Module Header
Modules, commonly refered to as "mods" are probably the easiest way to compose music on your personal computer. Whether you have an IBM, Macintosh, Amiga, or even a Sun Sparc/20, you can compose modules on your computer with great ease. Unlike midi, a composer does not need thousands of dollars in expensive equipment to get the desired effects and sounds he/she is looking for. They can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 years to make.
A mod is simply a type of format that uses external sample files as its instruments. Many people have a false sense that midi is the only way to compose quality music on a pc. Totally untrue. Mods do have a few cons, but not very many. The quality of mods varies greatly, which fuels this belief. You can obtain samples from television, cd's, tapes, video games, or even your keyboard. The quality of the samples determines the crispness of your song for the most part. Todays mods now have more than 32 simultaneous channels, a maximum of 255 instruments, possible sample rates up to 48khz (CD Quality), and almost unlimited sized 16-bit samples.
Mods have a distinct composition pattern no matter what the format. Almost all variations of the mod format are identical, but the quality, number of channels, and compression varies. Mods are composed and played through a series of lists. The lists are as follows: ordered variables which control the order and a few miscellaneous playback features, patterns which are the notes and effects of the song, and the instrument list which contains the samples and the names a composer gives to them. Confused? We recommend you get a tracker before we start and follow along or print this out or see some of our illustrations.
Mods may look intimidating at first, but actually they are fairly easy to understand and compose. To start, all you need is a tracking program. Dozens of great "trackers" as they are called, are available on the internet for free. Check our software Archive if you do not already own one. Each tracker supports a variety of mod formats, each format differing slightly but still retaining the qualities of the original .mod format. We find the xm format is among the highest quality and easiest to work with, however this is just opinion mainly. Below is a list of formats and information about each we have gathered. Feel free to take a look, but beware of some "tech talk". As you can see, each has its own dos extension, but none that we have seen yet have win95 longfile names. If we are missing a format, or you have more info to add, be sure to send it to us at:(email link disabled).

Format Extension
669 (fairly common) .669
AM .am
AMS 1.3 .ams
AMS 2.2 .ams
Format Faq 1 (audio faq)
Format Faq 2 (audio faq)
D00 .d00
DMF .dmf
DTM .dtm
EMD .emd
FAR .far
FNK .fnk
FTK .ftk
PAT (GUS) .pat
IT (fairly common) .it
MDL .mdl
MED .med
MID (MIDI) .mid
MOD (common) .mod
MTM (fairly common) .mtm
OKT .okt
PAC .pac
PLM .plm
PS16 .pst
PSM .psm
PTM .ptm
RAD .rad
RIFF (varies) .rif
ROL (varies slightly) .rol
ROL (Structure) n/a
S3M (common) .s3m
SA2 .sa2
SSS .sss
STA .sta
ULT .ult
XM .xm

Next, you need to gather some samples. Samples serve of course as the instruments, but they do not only have to be instruments. In a mod, you may use voice, sound effets, or any other kind of sound in your composition. Samples, unlike with midi, do not require thousands of dollars to obtain. You can either take samples from other composer's songs (see your tracking program for information), sample them off a cd, hook an instrument up to your computer, or simply convert .wav files or any sampled data. See your soundcard manual or visit our tips and tricks section for more details.
Once you have your instrument list set and have chosen the appropriate instruments from your instrument files or "library" you are ready to go. Some trackers may vary slightly, so from now on, we will refer to one of the most basic and easy to use programs, scream tracker 3, or "st3". Each instrument in the list has a corresponding number which represents it. For instance, if a trumpet is my first instrument on the list, a 1 will now stand as a trumpet.
When you are familiar with the instrument list, proceed to the patterns. The patterns are generally layed out in a series of columns and rows like tables. 1 column represents one channel and the letter near it, r or l represents what stereo channel it outputs on usually, but of course not in monoraul sound. Each row is the order within the pattern it will be played. If you switch to the ordered variable list, you will see a series of blank spaces usually. Fill these in for the actual play order. Order is not limited to 1, then 2, then 3. You may choose any order you like. Anyhow, the first pattern is the zero pattern. Next is 1, then 2, and so on. Pretty simple? Remember, a pattern is just a list of notes and effects that tells the program what to do. Each column is a channel and each row is the ordered in the channel they will be played, however there are ways to change this that we may touch later.
The next logical step of course is to write the actual music. Your keyboard is like a piano. Toy around until you find which key is which note. You will always see a number next to the note, which stands for which octave it is on. For instane a c-5 would be a c, on the fifth octave. Be careful, octave matter greatly, especially since each instrument has a definite sound that can be modified, not really played like a real one. This can be good and bad. Sometimes you can get instruments to do things that you could not do by hand, other times you will have to add 3 effects to 1 instrument to get the desired sound.
You are probably curious about the so called "effects" we mentioned. Effects are used to enhance a piece and do strange, unusual, whacko, or exciting things to a note or song even Well, some programs have more effects than others, but here is a brief list of basic effects. The command line is generally given as "xx", "x", or "xy". "x" means there is a signle parameter for the effect. "xy" means there are two independent parameters for this effect. "xx" means there is a single parameter composed of two digits.
Effect S3M Effect
Arpeggio Jxy
Portamento Up/Down Fxx/Exx
Fine Portamento Up/Down FFx/EEx
Extra Fine " FEx/EEx
Portamento to Note Gxx
Vibrato Hxy
Set Volume Vol. Column
Volume Slide Dxy
Fine Volume Slide Up/Down DxF/DFx
Set Global Volume Vxy
Set Panning Xxx
Stereo Control SAx
Tremolo Rxy
Tremor Ixy
Set Speed Axx
Set Tempo Txx
Pattern Break Cxx
Pattern Jump Bxx
Pattern Loop SBx
Pattern Delay SEx
Set Finetune S2x
Sample Offset Oxx
Retrigger Note Q0x
Cut Note SCx
Note Delay SDx
Invert Loop SFx
Set Filter S0x
Glissando Control S1x
Vibrato Waveform S3x
Tremolo Waveform S4x
Portamento+Volume Slide Lxy
Vibrato+Volume Slide Kxy
Retrigger+Volume Slide Qxy

Now that you have done your patterns with notes and effects, you are ready for the final steps. Simply go back and check your music, listen to it a few times, check it, and then go to the ordered variables screen and choose the order. Most is pretty self explanatory, even to the most clueless computer user. On screen help is available to in st3 and other programs. Good luck, and if you still need more help, check our q&a section and our forums section. Happy tracking!
In case that gave you trouble, here is another explanation of making a mod or mod-like file.
[another mod explanation] [some interesting mod info]