XM, standing for "extended
module
Module, modular and modularity may refer to the concept of modularity. They may also refer to:
Computing and engineering
* Modular design, the engineering discipline of designing complex devices using separately designed sub-components
* Mo ...
", is an audio file type introduced by
Triton
Triton commonly refers to:
* Triton (mythology), a Greek god
* Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune
Triton may also refer to:
Biology
* Triton cockatoo, a parrot
* Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails
* ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...
's
FastTracker 2
FastTracker 2 (also referred to as FastTracker II) is a music tracker
A music tracker (sometimes referred to as just tracker for short) is a type of music sequencer software for creating music. The music is represented as discrete musical note ...
. XM introduced
multisampling
Multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) is a type of spatial anti-aliasing, a technique used in computer graphics to remove jaggies.
Definition
The term generally refers to a special case of supersampling. Initial implementations of full-scene anti-al ...
-capable instruments with volume and panning envelopes, sample looping and basic pattern compression. It also expanded the available effect commands and channels, added 16-bit
sample
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...
support, and offered an alternative frequency table for
portamentos.
XM is a common format for many
module files.
The file format has been initially documented by its creator in the file XM.TXT, which accompanied the 2.08 release of FastTracker 2, as well as its latest known beta version
2.09b The file, written in 1994 and attributed to Mr.H of Triton (Fredrik Huss), bears the header "The XM module format description for XM files version $0104." The contents of the file have been posted on this article's
Talk
Talk may refer to:
Communication
* Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people
* Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct
...
subpage for reference.
This documentation is however said to be incomplete and insufficient to properly recreate the behaviour of the original program. The
MilkyTracker
MilkyTracker is a free software multi-platform music tracker for composing music in the MOD and XM module file formats.
It is a clone that attempts to recreate the module replay and user experience of the popular DOS program FastTracker 2, wi ...
project has expanded the documentation of the XM file format, in an attempt to replicate not only the behaviour of the original software but also its quirks. Their documentation of the XM file format is available on the project'
GitHub repository
OXM (oggmod) is a subformat, which compresses the XM samples using
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in conjun ...
.
Supporting Media Players
*
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...
– supports .XM files as long as the player version is x86 (32-bit)
*
Cowon jetAudio – A freeware audio player for Windows which supports .XM files
*
Xmplay
XMPlay is a freeware audio player for Windows. Initially released in 1998, it is often used as a reference player for tracker audio files.
Overview
Developed by ''Un4seen Developments'' in 1998, it originally only supported the XM file for ...
– A freeware audio player for Windows which supports .XM files
*
Foobar2000
foobar2000 (often abbreviated as fb2k or f2k) is a freeware audio player for Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android developed by Peter Pawłowski. It has a modular design, which provides user flexibility in configuration and customization. Stan ...
– A freeware audio player for Windows that supports .XM files through a plugin.
*
VLC Media Player
VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client and commonly known as simply VLC) is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for desk ...
– An open-source media player for Windows, Linux, & macOS which supports .XM files
References
{{reflist
See also
*
Module file
Module file (MOD music, tracker music) is a family of music file formats originating from the MOD file format on Amiga systems used in the late 1980s. Those who produce these files (using the software called music trackers) and listen to them f ...
*
MOD (file format)
MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga which doesn't rely on filename extensions; instead, it reads a file's header ...
*
S3M (file format)
''S3M'' (Scream Tracker 3 Module) is a module file format, the successor to the STM format used by the original Scream Tracker. Both formats are based on the original MOD format used on the Amiga computer.
The S3M format has many differences com ...
*
IT (file format)
Impulse Tracker is a multi-track music tracker ( music sequencer). Originally released in 1995 by Jeffrey Lim as freeware with commercial extensions, it was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform.
In 2014, on its 20th anniversary, ...
Module file formats
Digital audio