Arkos Tracker 3 can play PSG and Samples indifferently. However, playing samples on 8-bit machines is always a problem as it takes most of the CPU.
There are currently no player to play both PSG and samples instruments (ask me if you really want one!). However, if your music contains only samples, then the MOD player is made for you. Currently, only a CPC Z80 player is done (but it’s actually easy to adapt to any other machine. Once again, ask me!).
The MOD player allows you to play a 3-channel music with a few effects:
- Pitch up/down.
- Arpeggio table.
- Arpeggio 3 notes.
- Arpeggio 4 notes.
- Reset.
Exporting a music
Once you have your 3-channel music, you will want to export it. There is no “Export as MOD” option. Instead check for the “Export as RAW”. Why? Because “raw” is a binary format in which you can encode whatever data you want to export. Its simplicity makes it easy to parse. As playing samples costs a lot of CPU, the raw format fits well our needs.
The raw export seems a bit overwhelming at first. Only the following must be ON. Set the other check-boxes to OFF (this is also explained in the PlayerMod source)!.
- Encode Song/Subsong metadatas.
- Encode Reference tables.
- Encode effects (unless you don’t need them).
- Encode arpeggios: only if effects are encoded, and you use them.
- Encode heights in linker: ON.
- Encode Speed Tracks: ON.
- Pitch Track ratio: 0.25 (but this is an approximation).
As for the samples:
- “Export used samples?” must be ticked.
- The sample MUST be encoded with an “offset” of 128.
- The “amplitude” should be between 8 and 10, it’s up to you to choose what is best for the song.
- You MUST use a “padding length” of 320 at least (technically: at least equal to “PLY_MOD_IterationCountPerFrame” + 1, else strange things will happen). If not, the player will read the data past the sample data, reading the header of the next instrument, sending wrong data to the PSG (at best, cutting the sound).
And that’s it.
Load your song along with the player and enjoy!