Hey there,

A while back, I wrote synth driven music with live drums, with the intention of using it in a game. I have since converted that music to 8-bit for use in my 2nd game. However, if possible, I would like to have the synth music with live drums available as well, as a seperate option. ie. if player chooses 8-bit soundtrack, they get the 8-bit battle theme. If they choose the synth option, they would have that track play as the battle theme. Is there a way to do that with this plugin?

You probably could do that without my plugin, but mine would make it easier.

For, you see, when you load a music track with the Soundtrack Manager, you have the option to give it an alias, and from then on, you can refer to the track by its alias. So, let's say you have a switch called "8-bit soundtrack". Every time you load a track, do something like this:

Notice that both "Load" commands are accessing different tracks, but assigning them the same alias. Then, when you play back, tell it to play "Dungeon" and it will play the track you loaded, and until you cleared or re-loaded the track (which you never technically have to do) it would always call the correct one. 

You would need to reload every single loaded track when you switch between the two soundtracks, mind you.

Thanks for the response! So brainstorming it, maybe the best way to handle it is have an dialogue option at the start of the game that sets the switch for which OST to use? I think you are referring to something like that. I don't know code (why I use other people's plugins), so wouldn't know how to set this as a menu option. Especially since I use VisuStella for a lot of stuff, including the options menu core.

I will actually give your plugin a try here then. And if you have any further tips on how best to handle this, it would really be appreciated!

EDIT: Hmm, so I got it working sort of, as far as having the music playing on the overworld based on a choice menu I have at the start of the game. And I set it to change battle BGM if it is set to synth, otherwise not to change it from what's set in RPG Maker MZ settings. But, when it transitions from overworld to battle, the overworld music keeps playing.

EDIT2: Okay, I got it to play the proper track in battle by adding it as a plugin command to the troop on turn 0. If there is a cleaner way to do this, let me know. New issue I have encountered is, the battle music and overworld music are playing at the same time in battle, I don't know how to make the overworld music stop when the new track is set to play through your plugin. I have a bit more time to fiddle tonight, if I figure it out I will post back. Since all of this might help someone else who wants to do this as well.

EDIT3: Okay, for that issue, I set it to crossfade when playing the new music, and a crossfade timer of 0. Making progress! The victory music isn't playing though. It sounds like it fades out temporarily where the game wants to play it, and then it immediately resumes playing the battle music. I'd also need to have it be able to choose between 8-bit or synth victory music, so not just what it's set to in MZ Database - System 1 tab. Should have more time to look into it myself tomorrow. Thinking about it, I guess I would also need it to be able to switch to game over music and stop battle music on that happening, and properly play either 8-bit or synth music.

EDIT4: Sorry for the wall of text! Hopefully this isn't overwhelming. I decided to try a bit more. But, it seems it is basically not really triggering music effects. For example, I have a recovery statue on the map, and when you use it, it's supposed to play a jingle. With this plugin active and the overworld music playing through the plugin, the jingle doesn't play. If this is too much, I understand this might be beyond the scope of your plugin, let me know. As cool as it would be to have this working, I had initially planned on only having 8-bit music, so it isn't like the project is hopeless if that's all I can do.

I'm actually a little perplexed by some of the things you said. For example, when you said the overworld music and the battle music played at the same time? Unless you were using the Soundtrack Layering plugin - which is separate from this one - or some other plugin not by me that affects playback somehow, I have absolutely no idea how that happened. Nor can I guess why MEs seemed not to work, as Soundtrack Manager doesn't do anything special with MEs.

Hey there,

So I switched to another plugin that does what I want, and will be a lot less clicking to set it up. And I have it working. So, you don't need to stress about my posts anymore. But, just in case, your plugin is being discussed in my topic on the RPG Maker MZ forum, I *think* someone was indicating they may have found a bug with it which was causing music effects to not play. Unless I read it wrong. Just wanted to give you a heads up. It's post #8 https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/plugin-that-lets-you-change-bet...

I can run ME files just fine in MZ myself with Soundtrack Manager active, so if there's a bug I can't reproduce it. I think Robro33 might have been trying to run the MV version of Soundtrack Manager through FOSSIL? Maybe? I don't really go out of my way to support FOSSIL; maybe it works and maybe it doesn't, but that shouldn't be relevant if you're using the MZ version of the plugin anyway. 

That or he's referring to the other plugin.