MetalSlime wrote:
tepples wrote:
Drag wrote:
Honestly, I'd prefer if people didn't rely on [favorite tracker]-to-DNSF converters. In reality, they should be using their favorite tracker (or midi composing program, or whatever) to prototype the songs, and then based off of the sheet music, that's where they create the data for DNSF to use.
That would require 1. a way to export Famitracker modules to LilyPond format (to generate the sheet music) and 2. somebody creating a specialized editor for the data for DNSF to use. People who adopt DNSF for their game projects will have a hard time attracting talented composers without computer programming experience if the only editor for DNSF music is Notepad.
I imagine the musician would prototype a song in FamiTracker/whatever and send the file to the programmer. The programmer would open the file and type the song up in DNSF format in a text editor.
Not necessarily *actual* sheet music, I'm just simply talking about the notes and such. All trackers give you a display which shows you what and where the notes are. Based on that information, you can ready some DNSF music.
In due time, I may get an editor thrown together, since DNSF's general music format isn't solely for NSFs, but also for a couple of other music-related softwares that I've been working on over the years. However, that's not one of my top priorities. Either way, the music format should be easy enough for *anybody* understand, since it's like this:
Code:
E4 01 C5 32 52 72 82 A2 03 23 FF
E4 01 = Use volume envelope 01.
C5 = Set the note length to 6 'ticks'. (C0 being 1 tick, C1 being 2 ticks, etc.)
32 52 72 82 A2 03 23 = Notes; [Semitone][Octave]. Semitone starts with A and ends on G.
This particular string of notes is C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 A3 B3, which is just a regular scale.
FF = End of track (stop playing).
The only tricky thing is the fact that "Semitone 0" is an A, rather than a C. I know that goes against every musical teaching in the world (octaves now increment on As instead of Cs), but it was in the interests of efficiency which lead to this decision.
In the end, if you're comfortable with hexadecimal, you should be fine.