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| Author | PlayerPro vs. SoundTrecker (the MOD wars revisited) (Read 31 times) | ||||||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 2048 MB  Posts: 2099 
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on: Yesterday at 07:50
I've largely given up on MP3 files on my IIci because there simply isn't enough horsepower to listen to them comfortably. Yes, I can get MpegDec to play them back, but it munches up almost all of the CPU time, leaving the IIci being a better radio than a computer. MOD files are, however, a totally era-appropriate alternative that, by and large, seems to have been mostly forgotten. They originated with the Amiga scene, and you get everything from cloned versions of popular pop songs and movie themes to indie funk/pop/techno. I even came across some jazz and classical MOD files! Those play back very nicely in the background on my IIci while I'm doing other stuff (browsing, Excel, some games like Civilization, etc.). There appear to be two players available for MOD playback: PlayerPro 4.5 vs. SoundTrecker 2.0.1 These versions are the ones that I figure offer the best compromise between features and speed on a 68k Mac. Your mileage may vary. Yet I have to say, both still come with a lot of stuff that's unnecessary if you just want to listen to pre-composed MOD files rather than mix stuff yourself. It really feels like a lightweight "LiteModPlayer" would be a great project. (The Amigans managed to get even 512 KB Amiga 500 models to play back MOD files!) Anyway, I've been testing both on my IIci lately. Historically, I've been in the SoundTrecker camp because supposedly it was faster. Now that I've tested PlayerPro, I can't confirm that. At least subjectively, they both seem to perform pretty much the same. Perhaps PlayerPro is even a tad bit faster if you set it to address the sound chip directly instead of going through the Sound Manager. Both have some things that irritate me, though. Why can't I drag and drop a couple of files to add them to my PlayerPro playlist!? And why does SoundTrecker keep popping onto the screen whenever it starts playing a new MOD file, even though I've sent it to the background? Which is your favourite? Any experiences to share? |
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Last Edit: Yesterday at 10:58 by Bolkonskij
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lauland
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512 MB  Posts: 707 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 16:45
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Source code for mod players is relatively easy to get, so if you find one you "kinda like" but isn't perfect, it could probably be enhanced. PETSCII Robots has a a protracker player in the form of a 36k file. If someone were really up to a challenge, they could add a front end to that or something similar. (Although enhancing an existing gui player would be far simpler). As a taster, here are the links to that part of said PETSCII source: (Sorry, modern browser only) https://github.com/laulandn/PETSCIIRobotsMac/blob/main/PT2.3A_replay_cia.h https://github.com/laulandn/PETSCIIRobotsMac/blob/main/PT2.3A_replay_cia.cpp If you look at the .h file, you'll see it's quite tiny and nice, but, like I said, other existing players would be more fruitful to look at. It runs well on m68k macs, for what its worth. (The player part, the game is probably still too slow).
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1204 System 7, today and forever
Reply #2 on: Yesterday at 23:19
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I used Sound Trekker with that so cool Tractor icon!  for ages, but the other player does sound very familiar for .mod files, which there are a ton archived, some with my fave tunes!  I currently have ModPlayer installed, and it seems pretty lightweight? (maybe too lightweight?) On the other end, MacMod Pro might be way overkill, lol  But I'm curious if there are other easy to play audio files for 68k Macs? I think the issue there becomes size, but I haven't looked into how much bigger, but maybe something like optimized 8-bit, 22kHz AIFF files? But the clear winner would still be mods for sure! 
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 707 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #3 on: Today at 00:08
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For those that might not be familar: "mod" or "tracker" files are a lot like midi, but include sampled instruments in the file. They originated on the Amiga. Originally, they only supported four tracks, as that is how many hardware sound channels the Amiga has. I think the first was called "SoundTracker". This was extended, so you'll see many other "tracker" or "mod" names. Many of them are compatible with each other, but sometimes not due to each having their own expansions, etc. In general, they will all play the original format. Because this was such a useful format, it was used on many other platforms, and became a "de facto" standard. It is still a very useful format, but the original was limited to the number of bits and rate that the original amiga hardware had, which is far less than cd quality. Some of the extended players may support higher bits or rate.
Last Edit: Today at 00:56 by lauland
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