A fast, good-looking module player for Linux with a GPU-rendered interface: per-voice oscilloscopes, realtime panning and buttery-smooth pattern scrolling.
ngPlayer is inspired by the great XTC-Play module player by Sanction. Back in the DOS days, players like it on a Gravis UltraSound (and UltraSound PnP) set the bar for how tracker music could sound. I wanted that same level of quality on Linux, together with an interface that is a joy to look at.
| Format | Status |
|---|---|
| MOD (ProTracker and compatibles) | supported |
| S3M (Scream Tracker 3) | supported |
| STM (Scream Tracker 2) | supported (4 channels, played through the S3M engine) |
| PTM (Poly Tracker) | supported (1-32 channels, 16-bit samples, played through the S3M engine) |
| ULT (UltraTracker) | supported (1-32 channels, 8/16-bit samples, played through the S3M engine) |
| 669 (Composer 669 / UNIS 669) | supported (8 channels, linear-frequency slides, played through the S3M engine) |
| MTM (MultiTracker) | supported (1-32 channels, played through the MOD engine) |
| PSM (Epic MegaGames, PSM16 "PSM\xFE") | supported (Epic Pinball, Silverball; played through the MOD engine) |
| FAR (Farandole Composer) | supported (16 channels, 8/16-bit samples, played through the MOD engine; fine tempo D?/E?, slide-to-volume A? and note offset C? are not implemented) |
| MDL (Digitrakker) | supported (up to 32 channels, 8/16-bit and packed samples, volume/panning envelopes and fadeout, played through the XM engine; frequency envelopes, auto vibrato, instrument panning and pattern-loop E6x are not implemented) |
| MED / OctaMED (MMD0-MMD3) | supported (sample instruments, up to 32 tracks, played through the MOD engine; synth/hybrid instruments are silent) |
| XM (FastTracker 2) | supported |
| IT (Impulse Tracker) | supported, still being completed |
| DMF (X-Tracker, v8) | supported, some rare effects still missing |
TFMX (Chris Hülsbeck, mdat.NAME + smpl.NAME or NAME.tfx + NAME.sam) |
supported (subsong 0, no pattern view yet) |
Looking for DMF files to try? The Radical Rhythms Archive collects tracks by a German tracker group from the mid-1990s, including DMF modules.
Planned: MDL, DSM, 15-sample MOD, WAV/VOC, MP1/MP2/MP3.
- Pattern view with all channels: notes, instruments, volume column and colour-coded effects
- Oscilloscope per voice and realtime panning in every channel header
- Channel overview: volume bars with peak hold, last note, effect name and panning per channel
- Time-continuous scrolling locked to the audio clock, drawn at the full refresh rate of your monitor
- Spectrum analyser and level meters
- Seek inside a song (Left/Right), drag and drop for files and folders, playlist
- Written in C. The replayer and mixer are independent of the interface; one loader and replayer per format behind a common song layer.
- Replayer behaviour is checked against reference renders with an automated regression suite.
- Interface: SDL2 for window, input and audio, OpenGL 3.3 for drawing. A batched renderer draws rounded rectangles via signed distance fields, glow, polylines and a baked glyph atlas from a single vertex buffer.
- The audio thread renders in short slices and reports every row change with its sample position, so the display scrolls exactly in time with what you hear.
Download the latest ngPlayer-*-x86_64.AppImage from the Releases page:
chmod +x ngPlayer-*-x86_64.AppImage
./ngPlayer-*-x86_64.AppImage ~/Music/modulesRequirements: gcc, make, SDL2 development files (Arch/CachyOS: sudo pacman -S sdl2,
Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libsdl2-dev).
make
./build/ngplayer path/to/files-or-foldersBuild an AppImage yourself: sh packaging/build-appimage.sh.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause / play |
| Left / Right | Seek to previous / next order in the song |
| Up / Down | Previous / next file |
| Shift + Left / Right, mouse wheel | Scroll channels |
| R | Restart song |
| F / F11 | Fullscreen |
| F5 / F6 | Audio/video sync trim (±5 ms) |
| Esc | Quit |
ngPlayer is young. Playback is regression-tested against reference renders; known deviations and open items are tracked in the issue tracker. Planned: more formats, online browser for The Mod Archive, per-channel mute/solo, interpolation and filter options.
GPL-3.0-or-later, see LICENSE. Third-party components: THIRD_PARTY.md.