Post your PxTone creations!

For whatever reason I like the start of Org CityLights better. Cleaner somehow.
annnd besides 15/8 which I think we already talked about, none of your other cops are working for me.

also yaaaay for music!

 

You probably need to download the latest version of Pxtone Collage / Player.
Pixel made some changes that are not reverse-compatible.

 

Hello again. It's been a long time since I've posted on these forums, and it looks like it's been a long time since anyone's been active with PxTone, too. If you've been around, you might remember me from:

• That time when I posted a bad .org and fished for compliments,
• that time when I complained about importing my bad .orgs into Cave Story and couldn't figure the simplest things out without hand-holding,
• and that other time I offered to make bad .orgs for people and then never ended up doing it anyway.

If you don't remember, don't bother checking. That's not me anymore. Three or four years ago I started working with pxtone, and just around the same time I stopped checking these forums. Now that I've learned just about everything I can pick up from the program (and grown as a person and a musician too), I can post something I'm legitimately proud of that I hope you guys will enjoy too.

This is my first album I've posted on Bandcamp. I'll quote the description I put up there, as I think it describes it best: "The Plight of Several Wanderers is jaxcheese's first album release. It tells its own story while emulating the style and common themes of the classic RPGs of the 16-bit era. While it wasn't written to emulate the technical specs of a specific system, it uses mostly instruments made using the YM2413 sound chip found in the Sega Genesis, and drum samples from classic games."

It was written entirely using PxTone, and represents everything I've learned about it over the years.

I hope you guys will enjoy this. If anyone has any criticisms I'd love to hear them, as I'm still working on new projects with PxTone and probably won't be stopping any time soon. Also, if anyone wants any of the .ptcops to check out the patterns or extract the instruments, I can upload those too. One last note: it should be free, but Bandcamp only allows me 200 free downloads per month. If you'd like to download it but it appears to be paid, check back in a week or two and it should probably be free again.

Thanks again to everyone reading this and everyone who helped me here in years past,

-jaxcheese

 

Dark blue against green? That's not exactly easy on the eyes.

Are these going to be used for anything, or just for show?

 

Purely "for show" as of right now. If I get a chance to collaborate with some artists and programmers in the future I'd love to put my music to some use.

 

whoa, I actually really like these! I haven't been on the forums long enough to know what you used to be like, but you're certainly good now
I really like the awkward time signatures ^_^ Although I have to say, by the time I'd listened to that crash cymbal sound 1000 times, it was starting to get really irritating, kinda like the annoying synths and snare drum in sonic 4 did (If you've ever played that...)
Am I right in thinking this is Chrono Trigger/Zelda inspired?

 

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely get where you're coming from with the crash cymbal sound, I think I may have been getting a bit annoyed by it myself, although I can't comment on Sonic 4 drums. I may try to find a cleaner-sounding one for my next project.
In regards to inspiration, there were a ton of games that inspired different riffs and songs, but Chrono Trigger was definitely in there. It's one of my favorite RPGs.

I finished another project in Pxtone.
https://jaxcheese.bandcamp.com/album/project-h-incomplete-nightmares
Like the last one, it uses 16-bit instruments based on sega consoles.
If you're interested, this one's got a bit of a story behind it, as well as some excellent track artwork by a friend of mine.
The nature of it means that it was not really designed to be an album as much as a complement to another project, so it's shorter and somewhat less coherent than previous releases.

Doesn't seem like this thread is used very much any more, so I'm not gonna dump a bunch of information here this time for no one to see.
If a mod reads this, would it be appropriate to make my own thread for my projects, or continue posting them here, or stop posting them on this forum altogether?

As usual, if anyones wants .ptcops of any of the songs I'll gladly upload them.

EDIT: Dunno why my new post was merged into the last one. I get irritation about double-posting but you can't make that a general rule. The previous part was months ago. I'm putting this in a separate post making the assumption that it'll merge into the previous one again.

EDIT AGAIN: Looks like it wasn't a bug but an actual system, because the additional post got added on again. This one's a legit edit :3
Pretty frustrating that this doesn't get bumped by a new post, though. I assumed the whole ponit was that threads with recent updates show up on the front page.

 

By all means continue posting here. The rule of thumb around here is that it is better to use an existing thread than create a new one.

But yeah, there is a double post merger in place.

 

Is there any function to double post as a bump when there's legitimate activity going on? Or does it still get moved up when a double post is made?
I know there's at least a few threads I follow that are only occasionally updated by a few people, and I'd hate to miss an important update. I suppose subscribing is the easy solution to that, though.

 

Consecutive posts by the same user are always merged (barring something not working properly), but the thread still shows up as having new content.

 

Your newest work reminds me of Tommy Tallarico's stuff, especially the last track. If you haven't already, listen to what he did for Aladdin and Earthworm Jim 2 on Genesis.

 

Being a pretty huge Genesis fan I have a fair amount of respect for Tommy Tallarico's work, so that's high praise to me. That said, EJ2's music always felt a little...gimmicky to me, as did the game. Cool stuff, though, thanks. I was definitely going for a Genesis feel.

Also, ironically enough, one of the unfinished beta tracks in the download had a bunch of the screaming samples from EJ1 in it. I assume that's not the one you're talking about, though?

 

I know what you mean about EJ2 since it has Moonlight Sonata, bagpipes, that Italian song, and all that.
He was probably trying to be really random with the music choices or something since it's such a weird game.
I personally only care for the ending credits song and Lorenzen's Soil anyways.

But yeah, people usually favor the SNES chip which is great and all, but FM synths always rock.
The Genesis chip always gets a bad rap when there's a Genesis version of a SNES song because some sound programmers were lazy or were unfamiliar with it or who knows, not me.

There really were some gems though, like Thunder Force IV...

What I meant earlier about the track "World Domination" was how the leads sound like something Tommy would do. They may even be the same samples now that I listened again. Also some parts of it sounded like Mother 3 to me.

 

I generally feel the same way about Genesis vs. SNES sound. SNES is probably capable of doing more varied types of music, but Genesis music always felt thicker and fuller to me. Even though SNES had all the great orchestral stuff like Chrono Trigger, Shining Force did somewhat the same thing on the Genesis. I usually see people write off the SNES as having better sound when they're doing comparisons, but it really depends on taste, I think.

Hey, Mother 3 and Thunder Force are some of my favorites too. You seem like a cool guy.

 

Cave Story was probably the point where I started getting passionate about VGM. Now though, these forums are kinda weird since the regulars have already exhausted nearly every topic on the game. I'm really only still here to post orgs sometimes.

 

I agree with you there. As much as I love Cave Story I've pretty much only ever been here for music stuff.
Being so impressed with Cave Story's music, and getting the opportunity to use OrgMaker to make music just like that (I hoped) was what put me on the path to writing video game-styled music.

 

I've posted some PxTone stuff here, but it's been years.

 

Yeah, honestly, it doesn't seem like the best place for musical discussion, but I'm afraid if I went to some kind of general computer audio forum it would be all above my head. From what I can tell Pxtone is pretty basic compared to most similar programs, but it's doing the job for me for right now. I've gotten into Famitracker too recently, so it's been kinda nice having small communities where I don't have to worry about looking like a novice.

 

As far as I know, there's no dedicated english forum for OrgMaker or PxTone, so this is pretty much the only place to be. The Famitracker forums can be helpful at times though. I've made some Famitracker stuff too, but I don't think there's a topic here about it. I wish there was some place I could point you to regarding computer audio, but I learned most of what I know by experimentation. PxTone is really powerful if you push it to its limits (George & Jonathan come to mind.)

 

Funny - I was going to mention George and Jonathan when I was talking about Pxtone being basic but decided against it. I was literally *just* listening to G&J3.
I've been on the Famitracker forums for a couple of weeks, everyone there has been pretty helpful. I also checked out the TIGSource audio forums a while back but it was somewhat less helpful. I suppose I'm better off learning from music and from experience. There's nothing more satisfying than writing music the way you like to hear it. Still, it's great to have people to talk to about games and music. Pretty much no one in my town is into the same stuff as me.