Hi,
I'm new to OpenMPT. Back in the day IT would allow me to use any file I had on my computer as a sample and it would attempt to make audio out of it. Usually it was just a beep or screech but occasionally it would sound like a rippin bass solo or hardcore techno track. I used this as an amazing and quick source of random wave forms and noise/glitch sounds. It seems like OpenMPT is forcing me to pick from a list (albeit a very extensive list) of audio only files when loading samples.
Did anyone else ever use IT for this as well and does anyone know of a way to get this "feature" back?
Rename the file extension to .RAW and OpenMPT will be able to bring it in as a sample. The same thing can be done to view any file as an image.
You will be lucky to get anything but noise, even 56k dialup modem sounds would be a unique outcome.
There is no need to change the file extension - OpenMPT never cares about file extensions. Just like with any Windows application using the standard Windows file browsing dialog, you can type "*.*" into the file browser to show all files, or select "All Files (*.*)" from the file format dropdown menu.
If OpenMPT cannot determine the format of a file, the raw sample import dialog (https://wiki.openmpt.org/Manual:_Raw_Sample_Import) will pop up, allowing you to choose how to interpret the raw binary data. You can even go one step further and click the triangle next to the sample load button to open the dropdown menu and choose "Import Raw Sample". This will open the raw sample import dialog even for files that OpenMPT would normally know how to read (e.g. WAV files).
OK, oops. Sorry about the dumb question. I didn't see the "all files" option at the bottom of the loader, the "all samples" option at the top was so long that it stretched the drop down box off the side of the screen and I couldn't see that there were more options to scroll down to.
This is great. I have a couple word doc files that actually come out like music with note patterns and repeated phrases. I've always wanted to get back into sampling some of this stuff and I've actually used bits of these glitchy files on some albums in the past.
You can even write a text document with letters or numbers and create a wavform like that. I used that method to create various pulse waveforms. By writing for example:
aazzzzzzzzzzz
in a textfile and dragging that into the sample window. It has been a long time ago though, and eventually created a simple vb program with controls that would then spit out the text file.
See also: https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=6691.msg48518#msg48518
Let's be clear though - there is nothing to be gained from "writing" samples in a text editor since the addition of sample drawing in the sample editor over ten years ago. The text editor approach is much more cumbersome and less predictable. Once you are in the territory of writing a program to assist you, you can just as well slap the 44 byte WAV header in front of the data and can import the file just a regular WAV file into OpenMPT.
Of course, and even better, use a VSTi to create a really advanced waveform and render that to wav.