What file type should I use?

[RedMser]

First post, hope nothing went wrong now (posted it in the wrong category before, sorry!).   

Anyway, I wanted to create a tracker song because I like listening to them and wanna make my own just for fun, but don't know which file type would be the best!
What are the pros and cons of the different avalible file types?

I would imagine IT being the best file type judging from the fact that it gets selected by default and that you can do a lot more stuff with it than with for example MOD files, but I am still unsure about it all...
Do you use different file types depending on the style of music you are going for?

Can anyone help me on lightening things up?
Thanks in advance!

[jmkz]

Any type has its own "way" to work with, I personally use IT, because it's well supported anywhere, and MPTM wich is almost IT whit many extended capabilities. Regarding MOD/S3M, I use to improve some skills, but you can try any. Look at this article, it will give you an overview of format capabilities.

[LPChip]

MPTM has the best options, especially if you use VST(i)'s. If you want to go with samples and instruments only so it plays in other players, then IT is the better choice, because MPTM is OpenMPT exclusive. Eg. It doesn't play anywhere else unless you export to WAV/MP3.

The other formats; mod, s3m and xm are only useful to use if you are working on a project that specifically uses this format, and as such, I would not bother to look into these types unless you have to. s3m and mod files are very limited, mod even more than s3m, so its pointless to say: to restrict yourself use these... both s3m and mod do not have instrument capabilities, only samples, and on top, mod is so limited, you do not even have the volume command. In OpenMPT you can use the volume column, but it will basically set the effect for that in the effects column, so if you have both a volume and an effect, it will disregard one. Not to mention that the effects themselves are also not in all module types. MOD files have a limited set of effects.  S3M has more effects and XM/IT has even more effects. And MOD files are also very restricted in the samples. You cannot tune your samples. They'll always play at a fixed hz. 8363hz out the back of my head. Normal samples nowadays are 44Khz or 48Khz. So there's a conversion going to take place to get it to the default hz. This can mean that different sounds are not playing at the same key.

The differences between XM and IT are subtle but there. One of the biggest differences is that XM follows the MOD style of effects, where MPTM/IT follows the S3M style of effects. That means for example, a retrigger is in a MOD/XM file: 1xx, where it is Jxx in an S3M/IT/MPTM file. Further more, XM files REQUIRE Instruments, where with IT files they're optional. This means that in XM files certain things in samples are disregarded because the instrument part is used, for example the panning.

[Saga Musix]

It's also worth noting that XM is much quirkier than IT, so for sharing tracked music, IT is really the best. It's just like S3M, but with much more features that you don't have to use if you want to start with the basics.

[goluigi]

That means for example, a retrigger is in a MOD/XM file: 1xx, where it is Jxx in an S3M/IT/MPTM file.

silly thing for me to bitch about here, retrigger in mod/xm is 9xx and retrigger in s3m/it/mptm is Qxx

unless you were just being hypothetical

[LPChip]

Oh my bad... I ment an arpeggio, not retrigger. X) duh. Thanks for correcting me.

[Saga Musix]

You're still wrong. Arpeggio is 0xx. Is it really that hard to get your facts straight?

[LPChip]

You're still wrong. Arpeggio is 0xx. Is it really that hard to get your facts straight?

Apparently...