Quick start 빠른 시작 · クイックスタート
Just listen to a song
CD SONG
MUCPLAY SONG.MUC
Press any character key or Esc to stop.
Edit, hear, repeat
MUCEDIT SONG.MUC
Inside the editor: F1 2 to compile → read the result →
F1 3 to play. Like what you hear? Ctrl+S to save.
You do not have to save before compiling — MUCEDIT compiles the buffer in memory.
Work from DOS and export
MUCPLAY /LOAD SONG.MUC ← read the source into memory
MUCPLAY /COMPILE ← compile it (nothing is written to disk yet)
MUCPLAY /PLAY ← listen
MUCPLAY /MUB SONG.MUB ← export compiled song data
MUCPLAY /VGM SONG.VGM ← export a chip-command log
MUCPLAY /RELEASE ← free the session when you are done
Edited the .MUC in another editor? Run /LOAD again —
/COMPILE alone recompiles the copy already in memory.
Convert without playing — one song, or a whole album
MUC2MUB SONG.MUC ← writes SONG.MUB
MUC2MUB SONG.MUC TEST.MUB ← or name the output yourself
For a whole album, let DOS drive it. Put this in BUILD.BAT:
@ECHO OFF
MUC2MUB SONG01.MUC
MUC2MUB SONG02.MUC
MUC2MUB SONG03.MUC
MUC2MUB returns 0 on success and 1 on failure, so a shell can check
each song. It does not stop the batch by itself when one song fails — and a
.MUB left over from an earlier run will still be sitting there, so never count files to
decide whether a batch succeeded.
MML at a glance
| Channel | Sound source |
A B C | FM 1–3 |
D E F | SSG 1–3 |
G | Rhythm |
H I J | FM 4–6 |
K | ADPCM / PCM |
FM is not a continuous run from A to F — D, E,
F are SSG, and FM continues at H.
#mucom88 1.7
#title First Steps
#composer ToughkidCST
D T120 C128 o4 l8 v10 q0 cdef gab>c4 r4
E C128 o3 l4 v8 c r g r c r g r
F C128 o2 l2 v7 c g c g
Case matters: c is a note but C sets the base clock;
t225 is a raw Timer-B value while T120 is BPM.
Two gotchas worth knowing up front
/L does not mean the same thing everywhere.
| Command | /L5 means |
MUCPLAY SONG.MUC /L5 | play 5 times |
MUCPLAY /VGM SONG.VGM /L5 | export 5 playthroughs |
MUBPLAY SONG.MUB /L5 | play 5 times |
MUBPLAY SONG.MUB /V /L5 | export 5 seconds |
Sizes are three separate limits, not one. They are easy to conflate,
and adding RAM raises none of them.
| Limit | Value | Applies to |
| Editing buffer | 24 KiB | What MUCEDIT can hold open, after line endings are normalized |
| Source file | 64 KiB | What MUC2MUB accepts as input — the whole file, comments included |
| Compiled song data | 32 KiB | Notes, channel structure and the voice table together |
Final .MUB | no fixed limit | Header + data + tags + PCM; routinely larger than the three above |
So a 40 KiB .MUC compiles fine with MUC2MUB but will not open in MUCEDIT, and a
small source packed with notes can overflow the 32 KiB data area while a comment-heavy large one does not.