PxTone Collage () is a

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

music editing program. The program is developed by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. It is currently in the beta stage of development, and has been since 2006. The program also is capable of opening other

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

formats developed by Pixel (.ptnoise and .ptvoice) in addition to some more popular audio formats, such as .

wav Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Win ...

and .

ogg Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The authors of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high-quality d ...

. The primary interface of the program is a piano roll display. It is used to place notes and specify duration, volume, panning, and pitch, among other things. The

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

of a song can be set once, but it cannot be changed during playback (or at any point in the song other than the beginning). The .ptcop and .pttune formats also allow the storage of some additional information, such as song comments and song name. Along with PxTone Collage are included several programs for creating instrument samples (.ptnoise and .ptvoice format) and a small player application. Included with these programs is the PxTone engine library. The source code for said audio processing engine can be downloaded separately.

History

In 1998, Pixel released a small music-writing and playback application known as PiyoPiyo. This format features three melody tracks with customizable wave samples, and a fourth track dedicated solely to drum samples. The editor interface uses a piano roll, a similarity shared by all of Pixel's future music editors. A considerable flaw with the PiyoPiyo design is that its playback is linked to CPU usage, in that a heavily taxed CPU will cause playback to slow down. Some time later, Pixel developed the Organya (OrgMaker) format for use in the

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

Cave Story ''Cave Story'', originally released as is a 2004 Metroidvania platform-adventure game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed over five years by Japanese independent developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya in his free time. ''Cave Story'' features 2D ...

. This format is very similar to PiyoPiyo, with the major difference being support for up to 8 melody tracks and 8 drum tracks for 16 simultaneous sounds. Rather than having the specifications of the waveform editable, Organya uses a built-in library of 100 wave "instruments" to choose from. PxTone began development in 2006 for use in a number of future games, such as

Kero Blaster is a platform video game created by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. It was released in 2014 for PC and iOS and is the first major project of Pixel since ''Cave Story'' in 2004. The game places a heavy emphasis on shooting and received positive reviews on ...

(and other games using its engine like Pink Hour), Guxt, Shine-Shine Galaxy, and Soaprun.

Features

* Up to 100 voice samples, 50 instrument units, and 500,000 events per file * Sampling of .

, .

pcm Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amp ...

, .ptvoice, and .ptnoise * Effect groups for echo and overdrive * Comment metadata * Velocity, Pan, Volume, Key Portamento and Key Correct adjustment * Exports to .

and .pttune

Limitations

* Does not support VSTs * Does not support 32-bit output sampling * Does not support midi import or export

References

External links

Pixel Development
Developer's website
ptCollab
A third-party collaborative PxTone editor
PxTone Collage Collective
A third-party board with helpful resources, among other things.
PxTone web
Third-party website for sharing and listening to PxTone music
PiSTON SOURCE
A netlabel of PxTone music {{Daisuke Amaya Music software

History

Features

Limitations

See also

References

External links