SpritesMind.Net

sega16 wrote: and yes djcouchycouch that is currently the best way to go about composing in echo.

Sigh.

I guess I could cut those steps by half if I sat down and wrote a .vgm to .esf converter. Of course I'm saying that without having seen either file format.

djcouchycouch wrote:I guess I could cut those steps by half if I sat down and wrote a .vgm to .esf converter. Of course I'm saying that without having seen either file format.

the biggest issue here is probably the lack of common "instruments" in a .vgm file; fm presets would have to be manually compared during traversal of a .vgm file in order to make any attempt at making common instruments.

a lesser issue is the lack of human-readable "timing;" .vgm timing is sample-based and by default assumes a 44100Hz sample rate (i don't expect this to change any time soon), while other formats (especially MIDI sequences and tracker formats like .xm) have a more human-friendly "tempo" setting instead and rely on resampling inherent to whatever player app loads them.

neologix wrote:the biggest issue here is probably the lack of common "instruments" in a .vgm file; fm presets would have to be manually compared during traversal of a .vgm file in order to make any attempt at making common instruments.

Couldn't that be just handled at the production phase? The person who will write the songs will ensure that they're using the same instruments setup the same way across all songs he or she writes. If during playback a channel uses the wrong instrument, then that can be fixed in the tracker and re-exported. Unless I didn't understand what you meant.

neologix wrote:a lesser issue is the lack of human-readable "timing;" .vgm timing is sample-based and by default assumes a 44100Hz sample rate (i don't expect this to change any time soon), while other formats (especially MIDI sequences and tracker formats like .xm) have a more human-friendly "tempo" setting instead and rely on resampling inherent to whatever player app loads them.

Silly question: is the .vgm format output by VGM MM is the same as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGM_(file_format) ?

sega16 wrote:Speaking of OpenMpt I was converting a midi file to XM and for some reason it did not save the last instrument and it glitched the saw wave sample I just thought I would give everyone a heads up about that. Note: I have not done extensive testing with other midis I just upgraded from the old Modplug to the new OpenModplug tracker and yes djcouchycouch that is currently the best way to go about composing in echo.

OpenMPT does a horrible job at converting MIDI to XM. I use GMid2Mod instead:
http://slick.cokeandcode.com/static.php?page=GMid2Mod

There's supposed to be a linux version, but I've never found it. The Windows version works in WINE, so it's not a big deal.