Synthetic music mobile application format explained

SMAF File Format
Extension:.mmf
Owner:Yamaha Corporation
Genre:audio file format

Synthetic music[1] Mobile Application Format, abbreviated SMAF, is a music data format specified by Yamaha for portable electronic devices, such as cell phones and PDAs. The file extension for SMAF is .MMF and is common as ringtones for mobile phones with one of five sound chips.

SMAF resembles MIDI, but also supports graphics and PCM sound playback. Its MIDI playback is produced via FM synthesis or PCM sample-based synthesis, where instrument data (parameters and/or PCM samples) is stored within the .MMF file itself, similar to module files. This enables users to create custom instruments, which will sound exactly the same on devices with the same chip.

The feature set used in SMAF files usually orients itself at the chips produced by Yamaha for playback:

MA-1 (YMU757) 4 FM voices
MA-2 (YMU759) 16 FM voices, ADPCM playback
MA-3 (YMU762) 32 FM voices, 8 wavetable voices, PCM/ADPCM playback
MA-5 (YMU765) 64 voices (FM + wavetable + Analog Lite synthesizer), PCM/ADPCM playback
MA-7 (YMU786) 128 voices (FM + wavetable + Analog Lite synthesizer), PCM/ADPCM playback

External links

  1. smaf-yamaha.com spells it Synthetic music Mobile Application Format, with the word "music" not capitalized so it does not participate in the abbreviation SMAF.