MTV Music Generator (PlayStation)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Lauren Fielder
• Reviewed on: 12/10/1999
• Updated on: 05/02/2000
• Released on: 11/30/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: MTV Music Generator (PlayStation) Review

MTV: Music Generator isn't a game but rather a PlayStation program, of sorts, and the type of product we don't see too often. But it can be considered by the same criteria we judge games by: graphics, sound, value, and so forth. Unlike many of the music games that have shown up throughout the last year or so - Parappa, Um Jammer Lammy, and Konami's Bemani series, to name a few - MTV: MG is a music-making tool that attempts to take what PC music-editing and music-creating programs let you do full scale and brings the experience to the novice consumer who happens to own a PlayStation.

It works like this: You pop in the Music Generator disc and choose to create a song. By hitting the circle button on your control pad, you can select from a list of menu items, including what you need to get started: the riff library, which includes about 4,500 samples. In this section, you choose from beats, drums, vocal samples, melodies, bass lines, and so forth, and you place the riffs on the blank score. You then build your song (which we can't tell you how to do here - just be creative), checking and editing it as you go, then saving it when you're finished.

This mode is intuitive and simple, and if you bear in mind your limited memory capacity before you get too far into your song, you will be pleased with what you are able to create so quickly and effortlessly. But the real fun and, likewise, the real downfall of the program appears when you try the more advanced maneuvers. For example, you can record samples from audio CDs by swapping out the disc with the CD of your choice and then following simple commands that pop up on your screen. Once you record the audio you want, it's immediately stored in the sampled riff palette until you move it, save it, and access it later. While this sounds like a great idea and certainly rounds out the program, it's extremely limited. Likewise, the intuitive interface takes a plunge once you start looking around for your newly sampled riff. But the true disappointment, which should come as no surprise, is that you can only save seconds of audio before you run out of memory entirely. And the more self-sampled audio you use, the fewer library riffs you can slip in.You'll realize right away that the ideal setting for intense music creation is not the 2MB RAM PlayStation. In addition, the program, albeit intuitive, is not too attractive. Graphically, it's dull, even if it works. There's a video-editing option as well, wherein you synch up basic moving images and patterns to the song you created. You can also set the program to automate these videos. The problem is, once again, memory space. You're very limited by what you can do, and in the end, these video clips end up looking like low-budget college-computer-lab projects... at best.

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