mikmod (1)

NAME

mikmod - play soundtracker etc. modules on a Unix machine.

SYNOPSIS

mikmod [-options]... [module|playlist]...

DESCRIPTION

MikMod is a very portable module player based on libmikmod, written originally by Jean-Paul Mikkers (MikMak). It will play the IT, XM, MOD, MTM, S3M, STM, ULT, FAR, MED, DSM, AMF, IMF and 669 module formats. It works under AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, OSF/1, SunOS, Solaris, OS/2, DOS, and Windows. It is controllable via an easy-to-use curses interface and will extract and play modules from a variety of different archive formats.

OPTIONS

Options can be given in any order, and are case-sensitive. For the options which have both a short and a long form, the long form can be prefixed by one or two dashes. Note that the settings in your $HOME/.mikmodrc will override the defaults shown in this man page.

OUTPUT OPTIONS

-d n

--driver n

Use the specified device driver for output, 0 is autodetect. The default is 0. If your installed libmikmod engine is recent enough (>=3.1.7), you can also specify the driver with an alias, as well as driver options separated by commas. The list and driver aliases and recognized options can be found in libmikmod's documentation.

-o[utput] 8m|8s|16m|16s

Output settings, 8 or 16 bit in stereo or mono. The default is "16s".

-f freq

--frequency freq

Set mixing frequency in hertz. The default is 44100.

-i

--interpolate

Use interpolated mixing. This will generally improve audio quality, at the expense of a bit more CPU usage. Note that this option alters the behaviour of software drivers only ; hardware drivers are not affected (default).

--nointerpolate

Do not use interpolated mixing.

-hq

--hqmixer

Use high quality software mixer. This improves audio quality, but requires a lot more CPU power. Note that this option alters the behaviour of software drivers only ; hardware drivers are not affected.

--nohqmixer

Do not use high quality software mixer (default).

-s

--surround

Use surround mixing.

--nosurround

Do not use surround mixing (default).

-r n

--reverb n

Sets reverb amount from 0 (no reverb) to 15 (max reverb). The default is 0 (no reverb).

PLAYBACK OPTIONS

-v volume

--volume volume

Set volume from 0% (silence) to 100%. The default is 100%.

-F

--fadeout

Fade out the volume during the last pattern of each module.

--nofadeout

Do not fade out the volume during the last pattern of each module (default).

-l

--loops

Enable in-module backwards loops.

--noloops

Disable in-module backwards loops (default).

-a

--panning

Process panning effects (default). This should be disabled (using --nopanning) for very old demo modules which use the panning effects for synchronization purposes.

--nopanning

Do not process panning effects.

-x

--protracker

Enable protracker extended speed effect (default). This should be disabled (using --noprotracker) for very old demo modules which use the extended speed effect for synchronization purposes.

--noprotracker

Disable protracker extended speed effect.

LOADING OPTIONS

-y dir

--directory dir

Scan directory recursively for modules.

-c

--curious

Look for hidden patterns in module. Most modules don't have hidden patterns, but you can find "bonus" patterns (or just silence) in some modules.

--nocurious

Do not look for hidden patterns in module (default).

-p n

--playmode n

Playlist mode. The allowed values here are 1, to loop the current module; 2, to play the whole playlist repeatedly; 4, to shuffle the list before playing, and 8, to play the whole list randomly. The default is 2.

-t

--tolerant

Don't halt MikMod if a module cannot be read or is an unknown format (default).

--notolerant

Halt MikMod if a module cannot be read or is an unknown format.

SCHEDULING OPTIONS

The following options need root privileges (or a setuid root binary), and don't work under all systems.

-s

--renice

Renice to -20 if possible to gain more CPU priority. This option is only available under FreeBSD, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD and OS/2.

--norenice

Do not renice to -20 (default).

-S

--realtime

Reschedule mikmod to gain real-time priority (and thus more CPU time). DANGEROUS! USE WITH CAUTION! This option is only available under FreeBSD, Linux and OS/2.

--norealtime

Do not reschedule MikMod to gain real-time priority (default).

DISPLAY OPTIONS

-q

--quiet

Quiet mode. Disables interactive commands and displays only errors.

INFORMATION OPTIONS

-n

--information

Display the list of the known drivers and module loaders.

-N n

--drvinfo n

Display information about a specific driver.

-V

--version

Display MikMod version.

-h

--help

Display a summary of the options.

CONFIGURATION OPTION

--norc

Do not parse the $HOME/.mikmodrc configuration file. This file contains your default settings, so that you don't have to specify them each time you run MikMod. The file is read when you run MikMod and updated on exit. Using this option prevents MikMod from accessing this file.

RUNTIME COMMANDS

At play time, the following keystrokes offer control over MikMod:

H, function key F1

Display help panel.

S, function key F2

Display samples panel.

I, function key F3

Display instruments panel (if present in the module).

M, function key F4

Display song message panel (if present in the module).

L, function key F5

Display the playlist panel.

C, function key F6

Display the configuration panel.

V, function key F7

Display the volume panel.

digits

Set volume from 10% (digit 1) to 100% (digit 0).

<

Decrease volume.

>

Increase volume.

-, Left

Restart current pattern / skip to previous pattern.

+, Right

Skip to next pattern in current module.

Up, Down

Scroll panel.

PgUp, PgDown

Scroll panel (faster).

Home

Go on top of the panel.

End

Go to the end of the panel.

(

Decrease speed variable (module plays faster).

)

Increase speed variable (module plays slower).

{

Decrease tempo variable (module plays slower).

}

Increase tempo variable (module plays faster).

: or ;

Toggle interpolation mixing.

U

Toggle surround mixing.

Q

Exit MikMod.

P

Switch to previous module in playlist.

N

Switch to next module in playlist.

R

Restart current module.

F

Toggle fake/real volume bars in volume panel.

space

Toggle pause.

Control-L

Refresh the screen.

MENU BASICS

Some functions of MikMod are available through menus, in the playlist and configuration panels.
You can select commands in the menus either by moving the selection with the arrow keys and pressing enter, or entering the highlighted letter corresponding ot the command you want to select.
Menu entries ending with a > character open a submenu, whereas entries ending in ... open a dialog box. You can dismiss a submenu either by choosing a command in this menu, or using the left arrow key to go back, or switching panels.
In dialog boxes, you can move the focus from the input line to the Ok and Cancel buttons either with the "tab" key, or the up and down arrow keys.
Also, if the statusbar is active (which is the default behaviour), it will contain a short help text describing the menu option currently highlighted.

PLAYLIST MENU

When the playlist panel is displayed, pressing the return key will popup a menu. The menu commands are:

Play

Continue list playback from the currently highlighted module.

Remove

Remove module from the playlist.

Delete...

Remove module from the playlist, and delete module file on disk, or whole archive if the module is stored in an archive file. This function asks you to confirm your choice.

File >

This entry opens a submenu with four commands, "Load", "Insert", "Save" and "Save as". The Load and Insert commands ask you for a filename, and replace the playlist with it (load) or merge it with the playlist (insert). No wildcards are allowed. The Save and Save as commands save the current playlist in a file, by default ``playlist.mpl'', in the current directory. Note that playlist filenames should end in .mpl, or they won't be recognized immediately as a playlist by MikMod.

Shuffle

Randomize the playlist.

Sort >

This entry opens a submenu with sort commands. You can select a normal or reverse order, and then sort the playlist with one of the four criteria: by name, by extension, by path or by time.

Back

Discards the menu.

CONFIGURATION PANEL

The configuration panel lets you customize your MikMod settings, and save them. You can also try some particular settings without losing your previous configuration.

Output options

This section lets you choose various vital playback settings, such as the output driver, the stereo/mono and 16/8 bit output settings, the playback frequency, and the software mixer settings.

Playback options

This section lets you choose various module playback settings, such as the output volume, the processing of panning effects and bacwards loops, etc.

Other options

This section lets you choose the remaining settings, such as the playlist mode, and various program settings.

Use config

This command activates the current configuration settings, but does not save them.

Save config

This command saves and activates the current configuration settings.

Revert config

This command reverts to the on-disk configuration file settings.

MODULE FORMATS

MikMod will currently play the following common and not so common formats:

669

Composer 669 and Extended 669 modules.

AMF

DSMI internal module format (Advanced Module Format, converted with M2AMF).

AMF

ASYLUM Music format (From crusader games)

DSM

DSIK's internal module format.

FAR

Farandole composer modules.

GDM

General Digital Munsic internal module format (converted with 2GDM).

IMF

Imago Orpheus modules.

IT

Impulse Tracker modules.

MED

Amiga MED modules, but synthsounds are not supported.

MOD

Protracker, Startracker, Fasttracker, Oktalyzer, and Taketracker modules.

MTM

Multitracker module editor modules.

S3M

Screamtracker version 3 modules.

STM

Screamtracker version 2 modules.

STX

STMIK converted modules.

ULT

Ultratracker modules.

UNI, APUN

Old MikMod (UNI) and APlayer (APUN) internal module format.

XM

Fasttracker 2 modules.

ARCHIVE FORMATS

MikMod should recognize and extract the following common archive formats. However, to use each of these you will need to find the appropriate program(s) for MikMod to use to extract them. These are commonly available and you will most likely find them with this distribution of MikMod. Other archive formats can be configured by editing the configuration file (see FILES below).

zip

Info-zip or PkZip archives, commonly used on DOS/Windows platforms.

lha, lzh

Lharc archives, commonly used on the Amiga.

zoo

Zoo archives, quite rare those days...

rar

Rar archives.

gz

Gzip compressed files.

bz2

Bzip2 compressed files.

tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2

Tar archives, even compressed with gzip or bzip2.

FILES

$HOME/.mikmodrc (or mikmod.cfg under OS/2 / Windows)

User configuration settings.

$HOME/.mikmod_playlist (mikmodpl.cfg/mikmod_playlist.mpl under OS/2 / Windows)

The default playlist, loaded if no other files are specified on the command line.

playlist.mpl

Default playlist filename.

AUTHORS

MikMod is the result of the work of many people, including: Jean-Paul Mikkers, Jake Stine, Miodrag Vallat, Frank Loemker, Andrew Zabolotny, Raphael Assenat, Steve McIntyre, Peter Amstutz, "MenTaLguY", Dimitri Boldyrev, Shlomi Fish, Stefan Tibus, Tinic Urou. A full list of people having worked on libmikmod and MikMod is displayed when MikMod starts.

LOCATING NEWER VERSIONS

The official MikMod and libmikmod home page is at
  mikmod.sourceforge.net