.mod File Tracker Importer

[gloomy mirage]

I’ve been working on an Ableton Live Extension for importing classic tracker .mod files into Live as editable MIDI/Simpler tracks.

It supports local .mod files and single ModArchive URL imports from https://modarchive.org/, extracts the samples, keeps as much of the tracker structure as possible, and shows a short import report with sample and effect information. It is not a full tracker file converter, but it is useful for bringing old MOD ideas into Ableton for editing and remixing.

Limitations: some tracker effects, especially pitch slides, vibrato, fine pitch changes, and full playback automation, cannot be recreated exactly yet because the current Extensions SDK does not expose everything needed for that. More SDK access to MIDI pitch bend and automation would make this much more powerful.

In the YoutTube demo I import “Beams of Light” by Walkman (Tor Bernhard Gausen), one of my favourite MODs from 1989. Around ten years later, in the late 1990s, it was covered by Hardy Hard as “Silversurfer”.

YouTube demo:
https://youtu.be/G9gPFr-1qkU

GitHub:
https://github.com/klingklangmatze/mod-importer-ableton-extension

Direct .ablx download:
https://github.com/klingklangmatze/mod-importer-ableton-extension/raw/main/MOD-Importer-1.0.0.ablx

[quick bridge]

have you thought to extend this to .xm and .it

as you have i think pretty good foundation already

[gloomy mirage]

Sure…it will be the next step.

[quick bridge]

ooh

cool

i've done in past very much renoise projects with vst's

would be cool to convert them to ableton at somepoint

:)

renoise is though just zipped xml

[crystal owl]

Polyend Tracker support would be great too. I heard Polyend is about to release a piece of their library to read and write Tracker files.

[gloomy mirage]

Yeah, I've already thought about the Polyend Tracker, too. This new API from Ableton makes it possible—with a few additional tweaks—to import a wide variety of file types from different hardware devices.

[brazen kiln]

oh! watching this import was like watching a magician!
yesterday we weren't able to set a custom path.
i would like to see a simple file import dialog.

perhaps unfold and highlight in red exactly all effects that didn't translate?
can confirm, simple slide up/down fine slide up/down doesn't work as intended... fingers crossed for that in the future.
and perhaps .it support 🙂

gamechanging stuff to look at the old arrangements in this format!
i very much enjoy the choice for every sample to be in a separate channel and sampler instance!

[crystal owl]

https://backstage.polyend.com/t/the-polyend-tracker-ecosystem-is-opening-up/24723?_kx=PrsuJYYyc5_4XzpJQpUehIhUlM6QBo5GIYDYUXbBNFY.TCUk4f