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Oh, man, that brings back memories x3 I didn't know you could get Magix on PS2, but I did spend a lot of time messing around on MTV Music Generator 3 on my PS2 back in the day!

For all my recent OSTs, I've just used Audacity and the free/trial version of FLStudio (cos it's so darn expensive >.<) I feel like I should probably look into other options, but I was already using Audacity for editing SFX and voice actor recordings, so it just felt natural to use it for music too and dip into FLStudio as needed (cos you can't save projects in the trial version T_T)

Bitter/Sweet's OST and DD's few original tracks were the first two that I did using mainly loops & samples that I've purchased on sale – both made in Audacity.

Dawn of the Damned and The Graveyard's Shift's OSTs consist mostly of totally free loops from the amazing folks at Looperman, and again, all done in Audacity.

Buuuuuut, going back to 2021 when I first started trying to make soundtracks for my stuff, I used Magix Music Maker, haha. So it's still alive and kicking! I only found out about it because I happened to grab the EDM edition or something as part of a Humble Bundle, and it included a voucher for a few soundpools, so I figured I'd check it out and see if I could get anything made with it, haha. So it was MMM that I used to make Apartment No.9 and Limbo Line's OSTs. Well, Limbo Line's was more half-done in MMM with their soundpools + half done in Audacity with some of the other loops and samples I owned outside of MMM.

Anyways, I believe there's a free version of MMM if you ever fancied messing around with it again :3 https://www.magix.com/gb/music/music-maker/

The main reasons I stopped using it were:

A – Once I'd gotten the hang of it, it felt a bit restrictive At the time, it wouldn't allow you to change the tempo of the whole track or the loops. In the version I owned, you were limited to only 8 layers/instruments per track, with the option to upgrade to a (what I deemed too expensive) pro/premium version.

B – Soundpools were kind of expensive.

C – Anything you made using the software/samples/loops from their soundpools was strictly for personal/non-commercial use only, with the (extremely expensive) option to purchase commercial use per soundpool.

So yeah, when I realised I could build tracks in essentially the same sort of way, but less restricted, I figured I might as well carry on in Audacity and use non-MMM samples and loops because there are plenty of places out there selling loops with commercial use allowed for waaaaaay cheaper than what they are from MMM. For example, one MMM soundpool said it would cost £75 for commercial use on it rather than just personal, but elsewhere, you can get packs with commercial use allowed of equal quality and total files for more like £15-£30. And many of the artists who submit loops for free on Looperman say you can use them in your commercial tracks as long as you give them a mention somehow!

Oh, aaaand, MMM had a habit of crashing on me too, which was extremely irritating as it never autosaved projects >.<

Maybe some of the stuff above has changed though since I stopped using it at the end of 2021! Another thing I really didn't like about it though is how frequently they released new versions of it, but if you had purchased the premium version, you didn't get a free upgrade or anything, even if there weren't many new features, you'd have to buy the new premium version all over again. That really put me off of sinking any money into it. So I just stuck with the stuff that I got as part of the Humble Bundle.

On the plus side, it was extremely user-friendly and the way they organised your soundpools on there made it a cinch to locate what you were looking for, unlike my giant mess of a library that I have accumulated x3 Afaik though, there is free software out there that help you organise your own files in a similar way, I've just yet to actually put aside some time to do that.

I'm glad I discovered it though because it made it possible for someone like me who had no clue wtf they were doing to get started! What I do now in Audacity is pretty much the same as what I was doing with MMM, just with a lot fewer restrictions, but without MMM, I wouldn't have known I could do what I do now in Audacity, haha. Very much like how I started out using Tyranobuilder to make Vns! I don't use it now for various reasons, but if not for that, I doubt I would ever have been able to get into making Vns in the first place because I tried Ren'py and it put me off cos I hated the coding so much x3

Hehe, well, that's fair enough about the timers :3 I still haven't started trying to use them again, but I'm gonna after I send this message or I will keep putting it off, haha.

Same :3 I've always been interested in mental health and psychology in general! Even chose to study psychology at college cos I was considering becoming a therapist as a career option, but also just wanted to know more about how my own brain worked and maybe solve the mystery of my anxiety and depression somehow since, at the time, nothing else was helping xD But yeah, it wasn't talked about when I was little either. All through school, mental health was never even mentioned, and stuff like anxiety and depression were just words that we didn't know. It wasn't until I saw a doctor and a therapist at 16/17 after leaving school that I discovered all that was even a thing! I got slapped with an anxiety and depression diagnosis right away at 16, haha. But back then, autism wasn't something that was discussed, so again, I didn't know that was a thing either, which meant I spent the rest of my teens and pretty much all of my twenties wondering why on earth this anxiety and depression I'd been labelled with never seemed to go away despite all the medications and therapies >.<

I'm glad that there's more awareness surrounding mental health now and that kids at school have a better chance of getting help, but I also wish that there was more help out there for adults like me that had to grow up without any awareness of that sort of stuff and who are still struggling now. I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but here in the UK, it seems as though what little funding that does go towards mental health support seems to only get funneled to school-aged kids. So once you pass 16, it's like you're just screwed and left in limbo to fend for yourself :(

That's amazing though that doing the VN videos with all that reading has helped :3 You also do a fantastic job at getting in character as you read too! I really love the clear separation between you being focused on reading lines and then you just being you as you comment on stuff :D

I don't blame ya for not having the energy for jams! I often find myself wondering if I'll be able to muster it x3 I'm pretty sure a day is gonna come where I just can't and I'm gonna have to accept that and step aside, haha. I have a bad feeling it could be this year, but I hope not.

The whole feeling guilty when not working thing seems to be a curse that's afflicting more and more people x3 It's a horrible thing to be gripped by, but you're absolutely right that living is not working until you're tired + that doing nothing is sometimes exactly what you need! I have to keep reminding myself of these things – with varying degrees of success xD

Hehe, yeah, Blythe kinda crumbled pretty fast on that one x3 I really like that you called ol' blue Blythe “Azul” :D And someone else said they refer to the character as “Bluthe”! I feel like both of these names need to be referenced at some point in the route when it's eventually written!! x3 But yeah, Dom's voice acting is indeed quite awesome :3 I had the honour of working with him during last year's Spooktober Jam where he played the grouchy detective Shearsmith in The Graveyard Shift. Since that character was a protagonist, I thought it would be really fun to hear how he played a more villainous role instead :D I think it's safe to say that he absolutely smashed it ^-^