MTV Music Generator <> MUSIC Creation software differences accross countries

[DJ Omnimaga]

Sometimes there are users who venture into the old MTV Music Generator series to create tunes, but because on each continent releases had different names, this can be confusing about what software we are talking about. Here's a list of all of them:

Europe	North America	Platform	Year	Developer	Publisher
Music	-	PS1	1998	Jester Interactive	Codemasters
Music 2000	MTV Music Generator	PS1	1999	Jester Interactive	Codemasters
Music 2000	MTV Music Generator	PC	2000	Jester Interactive	Codemasters
MTV Music Generator 2	MTV Music Generator 2	PS2	2001	Jester Interactive	Codemasters
Pocket Music	-	GBC	2002	Jester Interactive	Rage Software
Pocket Music	-	GBA	2002	Jester Interactive	Rage Software
Music 2002 Club Edition	-	PC	2003	Jester Interactive	Jester Interactive
Music 3000	Digital Hitz Factory	PS2	2003 (2004 in NA)	Jester Interactive	Jester Interactive (XS Games in NA)
Music 3000	Digital Hitz Factory	Xbox	Cancelled	Jester Interactive	-
MTV Music Generator 3	MTV Music Generator 3	PS2	2004	Mixmax	Codemasters
MTV Music Generator 3	MTV Music Generator 3	Xbox	2004	Mixmax	Codemasters

When I have time I might add small descriptions. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that in terms of direct sequels/upgrades and in terms of samples it would be:

Music->Music 2000->MTVMG2->Music 3000
Music 2000 PC->Music 2002 Club Edition->Music 3000

The rest got no direct prequel or sequel and don't include any sample from other games.

Differences between Music 2000 and MTV Music Generator
Noisetoys: The origins of Music 1

[Jonius7]

Yay DJ_O this is a great find! I knew about some of the many versions, but having them here referenced in one place makes it all the easier.
Speaking of referenced, it would be nice if we had a "Reference" section, though a bit different to "Tutorials".

[Fear 2 Stop]

Forgive me for bumping an old topic, but MG3 technically is a part of the series in name only, as it was done by a different developer and uses a completely different engine.

[DJ Omnimaga]

Yeah it was made by Mixmax. As a result, MTVMG3 had much less bugs and glitches, but it was absolutely horrible in terms of creativity freedom.

[Fear 2 Stop]

It also wasn't very user friendly, at least to me.

[DJ Omnimaga]

Actually, I personally found MTVMG3 to be the most user-friendly as soon as you got used to the controls. The controls seemed strange at first, but among all the MTV programs, it always took me less time to make a song in MTVMG3 than it did in MTVMG1 and 2. In MTVMG2 and Digital Hits Factory, it was far longer than MTVMG1, however, by about 3 hours, and in Music 2002 it usually took me 6 extra hours because of the controls. I never made a song in the PC version of MTVMG nor the europe-only Music Creation software from 1998.

[Fear 2 Stop]

Normally takes about an hour to an hour and a half in MG2...twice that in DHF. Can't really do anything in MG1 as the scrolling , coupled with the screen not changing makes it impossible to tell if you've gone up or down an octave in the riff editor.

[handsolo]

Anyone know where to buy music 2000 for pc?  Where do you find this program?

The pc versions of this game are nowhere to be found.  I wish it was on steam, i'd like a safe copy to download, i really don't want to deal with iso's. 

[DJ Omnimaga]

Heya and welcome here. Unfortunately I only ever found Music 2000 PC once before, and it was on Amazon, where it costed $100 due to being a collector item.

You could try to find Music 2002 Club Edition instead, which is almost exactly the same thing, except with 4000 extra samples from the PS2 Music 3000 and it cannot open MTVMG files. It's not that easy to find either, but I managed to find a $2 copy a few years ago on Ebay.

[DJ Omnimaga]

Update: Before MUSIC there was this:



it was basically MUSIC, but in its early production days it seemed to have been called NoiseToys before getting renamed to MUSIC Station then later just MUSIC.

I totally didn't know that until now, though.

Here's MUSIC final version using the default blue theme:

[hellninjas]

o.o There is no way i'm using THAT...

[DJ Omnimaga]

I don't like the controls of that software. I prefer the ones in MTV Music Generator (or Music 2000 for you europeans). They're much more user-friendly. Also in MUSIC, although every sample from MTVMG are available, there are 8 fewer sound channels, which would be quite limited for my music.

[hellninjas]

Oh I didn't see default Blue Theme, I'd use Blue but that other theme... It's just awful o_o
(And I still can't find MTV Music Generator ;_;)

[DJ Omnimaga]

Yeah the other theme is strange. Also I hate how small the song area is. In MTV it almost takes the entire screen:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0HWjXY60Lo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0HWjXY60Lo</a>

As for MTVMG it's really hard to find. I found an ISO back in 2006 and kept it since, in case my second CD breaks. I had another real copy before, but the CD stopped working. Also the game only runs properly in ePSXe with the Eternal SPU sound plugin found on some emulation sites.

Of course there's also MTVMG2 which isn't too bad, but it scrolls vertically and the ADSR for notes can be hard to setup (the fact it's graphical like in MTVMG actually makes it easier, but the problem is that in MTVMG2 each note got 8 ADSR settings per note, which aren't easy to notice, so as a result, you end up changing only the first, only to barely see any note difference because you forgot to change the 7 others.)

[DJ Omnimaga]