Nectarine

In the past we have had various attempts at categorizing tunes based on the Platform they play on. SID (6581/8580) and Atari VCS (2600) are obvious: these are the native format of the sound chips in the corresponding system. Things get more complicated with Amiga, as we have AMIGA-MOD, but also AMIGA-AHX, some other less-common tracker formats, and AMIGA-custom as a catch-all for Everything Else Amiga.

At the extreme opposite of SID is the PC "platform". We have the common tracker formats: PC-XM, PC-S3M, PC-IT... in distant Nectarine history, there was the PC-MP3 platform to mean "prerecorded" (or "streaming music" in compo terms). There were/are also platforms for the most popular modern DAW, like PC-Renoise and PC-Reason.

At some point in Necta history, the admin eliminated PC-MP3 (a wise move IMO). But around the same time we ALSO pushed all PC "DAW" type platforms (Renoise, Buzz, Psycle, Reason, etc) together under the same PC (Custom) header. In most cases the platform was exchanged for a tag, so the information wasn't "lost"... On the whole, I feel this was a bad move.

The reality of Platform is that it is an overloaded descriptor, but also one with greater importance than Just a Tag. The change in computer audio since the Sound Blaster of early 90s means that the difference isn't any more what chip it plays on - it's now become the tools you used to write the song. (Consider also MIDI, which has NO "sound" by definition, and is wholly dependent on what soundfont or synth you used... or Xbox which is just playing pre-recorded streaming music - no distinctive sound chip at all, could as well be PC)

I think it's OK to have "platform" be more than just the hardware. It should be broad enough that we can file enough songs under it (NO PXTONE) but not so broad as to be a useless classifier. The alternative is to put everything under PC... and since PC won the war - sorry Amiga/Atari - the situation is only going to get worse as time goes on.

To that end I've tried to restore platform information for songs from what was on archive.org, before the big change was made.

I haven't done anything yet about under-represented platforms like Jaguar etc. but I do want to draw attention to Wild, which seems a suitable Not-Live, Not-PC catch-all category. Perhaps that could be the testing ground for songs that are not yet represented enough for their own Platform, but once we do have enough, we can create it and move them out of there.

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Thoughts? Ideas?

Combining PC newschool platforms was former admin's unilateral decision that nobody else supported. So there hardly is need for discuss about that. jxx and me tried to save some data that was lost in this process. If that is needed, I can try to check if I have it somewhere (jxx copied more of it, I think).

I think "wild" is meant for rare platforms, not for any PC stuff. MID is not a hardware of software platform (in the same sense other platforms here are) so it should not exist at all. Though it may be possible that midi modules (like Roland SC-55 etc.) would have one lumped platform.

We had this platform reform thing some years ago but I got the picture that admin was not interested so nothing happened.

I think Saga_Musix's idea was that each song would have a separate hardware and software platform and they both would be rather like tags than fixed categories (tags can be combined if some undesired separation in categorization occurs so it will not lead to a mess - also the platform menu can be organized neatly by grouping relevant tags together under appropriate headers).

So in this system you could for instance categorize a song as "C64" (hardware) and then "SIDwizard" if you know the music program that was used. Usually you probably do not know which program C64 composer has used so the software platform tag would be left empty. For modern demos and streaming music the hardware would usually be just "PC" but then if software is known, that would lead to more informative taggings at the software side.

This may be a too big change to implement right now but I think it would be a good thing to do at some point.

EDIT: Maybe two hardware platforms would be needed so it would be possible to have taggings like PC & Roland SC-55 (midi module), C64 & dual sid (or sid revision number), NES & Konami's fx extra chip etc.

Heck yeah, horn. Categorization is king. Most specific tag rules, so more options are welcomed.

@franz_opa: If you and jxx have any old datas, I'd like to have them. I restored what I could from archive.org but the list stops at 2012 / 2014, while the decision to merge into PC was sometime apparently in 2016.

Regarding MID platform - I agree it's an oddball, but there are some tunes out there specifically composed as a MIDI and then just "rendered". This is the case for Virt's entries to Kwakfest like World's Most Wanted Wiener. It is definitely more of a "production" tag like "Reason" than a platform of its own.

I think it might be interesting to explore making platforms and DAWs like "supertags", where you can mix and match them. Perhaps the current system makes more sense somewhere like CVGM, where platform strictly means "what system was this game for?" and never mind the composition details. Will have to think about it more!

I don't have much to add to this discussion except... figuring out the platform categories is hard!

At the same time it makes sense to be very strict and limit the platform options to all hardware platforms that make sense:

* a tag for each chip (XBOX songs would go in the SoundStorm platform!)

* a tag for each mass-produced hardware that has a combination of chips.

* for PCM-track trackers, each tracker has features/limitations, so it makes sense to have a platform tag for each tracker format that is unique, so, one platform tag for 4-channel mod, one platform tag for 8-channel mod, one platform tag for farrandole tracker. Basically if it has a unique file format, maybe it deserves its own platform tag.

* And then we reach into the territory of software that basically has no more limitations (DAWs, renoise, buzz, etc). This is where it gets really fuzzy and it's a judgment call whether something has a platform tag. Renoise, obviously does, it's scene-related tracker software. But what of all the DAWs? cubase tag? I mean, why not... but maybe this is the point at which those should go in an

* "Other" category.

* "Wild" is for esoteric hardware.

* "Custom" is for software that was custom-made for the song or production the song's in and since it's such a one-off (or few-off) it does not warrant its own platform tag even though it is technically a platform.

* 4k exe, 8k exe, 64k exe, etc for size-constrained custom

The more platforms the merrier...

That's the way I see it at least. I only want a 669 platform tag, really, and I'll lobby up and down for it to exist...

And aegis sonix please.

About MIDI..
It is well known that MIDI does not define how instruments should sound, but there is a limited number of intended playback devices for game MIDIs at least.
MT-32 pre-GM, Roland GM/GS (best rendered with their SC-55 VST), XG(again, rendered with on of the later softsynths) and MIDIs intended for OPL3/OPL3 playback which are more of a problem because they typically rely on game-specific FM instrument library.
I think it is safe to ignore all other MIDI playback hardware/software.
Personally, only seen one prod with MIDI music though - http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=482

Can we add a platform for YM2612?
Right now anything from mega drive is either mislabeled or "wild" platform.

The icon would read "2612" to avoid conflicting with "YM2149"

There was an "OPN*" platform, before the arab retirement. It should come back! (I think OPN is better for a platform name than a specific YM chip, so that anything in that "class" can go in, same as the OPL* that survives).

There could also be just a Mega Drive platform (the icon could be MD for example), as I'm not aware of any other platforms in the scene that uses 2612.

Maybe sound chip is not the best thing to list as a platform, since you may have coprocessors, etc. that are more specific to whatever implementation using that chip has.

One other sound chip is used alongside the YM2612 on the Mega Drive/Genesis, you know: TI's SN76489