gbadev.org forum archive

This is a read-only mirror of the content originally found on forum.gbadev.org (now offline), salvaged from Wayback machine copies. A new forum can be found here.

OffTopic > Converting SPC -> IT -> MOD

#26755 - DiscoStew - Sat Sep 25, 2004 3:37 am

Just for the fun of it, I wanted to try to convert some SPC (SNES music) into MOD for use with AAS. My method was to use OpenSPC which can turn an SPC into an Inpulse Tracker module, and then use ModPlug Tracker to further convert the IT into a Protracker MOD.

Converting to an IT is not a problem, except that when the SPC is converted, the samples do not start at index 1, but somewhere down to like 32 and up, and empty samples are before them. Modplug Tracker doesn't fix this since the music actually references to those samples at their indexes. Does anyone know a quick way to move the samples to the beginning and reassign all calls to the samples?

Also, is there any point to convert the IT module into a MOD? I had done a straight convert, and the music sounds terrible and misaligned. When I save the MOD and reopen, none of the samples are there because of the problem above. Of course the terrible sound could be the limits MODs have, but I really don't think the conversion would make it sound this bad. I know I could use an audio system that actually supports IT (or XM), but I have AAS as my main audio system, and I really wish to use it.

If anyone can help me with this, I would be very grateful. Of course this is just for fun, but if I wanted to try to make some demo port of an SNES game, things in the audio department would be a lot easier.
_________________
DS - It's all about DiscoStew

#26757 - tepples - Sat Sep 25, 2004 4:03 am

If you want to HK-Original a Super NES game to the GBA, can't you just rip the samples with SNESSOR and then sequence them yourself in Modplug Tracker?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#26759 - DiscoStew - Sat Sep 25, 2004 5:43 am

I could, but then I'd have to learn how to make sequenced music.

It seems that things are starting to get harder. Even though there is an option for mono, I found out that it only means for outputting wav, not IT. So unless I was able to combine the 16 channels being outputted into 8, I'm going to have a heck of a time. Plus, when converting from IT to Protracker MOD, the frequency AND transpose of the samples are altered, making them more bass like, which is why it sounds so yucky. The downsampling button doesn't help much with it either. Either I look into it more, or stop for the moment. Something I thought would be easy ended up not being. Since I have other things to do too, I'll just work on those in the meantime.

Looks like I got into something way over my head. he he


EDIT:

Well, I found out a few things pertaining to MODs just now.
1) I believe that samples are to be encoded as 8KHz (8636Hz) and 8-bit. (I could be wrong, please tell me..)
2) Many of the effects aren't in MODs, or are switched into effects (like volume control on each channel, instead of its own, it is part of the effects)

I see that I'm going to have to do a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of editing just to get a single SPC converted. Are there any other programs that can do a better job at converting an Impulse Tracker module into a ProTracker MOD?
_________________
DS - It's all about DiscoStew

#26773 - tepples - Sat Sep 25, 2004 5:50 pm

DiscoStew wrote:
Well, I found out a few things pertaining to MODs just now.
1) I believe that samples are to be encoded as 8KHz (8636Hz) and 8-bit. (I could be wrong, please tell me..)
2) Many of the effects aren't in MODs, or are switched into effects (like volume control on each channel, instead of its own, it is part of the effects)

I'd consider using something that can play back .s3m instead. You'll find it much easier to fix up a .it->.s3m conversion than a .it->.mod conversion.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#26796 - DiscoStew - Sun Sep 26, 2004 5:43 am

Perhaps your right. I've already tried converting from IT to S3M, and there doesn't seem to be as much editing compared to MOD. Plus, I don't have to change the samples, so if Krawall or other players do the same thing like AAS, they won't store multiple samples that are the same.
This whole SNES conversion was just something I wanted to try out for fun, to see if I could get SNES music onto the GBA. Too bad this is not my highest priority in GBA programming for me. Maybe once I actually need to start working with music, I'll try something else. But for now, I'll stick with AAS, since I've got it integrated with my projects, plus the 8ad add-on I made for it that we had discussed in another thread. Thanks for your suggestion.
_________________
DS - It's all about DiscoStew