MMA

MMA is a command line sample conversion tool created to transform .SFZ sample packs to .XI (Fasttracker 2 eXtended Instrument) format, supported by a number of music creation software.

Designed to deal with MilkyTracker music tracker.

Based on Samplicity version 0.4 by Andrii Magalich.

Thanks to Alex Zolotov for help and materials.

Why MMA?

I forked Samplicity instead of contributing simply because we have different goals: while Samplicity is designed in order to be compatible with SunVox tracker, with its advanced features like stereo or 32-bit samples, my goal is to be compatible with MilkyTracker, which has many more limitations, like no more than 16 samples per instrument.

I chose to fork version 0.4 instead of version 0.5 because version 0.5 depends on the scikits.audiolab library, which is ridiculously hard to install; so another goal of MMA that is different from Samplicity is to depend only on the Python standard library.

Disclaimer

MMA does not yet support all the features in intersection of .SFZ and .XI.

Now it is tested only in MilkyTracker with the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra_ sample pack.

Your tracker may crash for wrongly encoded .XI-instruments, so you should save your files every time before loading an instrument

Before running MMA it is recommended to use a tool like SOX to convert all the samples to 8 bit or 16 bit mono wav format.

Known Issues

This version of MMA has the following known issues:

• Volume envelope times may be wrong
• Auto vibrato is not supported yet
• Sample looping is not supported yet

Status and Roadmap

MMA version 0.1.0 supports all the .XI compatible opcodes of the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra_ sample pack, but in order to support auto vibrato and sample looping, it has to be tested with other sample packs, so in the following days I will test the Free Sounds for ARIA Engine_ sample pack in order to implement the missing functionality.

Formats

eXtended Instrument

This format was created in 1990's for DOS music tracker called Fasttracker 2. It's binary, old and rusty, but still useful.

SFZ

Open format by Cakewalk company. Designed for creation in notepad. Sample pack contains .sfz textfile and a number of samples nearby. So, you can create your sample pack without any specific software. See more here

Usage

MMA is writted in Python v2.7. To use this tool Python v2.7+ should be installed on your computer.

Sample conversion

To convert single sample pack, navigate in terminal/bash/command line to sample pack folder and run the following command:

python "<PATH TO MMA FOLDER>/mma.py" "<SAMPLE PACK NAME>.sfz"

If Python is installed, path to MMA is right and sample pack is a valid .SFZ file, you'll see something like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Converting " Keys - Grand Piano (Forte).sfz "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c1.wav " 726 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#1.wav " 735 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#1.wav " 734 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a1.wav " 732 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c2.wav " 725 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#2.wav " 709 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#2.wav " 700 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a2.wav " 695 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c3.wav " 623 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#3.wav " 639 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#3.wav " 607 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a3.wav " 577 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c4.wav " 563 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#4.wav " 526 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#4.wav " 499 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a4.wav " 461 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c5.wav " 441 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#5.wav " 410 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#5.wav " 361 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a5.wav " 334 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c6.wav " 322 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#6.wav " 273 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#6.wav " 218 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a6.wav " 204 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c7.wav " 138 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-d#7.wav " 104 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-f#7.wav " 97 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-a7.wav " 104 kB
* 16 bit stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-f-c8.wav " 103 kB
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Notice: some notes are out of range and ignored
['c8']
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
29 samples
26751 kB written in file " Keys - Grand Piano (Forte).sfz " during 9.435801 seconds

1 files converted in 9.437803 seconds

Batch conversion

To convert more than one .SFZ file you can specify as many arguments to MMA as you want. Or even use a wildcard

python "<PATH TO MMA FOLDER>/mma.py" "<SAMPLE 1>.sfz" "<SAMPLE 2>.sfz" "<SAMPLE 3>.sfz"
python "<PATH TO MMA FOLDER>/mma.py" *.sfz

Reconversion

If there is corresponding to your sample pack .XI file, MMA won't convert it again. To force reconversion, add --force attribute:

python "<PATH TO MMA FOLDER>/mma.py" --force "<SAMPLE NAME>.sfz"

Package

Repository contains:

• mma.py
• xi_reader.py — tool to verify your .XI if something went wrong. Usage: python "<PATH TO MMA FOLDER>/xi_reader.py" "<SAMPLE NAME>.xi". It will show you full info, contained in .XI file (but not samples binary data). It is useful for bugtrack.
• xi_specs.txt — specifications of eXtended Instrument edited and improved a bit. Thanks Alex Zolotov
• Cakewalk DevXchange - Specifications - sfz File Format.pdf — specifications of .SFZ saved from Cakewalk website.

Notices and errors

• Notice: some notes are out of range and ignored — .XI supports only 96 notes from C0 to B7, so some notes in your sample pack cannot fit in this range. Consider editing .SFZ file.
• Notice: some regions are overlapping and would be overwritten — .SFZ format supports velocity maps. But .XI doesn't. Consider splitting your .SFZ file into separate files. For example, I've got Grand Piano (Piano).sfz and Grand Piano (Forte).sfz
• 24bit samples are not supported — .XI and Sunvox don't support 24bit sample format and there is no cooldown feature for them in MMA
• Too long envelope, shrinked to 512 — .XI does not support envelopes longer than 512 ticks (~10.24 seconds), so you instrument envelope was modified to fit this range
• Too many samples in file — .XI does not support more than 16 samples in instrument. Consider splitting your file or removing some.