uptick
Offline

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone here is using MML (Music Micro Language) for creating their NES(nsf) music instead of using a tracker like famitracker or perhaps a modern daw?

As a programmer myself, the idea of being able to create music through codes while staying in the comfort of my favorite editor is something that's very enticing.

Aside from the obvious differences in workflow and the representation of music notes (which one can perhaps get used to overtime) what are some of the things that you liked or didn't like about MML compared to trackers? What would you say are the advantages(strength) and disadvantages(weakness) of MML? Which area does it excel in? or did it ends up being overly tedious and un-intuitive for you?
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I searched a bit online, but there doesn't seem to be an over abundance of material on MML comapred to its counter part: famitracker, which, of course has a strong following in the community and a few fantastic and detailed youtube tutorials. However, for MML, these two seems to be the only available sources right?

Learning Materials:
1. http://www.nullsleep.com/treasure/mck_guide/
2. http://woolyss.com/chipmusic/chipmusic- … _guide.php
* http://wikiwiki.jp/mck/?MML  (now this one is very well made and contains a wealth of information, but sadly it's in Japanese so it's a bit hard to utilize even with google translate)

Does anyone know of any other materials by any chance?
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Now, when it comes to setting up MML, the primary steps seems to be:

1. Obtaining VirtuaNSF、 NSFplay
2. Get ppmck. 09a being the latest pack I believe?
    -unzip and extra the files and use them to set up the enviornment

That's pretty much it right? (are there any utilities that are essentials when it comes to mml, ppmck? hoot?  syntax color scheme, analyzer? )
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*Lastly, all of these packages and software seems to be made for Windows, does anyone know if it's possible to set it all up in Linux? ^_^ If so, could someone perhaps show me how? Thanks in advance!*


By the way, I know a lot of the nes game's music were composed with MML in the past, but when it comes to modern chiptunes, what are some of the composers or musicians I can check out who use MML as their weapon of choice when it comes to music creation?

Last edited by uptick (Sep 3, 2016 5:16 pm)

garvalf
Offline
France

You can find several additional informations about MML on this website: http://battleofthebits.org/lyceum/View/MML/ and some links to translated material for PMD. But if you target NES and Nintendo chips, you'll find informations about PPMCK as well. This seems to compile and run on Linux: http://battleofthebits.org/academy/Grou … y+mic_%29/

I, too, like to use text files instead of binaries for creating things. MML has some advantages:
- It's easy to switch or mute channels (just change a letter in the definitions or comment some lines)
- it's easy to cut and paste an instrument (from an other tune) and modify it
- for the same reason, you can change octaves without problem.
- additionally, you can compare/diff files and use a versionning system
- using macros can be powerful, but it takes time to master this

It has also some drawbacks:
- for replaying a part of your music, you can just play it, you have to compile it, and "guess" the time in the external player. You can also comment the start of your music, but if you have multiples voices it can be tedious.
- the same for designing instruments, you change a value, recompile, listen
- I don't like the MML syntax for entering notes. I've written what I think of this syntax there:  http://chipmusic.org/forums/post/246321/#p246321
- you don't have many examples of tunes btw, it seems many people are keeping their code for themselves.
- in addition, some code you can find for a MML variant won't necessary work into another MML system.

hopefully, it's possible to convert from midi to mml (using the 3ML software, it works with wine look for 3ml.jp), even if it subverts a bit the spirit of MML. But I guess at the origin game composers designed their song on a keyboard and then adapted it with MML.

I've put a little template for using PMD98 there (it's for FM soundchips): http://garvalf.online.fr/index.php?page … s_pmd98.en
I'll probably have a look at XPMCK in the future.

You can find musicians using MML on BotB for example searching for this tag :  http://battleofthebits.org/arena/Tag/MML

uptick
Offline

the ABC syntax you mentioned in the other post, what's that syntax used in?
MML is the only music programming language I'm aware of, are there other languages used for programming music?

also, samples are not as commonly used in 2a03 compared to pc-98 right? since there's only 1 channel for it and the quality of sound for the sample is limited to only 1 bit, with pmd/pc-98 offering more channels, i'd imagine samples is probably used a lot more often ?

I've never actually played around with samples before, though i do know it's a very important part of the music making process (especially for amiga). How does it work exactly though?

Essentially with samples, it's just people creating different instrument sound or effects, storing them into a file, and people can manipulate and tweak it to their liking? Much like with mml/ppmck, when we set up different sounds via the various settings available, except, with samples, we get to store it into a file for future use, sharing, which allow us to gather and collect all kinds of template that people have built?

As someone new, would you recommend sticking with ppmck + 2a03 before venturing onto pmd + pc-98?

Last edited by uptick (Sep 14, 2016 7:43 am)