Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!IRO.UMontreal.CA!martin
From: martin@IRO.UMontreal.CA (Daniel Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: a new music standard
Summary: General structure of an ST module
Message-ID: <1990Nov2.184342.7159@IRO.UMontreal.CA>
Date: 2 Nov 90 18:43:42 GMT
References: <35126@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <558@cbmger.UUCP>
Sender: news@IRO.UMontreal.CA
Reply-To: martin@IRO.UMontreal.CA (Daniel Martin)
Organization: Universite de Montreal
Lines: 49

In article <558@cbmger.UUCP> peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY) writes:
>...
>Well, I don't know about the insides of the mod format.
>But I think it would be wise to keep the concept of IFF up.
   Yes.

>...
>So, what sort of chunks could be needed? Sorry, I don't know in
>which way ST/NT store their data, but one can guess:

   No need to guess.  By looking at a module you can easily discover the
general file structure layout:

	(20 bytes)	Name of song
	(30 bytes)	Instrument Name 1 
	...
	(30 bytes)	Instrument Name 31 
	(2 bytes)	Lenght of block list (Maximum 0x80 (128))
	(2 bytes)	Unknown
	(128 bytes)	Block list (the music sequence of blocks)
	(4 bytes)	normally 0x4D2E4B2E, unknown.
	(?? bytes)	Block 1..n (notes for each channels (4), unknown)
	(Ins 1 lenght)	Instrument 1 (binary dump)
	...
	(Ins 31 lenght)	Instrument 31 (binary dump)


   Instruments are just the body of an 8SVX file (binary dump).  The instrument
name field format is like:

	(22 bytes)	Name of instrument
	(4 bytes)	Lenght of sample (you must multiply by 2 this value)
	(5 bytes)	Unknown
	(1 byte)	either 0x01 or 0x00.  Unknown.

   Bodies of instruments are place sequentially at the end of the files.

   Can some people add to the missing parts of this description??

   IMHO, it would be relatively easy to IFF'size this format, using
few new tags.  

>Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 

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