Microsoft DirectX 9.0

Music Files for Composition

When programming for DirectMusic composition, you will use a variety of files created in DirectMusic Producer or a similar application. You load these elements into the application as COM objects and obtain interfaces to them.

The following table summarizes the types of file objects you will encounter. Any of these objects can also be obtained from a container file or from a resource.

The class GUID is the value that you put in the guidClass member of the DMUS_OBJECTDESC structure when loading the object.

Element Class GUID Interface File extension
Band CLSID_DirectMusicBand IDirectMusicBand8 .bnd
Chordmap CLSID_DirectMusicChordMap IDirectMusicChordMap8 .cdm
DLS collection CLSID_DirectMusicCollection IDirectMusicCollection8 .dls
Segment CLSID_DirectMusicSegment IDirectMusicSegment8 .sgt
Style CLSID_DirectMusicStyle IDirectMusicStyle8 .sty

Note   Bands can be authored as part of a style, in which case they are automatically loaded when the style is loaded. Similarly, styles and bands can be authored into a segment, in which case you don't need separate files for those elements.

Files can also contain references to other files. If a style contains a reference to a band file, the band is automatically loaded when the style is, provided the loader can find the band file.

See Also