Файл MOGG

Files with the .mogg extension store compressed audio data in binary notation. They are referred to as a container-style format since they carry multiple separate instrument stems - drums, bass, guitar, vocals and more - multiplexed into a single Ogg Vorbis bitstream. The .mogg format was developed by Harmonix Music Systems and is used primarily in music rhythm games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Thanks to .mogg files, a rhythm game engine can mute or solo each stem in real time during gameplay. A song file most often contains tracks for:

• vocals,
• guitars,
• drums,
• bass,
• synthesizers.

Some channels may appear duplicated - in reality they are mono recordings for the left and right stereo sides, which together create spatial sound. Files are often sourced from original multitrack tape recordings, where each instrument is separated on a dedicated workstation before being mixed down to a single .mogg file.

Plain .mogg files begin with the standard OggS signature at byte offset 0, identical to a regular .ogg file. Many retail Rock Band and Guitar Hero releases, however, prefix the stream with an encrypted header - a 4-byte Harmonix version word, commonly 0x0A or 0x0B and higher - that must be stripped or decrypted before the audio becomes playable. Tools such as Onyx Music Game Toolkit handle this step automatically.

Upon opening a .mogg file in audio creation and editing software, such as Audacity or Avid Pro Tools, there is also the option to save it in another format. This allows conversion to more widely supported formats, for example .MP3, .FLAC, .WAV or .wma. It is possible to export all stems or only a selected subset using the export function for a selected audio track or the entire file.