FFIII DS soundtrack announced.

When is Sekito going to get to do his own thing again?

Harry wrote:

He's working on Dawn of Mana (compositions and arrangements) which is set to come out some time.

...w-w-WHAT?!?
Where did you hear this?

Ito is working on SD4 with Sekito. Exactly the same setup as Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song. I reported it on Ito's webpage for reference.

Last edited by Harry (Jul 15, 2006)

I'll try to have a complete recording done the day the game hits the shelves/whatever.
We'll see.

I'm very happy to see an OST release for this though.    FF3 is probably my favorite FF NES soundtrack... maybe my favorite ever.

When did that happen?

Shimomura only arranged some Disney music (and some FF4 music for Mario RPG) as far as I know, and I haven't heard Uematsu arrangeing anything belonging to anyone else so far, but I haven't heard everything he's done.
He seems to be writing Main Theme's for random games mostly lately.
To say that they're getting the glory for other people's work seems rather exaggerated, especially since Shimomura's Disney arrangements are easily the least interesting of her work.

Now Tommy Tallarico on the other hand.....

Kaoru Wada arranged a few of Shimomura's tracks for Kingdom Hearts I and II. Can't say that qualifies Shimomura as hiding behind his arrangements, though. I agree arrangers aren't given enough credit for their work most of the time, but that's just the way soundtracks are marketed, I guess.

Last edited by .59 (Jul 15, 2006)

But wouldn't you say that ultimately a soundtrack is judged as a whole? Even if there are a few really great arranged tracks in a game, if the rest of the music is mediocre people will complain. This is even more so when you consider that most arranged orchestrated tracks are only used in cutscenes, while the rest of the music is looped thoughout the game and thus gets the most playtime. A composer wouldn't be able to survive on a good reputation alone.

In Uematsu's case, I believe the problem is not that he's composing bad music, but that he is hardly composing any (new) music at all. There's a bunch of joint efforts with the Black Mages which he ends up getting the most credit for in the media, and I guess you could call that unfair, but at least the original tracks were written by him. And pretty much everyone knows Sakimoto took main composing duties for FFXII (especially since his style's a dead giveaway).

As for Kenji Ito, I suppose his fanbase is largely in Japan, while he is (somewhat?) unpopular abroad, but it'd be hard to argue that all that's keeping him in the business is the support he gets from members Square's sound team, whose job it is to make his mediocre tunes sound great so his fans can continue to sing praise of him. Tastes differ, 'is all.

Shimomura's soundtrack for KH2 got mixed reactions, partly over the inferior sound quality, but I don't see anyone saying she did great only because of the eight or something arranged tracks that were added to the score. It takes more that 8 good tracks out of 89 to satisfy even hardcore fans.

Also, I find it hard to believe composers like Sekito are being forced to continue to arrange other's works. If they really were to have the responsiblility of making other less talented composers (who were hired by Square in the first place) sound good, they would have no problem getting their own time in the spotlight when asked for. Maybe they just like arranging stuff, aside from composing.

Last edited by .59 (Jul 15, 2006)

HamandSushi wrote:

Yeah, it was only eight tracks or so in KH2.  But I'd say that counts, considering they were the only good ones...

If you're of the opinion that sound quality is the same thing as quality competition, maybe.  Past the synth, I find KH2's ost to be better overall than the first game's, I think. 

Talking about orchestration is a slippery slope, too... just because someone modifies an original work to be performed live doesn't give them ownership of the music, necessarily.  Would you say, then, that when translating a novel to a different language it is the translator who should be lauded because the original writer is overrated and takes too much credit?  Does Dostoevsky get all of the "glory" for something like Crime and Punishment by hiding behind translators who are "much more deserving of the spotlight?"

"Does Dostoevsky get all of the "glory" for something like Crime and Punishment by hiding behind translators who are "much more deserving of the spotlight?"

That is just about the most ridiculous straw-man argument I've ever seen.  Of course I don't know Russian, but music is a universal language.  Arrangements aren't "translations" unless they significantly change genres, and I certainly wouldn't count "simplistic game music" as a genre.  Even if it was, the equivalent in the book world would be, say, from The Oddysey to Ulysses. 

Except, instead of the original being a classic epic poem, it's a first-grade narrative along the lines of "Billy went store and I kicked him!!  Then he cried!!!!  The End!!!!!"

Of course, if you don't believe that there are objective standards of taste, this is all pointless.

Qui-Gon Joe wrote:

Does Dostoevsky get all of the "glory" for something like Crime and Punishment by hiding behind translators who are "much more deserving of the spotlight?"

I remember a heavy bashing a then new Murakami novel received in a popular literature critics show based on an English translation, which then turned out to be baseless in the German translation actually released later on. (The show broke apart over this, and Murakami's books released here are all translated by a single person directly from Japanese since.) So yea, it happens even though people like to comfort themselves that only the initial creator would be important.

HamandSushi wrote:

Arrangements aren't "translations" unless they significantly change genres, and I certainly wouldn't count "simplistic game music" as a genre.

Instrumentations, synth quality and mixing can make a difference like day and night for the actual compositions, especially when the listener can't/doesn't want to listen beyond the pure sound quality. E.g. bleep and blops versus orchestral arrangements to take extreme examples common to VGM...

Last edited by Datschge (Jul 16, 2006)

You're probably replying to me, HamandSushi? Well, the statement I made was regarding arrangement in general. I honestly can't say about KH2 in praticular or most Square soundtracks for that matter, their mention of separate synth operators etc. keeps irritating me.

HamandSushi wrote:

Also, bleeps and bloops are great when they realize their limitations (See: Super Mario Brothers versus Star Fox).

Huh? One is NES, the other is SNES and I happen to be a fan of both...What is the reference here?