Alright for those of you that have read the other post of mine ''the next step... ?'' you guys already fairly know me. I have spent the last 2 days messing around with it and a few free sample files I picked up off the net. I''ve learned one thing thus far the samples play as is on the midi que.. they don''t play a quarter note if the sample as a harp 16th note run up. Took me a few minutes to figure that out. I''ve learned a few smaller things with this program. But what I''ve experience the most is recently I uploaded a midi file into the ModPlug Tracker and watched the patterns etc. It uses the same instrument all the way through (piano) but is pretty deep on the octaves. Now my question.. Is there anyway to combine a bunch of samples to one instrument with ModPlug Tracker so I don''t have to create a ''new'' instrument of a sample in a lower octave to fit the bass line etc.. Thanks in advance.

There''s possibly a way, but I am not sure.

My solution would be to use ModPlug''s (quite powerful) search-replace feature and just change the instrument depending on the octave.

In the samples tab, choose create new sample - you will be informed that no instrument uses this sample, would you like to create a new instrument? Choose no. Now, load your sample into this blank sample, and adjust any values you wish to set.

Next, change to the instruments tab. Either select the instrument you would like to add your sample to, or create a new instrument if its the first sample. In the lower window-pane, click the keyboard icon (Edit the sample map). On the popup window, cleck the 'show all samples' checkbox. Use the combobox (pulldown menu) to select the appropriate sample, then click the piano keys representing the notes you wish to use this sample for. The slider down the buttom allows access to different octaves. For any notes which dont have an assigned sample in the instrument, modplug will use the closest sample it can find if the note occurs in your pieces.

With instruments set up in this way you simply use the instrument to compose your music, and the tracker will reference the appropriate samples as the notes come up.

Instruments of this sort can cause a bloat in filesize if you use too many samples and/or many instruments. When a piece is completed, you should always use Modplug's cleanup tools to remove unneccesary sample/pattern data and optimise your filesize. The cleanup song option will perform all the optimisations in sequence - it will ask before each one though. These tools are found under Edit>Cleanup.

/Edit: Note that this wont work with the S3M or MOD formats, as these use samples only and dont support instruments.

Hope that helps.

[edited by - kazgoroth on January 14, 2004 9:58:04 AM]