Module / UMX players -- what's closest to the real thing?

[ZeaLitY]

FINAL EDIT

Nevermind. Looks like ModPlug actually slows down Hub 2 from the speed it's supposed to play it.

Winamp causes clipping, so I'll make my lossless rips with XMPlay, which separates multi-song modules anyway (Winamp and Modplug don't grant that kind of control).

THREAD HISTORY:

I've been making preparations for an Unreal Series Complete Music torrent, with source UMX / etc. files for each game along with rips and official releases ripped in lossless.

I already ripped UT to a lossless format; no problem. I used the Winamp UMX Decoder program that hasn't been updated since 2002.

But today I started working on Unreal files, and I noticed that Winamp really screws up Hub 2. When the fast part starts, the entire tempo of the song speeds up and remains that way for the rest of the 100 minutes.

I tried ModPlug Player, but I notice that the volume seems really low compared to Winamp. I don't have the preamp going for Winamp, and neither is ModPlug preamped...yet ModPlug makes the Unreal mod music sound considerably softer than Winamp. What gives?

Which player approximates perfectly what it sounds like in-game? Is the UMX plugin for Winamp automatically preamped or something, or is ModPlug just too damn soft?

Edit: I just tried XMPlay. It sounds a little softer than Winamp, but the real problem is that it's speeding up the second and third segments like Winamp does. It also unnecessarily loops the first part, like Modplug and Winamp. So I guess problems now:

Winamp

* Speeds up the tempo of the song once it hits part 2; this effect stays throughout

Modplug

* Volume is way softer than Winamp or XMPlay

XMPlay

* Volume is a little softer than Winamp
* Speeds up the tempo for parts 2 and 3

~

Second edit:

I tried out mechanism eight on these, since I read that mech 8 has two parts in the Liandri Archives Wiki. Winamp and Modplug refuse to pick up the second part; I can only get it with XMPlay. Is there some way to isolate playback of different segments? For Modplug and Winamp, it seems like I'm stuck with just pressing play and hoping Alexander Brandon or Michiel van den Bos put in an order to play all segments. Otherwise, something like the mech 8 segment will go totally unnoticed.

Razorback also has a second segment like that, but amazingly Winamp naturally picks it up, yet ModPlug doesn't.

Hopefully someone can enlighten me a little more on this. Otherwise, I think I'll preamp Modplug to equal the volume level Winamp naturally plays for UMX files, and save WAVs that way. For music segments that don't play naturally in Modplug, I guess I'll have to use XMPlay's WAV output option and preamp the volume to approximate Winamp's, and just pray that it's not something like Hub 2 where the other segments are sped up or screwed up in some other fashion.

Final edit: Playing Razorback in all three programs, Winamp even seems to be a little better quality in output...but I checked a WAV of its output, and it's causing clipping.

 

[leilei]

UnrealEd?

 

[_Lynx]

UnrealEd?

UnrealEd has nothing to with it except ability to export (or to be exact, "unwrap") the music from .umx to .it .s3m, .mod, etc. In that case you might try any tracker editor and select which parts you want to play.

 

[leilei]

UnrealEd has nothing to with it except ability to export

You can play them back in UnrealEd. If he is seeking authentic, and lossless ripping (that is, the Galaxy engine used) he should do it the hard way.

 

[DougC-Icarus]

One issue of the songs sounding quieter than playing from Galaxy is that song's overall volume (most songs are around 48) in the modules (when opening from Modplug).

Second edit:

I tried out mechanism eight on these, since I read that mech 8 has two parts in the Liandri Archives Wiki. Winamp and Modplug refuse to pick up the second part; I can only get it with XMPlay. Is there some way to isolate playback of different segments? For Modplug and Winamp, it seems like I'm stuck with just pressing play and hoping Alexander Brandon or Michiel van den Bos put in an order to play all segments. Otherwise, something like the mech 8 segment will go totally unnoticed.

Razorback also has a second segment like that, but amazingly Winamp naturally picks it up, yet ModPlug doesn't.

In Mech8, the hidden pattern can be found in ModPlug. On the pattern screen, scroll the pattern number to 93. Then push the right scroll arrow six times. This will reveal pattern numbers 70, 71, 70, 71, and 72, which the five patterns are the second segment of the song.

For Razorback, again at the pattern screen, scroll the pattern number to 32 and press the right scroll arrow twice in order to reveal 33, which is the second segment of that song.

 

[Dark Pulse]

XMPlay is the most accurate of the three, hands down. Winamp is simply a sorry choice for module playing and, while I hear it's being updated again, Modplug was missing whole notes in UMXs for awhile.

Why would you want to make Lossless files out of them though? Waveforms of the music will be dozens of times bigger than the files themselves, and few Portable Media Players can handle FLACs.

Also, those second segments are never called during the game, so it's not too important - in UT at least. In Unreal they very much ARE called and used.

 

[Digerati]

Sometimes I use OpenMPT to play the umx files from Deus Ex
http://sourceforge.net/projects/modplug/
http://openmpt.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Manual/Index

It's the open source version of MODPlug Tracker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ModPlug_Tracker

I know you mentioned you dont have it pre-amped, but you can adjust the sample volume in OpenMPT.

 

[leilei]

Galaxy has problems now (I'm assuming as a result of modern hardware), which makes UMX playback sound terrible (for me at least).

It's hard to explain, but I hear some subtle - and some not so subtle - clicks/pops between beats. For example, when I open 'Skyward' in the either the editor, or the game itself (lavagiant), instead of a nice clean doof-doof-doof-doof I get clickdoof-clickdoof-clickdoof-clickdoof (if that makes any sense to you ).

Click your front teeth together: thats what the click sounds resemble.

I didn't get any of that in modplug.

edit your ini and match the sample rate with your sound card's native sample rate. You should also frig around with sound accelleration settings