S3M Percussion Channels?

[nikku4211]

So I was, like, looking at the S3M format specifications in ModdingWiki, and look what I found:

channelSettings is 32 values indicating the audio channel assignments for each of the 32 S3M channels. Unused channels should be set to 255.

Value	Description
0 to 7	Left PCM channels 1 to 8
8 to 15	Right PCM channels 1 to 8
16 to 24	Adlib melody channel 1-9
25	Adlib percussion channel: bass drum
26	Adlib percussion channel: snare drum
27	Adlib percussion channel: tom tom
28	Adlib percussion channel: top cymbal
29	Adlib percussion channel: hi-hat

What's this? Is this deprecated in later Scream Tracker 3 versions? Does it still work in Scream Tracker 3? Did this ever work in Scream Tracker 3?

I've tried hex editing some instruments and channels in one of my FM S3M modules and OpenMPT doesn't seem to be able to read percussion instruments or understand the concept of percussion channels, playing the respective instruments as mute and not even seeing them as instruments.

So what does this mean? I have no idea.

[Saga Musix]

Did this ever work in Scream Tracker 3?

No, it was never implemented in ST3. And with that, all other questions are moot too.

[nikku4211]

Okay, did this work in previous versions of ScreamTracker, like ScreamTracker 2 or something?

I don't know where this web page got the information from if none of them supported it.

[Saga Musix]

No, ST2 did not have AdLib support. To make this clear once and forever: This feature was never implemented anywhere, and there is no way to implement it because it's not even defined anywhere how this patch data should look like in an S3M file. The information from that website is from the original TECH.DOC coming with ST3, indicating that this feature was probably planned but never implemented properly. And no, it won't happen in MPTM either, my last answer still stands.

[LPChip]

The Yamaha chip used in Adlib supported this. You can commonly find these 5 drum sounds on old keyboards that use this yamaha chip.

[Saga Musix]

Yes, that was already asserted in the thread linked above.