Topic: Clarification about MO3 vs MP3

[MusicStudioMaker22]

Good morning, everyone,
I don't know a thing about MO3 etc. But I intend to find out more, I try to understand all this, especially with the help of this forum.
So if I understood correctly, the MO3 music file format is not a substitute for MP3, but it's rather to be implemented in the MP3 in order to make the music file much less heavy, right? And if it's correct, how do you do that?
And I've also heard about Fast or Impulse Tracker and also MultiTracker, if someone could tell me what it is and what it changes compared to MO3 then? Are these better or are they just other types of tracker modules that are respectively compatible with certain formats? In any case, they all allow you to lighten MP3 for export for example, right?
Sorry for the consequent number of questions, I really don't understand everything and the information is not very accessible...
Anyway, thanks to you all!

[MusicStudioMaker22]

Also, if I decide to download version 2.4.2.1 of the MO3 mod format (on windows then) from the presentation page I (finally) found on this forum, will I need something additional to start using it? Because I thought I could use it to lighten audio files to store them on one hand and also process them in a music production software and then export everything on platforms like YouTube for example ... Thanks in advance and have a nice day!

[saga]

MO3 is a compressed container for Module files. The music needs to be composed as a module file (e.g. using Impulse Tracker) to be able to use MO3. If the music you want to compress is not in a module format to begin with, you cannot use MO3.

MO3 doesn't do anything magical, it just exploits the fact that module files typically use uncompressed sample data and then compresses both the sample data (using MP3 or Ogg Vorbis) and song structure. It can roughly be seen the same way as taking an uncompressed WAV file that is dozens of megabytes in size and converting it to a tiny MP3 file. You can see module files as a container for many small WAV files and some instructions on when to play them, at which pitch and volume, etc. MO3 then takes those (figurative) WAV files and the note information and compresses both of them.

[audiolover]

Thanks for sharing @saga ! Your answer has helped me a lot since I was still confused about the exact meaning of MO3.