People used to talk about mix tapes, but "mix discs" never seemed
to become a popular term. I guess the availability of cheap CD
burners overlapped too closely with the introduction of MP3
players.

Anyway for years I've been collected a list of my favourite tracker
modules that have a common sort of sound I thought I'd like while
driving on longer (well, 80 minute, ideally) journeys. Kind of
spaced out but with a strong beat. Finally I sorted them into an
order that I think works well, converted them to WAV with ModPlug
Player (which works great under WINE) and burnt them to an Audio CD
to play in the car, until I inevitably scratch it to death.

Since they're all free, I thought I'd collect the modules in my
Gopher hole. They won't be for everyone, but they work for me, and
I doubt even the few people who are really into listing to tracker
modules will have heard them all before. For those who don't even
know what they are, I think VLC supports playing them, to some
extent.

gopher://aussies.space/1/~freet/collected_files/car_tracks/
--

- The Free Thinker | gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On Sun, 26 Apr 2026, The Free Thinker wrote:

People used to talk about mix tapes, but "mix discs" never seemed
to become a popular term.

I never actually made mixtapes, but I had made some mixdiscs
(CDDA ones) and in fact, at least one of them had been a car mix. [1]

I did not make any MP3 one back in the days, because I didn't have
access to any decent-quality MP3 encoder software back then. By the time
I got my hand on libre wizard-style graphical batch-encoder WinLAME, [2]
I have already changed to listen to music mainly from my cellphone.

Now that I have tons of MP3 files lying around, what I haven't ever tried
with MP3 CD, but still would like to try today is rearrangments/addition/ deletion of tracks using multisession CD recording; and find out
how it works at technical level.

I guess the availability of cheap CD burners overlapped
too closely with the introduction of MP3 players.

I have not really heard of the term "mixdisc" back in the early-2000s days;
but it might be because I live in a non-English-speaking country
and I didn't really communicate much over the Internet back in those days.
But in my area MP3 CDs was a really-ubiquitous thing...
it was very widely-available (pirate stuff of course,
at least at the start). [3][4]

However, I had not been socially involved that much in general,
so I had no idea whether *personal friend-to-friend* music exchanges
via CD (whether CDDA or MP3) was common or not in _my_ country.

In any case, my current (2020s+) usage of term "mixdisc"
[yes I really do use this term personally] merely came to be by logically applying concept of "mixtape" to CD.

Finally I sorted them into an order that I think works well,
converted them to WAV with ModPlug Player (which works great under WINE)

Isn't ModPlug also natively available under GNU/Linux, at least in CLI form? For example, in Devuan/Debian APT repository, there is a package
named `modplug-tools` [5] which advertised itself as:

Modplug playing console tools

These are command line players for the following module formats:
669, amf, ams, dbm, dmf, dsm, far, it, j2b, mdl, med mod, mt2, mtm, okt,
psm, ptm, s3m, stm, ult, umx, xm.

On Sun, 26 Apr 2026, The Free Thinker wrote:

gopher://aussies.space/1/~freet/collected_files/car_tracks/

Thanks.

I think VLC supports playing them, to some extent.

Yes it does (via libModPlug). Another program that I happened to have
on machine which plays these is MilkyTracker. I still have no idea
how to use MilkyTracker in acutal composing/arranging though,
so if you have seen newbie-grade HOWTO article/tuturial/book for using it, plase share.

And tangent...

Keywords: tracker module,MOD,listening,free,favourites

I'm curious, what are newsreaders which have specific facility for user
to enter this keywords list? And is this header defined
in standard somewhere, or being a de-facto stuff?

Regards,
~xwindows


[1] It was for playing in one trip in relative's car. I don't drive,
and don't like cars that much myself.

[2] https://winlame.sourceforge.net/

[3] Actually is still a thing here, even with big-name music labels.
One can actually walk into a music store and find several *official*
compilation releases as MP3 CDs. What's different from 1.5 decade ago
is I also now see such kind of MP3 releases in _flash drives_
and sometimes MicroSD cards, available on the shelves in equal prominence
with MP3 CDs-- which I guess they're for sticking into those portable
(often Bluetooth-capable) speakers people often have nowadays.

[4] And the comments below Alec Watson's video about MP3 CDs
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkIR23emsWY>
<https://inv.nadeko.net/redirect?referer=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWkIR23emsWY>
should testify that in 2000s, it was a common way people exchanged music
personally too; at least in some parts of the world. Still no idea
if the term "mixdisc" was actually commonly used back in the days though.

[5] This description is copied from the package
in Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 "Wheezy" i386.
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On Sun, 26 Apr 2026 16:22:07 +0700 (+07)
xwindows <xwindows@tilde.club> wrote:

I never actually made mixtapes, but I had made some mixdiscs
(CDDA ones) and in fact, at least one of them had been a car mix.

CCDA? Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead ones?
--

NOSIG.

--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:15:38 -0000 (UTC)
freet@aussies.space (The Free Thinker) wrote:

gopher://aussies.space/1/~freet/collected_files/car_tracks/

Thanks for the link!

Also, I'll check out your... ehh... what's the gopher counterpart of a "capsule" we use in gemini? Your "gopher hole" I guess?
--

NOSIG.

--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

xwindows <xwindows@tilde.club> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Apr 2026, The Free Thinker wrote:

I guess the availability of cheap CD burners overlapped
too closely with the introduction of MP3 players.

I have not really heard of the term "mixdisc" back in the early-2000s days; but it might be because I live in a non-English-speaking country
and I didn't really communicate much over the Internet back in those days. But in my area MP3 CDs was a really-ubiquitous thing...
it was very widely-available (pirate stuff of course,
at least at the start). [3][4]

Neat, makes sense I guess. The closest thing I remember here in
Australia was getting some MP3 sample tracks from various artists
on the free CDs that came with computer magazines. I never really
got into collecting MP3s, even from the internet, preferring
tracker modules, but I kept one MP3 from one of those CDs, of a
funny track called "Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" which I
tend to use for testing audio playback on devices.

In any case, my current (2020s+) usage of term "mixdisc"
[yes I really do use this term personally] merely came to be by logically applying concept of "mixtape" to CD.

You have a better claim to inventing the term than me then, I only
came up with it when writing that post.

Finally I sorted them into an order that I think works well,
converted them to WAV with ModPlug Player (which works great under WINE)

Isn't ModPlug also natively available under GNU/Linux, at least in CLI form? For example, in Devuan/Debian APT repository, there is a package
named `modplug-tools` [5] which advertised itself as:

Yes, and I have modplugplay. Actually the original modplugplay
program doesn't have a WAV writer, but I've seen a modplug123
program (hmm, seems this is the one in the Debian modplug-tools
package, modplugplay comes from the ModPlug-XMMS project) that
claims it can do that (you could also use the audio loopback device
and record modplugplay's output separately eg. with arecord, but
that could introduce problems). However the Windows ModPlug Player
shows the track titles and info/sample texts which helped compile
the list and name the files, plus it has a "normalize" filter which
I hoped might avoid my needing to adjust the volume for different
tracks. It also records the WAV file quicker than the normal play
time of the tracks and you can set the sample rate (etc.) to match
the CD Audio requirements (though that might be the default in the
other players anyway).

I think VLC supports playing them, to some extent.

Yes it does (via libModPlug). Another program that I happened to have
on machine which plays these is MilkyTracker.

I mainly use ModPlug-XMMS myself, with XMMS v1, but being GTK1 it's
not so easy to install on newer systems (although it can be done).

I still have no idea how to use MilkyTracker in acutal
composing/arranging though, so if you have seen newbie-grade
HOWTO article/tuturial/book for using it, plase share.

It's been too long since I dabbled with composing, I've forgotten
what if any guides I found back then. Open Cubic Player ('ocp'
package in Debian) is great fun for playing modules while watching
how others have put them together though.

And tangent...

Keywords: tracker module,MOD,listening,free,favourites

I'm curious, what are newsreaders which have specific facility for user
to enter this keywords list?

Tin offers it in the template message when starting a new thread,
and you can fill it in manually in the text editor. Possibly a bit
pointless in such a low-traffic group, but since it was there I
thought I'd use it.

And is this header defined in standard somewhere, or being a
de-facto stuff?

It's in the standards, although the only real requirements seem to
be to have fields separated by commas (RFC 5536, sect. 3.2) and
newsreaders shouldn't copy the same header line into followup
messages (RFC 5537 sect. 3.4.3).

http://www.karlsruhe.org/rfc/rfc5536.txt http://www.karlsruhe.org/rfc/rfc5537.txt

The obsolete RFC 1036 described its intended usage:

2.2.9. Keywords

A few well-selected keywords identifying the message should be on
this line. This is used as an aid in determining if this message is
interesting to the reader.

http://www.karlsruhe.org/rfc/rfc1036.txt
--

- The Free Thinker | gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/
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vort3 <vort3@tilde.club> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:15:38 -0000 (UTC)
freet@aussies.space (The Free Thinker) wrote:

gopher://aussies.space/1/~freet/collected_files/car_tracks/

Thanks for the link!

Also, I'll check out your... ehh... what's the gopher counterpart of a "capsule" we use in gemini? Your "gopher hole" I guess?

Yes on Gopher it's a "hole", although in a more kind way than when
kids where I grew up used to call the neighbouring town that. :)
--

- The Free Thinker | gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

The Free Thinker <freet@aussies.space> wrote:

Open Cubic Player ('ocp' package in Debian)

'opencubicplayer' package in Debian actually, 'ocp' is the command
to run it.
--

- The Free Thinker | gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On Tue, 28 Apr 2026 01:52:19 -0000 (UTC)
freet@aussies.space (The Free Thinker) wrote:

'opencubicplayer' package in Debian actually, 'ocp' is the command
to run it.

Offtopic, but I never got the idea behind package vs command. I get that the
command is what you use to run a software and package is the name of the thing
you use to install (via apt or pacman). I also get that multiple packages can
provide the same command (in which case they become "conflicting", maybe better
would be to say they are mutually exclusive). Also I guess a single package can
provide multiple commands.

What I don't get is how do I know what is the package called when I only know
the command I want, without searching the internet? The other day I wanted to
use "trans" (translate in terminal) and turns out I don't have it. Usually I
provide the command I want to package manager and use tab completion to guess
the package name from the list of suggestions (like trans -> translate-shell),
but this doesn't always work.

Is there a universal way to ask a package manager to install whatever package
provides the command I want, or ask what commands are provided by a package?
--

NOSIG.

--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

Btw I listened to the tracks and now I'm love with collections of tracker (mod?)
music. I mean, files are small, tracks are chill, I can open them in qmmp
without any issue, the whole archive was just ~30 megabytes (and these are
relatively huge tracks I would say, I know some simpler tracks are about half a
megabyte).

The tracks selection is great, they sound as something whole. Loving the
playlist.

If you have more playlists like that (small zipped selection of tracker music),
or know where to find those, I'd love to download and listen before work every
day.


The vibe is very nice, I feel very cozy listening, thanks again!
--

NOSIG.

--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On Mon, 27 Apr 2026, ~vort3 wrote:

CCDA? Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead ones?

LOL no!

In all seriousness, "CDDA" here stands for the ye olde
Compact Disc Digital Audio format (known as "audio CD" in layman term).
I emphasized that specifically as there are multiple formats of
music on CD, and I would like to be explicit about them.

How many? These are ones I know of:

- CD-DA (Compact Disc Digital Audio, "audio CD", or "Red Book CD"),
the classic format of lossless 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo PCM audio
recorded on CD, up to 80 minutes per disc.

It's also the original and oldest type of CD,
predating CD-ROM (which is a type of CD that contains computer data);
and is playable on *all* Hi-Fi appliances that could read optical disc.

If not stated otherwise on the packaging, this is the format you'd get
when you buy music on disc at a music store; though it goes without
saying that it works on burned CD-R/CD-RW too.

- MP3 CD, an informal "format" that came to be by people putting MP3 files
on data CD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW since 90s. [1] Data CD with music files
encoded under other codecs (like MP4-AAC, Vorbis, FLAC) are usually lumped
into this category as well. Computers will definitely play them,
and many (but not all) optical disc-accepting Hi-Fi appliances
since 2000s would play them.

Don't assume that this format was exclusive to underground
music exchanges; depending on the area, nowadays one could waltz
into music store and find official+legal compilation releases
in this format on sale vis-a-vis to traditional CD audio album releases.

- DTS CD (niche), a CD-DA disc which its audio content being a loud static
that is actually a digital bitstream of lossily-compressed
5.1-channel audio in DTS codec [2][3]; which you could hear
the actual (surround) sound when you hook CD player to a home theater unit
via S/PDIF cable.

There was a short period around the turn of millennium
when some music were released as DTS CD;
but not anymore for like 2 decades now.

- SACD (niche), a DVD-like disc which carry "high-definition" audio [4]
up to 6 channel in niche DSD format. It in itself is not CD, but sometimes
have a separate "CD layer" underneath its surface that provides the same
audio content in traditional CD-DA format for non-SACD-capable
disc players.

- MQA-CD (niche)... let's not get into that.

But when you speak of music CDs made by us amateurs, it's normally
just the first 2 kinds; with the second kind especially availing itself
for those sorts of drive-all-day carmix [5] and play-all-night clubmix,
because you can lower bitrate for longer-length audio to fit in since disc,
and such noisy environments don't demand absolute fidelity
that classic CD-DA provides.

Regards,
~xwindows


[1] See also: "MP3 CDs: a hybrid 'format' that never existed, yet was
surprisingly common", Technology Connections videocast by Alec Watson
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkIR23emsWY>
(Or outside of the Internet telescreen:
<https://inv.nadeko.net/redirect?referer=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWkIR23emsWY>)

[2] See also: "DTS 5.1 CD - I missed this one",
Techmoan videocast by Matthew Taylor
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECp8cAJUVSc>
(Or outside of the Internet telescreen:
<https://inv.nadeko.net/redirect?referer=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DECp8cAJUVSc>)

[3] DTS codec itself originated from movie distribution; it was the kind of
film soundtrack which came in a CD separated from the actual film roll.
(This is distinct from, say... Dolby Digital [a.k.a. Dobly AC3]
or Sony SDDS where the digital surround sound rather came inside
the film roll as QR code-like checker patterns resided
around the actual picture area of each frame) However, I think
the place where many people first knew DTS from, was usually DVD.

[4] See also: "24/192 Music Downloads are Very Silly Indeed" PSA
<https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html>
written by Christopher Montgomery (author of Ogg Vorbis audio codec).

[5] Though for what's worth, ~freet said he used CD-DA for his carmix;
and I also just said in grandparent post I used CD-DA for my carmix too.
(My reason was I didn't have non-trash MP3 encoder back then,
and I actually didn't have _that_ long music to put into the disc;
also, CD-DA has greater compatibility)
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vort3 <vort3@tilde.club> wrote:

The tracks selection is great, they sound as something whole. Loving the
playlist.

Great, I did put a lot of thought into sorting the tracks.

The other Audio CD I made years ago for listening to in the car was
tracker modules by the well known artist Skaven. In particular
Network and Beyond The Network (30min long!) have a similar vibe.

ftp://modland.com/pub/modules/Impulsetracker/Skaven/network.it ftp://modland.com/pub/modules/Impulsetracker/Skaven/beyond%20the%20network.it

See that FTP directory and this one for other tracks: ftp://modland.com/pub/modules/Screamtracker%203/Skaven

If you have more playlists like that (small zipped selection of tracker music),
or know where to find those, I'd love to download and listen before work every
day.

I don't know where other people have shared playlists like that
exactly, but there are some collections of other favourites lists I
put together in my second Module Mania (data) CD-ROM:

gopher://aussies.space/1/~freet/moddisc

Particularly good collections (though without a consistent tone)
are the Novus Music Vault (many links broken):

http://www.novusmusic.org/goods.html

and keygenmusic.net's top 100 (now offline):

http://web.archive.org/web/20230119185831/http://keygenmusic.net/?page=vote&lang=en

I got all those collections on the disc, including finding
alternative links for the broken Novus Music Vault ones (I reported
the alternative links to the author but I don't think he got around
to fixing them). You can mount the image file on Linux if you don't
want to burn a CD.
--

- The Free Thinker | gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

vort3 <vort3@tilde.club> wrote:

On Tue, 28 Apr 2026 01:52:19 -0000 (UTC)
freet@aussies.space (The Free Thinker) wrote:
What I don't get is how do I know what is the package called when I only know
the command I want, without searching the internet? The other day I wanted to
use "trans" (translate in terminal) and turns out I don't have it. Usually I
provide the command I want to package manager and use tab completion to guess
the package name from the list of suggestions (like trans -> translate-shell),
but this doesn't always work.

Is there a universal way to ask a package manager to install whatever package
provides the command I want, or ask what commands are provided by a package?

For Debian there's 'apt-file' (which might need to be installed
from the mercifully same-named package).

First run:
$ sudo apt-file update

Then:
$ apt-file search bin/ocp
camlp5: /usr/bin/ocpp5
ocp-indent: /usr/bin/ocp-indent
ocproxy: /usr/bin/ocproxy
ocserv: /usr/bin/ocpasswd
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp-curses
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp-sdl2
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp-vcsa

As you can see, it is prone to showing false positives. Enabling
regexp mode with '-x' allows narrowing the results down to just
the one command's filename:

$ apt-file -x search 'bin/ocp$'
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp

Distros using other package systems may have similar tools.
--

- The Free Thinker | gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On Wed, 29 Apr 2026 05:22:22 -0000 (UTC)
freet@aussies.space (The Free Thinker) wrote:

For Debian there's 'apt-file' (which might need to be installed
from the mercifully same-named package).

First run:
$ sudo apt-file update

Then:
$ apt-file search bin/ocp
camlp5: /usr/bin/ocpp5
ocp-indent: /usr/bin/ocp-indent
ocproxy: /usr/bin/ocproxy
ocserv: /usr/bin/ocpasswd
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp-curses
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp-sdl2
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp-vcsa

As you can see, it is prone to showing false positives. Enabling
regexp mode with '-x' allows narrowing the results down to just
the one command's filename:

$ apt-file -x search 'bin/ocp$'
opencubicplayer: /usr/bin/ocp

Thank you, this is super useful. I wish this was built-in and easy to
discover, I would be using this from day 1 of using Linux.
--

TIL.

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