That was going back a bit, wasn't it? Although I admire the dedication to find a remotely suitable post!
MODs are written in a rather different way from most other kinds of music file because they were meant to be entirely electronically generated - some people have likened it to "coding a song" rather than writing one. Notes and effects are laid out on a piano-roll like view that isn't really as quick to read as traditional musical score, but is closer to what the computer "sees" as it scrolls through it.
Actually using Modplug to enter notes into a song is another sticking point for some, but I imagine it would be easier with an external keyboard - you can either copy and paste notes around and decrease/increase their pitch by keyboard shortcuts (something I've got quite quick at over time, though it took ages at first), or use the computer keyboard as a faux-musical one, but I've never got used to that.
The only major problem with MODs compared to other music formats is ironically the strength that attracted me to them in the first place - the way that their instruments are entirely based on sample information in the file. This means that the sound entirely depends on the samples that you can scrape together yourself, rather than being able to download pre-made instruments and use them (OpenMPT tried to correct this with the addition of VSTs, which were what I was using in the post, but I've later discovered that the support for them never really worked anyway).
However, MPT was the first musical software that I downloaded for the PC, and I've stuck with it for years, so it can't be that difficult to pick up. :) There's a fairly decent tutorial in the starter pack and the OpenMPT wiki, I think, if you decide that you want to look at it further. It's not something for instant results, but it lets you get your ideas down.
Fruityloops is the major amateur music software at the moment, but I find it absolutely overwhelming - the interface is much the same as the screenshot above and I can't understand much of it at all. I find MODs really pretty obvious and logical in comparison.
(I haven't heard the Guilty Gear XX soundtrack, by the way - an email with them would be appreciated!)
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MODs are written in a rather different way from most other kinds of music file because they were meant to be entirely electronically generated - some people have likened it to "coding a song" rather than writing one. Notes and effects are laid out on a piano-roll like view that isn't really as quick to read as traditional musical score, but is closer to what the computer "sees" as it scrolls through it.
Actually using Modplug to enter notes into a song is another sticking point for some, but I imagine it would be easier with an external keyboard - you can either copy and paste notes around and decrease/increase their pitch by keyboard shortcuts (something I've got quite quick at over time, though it took ages at first), or use the computer keyboard as a faux-musical one, but I've never got used to that.
The only major problem with MODs compared to other music formats is ironically the strength that attracted me to them in the first place - the way that their instruments are entirely based on sample information in the file. This means that the sound entirely depends on the samples that you can scrape together yourself, rather than being able to download pre-made instruments and use them (OpenMPT tried to correct this with the addition of VSTs, which were what I was using in the post, but I've later discovered that the support for them never really worked anyway).
However, MPT was the first musical software that I downloaded for the PC, and I've stuck with it for years, so it can't be that difficult to pick up. :) There's a fairly decent tutorial in the starter pack and the OpenMPT wiki, I think, if you decide that you want to look at it further. It's not something for instant results, but it lets you get your ideas down.
Fruityloops is the major amateur music software at the moment, but I find it absolutely overwhelming - the interface is much the same as the screenshot above and I can't understand much of it at all. I find MODs really pretty obvious and logical in comparison.
(I haven't heard the Guilty Gear XX soundtrack, by the way - an email with them would be appreciated!)