DSMI's Advanced Module Format description ========================================= by Miodrag Vallat <miodrag@mikmod.darkorb.net> BACKGROUND The AMF format is the internal format used by DSMI, the Dos Sound and Music Interface, which was the engine of DMP. As DMP was able to play more and more module formats, the format evolved to support more features. There were 5 official formats, numbered from 10 (AMF 1.0) to 14 (AMF 1.4). However, the first (non-public) formats, numbered from 1 to 9, are still recognized by DSMI. This document only describes the public formats. AMF MODULE LAYOUT The AMF modules contain the following parts, in this order : - modules header - order table - sample table - track table - packed tracks - samples Note: all offset and size values are in hex. 16- and 32-bit quantities are in little-endian encoding. B means byte (8bit), W means word (16 bits), D means doubleword (32 bits). MODULE HEADER offset size description 0 3B signature "AMF" 3 B format version. 0A for 1.0, 0B for 1.1, etc, to 0E for 1.4 4 20B song title (ASCIIZ) 24 B number of samples 25 B number of orders 26 W number of tracks (number of channels*original number of patterns) 28 B number of channels. AMF 1.2 and less is limited to 16 channels, whereas AMF 1.3 and more are limited to 32 channels. [AMF 1.0 only] 29 10B channel remap table [AMF 1.1 and more only] 29 xxB panning table (size 10B for 1.1 and 1.2, 20B for 1.3 and 1.4) [AMF 1.3 and more only] 49 B initial tempo 4A B initial speed The channel remap table was used to reorder the order table (see below), but since it was useless it was removed in AMF 1.1. The panning table contains the channel initial pan position. It consists of signed bytes ranging from -63 (0xC1, for left) to +63 (0x3F, for right), 0 being center. The special value +100 (0x64) means surround panning. ORDER TABLE The order table associates track number to orders and channels. It contains <number of orders> occurences of the following structure : [AMF 1.4 only] 0 W pattern size in rows [all AMF versions] 0/2 xxW for each channel, a word containing the associated track number. In AMF 1.0, this array must be reordered as told in the channel remap table. Patterns in AMF 1.3 and below are 64 rows long. SAMPLE TABLE The sample table contains <number of samples> occurences of the following structure : 0 B sample type : 0 for non-existant sample, 1 for PCM sample. 1 20B sample name (ASCCIZ) 21 DB sample filename (ASCIIZ) 2E D sample index in the file / sample address in memory 32 D sample length in bytes 36 W c4 speed, rounded to the nearest multiple of 8 38 B sample volume in range 0-0x40 [AMF 1.0 only] 39 W sample loop start in bytes [AMF 1.1 and more only] 39 D sample loop start in bytes 3D D sample loop end Samples loop if loopstart!=0 ; loopend==length in AMF 1.0, which caused problems when some modules were converted. TRACK TABLE The track table contains <number of tracks> words associating logical track numbers to the in-file packed track numbers. PACKED TRACKS The greatest number found in the track table is the number of packed tracks in the file. Each packed track is written as a sequence of 3 bytes record (triplets). The first triplet is a 24-bit number containing the size of the pattern in triplets. The other triplets describe track events as follow : 0 B row of the event 1 B type of event 2 B event parameter If the type of event is < 0x7F, it is a note value (0 for C1) and the last byte is the note volume. If the type of event is 0x7F, the whole pattern row is a copy of the previous row. If the type of event is ==0x80, it is an instrument change and the last byte is the sample number. If the type of event is > 0x80, it is an effect and the last byte is the effect parameter. The last triplet of the pattern should be 0xFF-0xFF-0xFF, but due to bugs in M2AMF it is not always the case. EFFECTS Effect parameter are the same as the equivalent S3M or Protracker effect, unless otherwise specified. 0x81: Set speed. (S3M Axx) 0x82: Volume slide. Parameter >0 => S3M Dx0, <0 => S3M D0x 0x83: Set channel volume. Parameter is volume, range 0-0x40. 0x84: Portamento. Parameter >0 => S3M Exx, <0 => S3M Fxx. 0x85: Described as 'porta abs'. Behaviour unknown (never found) 0x86: Porta to note. (S3M Gxx) 0x87: Tremor. (S3M Ixx) 0x88: Arpeggio. (Protracker 0xx) 0x89: Vibrato. (Protracker 4xx) 0x8A: Porta + volume slide. Parameter >0 => S3M Lx0, <0 => S3M L0x 0x8B: Vibrato + volume slide. Parameter >0 => S3M Kx0, <0 => S3M K0x 0x8C: Pattern break. (Protracker Dxx) 0x8D: Pattern jump. (Protracker Bxx but parameter in hex, not in BCD) 0x8E: Described as 'sync'. Behaviour unknown (never found) 0x8F: Retrig. (S3M Q0x) 0x90: Set sample offset (Protracker 9xx) 0x91: Fine volume. Parameter >0 => S3M DxF, <0 => S3M DFx 0x92: Fine portamento. Parameter >0 => S3M EFx, <0 => S3M FFx 0x93: Delay note. (Protracker EDx) 0x94: Note cut. 0x95: Set bpm. (S3M Txx) 0x96: Extra fine portamento. Parameter >0 => S3M EEx, <0 => S3M FEx. Note that AMF fine portamento is 4 times finer than S3M fine portamento. 0x97: Pan. Parameter as in the module header pan table. SAMPLE DATA The module samples are stored as 8 bit unsigned values, in the order found in the sample list (the <sample index> field). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - The DSMI include files, normally not distributed, but found in the evaluation version of the OS/2 port of DSMI, helped me to figure out the effect numbers ; - A partial disassembly of the AMF2S3M converter by Jonas (which does not convert my favorite AMF modules corectly) helped me understand the triplet packing scheme (although it does not understand the xx-7F-FF triplets). - A 3 minute examination of an old DMP.EXE showed me the differences between AMF 1.2 and 1.3, since I don't have any m2amf.exe which generates AMF 1.2 files.
Amiga78