The AKM, or Minimalist player, is a small but very powerful player, especially useful for 4K demo, or 64kb games, for example.
It is an interesting alternative to CngSoft Chp’n’Sfx, which has a really small, albeit limited, player. AKM is much more powerful, but also bigger.
Pros:
- Smaller player and songs.
- Sound effects managed.
Cons:
- Slower than the other AT2 players.
- A bit less features.
Here are the limitations regarding what this player can accomplish:
- Only one PSG per Subsong.
- No “hard to soft” sounds.
- SoftAndHard more limited: hardware part is only with fixed hard period (allows “Ben Daglish” effects).
- No events.
- Only speed change at the start of a pattern are encoded.
- Arpeggio and Pitch values in the Expressions are limited in range: from -64 to 63.
- Arpeggio and Pitch Expressions are limited in size: 127 items only.
- No Legato.
- In an instrument, period in Software mode must be automatic, cannot be forced.
- No retrig.
- Effects:
- Reset with volume
- Set volume
- (fast)Pitch up/down
- Arpeggio table (inline will be converted)
- Pitch table
- Force Instrument Speed
- Force Arpeggio Speed
- Force Pitch Speed
On exporting, warnings are shown if some song items could not be correctly exported.