2013

[Asle]

All

And then, suddenly, 2012 is gone. It feels like this last years was shorter, if we stick to AMP's figures:
- 6500+ musics were added
- 300+ musics were updated/changed
- 179 pictures were added
- 400 authors were added (600+ modified and 20 removed)
I hope AMP fares at least that good in 2013

In the name of AMP team, I wish you the best for 2013.

Cheers
Sylvain

[Asle]

All right some "where we stand" now (~124000 mark)
MOD - 86400
XM - 16131
S3M - 5096
IT - 4376
MED - 4102
STK - 1970
FST - 1364
...

[swirlythingy]

How does AMP decide which formats it'll accept?  I know you don't keep files in 'exotic' formats, but I have seen files in some very obscure formats, like BP and GMC.  Where do you draw the line?

[Asle]

Well, I wouldn't say there's any deciding taking place. Maybe more some general rules.
- tracked
- original format
- coming from Amiga is a plus but not mandatory, obviously, at least for known Amiga musicians

BP (soundmonitor) is there because there are quite a few of them and they are widely used in trainer/crack intro, etc. They also happen to have a title which makes the sorting easier. We have 85 of them presently.
GMC (game music creator) is also there for being a more or less regularly seen format used in games. We have 66 of them.

My goal, here (as it's actually me adding those formats), is to add some more formats. However, those like FC13/FC14 and the like have simply no title or easy naming that can be done.

In any event, there's no real line drawn. If we have some material to add Tomorrow, we'll add it. As long as it is somehow possible to identify each music (and their authors) so as to prevent useless uploads because nobody would understand the file was there but named differently. It does happen already today with countless converted packed protracker, so, I'm kind of sure what to expect . Unless, it's as clean a naming/sorting process as possible.

Ideas are welcome

Oh, and a note about the "exotic" format JAM (jamcracker) of which I've added 3 files. It so happens the "pro" version of Jamcracker stores a title. Those are thus sort of compatible to fit in. Not the old material, however. At least for now.

Cheers
Sylvain

[swirlythingy]

So, the important thing is it has a title?

I'm just wondering about formats like OMF, which can be losslessly converted to and from MOD-like formats (and it even has a title), yet AMP doesn't store them.  (In the case of OMF, it stores conversions in FST format instead.)  Is this just because there isn't a commonly available player for OMF (yet), due to it being an 'uncracked' format until recently?

It's technically very similar to the vast majority of formats which AMP does accept, so it must be counted as an 'exotic' format for other reasons.

I can see why you wouldn't host, say, RJP or JPN files, as those are very different to standard MODs, and quite awkward to play in a dedicated music player due to the way in which they were designed to work.  But there does seem to be a quite large 'grey area' between MODs and their derivatives and clearly 'exotic' formats like JPN.

[Axxy]

i just passed the 60,000 mark...

in Oct 2011

Now hit 73,832

   Oct 2011     Jan 2013

XM   25,383     28,886
IT   15,959     17,416
S3M   4,893     5,387
MOD   12,405     20,687
OTHER   1,392     1,456

Increased more because i've been looking for good ol' protracker format alot in 2012..

Talking of converting mods, i've converted all my .digi to .xm format recently so I can listen to them on my PC. That Milkytracker does quite a good job as far as I can tell. I've still kept the original .digi versions just in case.

I'm not all that bothered about other "non-tracked" formats to be honest. Modland has more formats than you can shake a stick at. And it looks like it has woken from hibernation, as I'm sure I saw some life over there recently.  

I can understand why some people want to listen to all those other formats, but personally, I really can't be arsed to find emulators or players to play all of those formats over at Modland, but if there was one player that could play them, I probably would be more interested....

[deus-ex]

In the name of AMP team, I wish you the best for 2013.

Thank you, friend. The same to you and the entire AMP team.

[deus-ex]

So, the important thing is it has a title?

I think Asle already answered this quite precisely: 

As long as it is somehow possible to identify each music (and their authors) so as to prevent useless uploads because nobody would understand the file was there but named differently.

[Asle]

So, the important thing is it has a title?

Not necessarily. A unique marker is.

I'm just wondering about formats like OMF, which can be losslessly converted to and from MOD-like formats (and it even has a title), yet AMP doesn't store them.  (In the case of OMF, it stores conversions in FST format instead.)  Is this just because there isn't a commonly available player for OMF (yet), due to it being an 'uncracked' format until recently?

It's technically very similar to the vast majority of formats which AMP does accept, so it must be counted as an 'exotic' format for other reasons.

I have no idea what OMF is, which explains why it wouldn't be here . Can you point me to a tracker ? I'm not really up to date with all the existing tools available around .

I can see why you wouldn't host, say, RJP or JPN files, as those are very different to standard MODs, and quite awkward to play in a dedicated music player due to the way in which they were designed to work.  But there does seem to be a quite large 'grey area' between MODs and their derivatives and clearly 'exotic' formats like JPN.

RJP isn't on AMP at least because it's a two files bundle. Today's storing way of AMP is only a "one file" archive. Should have switched to ZIP a long time ago, if only for Startrekker AM files, but ... And like JPN, before going there and competing against Exotica, we kind of try to strengthen our position on what we know best. JPN, RJP (and many others like Whittaker) are more or less already sorted out, I guess. Although, if only for out site name, we could add those. Well, maybe at a later time.

[Asle]

i just passed the 60,000 mark...

in Oct 2011

Now hit 73,832

Well done

And it looks like it has woken from hibernation, as I'm sure I saw some life over there recently.  

Yes, I've seen that, although, I failed to locate the usual "update" text file.

I can understand why some people want to listen to all those other formats, but personally, I really can't be arsed to find emulators or players to play all of those formats over at Modland, but if there was one player that could play them, I probably would be more interested....

Well, it's always the same story. Conversion can be enhanced/updated/fixed/whatever. Original will stay. I'd say that's the idea behind AMP: Providing people with musics in their original format. Converting to anything afterwards is a matter of convenience to any given individual.
And, oh, by the way, all files available here can be played as is in DP

[swirlythingy]

I have no idea what OMF is, which explains why it wouldn't be here . Can you point me to a tracker ? I'm not really up to date with all the existing tools available around .

Well, it was you who wrote the converter!

http://amp.dascene.net/forum/index.php/topic,117.0.html

RJP isn't on AMP at least because it's a two files bundle. Today's storing way of AMP is only a "one file" archive.

Ah, of course - separate sample files.  I didn't think of that.  That's one way of indicating a clearly exotic format, then.

[Asle]

Ah, that OMF thing . Well, it's not a tracker I believe. Merely a format adapted to a given replay. So, I guess that's not fit to be stored here as is.