Music Tracker

Hi All,

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge around running any of the old tracker software (Coconizer et.al) on RISC OS on the Pi?

Looking to relive some of those many mis-spent hours of my youth! (And apologies if this is the wrong section of the forum to post this in)

DigitalCD can play most tracker formats, including Coconizer.

http://www.riscos-digitalcd.net/digitalcd/player/intro.htm

QTM is also still going.

http://www.phlamethrower.co.uk/riscos/qtm.php

If you use QTM, grab the one that’s bundled with ADFFS which is ARMv7 compatible. I’m not sure if Steve has rolled the changes into his master copy yet.

Thanks Both.

Does QTM also support creation of new music, or is it solely for playback?

Does QTM also support creation of new music, or is it solely for playback?

Playback only, you’ll need Digital Symphony or similar to create the trackers in the first place.

Which is why also it would be great to have Digital Symphony hacked because, in case you find a second hand copy, if it has already been installed on a machine, it won’t install on yours :-/

You could use the free Coconizer application by German demogroup Armaxess, but (to be confirmed) I believe :
both Digital Symphony and Coconizer, in tems of effects, offer a superset of the original Amiga MOD format, so I do not think QTM will recognize them.
QTM web page describes which formats it knows how to play, I think you’ll be best suited creating your track on a machine with a StarTrekker format capable soundtracker.
http://www.phlamethrower.co.uk/riscos/qtm.php
ftp://ftp.modland.com/pub/documents/format_documentation/Startrekker%20(.mod).txt

I have never tried it but there is port of a MOD/XM tracker called Milkytracker.

Which is why also it would be great to have Digital Symphony hacked

Why would anyone do that?
The authors may not be in the market anymore but anything other than the legitimate reverse engineering to make software work on a new system by removing incompatibilities or bugs is still illegal¹.

because, in case you find a second hand copy, if it has already been installed on a machine, it won’t install on yours

The normal situation with copy protection was that it relied on a “credit” on the floppy and uninstalling restored the credit to the floppy so a resold floppy would have that “credit”². Anything else resold is basically just an interesting coffee cup coaster.

¹ Basic Euro-law allows for the necessary fix to be done by any method provided the result does not get distributed or otherwise contravene the laws relating to software piracy.
² As I recall Beebug were among the companies that used this method but making a modified disk with more credits on it to cover re-installs after a disk crash turned out to be relatively simple.

As I do not know how to quote messages (shame on me) then in that case why does CJE sell some second hand apps, games, utilities ?
It is also against the Law.

I agree with you, Steve, there is the Law and it must be obeyed, otherwise everything is going to collapse, eventually.
It is also true some times strictly following the rules leads to stupid situations.

And to be honest I find it uninteresting to come here and see the average reactions.
I don’t think you will miss me if I leave the forum, but the reciprocal will be true too.

EDIT : Yes, took my decision : farewell.

Why should selling second hand stuff be illegal? What a strange idea. Microsoft had an equally strange idea and tried to sue people selling second hand Windows OEM licences, but the courts decided otherwise.

As I do not know how to quote messages (shame on me)

How to do quotes: look below the editing panel and look at the “Formatting help” – first line of text.

then in that case why does CJE sell some second hand apps, games, utilities ?

Selling secondhand items is not illegal. Reverse engineering and altering (hacking) when it does not work as required/expected is not illegal when for your own use. Distribution of the altered item is.
Selling something that doesn’t work as something that does is misrepresentation and possibly fraud.

Microsoft had an equally strange idea and tried to sue people selling second hand Windows OEM licences, but the courts decided otherwise.

More than Microsoft and also the stuff about reverse engineering, hence my reference to euro-law. If the supplier won’t update the code to work correctly then the user has the right to do the alterations.

why does CJE sell some second hand apps, games, utilities ?
It is also against the Law.

No, it isn’t.
In the United States (where you would expect such a thing to be illegal), the right to sell your own original copy of a work is protected by the First Sale Doctrine.

In the UK, where CJE resides, what applies is the Copyright etc Act 1988, specifically sections 17 and 18 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/ukpga_19880048_en_2#pt1-ch2-pb1), and section 18 was amended in 1996 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1996/Uksi_19962967_en_3.htm#mdiv9).

What this is saying, is basically they copyright restricts a person who is not the rights holder from making copies (regardless of how). This is why you cannot resell digital downloads of things like games (because the transfer creates a new copy in the process).
Section 18 then points out that issuing copies of something to the public is another restricted act, only the rights holder is permitted to issue copies.
However amendment subsection 3 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/2967/regulation/9/made) say that this right of control doesn’t usually apply to subsequent resale of original copies.
I have “The Matrix” on DVD. I can sell my DVD to you. That is legal. I cannot rip the film to an mp4 and give it to you (for free or for payment) because they means creating a new copy, which is unlawful.

Why pick on CJE? Loads of people sell secondhand stuff. Next weekend, in France, we’re going to a used book market (books are copyright too). As long as it’s original copies, there is no problem…

As I recall Beebug were among the companies that used this method

Yes, they did this with Ovation. I never got to figure out how to twiddle the disc as their fancy protection system worked on RISC OS 2 but locked the machine solid with RISC OS 3, so I sent the disc back and they returned it with an unprotected version.

Yes, they did this with Ovation. I never got to figure out how to twiddle the disc

You’ve already guessed a specific location on the disc held a value that represented the number of copies you were entitled to install.

Off topic, however, not to point out the obvious, keyed discs can be circumvented by imaging the floppies before they’ve been keyed. I’m pretty sure someone wrote a bit of software to image protected floppies years ago!

Over the past few years I’ve had various requests to “hack” titles, which isn’t something I’m prepared to do. ADFFS was specifically designed so floppy images could be distributed unaltered, with disc protection intact. The only games I’ve removed protection from is either manual based protection, which is just annoying when the manuals are distributed with the floppies, or where bugs in the protection cause issues on later machines such as some of the Eterna titles.

Note however that all the floppy images you can download from JASPP are unaltered from their original, it’s the boot script to does all the fixups.

Off topic, however, …

Taken to Aldershot.