Mod Archive Forums
Music Production => Tracking => Topic started by: MadEmperorYuri on May 13, 2020, 00:27:36
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Hey, I'm pretty new at this. Right now I'm experimenting to play back Peter Hajba's excellent Bejeweled 2 soundtrack as closely as I can. I went and downloaded https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=156184 and loaded it in OpenMPT, which I understand is the direct technical successor to ModPlug Tracker, in which Hajba originally worked.
I've noticed some weird things. Several instrument slots are empty. Normally I would just interpret them as ad hoc gaps for organization. But there are some things this doesn't adequately explain:
- Sometimes there are two consecutive empty slots, making gaps of different sizes.
- There is one single instrument (JewelLead.Neu) set off on its own between two gaps, even though it doesn't seem to have any unique properties.
- And in a series of instruments named PhaseWave.## from 01 to 10, PhaseWave.03 is missing.
All of these together suggest to me that there are missing instruments. OpenMPT offers find/replace functionality, but its use has not revealed any notes in any patterns trying to use those instruments.
There's a similar situation with the samples. In all, there are 8 sample slots which do have names (e.g. Airy.1, Sitar-Low, and most suggestively PhaseWave.03), but which have no samples in them.
The number of apparently missing samples and apparently missing instruments do not match up, but since multiple instruments may rely on the same sample, and some number of the missing instruments may truly be ad hoc gaps, this fact isn't helpful.
I'm wondering if other people agree that the evidence is very strongly in favor of truly missing samples and instruments; or if actually there is just something I don't understand going on. If samples and instruments are missing, then I suppose my only option would be to contact Mr. Hajba. But I thought it would be best to try here first.
Thanks very much!
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ModPlug Tracker back then could only remove unused samples/instruments but not rearrange them, so if an unused samples / instrument was removed in the middle of the list, it would leave a gap. It also didn't clear sample names properly when deleting them. Simple as that.
If "PhaseWave.03" was really missing, you would have to find instrument number 75 being used in patterns, but it isn't. Hence it's not missing. It was simply removed because it was unused.
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That was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping an expert would know. Thank you very much!
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And just a general note on this topic: Some people clean up / rearrange their samples, others don't. Some leave unused patterns in their modules, others don't. Some people will leave note playing at zero volume (or notes referencing non-existing instruments) in their song even though the note will never be heard. You will find a lot of weird stuff going on in modules, and 99% of the time there is no deeper meaning behind it. People just try out stuff and then forget about it, and leave it hanging around in the module. :)