-2: right channels). The four bytes per event are to be decoded as follows: _____byte 1_____ byte2_ _____byte 3_____ byte4_ / \ / \ / \ / \ 0000 0000-00000000 0000 0000-00000000 Upper four 12 bits for Lower four Effect/parameters bits of sam- note period. bits of sam- ple number. ple number. Sample number should be in the range 0-31... anything else is an error, and should be flagged as such. For standard protracker modules, the note period can be converted to a note n with the following lookup table: C-1 to B-1 : 856,808,762,720,678,640,604,570,538,508,480,453 C-2 to B-2 : 428,404,381,360,339,320,302,285,269,254,240,226 C-3 to B-3 : 214,202,190,180,170,160,151,143,135,127,120,113 older tracker modules may use highly non-standard periods. These pitch values ARE amiga-dependent. See appendix for further details. The effect command has two parts: an effect and parameters. You should actually decode it as three independent nibble: e (effect) phi (parameter, hi-part), plow (parameter, low-part). The interpretation is very dependent of the actual command involved. In many cases, phi and plow are read as a single byte parameter (para=phi<<4 | plow) About tempo ----------- The player uses two tempo values: fundamental tempo (t1) and fine tempo (t2, invention of protracker). By default, t1=6 and t2=125. A tick occurs with a frequency of 50*t2/125 Hz (some specific tracker tunes have been developped on NTSC machines with a buggy tracker and the frequency is 60*t2/125 Hz in that case). The basic play-sequence takes t1 ticks: 0st tick: read new series of event and applies them. Do NOT apply on-going effects (violent contrast with MED). 1nd to t1-1th ticks: apply effects. then start again. About finetunes --------------- Finetune is a weird invention of protracker. Since it is used very often, we can't avoid it. It must be decoded as follows: Value: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F Finetune: 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 (this is actually two-complement value, but over a nibble, which is a bit unusual). Its interpretation is as follows: an instrument with a current finetune of f should be played offset by f/8 halftones up. In the end, to find the correct pitch to play a note at, you take the note period AS STORED IN THE TABLE WITH f=0, convert it to a note value, and then offset it to finetune f, compute the correct pitch [look it up] and play the note. Loading a sample (as in sample number != 0) will obviously update the finetune for the corresponding channel. There is also an extended command to change a sample finetune without loading a new sample (see module crystal_rain for instance). About sample numbers and note periods ------------------------------------- There has to exist a separate automaton for each of the four (eight ?) channels of a protracker song. To have a sample number != 0 means to load a number of parameters from the sample information: - its default volume (special case: volume command) - its finetune (special case: extended finetune command) Likewise, to have a note period !=0 means to change the note period immediately, except for the tone portamento and portamento-slide commands. Effects ------- 0 Arpeggio/No effect if phi == 0 and plow == 0, the note sounds normal else, the pitch changes at each tick, cycling through notes n, n+phi, n+plow at each tick (phi and plow in half-tones up) (in this order) (previous portamento effects will be forgotten, since a note value is needed) 1 Portamento up slide the note pitch up from the current pitch at the rate of para each tick. There normally is an upper boundary of B-3/pitch 113. 2 Portamento down slide the note pitch down from the currenty pitch at the rate of para each tick. There normally is a lower boundary of C-1/pitch 856. 3 Tone portamento slide the note pitch from the current pitch to the note pitch at the rate of para each tick. You can keep on sliding without having to specify a new para nor note. The goal is reset to 0 when reached, so if you reach the note, no tone portamento without a goal will have an effect. 4 Vibrato phi is the speed of the vibrato and plow the depth of the vibrato. values of 0 for phi or plow just mean to keep the previous rate. the basic vibrato waveform is a sine waveform. It can be changed to square, or rampdown. Here are the actual shapes used, with origin et all. **** ******** ** ** ** ** * * ** * * ** * * ** ** ** ** **** ******* ** Sine 0 Square 1 Rampdown 2 (see extended 4 for a detailled discussion of some aspects of that effect) The resulting waveform has an amplitude of 2*depth, e.g., its values are in the range [-2*depth, 2*depth], and its full period is 64/speed ticks. The position in the waveform is reset at each and every new note on the channel. 5 Tone-portamento + Volume slide Continue the current tone portamento while applying volume slide. The parameters are used for the volume slide. The tone portamento parameters currently in effect still apply. 6 Vibrato + volume slide Exactly like command 5. 7 Tremolo just like vibrato except it affects the volume instead of the pitch. Note that the amplitude is TWICE that of vibrato as per protracker 1.1 source. Also note that there is a range check since volume must stay in 0,64 range. 9 Set Sample offset play the sample from an offset instead of from the start. The offset (in bytes) is para * 256. If para is null, we use the last para instead. If offset exceeds the sample length, just play a null sample 10 Slide volume if (phi !=0 ) slide the volume up by phi each tick, else slide the volume down by plow each tick. Note: phi and plow can be zero, there will simply be no volume change. Working order: check that sample 7 is heard correctly in ghouls. 11 Far jump/Position jump The next events will be read from pattern index para instead of the normal position. para has the normal range 0-127... protracker code can be confusing since it is somewhat confused and intricate there. 12 Set volume/Volume change Set volume for the associated channel to para. 13 Small jump/Pattern break The next events will be read from the next pattern starting at position phi*10+plow instead of 0. (for strange reasons, we have a BCD value here). Values >=64 are reduced to 0 ! 14 Extended command phi is interpreted as a secondary command number. See below. So the parameter is actually plow for these commands. 15 Set speed if 0 <= para <= 31, set t1=para, reset t2 to 125. Else, set t2=para (for protracker). Older trackers don't ever change t2, but always set t1=para. Special value 0 is supposed to end the module with protracker. special case: several set speed commands in the same events. The later ones do take precedence upon the earlier ones if both are supposed to affect t1 or t2. If one set speed command affects t1 and the other t2, the most likely guess is to set t1 and t2 accordingly, but you CAN'T be sure... you have to either provide some switch to change your player behavior according to the value you got, or to apply some heuristic to go on playing... Extended commands: ----------------- 14-0 Set filter [not implemented in tracker] change the state of the amiga low-pass filter 14-1 fine portamento up like portamento up, except it occurs only at the first tick, this means the time the command is interpreted, not later as for portamento up. 14-2 fine portamento down 14-3 glissando control If set (para != 0), following tone portamentos will round each value to the nearest entire note. 14-4 set vibrato waveform Acceptable range is 0-3: 0 is the default sine, 1 the square, and 2 the rampdown. Protracker docs speak of 3 being a random waveform, but I've yet to see it implemented ! Neither pt1-1, pt1-2, pt2-0 implement it. You're supposed to add 4 to control whether the viboffset is reset at each note (if 4, not reset, but this looks buggy as hell to me...) 14-5 set finetune set finetune for the current channel to the para value right away, instead of the current sample finetune. 14-6 Loop pattern if para == 0, set start of loop, else loop to loop start para+1 times before playing on. This effect is channel-dependent, so you can use several channels and interleave loops... 14-7 set tremolo waveform Like set vibrato waveform. 14-8 Reserved for future extensions 14-9 Retrig note retrig note on para-th, 2para-th,... tick. 14-10 fine volume slide up like volume up, except it occurs only once on the first tick 14-11 fine volume slide down 14-12 cut note set volume of current note to 0 on para-th tick 14-13 delay note start note on para-th tick instead of now. 14-14 delay pattern wait for para * speed ticks before processing new entries. Note that effects do proceed as usual, except that they DON'T occur once every speed-th tick (the event change is inhibited) Delay pattern is a global effect. 14-15 invert loop see code for that weird effect.