Editing OpenMPT

{{Short description|Open source module tracker}}
{{Distinguish|ModPlug Player|OpenMP|Open MPI}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}

{{Infobox software
| name = OpenMPT
| logo = 
| screenshot = OpenMPT 1.31.12 Screenshot.png
| screenshot size = 300px
| caption = OpenMPT 1.31.12.00 in [[Windows 10]]
| collapsible = 
| author = Olivier Lapicque
| developer = 
| released = {{Start date and age|1997}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}|df=yes}}
| status = 
| programming language = C++
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] only
| platform = [[x86]], [[x86-64]], [[aarch64]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://openmpt.org/openmpt-1-30-01-00-released|title=OpenMPT 1.30.01.00 released |date=2021-12-23 |access-date=2024-07-21 |quote=''OpenMPT is now also available for Windows on ARM.''}}</ref>
| size = 
| language = English
| genre = [[Tracker (music software)|Tracker]]
| license = [[BSD licenses|BSD-3-Clause]] (since OpenMPT 1.17.02.53) / [[GNU General Public License|GPL-2.0-or-later]], partly [[public domain software]]<ref name="PD"/>
}}
{{Portal|Free software}}
'''OpenMPT''' is an [[open-source software|open-source]] audio [[module file|module]] [[music tracker|tracker]] for [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] (with an intended [[Wine (software)|Wine]]-functionality for [[UNIX]] and [[Linux]] x86-systems). It was previously called '''ModPlug Tracker''', and was first released by Olivier Lapicque in September 1997.<ref>[https://ftp.modland.com/pub/software/trackers/Windows/ModPlug%20Tracker/old%20versions/ModPlug%20Tracker%20v1.00%20pre-alpha%204.zip ModPlug Tracker v1.00 pre-alpha 4.zip] - from ''ftp.modland.com/pub/trackers''</ref>

''[[Computer Music (magazine)|Computer Music]]'' magazine listed OpenMPT among the top five free music trackers in 2007,<ref name=cmm>{{cite journal |journal=[[Computer Music (magazine)|Computer Music]] |date=June 2007 |title=Top Trackers |issue=113 |publisher=Future Publishing |url=https://www.musicradar.com/computermusic/computer-music-june-issue-cmu113-on-sale-now-246001}}</ref> and it is one of the most widely used trackers.<ref>{{cite thesis |type=MSc |last=Schultz|first=Johannes|date=2018|title=Design and Implementation of a Collaborative Music Software|url=https://johannes.schultz.re/publications/Johannes%20Schultz%20-%20Design%20and%20Implementation%20of%20a%20Collaborative%20Music%20Software.pdf|quote=Of all the tracked music works uploaded to The Mod Archive in 2017, one of the largest collections of tracked music online, it was found that about 42% are written in OpenMPT.}}</ref>

==History==

=== MOD Plugin and ModPlug Tracker ===

OpenMPT was initially developed as a [[browser plug-in]] called '''MOD Plugin''',<ref name=wired>{{cite web |url=https://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/sonic_boom/story/7978.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981206062519/http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/sonic_boom/story/7978.html |title=A Cheat Sheet for Internet Sound |archive-date=6 December 1998 |date=1997-10-30 |first=Ian |last=Christe |publisher=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]].com |access-date=2011-02-05 |quote=''MOD: The lingua franca of the Internet's large network of Amiga musicians, MODs are ingenious self-contained sound files that include raw audio data and sequencing information.(Link to modplugcentral)'' |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> which enabled users to play music and other sounds encoded in [[module file]]s. ModPlug Tracker, along with a player application named [[ModPlug Player]], evolved from this plug-in.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980222214727/http://www.castlex.com/modplug/tech.html |url=http://www.castlex.com/modplug/tech.html |title=MODPlug Central - Technical Support Features |date=1998-02-22 |archive-date=22 February 1998 |publisher=MODPlug Central |access-date=2011-02-05 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

In December 1999, Olivier Lapicque sent the module-playing parts of ModPlug Tracker's source code to Kenton Varda, under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL-2.0-or-later]], to write a plugin for [[XMMS]] based on the code. In 2001, the [[source code]] was released in the [[public domain]],<ref name="PD">[http://modplug-xmms.sourceforge.net/ ModPlug XMMS Plugin - News] on sourceforge.com ''"27 October 2001: ModPlug-XMMS v2.0 (including libmodplug v0.7) - Changes: [...] License changed to public domain."''</ref> and the mod-playing code was split off into a separate library, ''libmodplug'', maintained as part of the ModPlug XMMS Plugin project. This project lay dormant from late 2003 until early 2006, when it was picked up again. Today, ''libmodplug'' is included in many Linux distributions as a default audio plugin for playing module files and is a part of the popular open source multimedia framework [[gstreamer]].<ref>[https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gst-plugins-bad-plugins/html/gst-plugins-bad-plugins-modplug.html GStreamer Bad Plugins 0.10 Plugins Reference Manual]</ref>

Due to lack of time, Olivier Lapicque discontinued development of ModPlug Tracker itself, and in January 2004, he released the entire source code under an [[open-source license]]. The ModPlug Player [[source code]] is still closed as of May 2020.

=== OpenMPT ===
Lapicque's MPT code was taken up by a group of tracker musicians/programmers and is now known as '''OpenMPT'''. Also based on the ModPlug code is OpenMPT's "sister project" ''Schism Tracker'' which contributed several [[backport]]s of [[bugfix]]es to OpenMPT.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://schismtracker.org/wiki/Modplug |title=Modplug |last=storlek |publisher=schismtracker.org |date=2011-02-01 |access-date=2011-02-05 |quote=''Schism Tracker uses a highly customized version of the Modplug library, [...]. Many of Schism's fixes have since been back-ported to OpenMPT [...]'' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711052029/http://schismtracker.org/wiki/Modplug |archive-date=11 July 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

OpenMPT is distributed as [[free software]] and is, as of August 2022, under active development. Until May 2009 (v1.17.02.53)<ref>[https://openmpt.org/release_notes/History.txt History]</ref> OpenMPT was licensed under the [[Copyleft]] [[GNU General Public License|GPL-2.0-or-later]] and then [[Software relicensing|relicensed]] under the terms of the [[permissive license|permissive]] [[BSD licenses|BSD-3-Clause]]. Since OpenMPT 1.23 (March 2014), OpenMPT is also available as a 64-bit application.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://openmpt.org/openmpt-1-23-01-00-released|title=OpenMPT 1.23.01.00 released |date=2014-03-29 |access-date=2014-03-30}}</ref> This allows musicians to use 64-bit [[Virtual Studio Technology|VST plugins]] and make use of the entire [[Random-access memory|physical memory]] on 64-bit systems. For this purpose, OpenMPT provides its own plugin bridge, which can be used to run plugins with a different bitness than the host in a separate process, or to run plugin in a [[Sandbox (computer security)|sandbox]] and prevent them from crashing the host application.

== Features ==
OpenMPT's main distinguishing feature is its native [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] [[user interface]]. Most trackers, even newer ones such as [[Renoise]], have interfaces modelled after the older [[DOS]] trackers such as [[Fast Tracker|FastTracker II]]. It supports samples, [[Virtual Studio Technology|VST plugins]] and [[Yamaha YMF262|OPL3]] instruments<ref>{{cite web|url=https://openmpt.org/openmpt-1-28-01-00-released|title=OpenMPT 1.28.01.00 released |date=2018-12-23 |access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref> as sound sources.
OpenMPT makes use of features common to Microsoft Windows programs, such as context menus for effect selection, "tree" views (for files, samples, and patterns), [[drag and drop]] functionality throughout, and the native [[look and feel]] of the Windows platform.

It supports both loading and saving of IT ([[Impulse Tracker]]), XM ([[FastTracker 2|FastTracker]] Extended Module), MOD ([[Protracker]] and similar), S3M ([[Scream Tracker|Scream Tracker 3]]) and MPTM (its own file format) files, imports many more module and sample file formats, and has some support for [[DLS format|DLS banks]] and [[SoundFont]]s.<ref name=ompt/>

OpenMPT was also one of the first trackers to support opening and editing of multiple tracker modules in parallel. OpenMPT supports up to 127 tracks/channels, VST Plugins, VST instruments and has [[Audio Stream Input/Output|ASIO]] support.<ref name=ompt>{{cite web|url=https://openmpt.org/features |title=Features |date=2011-02-05 |publisher=openmpt.org |access-date=2011-02-05 }}</ref>

===MPTM file format===

Due to limitations of the various mod file formats it is able to save, a new module format called MPTM was created in 2007.<ref>[https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=1613.0 ModPlug Central Forums]</ref>

OpenMPT introduced some non-standard additions to the older file formats. For example, one can use stereo samples or add [[Virtual Studio Technology|VST plugins]] to [[FastTracker 2|XM]] and [[Impulse Tracker|IT]] modules, which were not supported in the original trackers. Many of these features have gradually been removed from IT and XM files and made available only in MPTM files.

===libopenmpt===

libopenmpt is a cross-platform module playing [[Library (computing)|library]] based on the OpenMPT code with interfaces for [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]] and other programming languages. To ensure that the code bases do not diverge like in the case of ModPlug Tracker and libmodplug, libopenmpt development takes place in the same [[Repository (version control)|code repository]] as OpenMPT. Official [[Plug-in (computing)|input plug-ins]] for popular audio players ([[XMPlay]], [[Winamp]] and [[foobar2000]]) based on libopenmpt are also available from the website. [[FFmpeg]] also offers an optional module decoder based on libopenmpt.<ref>[https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavformat/libopenmpt.c libopenmpt demuxer in libavformat]</ref> libopenmpt can also serve as a drop-in replacement for libmodplug and thus offer up-to-date module playback capabilities for software that relies on the libmodplug [[Application programming interface|API]].<ref>[https://packages.debian.org/de/sid/libopenmpt-modplug1 libopenmpt-modplug1 in the Debian package repository]</ref>

==Reception and users==

[[Nicolay (musician)|Nicolay]] of the Grammy-nominated [[The Foreign Exchange]] has revealed that ModPlug is his "Secret Weapon".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/2009/04/inside-the-producers-studio-part-1-on-using-the-computer.php |title=Inside The Producer's Studio (Part 1): On using the computer |last=Rook |first=Matthijs |author-link=Nicolay (musician) |date=2009-04-07 |website=[[The Foreign Exchange]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629133246/https://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/2009/04/inside-the-producers-studio-part-1-on-using-the-computer.php |archive-date=2014-06-29}}</ref> Movie and video game music composer [[Raphaël Gesqua]] made known his use of OpenMPT in an interview.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.game-ost.com/articles.php?action=view&id=495 |title=Raphael Gesqua Interview: A Veteran Looks Back |interviewer-last=Naumenko |interviewer-first=Michael |date=September 2009 |website=game-ost |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530104712/http://www.game-ost.com/articles.php?action=view&action=view&id=495 |archive-date=2019-05-30 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Peter Hajba]] and [[Alexander Brandon]] used OpenMPT to compose the soundtracks for ''[[Bejeweled 2]]'',<ref>[https://skaven252.bandcamp.com/album/bejeweled-2 Bejeweled 2 Soundtrack on BandCamp]</ref> ''[[Bejeweled 3]]''<ref>[https://skaven252.bandcamp.com/album/bejeweled-3 Bejeweled 3 Soundtrack on BandCamp]</ref> and other [[PopCap Games|PopCap games]].

Electronic rock musician [[Blue Stahli]] has mentioned that he used ModPlug Tracker and other trackers in the past.<ref>[https://twitter.com/bluestahli/status/430570811314171904 Blue Stahli twitter profile]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{Official website|https://openmpt.org/}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110310124920/http://pweb.jps.net/~olivierl/ ModPlug]
* [http://modplug-xmms.sourceforge.net/ ModPlug XMMS Plugin (using libmodplug)]

{{Audio editors}}
{{Portal bar|Free and open-source software}}

[[Category:Audio trackers]]
[[Category:Free audio software]]
[[Category:Free software programmed in C++]]
[[Category:Windows-only free software]]
[[Category:Software using the BSD license]]
[[Category:Software using the GNU General Public License]]