💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2022 › 202210 › 20221005-small-music-module-files.gmi captured on 2023-11-04 at 12:08:42. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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Many years ago, I was active on a fan site based on the MS DOS video game "Jazz Jackrabbit". The site featured user-created content packs, ranging from custom levels to tilesets to helper programs, and of course fan remixes of game music. Some remixes were uploaded as MP3 files, but most were created and submitted in the same format as the music from the game itself: module files.
Module files are a group of audio file formats that are derived from the MOD file format on Amiga systems. They store samples of instruments and patterns of notes to play with those samples, along with a series of effects to apply to the notes and metadata about the music. Module files are created using programs called "trackers", of which dozens exist today for almost every platform imaginable. It was in this format that I would create and upload music.
The process of creating a module file can be tedious, as an artist has complete control over (and thus needs to manually control) every aspect of the sound of an instrument. However, that level of control means that an artist can create music almost indistinguishable from a recorded track, or music made with other tools. As a bonus, module files are extremely small: most are only a few hundred kilobytes in size, and even the longest and most elaborate songs are rarely more than a megabyte or two, while still retaining a striking amount of audio fidelity.
Many popular media players still support mod files, including VLC, SMPlayer, foobar2000, DeaDBeeF and WinAmp. The mod community is still strong in 2022, and sites like the Mod Archive^ receive dozens of uploads every week.
This type of format seems perfect for Gemini and the small Internet. Mod files were shared widely over Gopher in the 1990s due to their small size and cross-platform compatibility. These features, plus the pure retro vibe of the format, fits Gemini like a glove in my opinion.
Earlier today I started listening to some of the tunes I created a long time ago, some of which I haven't heard since the late 2000s. I've had a hankering to make some new music recently, so it might be time to bust out the old programs again. And if I get around to actually finishing something, I'll be sure to share it on my capsule.
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[Last updated: 2022-10-05]