Fun project: converter from MTP to MWM

Expert (84)

22-04-2019, 12:46

As probably only a handful of people know, there is a tracker program similar to Moonblaster for DOS called MiGTracker Pro. This program was developed and used by me for a number of years.

As it is so similar to Moonblaster, I was wondering how this music would sound if ported to the MSX. After reaching out to Marcel Delorme who told me the Moonlbaster Wave format is really easy, I decided to just try it. A few hours of tinkering with Python... and it now works!

Below is a song that I have converted to MWM:
Avalon - Big Boss

Some minor manual editing is necessary, particularly because the instruments from Moonblaster are not in the GM lay-out. Potentially I can convert dozens of tracks to MWM format with this.

Curious what you guys think. :)

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Van Pac

Scribe (7103)

22-04-2019, 17:59

It sounds good. What is the soundchip that MiGTracker Pro was developed for? OPL3?

Van Randam Hajile

Expert (84)

22-04-2019, 19:17

MiGTracker Pro was designed to use the MPU-401 on the Soundblaster card. So you can hook up any MIDI compatible device. I used an AWE32 and also a Roland Sound Canvas card.

I also created an OPL3 tracker called MiGTracker (not Pro). I guess if I were to port that music it would be best ported to MSX-AUDIO/MSX-MUSIC. Although I did not make a lot of music with this tracker, since I was not impressed with the capabilities of the OPL3 on the Soundblaster, compared to the OPL4/MSX.
MiGTracker v1.0

Here's another one. :D
SD-Snatcher Ending

Van Randam Hajile

Expert (84)

28-04-2019, 14:32

I cconcluded my development of the converter. It lacks a few things but all songs need a bit of manual work anyway. It does a pretty good job.

I have made the source code freely available. Although I doubt that many people use(d) MiGTracker Pro, the converter may be a nice reference if anyone wants to figure out the MBWave format.

Sourcecode on Github

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6091)

28-04-2019, 15:27

Cool converter, thank you.

It would be really nice if someone could complete the MoonBlaster file format definition to the Wiki... As is it does not explain at all how to interpret the note data... There seems to be some sort of packing, but I don't know how it works.

Van Randam Hajile

Expert (84)

30-04-2019, 19:54

I also don't know exactly how the compression works. But is shouldn't be hard, because it is only empty steps that are packed.

I solved this by not packing the data at all... I use a template file which contains OFF statements on all steps. That file is not compressed by Moonblaster, so I can replace the steps with the song data from the conversion.

Van sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4291)

30-04-2019, 21:38

Would it also be possible to convert MTP files to SMF/MID so they could be send to midi devices from MSX (through MSX-Midi/MIDI-PAC/SFG etc.)?

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6091)

30-04-2019, 21:59

Randam Hajile wrote:

I also don't know exactly how the compression works. But is shouldn't be hard, because it is only empty steps that are packed.

Actually since I posted this I already figured it out... It is just n-242 steps of free space... The missleading thing is that there is some extra column on left of real note data. I have not documented it yet, but I will sure document it after some more tests.

Van Randam Hajile

Expert (84)

01-05-2019, 08:30

Yes that is also possible!

MTP can be read by the next generation of MiGTracker called Millennium (MML). This tracker has the ability to export to midi.

Check some examples here:
avalon10.mid
avalon09.mid
avalon14.mid
avalon15.mid

As I'm no longer in the possession of the real hardware to replay this, I'd love to know how it sounds...

Note that MiGTracker Millennium is more advanced than MiGTracker Pro. It allows the use of multiple soundfonts at the same time and also multiple notes and commands on a single channel. Music written specifically for MML is therefore too complex to export to MWM. Here's an example of music created with MML:
Rememberance (MML/MP3)

Van Randam Hajile

Expert (84)

01-05-2019, 08:35

NYYRIKKI wrote:

Great that you have figured that out. Will be good to have an accurate description of these file formats. Maybe it will inspire me to do another conversion. There's also the MiGTracker 1.0 format (.mig) that would probably export perfectly to Moonblaster MBM format. The music would probably improve a great deal because MSX-MUSIC/MSX-AUDIO rocks and Adlib... kinda sucks

Example song created with MiGTracker 1.0:
Descruction (mp3/mig)

Van Randam Hajile

Expert (84)

02-05-2019, 21:52

Have just submitted a disk with 46 MWM songs to the downloads page.