STX format

[Axxy]

Anyone know what plays or converts these to be playable?

I noticed AMP has some of these in protracker format, but not all. Don't even remember what prod they came from.

[Asle]

 I believe it's the result of STM (Scream Tracker 2) conversion to be able to use them STX with the STMIK lib. This lib comes with a converter and that's what it generates.
 I think we don't want to store these . It's like GDM or AMF (dmp conversion). Just some given replayer friendly format.

Sylvain

PS: ftp://ftp.scene.org/mirrors/hornet/music/programs/convert/stx2stm.zip

[deus-ex]

STX format description (also available from _ftp://ftp.modland.com/pub/documents/format_documentation)

Code: [Select]

analysed by Claudio Matsuoka <claudio@helllabs.org>

Format: STX
Version: 1.0, 1.1
Author: Sami Tammilehto, 1991
Origin: STMIK 0.2 (PC DOS)

The Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit was published by Future Crew along
with the Mental Surgery demo sources (stmik020.zip), and a bugfix release
of the converter took place shortly thereafter (stmikfix.zip). The STX
format is a transition format between the Scream Tracker 2 (STM) and Scream
Tracker 3 (S3M) formats, and comes in two flavours: the original STM2STX 1.0
format and the "fixed" STM2STX 1.1 format.

The description below is based on reverse engineering of the Future Brain
STX module from Mental Surgery, and other STM files converted with the
supplied utility. Byte order is little-endian.

                                STX Module header
          0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   A   B   C   D   E   F
        ,---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---.
  0000: | Song name, max 20 chars                                       |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  0010: |               |'!'|'S'|'c'|'r'|'e'|'a'|'m'|'!'|PatSize|  ???  |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  0020: |PatPtr |InsPtr |ChnPtr?|  ???  |  ???  |g.v|i.s|  ???  |  ???  |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  0030: |PatNum |InsNum |OrdNum |  ???  |  ???  |  ???  |'S'|'C'|'R'|'M'|
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  xxx1: |Parapointers to patterns; length=PatNum*2                      |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  xxx2: |Parapointers to instruments; length=InsNum*2                   |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  xxx3: |??? Channel settings for 32 channels?                          |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  xxx4: |                                                               |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  xxx5: |Orders; length=OrdNum*5                                        |
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

        xxx1=PatPtr*16
        xxx2=InsPtr*16
        xxx3=ChnPtr*16
        xxx4=ChnPtr*16+16
        xxx5=ChnPtr*16+32

        Parapointers to file offset Y is (Y-Offset of file header)/16.
        You could think of parapointers as segments relative to the
        start of the STX file.

PatSize = Size of the first pattern (in bytes)
        PatNum  = Number of patterns in file
        InsNum  = Number of instruments in file
        OrdNum  = Number of orders in file
g.v     = global volume (see next section)
        i.s     = initial speed (command A)

Instrument and pattern format is the same as S3M except that:

- There's no 'SCRS' mark in the end of the instrument header
- Adlib instruments are probably not supported
- STX 1.1 doesn't have the length of pattern before the packed pattern
  data. To test for STX 1.1, compare this value with the PatSize field
  in the module header.
- STX uses STM effect codes
- Slides are performed in all frames


Effects (same as STM):

A - Set tempo (60 == ptk 06)
B - Break pattern and jump to order
C - Break pattern
D - Slide volume; Hi-nibble=up, Lo-nibble=down
E - Pitch slide down
F - Pitch slide up
G - Tone portamento
H - Vibrato
I - Tremor; Hi-nibble = ontime, Lo-nibble = offtime
J - Arpeggio

Asle fell for the same URL bug I reported a couple years ago already.
AMP's forum application doesn't handle FTP links properly and ~converts~ these to http links rendering them broken. Therefor add a leading "_" char and your set for copy/paste action.

_ftp://ftp.scene.org/mirrors/hornet/music/programs/convert/stx2stm

[Axxy]

Hmmm, couldn't get it to work on win7 64bit.

Just wondered if there was a player that could play them so I could at least have a listen. Some of them are already on AMP in protracker format, was hoping they all were, but thanks anyway.

[Asle]

If Claudio has analyzed STX format, I bet it plays in XMP.

[deus-ex]

If Claudio has analyzed STX format, I bet it plays in XMP.

No, I don't think so.

Code: [Select]

The description below is based on reverse engineering of the Future Brain
STX module from Mental Surgery, and other STM files converted with the
supplied utility. Byte order is little-endian.

Axxy, if you use DOSBox you can run the converter even on Windows7 x64 systems. Here's the proof:

[Asle]

hum ...

Code: [Select]

/* Extended Module Player
 * Copyright (C) 1996-2012 Claudio Matsuoka and Hipolito Carraro Jr
 *
 * This file is part of the Extended Module Player and is distributed
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See doc/COPYING
 * for more information.
 */

/* From the STMIK 0.2 documentation:
 *
 * "The STMIK uses a special [Scream Tracker] beta-V3.0 module format.
 *  Due to the module formats beta nature, the current STMIK uses a .STX
 *  extension instead of the normal .STM. I'm not intending to do a
 *  STX->STM converter, so treat STX as the format to be used in finished
 *  programs, NOT as a format to be used in distributing modules. A program
 *  called STM2STX is included, and it'll convert STM modules to the STX
 *  format for usage in your own programs."
 *
 * Tested using "Future Brain" from Mental Surgery by Future Crew and
 * STMs converted with STM2STX.
 */
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmp/files/xmp/3.5.0/

I guess it does

[Axxy]

Axxy, if you use DOSBox you can run the converter even on Windows7 x64 systems. Here's the proof:

I could try that, just haven't bothered putting a lot of old stuff on this computer since I got it.

tp://sourceforge.net/projects/xmp/files/xmp/3.5.0/

I guess it does

I downloaded this, I thought it was just source code as there didn't look like an installation or a binary to click on, or did I miss something?

[deus-ex]

I guess it does

Ahhh, now I see where you are coming from. I thought you were talking about XMPlay.
Yes indeed the Extended Module Player is capable of playing the STX format.

[deus-ex]

I downloaded this, I thought it was just source code as there didn't look like an installation or a binary to click on, or did I miss something?

I'd rather say: "Yes, you missed something.".
For unknown reasons there are no PC compatible binary downloads of the recent releases of Extended Module Player, support for the PC platform was unfortunately dropped after v3.3.0.

XMP v3.3.0 Win32 executable download
XMP v3.3.0 plugin for Winamp and XMPlay download