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Partikl 3 User Guide

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Partikl V3 File Format

What are .partikl files, and how they are structured?

.partikl files are a container file format (similar in concept to XMF or MOD) that have support for MIDI, DLS and compressed audio samples to give very rich sound for very small foorprint. They also have built-in support for embedded generative music engine data and modular synthesis and audio sound effect plugins.

.partikl files can be authored very easily, using the Partikl application.

.partikl files contains a combination of the following components:

  • A manifest file which describes the .partikl file in industry-standard XML format.
  • MIDI file data, or some other MIDI-like Meta files such as a noatikl file
  • DLS file data
  • Sample file data, in any of the formats supported by Partikl, including sample data in compressed Ogg Vorbisformat.

The .partikl file format is a "container" file format, where the .partikl container file contains a "Partikl manifest" file in XML format that describes the contents of the file; including the sample data, any driving MIDI file (or MIDI-like file such as a noatikl file), and how the sample data should be combined together to present a an environment of layered "virtual" wavetables within which the MIDI data can be rendered.

The sample data within an .partikl file can be supplied in DLS files, or in any file format for which Partikl has a "decoder" to linear PCM (e.g. Ogg, Wav, AU, etc. etc.). Articulation etc. information can be defined for virtual wavetables built-up from audio sample files; a bit like defining your own DLS file but instead using XML. .partikl files can be used to contain not only MIDI files that can drive the system, but of course also MIDI-like generators.

The .partikl file is a very simple container format that takes account of byte-alignment issues in a very simple way; so parsing the files is incredibly easy.

Because the data within an .partikl file is typically compressed (e.g. Ogg), the .partikl format itself applies no additional compression, keeping it very simple. The XML descriptors within an .partikl file are very small and make little overall difference to the size of the file.