I've saw on the board a lot of posts asking for info about MOD files, what they are, how do we play them and how making them. So, let's seize the opportunity to give everybody a good and small briefing about those weird files.

[b]HOW TO PLAY MODS!![/b]

First of all, if you want to play MOD songs into your click project, you'll first need the DMC2 object, which is downloadable at http://www.izzyonline.com. Once you've downloaded it, install it now. Make sure the dmc2.cox file is in your Extensions directory and the bass.dll in your windows\system directory. If you don't do that, the extension will not even work!

Once you got it working, now you'll need to figure out how to use the DMC2 to play the song. It's not pretty hard, actually. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Start of Application = INIT BASS
2. Start of Application (or whenever the song must be played) = Open module "ilikepie.it", Looping 0 or 1 (0 if you want the song being played once, 1 if you want it to loop)
Remember to have the song in the same directory than your program is in. Alternatly, you may stack all the MODs in one music folder so in this case, just type in "music\ilikepie.it" as the file path.
3. Play Module
4. Whenever you want the module to stop, just use the "Terminate Bass" event to stop all music/sounds playing through DMC2.
5. End of Application = Terminate Bass (if you don't do that, the MOD will still play when you've exited the game!)

There's many other cool things doable through DMC2 which I shall let you discover. Try experimenting with the "compare two general values" to see what things you could do with DMC2 (plus any other extention by the way, hint hint!)

[b]HOW TO MAKE MODS!![/b]

Here comes the fun, yet hard part. Making MODs is an horrendous yet lovable task which requires a lot of patience, knowledge of the tracker (and music theory), and samples.

First of all, you must choose a tracker program. Each of these programs got their own strengths, weaknesses and save the songs in different file formats. Remember to get a program which saves MODs in either MOD, S3M, XM and IT files, since they are the few module formats supported by DMC2. (I know they're other formats, but I don't remember which they are) You should visit http://www.soundtrackers.de (recommended, they have a lot of links to different trackers/players etc plus they even sell sample CDs) or http://www.modarchive.com to get a list of tracker programs to use. I'd recommend getting one of the following:

Impulse Tracker (DOS)
Fast Tracker 2 (DOS)
ModPlug Tracker (WIN)

In the following part of the article I may be going to refer to ModPlug Tracker as I use this program and I have no real knowledge of the others (anyway, the other trackers won't be much harder to use). Let's start up talking about the samples...

[b]Samples[/b]

Samples are the sound files you take from your computer (or other songs, whichever you see fit) and shall be used as your song's instruments. It is a good idea to take samples with the highest quality possible when you first start making the song (later on you may just downsample those sounds to lower the MOD size)

1. Vary your samples.

Try using as many different samples as possible. Using different, yet similar instruments in a bass riff or lead line helps getting the song less boring. Offsets are also a good way to make your samples sound different, too. Make sure however that you enter up the good offset value so that your sample still sounds ok though.

2. Don't overuse those voice/strange sounds!!

Someday, you'll just get across a sample (like a burp, a spaceship blast or something alike) that just sounds so cool that you'll want it in your song and play it as often as you can. Using a sample of this kind repeatly just bores the listener. He'll be so sick of hearing that horn/burp/blast/etc that he'll just turn off the music and never hear it again. Anyway, I don't think that this kind of sample belongs in game music anyway (unless it is for the level ambiance of course)

3. Where do I get samples?

This is the tricky part. Getting samples is a tough task for many MOD doers as they probably don't own expensive synths and stuff like that. The ways to get samples is to browse through many archive sites around the net, ask for friends which may possess this kind of equipment to sample sounds for you or...rip samples.

4. The ripping etiquette...read carefully or I kir you!!

One of the most common ways to get samples is to rip samples from another song. Views are well divided in this department, as many don't mind about it, while other may protest against the use of their samples. If you "steal" a sample from a song, please give a mention of the artist somewhere in your sample text or comments box. You may even email the artist if there's an email address mentionned in the song and ask him if it's ok to use his samples. If he don't want his samples to be used, don't insist! People do have their right for declining.

5. Downsample these instruments!!

Once your song's over, you may want to decrease the sample's quality in order to give the song a reasonable/smaller size. First of all, convert all your 16-bit samples into 8-bit. That should be enough to cut down the song's size by half if all your samples are 16-bit. If you want an even smaller song, click on the downsample button in the sample editor to lower the sample quality by half. Before you do this, make sure you saved your song with all quality samples in it, otherwise you may regret it

Here's some links if you wanna get samples now...

http://tilt.largo.fl.us/samples/samples.html
http://www.modplug.com (a lot of sample links in there)
http://www.modarchive.com
http://machines.hyperreal.org/samples.html
http://www.soundtrackers.de

[b]The song itself[/b]

Ok, you managed to have some samples handy, and you're now ready to compose a song. This may not be as detailled as the other parts of the article since I don't know much tracking tips myself, but I'll teach the basic things you need to know when making a decent song.

A MOD is made out of patterns, which contains the song's data. Each of these paterns usually contain 64 lines, and each line represents the 32nd of a note. "In order for this to be true the song's speed should be settled to 3" The pattern editor is where you'll insert the patterns's data.

One of the primary rules in making a MOD is to avoid repeating patterns. Do not use the same pattern 8 times in a row or anything (if you do that just make a single pattern song which endlessly loops ).

The best tip I give you to learn how making MODs is to listen to a few MODs yourself. When you have no idea how to acheive that strange effect you've heard in that other song, just take a look in the song itself! See how it's done then try making it in your song by yourself. The following is a serie of songs/musicdisks which you should listen, as they are pretty versatile learning tools AFAIK:

(you can find all the following at http://www.hornet.org, use the search engine)

Progression - Necros (extremly neat MOD musicdisk with jazz, techno and classic rock tracks)
Tangerine Fascination - Necros
Universe Electric - Siren
Eruption of Vesuvius - Siren
Surrender - Hunz
Face of the Dragon - Chromatic Dragon
E-98842 - Nemesis
E-95264 - Big Jim

This list could go on forever, but I've better keep it short since I'd end up with a 100-song list otherwise . These are just a list of songs which I really like and you'd may listen to learn a bit about how MODs are made.

[b]CONCLUSION[/b]

I dunno if this article taught you anything but I've thought that I'd share the little knowledge I've managed to acquire with time with all of you. I hope this really helps you getting in the way of MODs, and maybe you'll start making your own songs. If you want to learn more about ModPlug Tracker/Impulse Tracker, visit the following site:

http://www.zolaweb.com/Zola/main.html

Click on "Everything tracking", then pick the program you want to learn about! It's quite a good tutorial which hopefully explain things better than me

I'll finish up that article by giving you an extremly neat exemple about how you shouldn't design a song (download at your own risk)

ftp://ftp.hornet.org/pub/demos/music/contests/mc4/veteran/m4v-brai.zip

BTW, that song ain't made by me

Happy tracking!!
[b][i]Junkman[/i][/b]