Platform: Win32, OSX, Linux Current version: 2.4

MO3 is a file format, encapsulating the features of several "MOD" formats (IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD), but with one big difference: MP3 and OGG compressed samples. A lossless codec is also incorporated for any samples that don't like lossy encoding, and the whole file structure is compressed too. All of this makes it possible to have great reductions in file sizes with practically identical sound quality. In fact, MO3 allows greater quality compositions because MP3/OGG encoding works better with 16-bit samples, so there's no reason to use low quality 8-bit samples anymore.

Main features

MP3/OGG compression Any command-line MP3 or OGG encoder can be used with the MO3 encoder Lossless compression Samples that don't compress well with MP3/OGG encoding can still be reduced in size with the lossless codec Structure compression All the non-sample data is also compressed Sample specific tuning The encoding sample/bit rates are individually adjustable for each sample, with visual comparison of original/encoded samples Text removal Message/instrument/sample texts can optionally be removed for a further size reduction Decompression MO3 files can be decoded back to their original formats using UNMO3 (included) Playable MO3 files can be played by XMPlay and any software that uses the BASS library, also by other software in conjunction with UNMO3

Other stuff

OGGENC 1.0.2 (libvorbis 1.1.1) OGG encoder for creating MO3 files. It will generally come preinstalled with Linux distributions. LAME The recommended MP3 encoder for creating MO3 files. UNMO3 + BASSMOD example A simple example of using UNMO3 with BASSMOD, demonstrating how UNMO3 can be used to add MO3 support to other software. Also see the BASSMOD XMMS plugin for another example.