TFM Music Maker

CosmoBuggi · Post by **CosmoBuggi** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:34 am

No, i mean, how do i convert a VGM file into WAV or MP3 to get a stereo WAV/MP3 file?

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:47 am

WinAmp and XMPlay are able to write output to file instead of playing it. WinAmp has disk writer output plug-in, which included in the package, XMPlay allow to select output devices between sound card, disk writer and external MP3/OGG encoders.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:19 pm

Code: Select all

v1.4 30.06.09 

+ Exchange and copy of the operators by drag and drop of the envelope graph
* When loading modules in old format, settings of instruments with 'empty'
  name were reset
* In instrument editor, 'reset operator settings' buttons now reset settings
  to same values like 'clear instrument' button does
* Icons of buttons of play control changed to make it looks better when
  high-contrast Windows color scheme used
* Critical bug in the module save code, which could cause to module corruption
  in some situations, is fixed
* Instrument number change in the pattern editor is not changed instrument
  number in the instrument editor
* Error message when try to load file of wrong type using command line
* Change of algorithm in the instrument editor now affect to sound immediately
* Panning reset in the beginning of the exported VGM file
+ Channels exchange dialog
+ Option to return cursor to the original position after playing
* Current octave in the instrument editor now can be changed by clicking on
  header above the on-screen keyboard
+ Option to choose between horizontal or vertical orientation of the pop-up
  trackbars in the instrument editor
* Window position now restores correctly after restoring from maximum size
+ Block copying operations now works through Windows clipboard, this allow
  to copy blocks between few copies of the editor
* YM2203 emulation code is updated to MAME 0.130

The bug, which stopped development for whole year, was pretty stupid. I've found it easily when gave the project another look recently. Unfortunately, corrupted files can't be restored automatically, because the bug cause to few bytes in unknown places simply get lost from saved file.

Oerg866 · Post by **Oerg866** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:50 pm

Bug: Changing AR DR SR RR values doesn't affect output when playing, until I stop and restart playing.

Please to make it affect it directly?

Otherwise, I like it!

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:59 pm

It is not bug, that's supposed to be so. I can't see much sense to apply them immediately (and they technically can't be applied while note is playing).

byblo · Post by **byblo** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 8:22 am

Thank you for the great tool

I always dreamed to make music that sounds like from a MD

I was wondering: Since i am planning to make some tracks for a little video game (a freeware), can i use the instruments provided in the archive, or are they under some copyright ?

Also, a little suggestion: While exporting to wav, the program seems to do a fade out, which prevent to get a proper looped track. Can't you remove it or making it optional ?

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:07 pm

byblo wrote:I was wondering: Since i am planning to make some tracks for a little video game (a freeware), can i use the instruments provided in the archive, or are they under some copyright ?

I think, nobody knows who is original author of most of these instruments (except for mine, AlCo's and Jobro's). They were converted between different formats many times, and most of them probably was originally made on some of Yamaha's synths. Anyway, I don't think there is real reason to care about copyrights in your case.

byblo wrote:Also, a little suggestion: While exporting to wav, the program seems to do a fade out, which prevent to get a proper looped track. Can't you remove it or making it optional ?

Fadeout begins after complete loop (not includes part of loop), so for now you can use audio editor to cut the fadeout, which is 3 seconds long. Ok, I'll make it optional next time.

freezedream · Post by **freezedream** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:20 am

@Shiru:

Just by the way, I was still using v 1.3 until now, but on trying out v 1.4, I noticed that intruments using SSG-EG now sound different. They now sound the same as if I export to .vgm, convert to binary and load in Fusion emulator. Is this because you updated the YM2203 emulation code? Unfortunately, this means some of my older tracks do not sound the way they were intended to. :/

I have yet to try out certain sounds employing the SSG-EG envelope on real Sega YM2612 hardware, though TmEE says that it is partially supported.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:42 am

Yes, that is probably because the YM2203 emulation code was updated. The problem with the SSG-EG is that there is still no exact emulation of the feature in any emulator, including code in the editor or VGM plug-ins. So, SSG-EG isn't safe to use, unless you need WAV export only, you can't be sure how it will sounds on real hardware. I don't have any real hardware, neither TFM nor SMD, so I can't even give any recommendations, which is safe or not for SSG-EG, and I still don't know if there any difference in the feature implementation in YM2203 and YM2612.

shadowralen · Post by **shadowralen** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:16 pm

Okay, looking for a little help.
I picked up this program fairly recently, and it's really good (not hard to adjust from Famitracker)...
BUT, the instrument creation/tweaking is just completely beyond me... the instruments that came with it are okay, but I was really hoping to use some particular voices from some old games (or soundalikes). Famitracker was straightforward enough to make 'em myself, but... I completley don't understand this one.
Does anyone know where I could get or how to recreate some specific instruments from genesis/megadrive games? In particular I was looking for some of the melodic tones in the sonic games and puyo puyo tsuu.
I don't use forums much, so if this question's in the wrong place or already asked, sorry, just tell me and I'll go away. Thanks.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:27 pm

Creating a FM instrument sounding like something you want with no experience is a bit complex... you have like 50 parameters to create a sound with, and there's a huge number of zeroes on the number of all possibilities.
Best you can do is probably ripping the instrument with GensKmod from a game, or use Shiru's VGM instrument ripper (its commandline app so you need to know few basic things about the command line use) to get instruments you want.

shadowralen · Post by **shadowralen** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:06 am

Yeah, maybe someday I'll figure out all those knobs, but for now GensKmod seems to be doing the trick.
Thanks for the help!

M-374 LX · Post by **M-374 LX** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 6:26 pm

When the program plays a song or instrument, it is not loud enough.

freezedream · Post by **freezedream** » Tue May 04, 2010 3:28 am

I'm interested to know what the difference between the two TFD file export options?

One is for TFD for TFM and the other is TFD for SMD. Obviously TFMCOM is written to work with TFD for TFM files, but what is the difference?

SOME of my music converts and plays fine when exported as TFD for SMD and converted with TFMCOM, whereas, for some unknown reason, other tracks give heaps of strange errors:

input file=music.tfd
frame=81 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=106 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=131 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=206 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=231 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=256 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=281 $29..$2f in stream! 42
frame=306 $29..$2f in stream! 42

These errors don't make much sense to me, except that each line counts by 5 frames and so these errors in the stream are in a sense occuring between lines.

I've read something about the TFD for TFM files not having the correct frequency table to play on the SMD?

Shiru, is it possible you could make a version of TFMCOM for TFM for SMD files as my friend and I are trying to make a music disk for the megadrive/genesis and can't get the z80 driver and alone coder's player to playback correctly (higher pitch). Or is there some 'fix' for the increased pitch issue?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Tue May 04, 2010 7:09 am

TFMCOM doesn't care about pitch table, it just compresses the data. So, as long as you've exported the music as 'TFD for SMD', the pitch should be correct.

VGM and TFD export still broken in TFM MM, unfortunately. It is a show-stopper problem I can't fix for a long time. On my PC it could be avoided through using export from command line, I always get files of the same size (and the size is always different with export from the GUI, which means the problem). I had reports that command line export doesn't work for some people, though.