History Main / MoD

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' franchise, ''VideoGame/{{Seiklus}}'' and many titles from Creator/PopCapGames such as ''VideoGame/{{Bejeweled}}'', ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' and ''VideoGame/{{Bookworm}}''.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''VideoGame/{{Seiklus}}''.

The basic idea still exists for video games in general today, as nearly every game system from the SNES on up includes a wavetable sound chip, relieving the processor of the burden of mixing the channels itself and freeing it to spend that time on other things.[[note]]Notable exception: the GameboyAdvance has digital audio output, but only one stereo channel, so the game engine has to do any sound mixing itself. This is why early and low-budget GBA titles tend to have fewer channels at lower quality, and why so many games make use of the included original Gameboy sound chip.[[/note]]

The basic idea still exists for video games in general today, as nearly every game system from the SNES on up includes a wavetable sound chip, relieving the processor of the burden of mixing the channels itself and freeing it to spend that time on other things.[[hottip:*:Notable exception: the GameboyAdvance has digital audio output, but only one stereo channel, so the game engine has to do any sound mixing itself. This is why early and low-budget GBA titles tend to have fewer channels at lower quality, and why so many games make use of the included original Gameboy sound chip.]]

The principle used to generate notes from the samples has been around since at least the early 1960s, where it was used by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to create the first versions of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme music. The folks at the BBC recorded individual notes on magnetic tape and generated other notes by changing the playback speed. Faster playback speeds produced higher notes and slower ones produced lower notes. By splicing together segments of tape containing these generated notes and mixing the results together, the first version of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme was brought to life.

Now, what does that have to do with music on a computer? Well, when a computer plays back music in MOD format, it's essentially doing what the folks at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop did by hand over 25 years earlier. The note data in a MOD file tells the computer how fast and how loud to play back the sample data (this is a simplification, but for an introduction it will suffice).

MOD formats originated in the late 1980s on the {{Amiga}}, making use of the rather smart [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Amiga_chipset#Paula Paula chip]] in the computers. This sound chip was able to play four streams of audio at once, each with a different sample rate. Unsurprisingly, early Amiga MOD formats were limited to four channels (later software tricks boosting this to eight channels), but after migration to the PC, where more processing power was available, variations on the original format and many new formats with more channels cropped up. The generic name comes from the file extension of one of the first and most popular formats.

If you're looking for game modifications and rom hacks, see GameMod. If you're looking for the 1960s subculture, see ScooterRidingMod. If you're coming here via an accidental wick from the abbreviation for the UK's Ministry of Defense, see UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships.

The {{Demoscene}} has extensively used MOD formats and a number of them have also originated with Demoscene groups, with one of the best-known being [=S3M=] (Scream Tracker 3 Module). There are archive sites which have literally thousands of pieces of music in various MOD formats.

The basic idea for MOD files seems to exist for video games in general today. Though it's hard to tell in earlier games (most video game music rips involve dumping the contents of the sound data in RAM), the file format PSF and [=PSF2=] show that there are two part files. One of them is the actual song you play. The second is a library file. The song file is useless without the library file, which contains the playback program and sampled instruments shared among songs, much like the "sound font" used by some PC-based General MIDI synthesizers.
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If you're looking for game modifications and rom hacks, see GameMod. If you're looking for the 1960s subculture, see ScooterRidingMod. If you're coming here via an accidental wick from the abbreviation for the UK's Ministry of Defense, see BritsWithBattleships.

If you're looking for game modifications and rom hacks, see GameMod. If you're looking for the 1960s subculture, see ScooterRidingMod.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''VideoGame/{{Seiklus}}''.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

MOD formats originated in the late 1980s on the {{Amiga}}, making use of the rather smart [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Amiga_chipset#Paula Paula sound chip]] in the computers. This sound chip was able to play four streams of audio at once, each with a different sample rate. Unsurprisingly, early Amiga MOD formats were limited to four channels (later software tricks boosting this to eight channels), but after migration to the PC, where more processing power was available, variations on the original format and many new formats with more channels cropped up. The generic name comes from the file extension of one of the first and most popular formats.

MOD formats originated in the late 1980s on the {{Amiga}}, making use of a rather smart sound chip in the computers. This sound chip was able to play four streams of audio at once, each with a different sample rate. Unsurprisingly, early Amiga MOD formats were limited to four channels (later software tricks boosting this to eight channels), but after migration to the PC, where more processing power was available, variations on the original format and many new formats with more channels cropped up. The generic name comes from the file extension of one of the first and most popular formats.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''UnrealTournament'', ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''UnrealTournament'', ''DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''JazzJackrabbit'', ''VideoGame/DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''UnrealTournament'', ''DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

The principle used to generate notes from the samples has been around since at least the early 1960s, where it was used by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to create the first versions of the ''DoctorWho'' theme music. The folks at the BBC recorded individual notes on magnetic tape and generated other notes by changing the playback speed. Faster playback speeds produced higher notes and slower ones produced lower notes. By splicing together segments of tape containing these generated notes and mixing the results together, the first version of the ''DoctorWho'' theme was brought to life.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''JazzJackrabbit'', ''DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''UnrealTournament'', ''DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''JazzJackrabbit'', ''DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''Game/{{Unreal}}'', ''UnrealTournament'', ''DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

If you're looking for game modifications and rom hacks, see GameMod.

MOD (tracker [=MODule=]) formats are a hybrid of sorts. They combine note data (like a {{MIDI}} file) with digital audio samples (typically in a format similar to [[WavAudio WAV]]). To continue the analogy used on those pages: if a MIDI file is a piece of sheet music, and a WAV file a recording of an orchestra, then a MOD file is a piece of sheet music bundled with a set of instruments for playing the piece.

The basic idea for MOD files seems to exist for video games in general today. Though it's hard to tell in earlier games (most video game music rips involve dumping the contents of the sound data in RAM), the file format PSF and PSF2 show that there are two part files. One of them is the actual song you play. The second is a library file. The song file is useless without the library file, which contains the playback program and sampled instruments shared among songs, much like the "sound font" used by some PC-based General MIDI synthesizers.

MOD (tracker [=MODule=]) formats are a hybrid of sorts. They combine note data (like a {{MIDI}} file) with digital audio samples (typically in a format similar to [[WavAudio WAV]]). To continue the analogy used on those pages: if a MIDI file is a piece of sheet music, and a [[WavAudio WAV file]] a recording of an orchestra, then a MOD file is a piece of sheet music bundled with a number of instruments, as well as directions for which instruments play which parts of the piece.

Unlike standards like [[{{MIDI}} General Midi]] and {{MP3}}, "MOD" refers to an entire family of formats, most of which are not well-documented, having evolved organically from the early [=SoundTracker=] format. Thanks to this, it is often difficult to determine whether any given MOD file will be playable with any given player except by experimentation. Many (but not all) of the various subformats are broadly cross-compatible within certain well-known subgroups, but even then, there are (usually) minor incompatibilities which are not always obvious. This is among the reasons that, even where MOD formats remain popular for composing music, the file is nowadays often rendered into a non-tracked format such as MP3 for distribution.

The basic idea for MOD files seems to exist for video games in general today. Though it's hard to tell in earlier games (most video game music rips involve dumping the contents of the sound data in RAM), the file format PSF and PSF2 show that there are two part files. One of them is the actual song you play. The second is a library file. The song file is useless without the library file, which contains the playback program and sampled instruments shared among songs.

MOD formats have been fairly popular for use with games since the 1990s as they give a good balance between quality and file size. Several examples of games with MOD format music include ''JazzJackrabbit'', ''DeathRally'', ''EpicPinball'', ''TerminalVelocity'', ''StarControl II'', ''{{Unreal}}'', ''DeusEx'', the ''{{Crusader}}'' franchise and ''{{Seiklus}}''.

The basic idea for MOD files seems to exist for video games in general today. Though it's hard to tell in earlier games (most video game music rips involve dumping the contents of the sound data in RAM), the file format PSF and PSF2 show that there are two part files. One of them is the actual song you play. The second is a library file. The song file is useless without the library file.

The basic idea for MOD files seems to exist for video games in general today. Though it's hard to tell in earlier games (most video game music rips involve dumping the contents of the sound data in RAM), the file format PSF and PSF2 show that there are two part files. One of them is the actual song you play, which can be as big as a kilobyte. The second is a library file. The song file is useless without the library file.