Making music for UT (tracked music)

TableTrousers · Aug 11, 2001

I work in the tracked music format (*.XM, *.IT, etc), and was wondering how I can convert my songs so they can be heard in UT?

I know you get questions like this alot, but usually this is people who wanna put .WAV files in, and make a UT map seven times bigger just so they can listen to some crap song from DragonBall Z while they play (that's what STEREOES are for)...

Is UMX just a renamed tracked music format, or do you need a certain program to convert/save in this format?

Thanks

~Gwilym

Arcturus · Aug 11, 2001

Ah, a fellow tracker! Heya

To convert your .IT, .XM, .S3M files to .UMX, you need to use UnrealEd. Simply click on the musical note icon in the toolbar, import your tracked file, then save it out as a .UMX

A .UMX is basically just any tracked file with bits changed here and there to make it readable by the Unreal engine, that's all. Remember that Modplug Tracker allows you to open .UMX files like regular tracker tunes. Pretty funky, I think

TableTrousers · Aug 11, 2001

wicked

Thanks, duder...now maybe I can be picked up as a musician for a project like Infiltration...they need some eerie ambient music, I think.

~Gwilym

Arcturus · Aug 11, 2001

No probs dude

prboy · Aug 11, 2001

music question

My question is how do you create or save a WAV or MP3 into a .umx file?

F}{ZaGhost}{F · Aug 11, 2001

TableTrousers

I do know of a project that is looking for music tracks, I was supposed to try a few things, but I can't seem to find the time.... if you're interested drop me a mail and I'll hook you up with the project guys....

[IsP]KaRnAgE · Aug 11, 2001

Prboy
It really wouldnt be very good to have such an enormous file

Put the wav. into a tracker in a note that plays it at the correct pitch. But the file will be ridicously large, and i think i read somewhere that it can be taxing on cerain peoples computers.
As for mp3's, they are compressed wavs, u have to turn em into wavs than follow the above instructions.

prboy · Aug 11, 2001

what is the easiest tracker to use?

[IsP]KaRnAgE · Aug 11, 2001

eh i have fast tracker but dont know how to use it

Modplug tracker is free as well.. i can use it ok, but im not very good, i here madtracker is awesome but its not free, and i have never seen it.

Anyone know where i can get indepth tutorials for modplug tracker?

TableTrousers · Aug 11, 2001

Re: music question

Originally posted by prboy
My question is how do you create or save a WAV or MP3 into a .umx file?

You don't.

A 3-minute MP3 will herald a UMX file that can be up to 10 megs. If you absolutely have to listen to a certain song while playing, put it on the stereo. Or if you've got a decent soundcard/processor you could have it playing in WinAMP while you play UT.

Plus another problem with ingame MP3/WAV music is that you always hear a distinct repeat point; where the song starts again. With tracked music, you can modify the way it repeats...etc

On a lighter note - does anyone know of any limits the UMX format has? Can you use NNAs? Can you use all the effects? I just noticed that none of the three UMX files I loaded up with Modplug Player, saved as .it files and viewed with Impulse Tracker used NNAs...

Thanks

~Gwilym

Reaper · Aug 12, 2001

You can mostly find the answer here:

http://unreal.epicgames.com/

zynthetic · Aug 12, 2001

TableTrousers, Arcturus,
Want to help out? I've started a new site for unreal's music engine. It covers anything related to music in unreal/ut. I've applied for hosting a couple weeks ago and I'll need some help once I get started.
Right now I'm working for TA:UT so I can't really afford to update songs that much. As things stand there's four downloadable umx files w/ 1 min realplayer previews of each. An FAQ on digital music related to unreal and links to umx players ect...
I dont want to go around bashing but this certainly isn't UnrealRocks or UMX Palace. I do this as more than a hobby and I plan on running the site for quite a while.
Anything would be greatly appreciated

TableTrousers · Aug 13, 2001

I don't get what you're talking about, zynthetic.

Try again, preferably with some kind of specificness attached.

~Gwilym

zynthetic · Aug 13, 2001

Basically I play unreal and I track becuase of it. I made a few songs so I decided to build a site and go for hosting at planetunreal. I'm pretty confiednt that the site will get hosted judging from the content of the hosted sites in the same catagory, they aren't even updated anymore.
I'm looking for other team members (trackers) that can make frequent umx contributions, umx tutorials, or any contributions from anyone wants to submit.
Just think UMX Palace with a lot more time put into the content.
Personally I'd like to built some kind of a team to generate content on the site quickly. I could do this myself but I believe more in quality than quantity.
In a nutshell... just pimping my site, waiting for the hosting info to come through, and looking for talant to contribute to the site.

TableTrousers · Aug 14, 2001

ah. well, I think I'd rather do .umx files directly for levels; other than that my music witll probably just be released in mp3 format.

yay

~Gwilym

Doctor7 · Aug 14, 2001

Re: Re: music question

Originally posted by TableTrousers

On a lighter note - does anyone know of any limits the UMX format has? Can you use NNAs? Can you use all the effects? I just noticed that none of the three UMX files I loaded up with Modplug Player, saved as .it files and viewed with Impulse Tracker used NNAs...

Thanks

~Gwilym

Good question. I have modified several of the maps I play offline to use my favourite tracker tunes, and I have a feeling they just restart rather than following the 'jump to' command, but it's a bit difficult to tell in-game. I'll have to listen to a couple of them in the editor.

That's the one thing I find annoying with Sonique, it's by far the coolest music player going but the repeat mode doesn't respect 'jump to' commands in MODs. It also has a slight delay so even tracks which are designed to repeat from the beginning sound wrong. Without looking it up I can't remember what the tracker plugin is for Sonique, but I wonder if it can be replaced with one that will handle these things?

Last time I messed around with trackers was on the Atari ST!

F}{ZaGhost}{F · Aug 14, 2001

It will take a Jump to command....
most of the mp3 players that support tracking formats miss a lot of caooands, winamp also screws with some tracking formats (mainly *.it misses a lot)

As for trackers, modplug is wicked, easy to learn, and is windows based (a lot of the popular PC ones are still DOS)

I even use it for non tracking things as well as it has MIDI support and supports Direct X effects plug-ins

TableTrousers · Aug 14, 2001

sonique does NOT play tracked music well. trust me. I have done tracked music with every conceivable combination of effects, and I can tell you that sonique, and winamp, don't do it well.

modplug player is your best bet, I reckon. some things come out a little wrong, but generally it's the best.

~Gwilym

usaar33 · Aug 14, 2001

Re: Re: music question

Originally posted by TableTrousers

You don't.

Technically, you can import a MP3 into a UAX and rename it, but it would be in the sound browser, not the music.

A 3-minute MP3 will herald a UMX file that can be up to 10 megs. If you absolutely have to listen to a certain song while playing, put it on the stereo. Or if you've got a decent soundcard/processor you could have it playing in WinAMP while you play UT.

You can always ADPCM pack them... Legacy's music used this...

Plus another problem with ingame MP3/WAV music is that you always hear a distinct repeat point; where the song starts again. With tracked music, you can modify the way it repeats...etc

True... tracks are far better.....
On a lighter note - does anyone know of any limits the UMX format has? Can you use NNAs? Can you use all the effects? I just noticed that none of the three UMX files I loaded up with Modplug Player, saved as .it files and viewed with Impulse Tracker used NNAs...
[/B][/QUOTE]
There is no "umx" format. A UMX is merely a package with a module file inside of it. i.e. 40 bytes of header and a couple name tables, data (normal module) and then the export and import tables. As for the limits of galaxy (playback system), there are some (Toxeen noticed). However, he used XM's, and on conversion to IT, all problems were solved.

TableTrousers · Aug 14, 2001

well I was just playing around in UED; importing some f my existing tracks, and found one distinct limitation instantly: it doesn't like 16-bit samples.

I also loaded in some of my songs with 8-bit ones, and some of the effects were played wrong...I guess my UMXs will have to be pretty vanilla...

oh well.

I'll see if I can find any info at that unreal.epicgames site someone linked me to...

~Gwilym

Making music for UT (tracked music)

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