SNOWY_FOX'S PROFILE

I'm an amateur composer and game designer, currently trying to turn my hobbies into a career. I've been dabbling with RPG Maker for many years, and recently also started tinkering with Godot, but I'm yet to release anything more than a small prototype.

Music is my main creative focus, and my contributions to the RMN Music Pack earned me the Judges' Choice award, and I also joint-won the Community Choice award with Miles "Kunsel" Mulet. I also contributed to and mastered its sequel, RMN Music Pack 2. I currently live in Oxfordshire, England.

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M-DRIVE 16-bit Music Pack: Now Available!



M-DRIVE, the 16-bit music pack, is now available to buy! It's a varied collection of music and sound effects that are inspired by a certain classic 16-bit games console of the early nineties. You know, the one with a controller that looked like a fat boomerang and a TOTALLY RADICAL spiky blue mascot. Yep, that one.

Each of M-DRIVE's music tracks and sound effects has been lovingly crafted using the same synthesis method as the original console's Yamaha sound chip, in the styles of many of the games I grew up loving. When composing, I tried to hold the idea of an action RPG in mind, but the pack is open to several different game genres. M-DRIVE's audio is optimised for use with RPG Maker, but can be used in any game engine.

Find out more and pick up a copy here!

Have feedback or questions or just want support? Drop them down below, or direct them over to the official discussion thread over on the RPG Maker Forums. Honestly, I'll probably see it sooner if it's posted over there, but I'll try and keep an eye on here too.

M-DRIVE 16-bit Music Pack: Price?

Greetings all! I'm Snowy, a composer and sound designer, and full-time fluffy thing. Please allow me to introduce my first entry into the RPG Maker music pack world: M-DRIVE, the 16-bit music pack!

...Hang on, let me just boot it up.


The music pack contains:

• 14 BGM tracks
• 5 ME tracks
• 16 SFX
• All of the above in multiple file types and formats suitable for every version of RPG Maker, including M4A versions for exporting to mobile, and MP3s suitable for listening

Each of M-DRIVE's music tracks and sound effects has been lovingly crafted using the same synthesis method as its 16-bit console inspiration's Yamaha sound chip, in the styles of many of the games I grew up loving. When composing, I tried to hold the idea of an action RPG in mind, but the pack is open to several different game genres - including, of course, more traditional, turn-based RPGs.

The pack is currently scheduled for release sometime in mid-May, though there is still a chance that that might change. However...
your feedback is wanted!

I'm still in discussions with Degica about the pack's sale price, and I thought it would be a good idea to get the community's input on the issue, including over here on RMN. How much would you be willing to pay for M-DRIVE? $15.00? $25.00? Somewhere in-between, even more, or even less? Please, share and discuss your suggestions below!

More information on M-DRIVE, more audio previews, and a demo game, can be found on my website.


As a side note, I would like to point out that the final price is not my decision. It's Degica's store, and they set the price. I can only give them my suggestions.

XP Music Pack

Enterbrain are promoting the new XP Music Pack by Kain Vinosec. Having listened and re-listened to the previews, I'm making this the first music pack they've released since VX Ace that I won't be buying. Quoting from the post I made on the official forum:

In my opinion, RPG Maker XP had the best music of the series. I've heard the original tracks until they've been burned into my very brainage... and I'm sorry, but this pack just doesn't do it justice.

Kain's MIDI to audio conversions sound unpolished, unfinished even. The mixing is haphazard - all of the supporting instruments and phrases seem to be taking the centre stage, while the melodies and rhythms sink back and are lost in the mix, helped down by too much reverb.

He also seems to have misunderstood some of the original composer's clever MIDI tricks. The flute in Field 1, for example, was originally split over two tracks. The first plays the melody, panned to the left, while the second plays it again after a short delay, panned to the right and at half the volume. The result is a pleasant and subtle echo effect. Kain has missed this point totally, and left the volume the same for both tracks in his DAW. The result is two loud flutes playing the same melody and sounding like they're just competing for the listener's attention.

Since the release of VX Ace, this is the first music pack Enterbrain have promoted that I won't be buying. Without some serious additional mixing and mastering work, this is not worth $20.00.

I haven't been in the RMN community long, but I've been here throughout the RMN Music Pack project, and I know the RPG Maker community at large is capable of better than this. Guided by Happy, we released a music pack with much higher mixing and mastering standards than this for free.

Before the RMN Music Pack project was announced, I had actually just started work on my own vision for an XP music pack. Rather than haphazardly converting the original MIDIs, I was recomposing my favourite tracks from scratch, and trying to improve on them to bring them up to a similar feel and sound to RPG Maker 3's gorgeous music, while retaining their brilliant melodies and the "gamey" orchestral sound they had. A tall order, but I love XP's music enough that I aimed for it.

Now, I'm not a petty fox, but I can't help but feel a little bit cheated that, in the midst of me working on this project, someone else has taken the music I love and charged twenty Dollars apiece for doing very little work to it.

I guess I'm just ranting here. But, in the wake of the RMN Music Pack, I refuse to believe that nobody else is going to listen to the XP Music Pack and notice its mixing and mastering issues.

Opinions, plox.

EDIT
Kain Vinosec did not do the conversions. From here on in, I will direct my frustrations towards Enterbrain themselves. *Shakes fist in the general direction of Japan*
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