Mod
From iA wiki
See also: Audio Formats | Music | Demo
1. A moderator.
2. A "module" file containing music. (See below.)
The mod scene rose out of the demo scene on the Commodore C64 and Amiga computer. Some musicians writing music for demos started to release their music on BBSes and the internet as individual files, downloadable and listenable seperately. The original mods were written using an Amiga program known as SoundTracker (later evolving to ProTracker), which allowed up to four channels of samples to be played at even musical pitches. The scene eventually migrated to x86 computers running MS-DOS, when the favored programs became FastTracker, ScreamTracker and ImpulseTracker.
For many years, mods were a true "open source" musical format. Anyone could download mods and see every note the musician had scored with every sample. Mod groups formed, similar to demo groups, who only released music, and often traded samples and melodies, working together over BBSes and the net. Many amateur musicians who owned just a PC got started in the scene by downloading the professional-quality music that the groups released, and "remixing" the tracks using the same samples and (sometimes) melodies.
Unfortunately once MP3 became a popular format, and more and more amateur musicians started using MIDI software synths, the open-ness of the scene died, and now it is very difficult to find music in a format from which one can easily learn. Still, many old archives exist, and can be accessed over the web.
Contents |
Software
Windows / mod players & trackers
- ModPlug
- Open Cubic Player (CLI, DOS, Win9x / Unix)
- XMplay (Win9x player, small, feature-filled)
- MadTracker
- FastTracker II (doesn't work with XP)
- Sk@le Tracker (Replaced FTIII - Win32/Linux)
- Tinysid (Small, for Win32/Linux]
- Impulse Tracker
- Orangator
Linux/*NIX mod players
- Mikmod (CLI)
- Modplugplay (CLI)
- XMP (CLI)
- Sidplay2 (CLI)
- Sidplay (CLI)
- Sidtools (CLI)
- XMMS with various input plugins (GUI)
- XSidPlay (GUI, QT, uses libsidplay1 from Sidplay)
- KModBox (GUI, KDE2)
- SidPlayer (CLI, GUI. Also for BeOS)
- TinySid (Small, for Win32/Linux]
- MP3Blaster (CLI, plays SIDs)
- The Art Of Noise (GUI, sound editor, plays SIDs)
Linux/*NIX mod trackers
- SoundTracker (GUI)
- CheeseTracker (GUI)
- ShakeTracker (GUI)
- FreeBirth (GUI)
- OpenBeatBox (GUI)
- Tutka (GUI)
- XSoundtrack (dead project) (GUI)
- Sk@le Tracker (Replaced FTIII - Win32/Linux)
Amiga mod players & trackers
- Protracker, DigiBooster Pro, Art of Noise & Others - Trackers
- DeliTracker, EaglePlayer & Others - Players
- The Ultimate SoundTracker - History of Soundtracker
Amiga mod ripper
BeOS mod players
(This list also contains some sound editor programs)
Mod Archives
- Amiga Music Preservation
- Aminet Mod Archive
- The Mod Archive
- Scene.org Archive
- The Hornet Archive
- Kosmic Archive
- High Voltage SID Collection Archive
- Remix.Kwed.org Archive
- Scenemusic.net Archive
- Archive
- Music/Sample
Musicians Interviews
More info
Radio
- SLAY radio - live streamed remixes of C64 legacy SID's, straight from a C64!
- Nectarine radio - Mods, streamed on the Internet.
Drivers
- Driver for the Catweasel on Linux.
