Guide / Reference for Japanese album credits

[Nisto]

Abbreviations
Please note that these are not conclusive lists - one abbreviation could refer to more than what's listed here

General
OP = Opening
ED = Ending
M = Music
CV = Character Voice
OST = Original Soundtrack / Original Sound Track
OSV = Original Sound Version
MV = Music Video

Roles and instruments
Con / Cond = Conductor
G / Gt / Gtr = Guitar
E. Gt / Eg = Electric Guitar
A. Gt / Ag = Acoustic Guitar
Vo = Vocal
Cho = Chorus
Ba / Bs = Bass
EB = Electric Bass
Cb = Contrabass
Wb = Wood bass
Ob = Oboe
Tp = Trumpet
Cla = Clarinet
Fag = Fagotto
Hn / Hr = Horn
Fr Horn = French Horn
Sax = Saxophone
A. Sax = Alto Saxophone
B. Sax = Bariton Saxophone
T. Sax = Tenor Saxophone
Fl / Flu = Flute
Dr = Drums
Per / Perc = Percussion
Cperc / Cla Perc / C.P = Classic Percussion
Lat / Lpc = Latin Percussion
Tb = Trombone
Pf / Pt = Piano(forte)
Apf / A. Piano = Acoustic Piano(forte)
Ep = Electric Piano
Key = Keyboard
Syn = Synthesizer
St = String
Vn / Vl / Vln = Violin
Va / Vla = Viola
Vc / Vlc = Violincello


Japanese credits

General
曲目 = Tracklist
オープニングテーマ / オープニング主題歌 = Opening theme
エンディングテーマ / エンディング主題歌 = Ending theme
挿入歌 = Insert Song (fictional)
劇中歌 = Performed Song (theatrical)
アルバム = Album
オリジナルサウンドトラック = Original Soundtrack
オリジナルサウンドヴァージョン / オリジナルサウンドバージョン = Original Sound Version
オリジナル・カラオケ = Original Karaoke
アニメーション = Animation
ドラマ = Drama

Production
音楽 = Music
曲 = Track / Music / Song
作曲 = Composition
編曲 = Arrangement
作編曲 = Composition and arrangement
作詞 / 詩 = Lyrics
歌 / 唄 = Song (Vocals)
作曲者不明 = Unknown composer
(音響)効果 = Sound effects
合唱団 / 合唱 / コーラス = Chorus
演奏 / 出演 = Performance
訳 = Translation
訳詞 = Lyric translation
英訳 = English translation
アレンジ = Arrange
ボーカル / ヴォーカル = Vocals
ナレーション = Narration
サウンド = Sound
オーケストラ = Orchestra
ゲスト・ミュージシャン = Guest Musicians
ミュージック = Music

Staff
発売元 = Publisher
販売元 = Distributor
販売協力 = Cooperating Distributor
脚本 = Screenplay / Scenario Writer
音響監督 = Sound Director
音響プロデュース = Sound Produce(r)
監修 = Supervision
演出 / 制作 = Production
協力 = Co-operation
原案 = Original Draft
キャスト = Cast
ディレクター / ディレクタ = Director
ミキシング = Mixing
プロデュース = Produce(r)
イラスト = Illust(ration)

Instruments
口琴 = Harmonica
尺八 = Shakuhachi
三味線 = Shamisen
鼓 = Drums
篳篥 = Hichiriki
篠笛 = Shinobue
琴 = Koto
琵琶 = Biwa
津軽三味線 = Tsugaru-jamisen
笙 = Shō
高麗笛 = Komabue
竜笛 = Ryuteki
二胡 = Erhu
鉄琴 = Glockenspiel
鉦鼓 = Shōko
能管 = Nokan
摺鉦 = Surigane
大鼓 = Otsuzumi / Ohkawa
木琴 = Xylophone
ストリングス / 弦 = Strings
キーボード = Keyboard
フルート = Flute
ギター = Guitar
ベース = Bass
コントラバス = Contrabass
ドラム = Drums
パーカッション = Percussion
ブラス = Brass
マンドリン = Mandolin
アコーデイオン = Accordion
ピアノ = Piano
ピアニカ = Pianica (Melodica)
オーボエ = Oboe
クラリネット = Clarinet
ホルン = Horn
サックス / サクソフォーン = Sax / Saxophone
チューバ = Tuba
トランペット = Trumpet
セロ / チェロ = Cello
トロンボーン = Trombone
ヴィオラ = Viola
バイオリン・ソロ = Violin Solo
シンセサイザー = Synthesizer
マンドール = Mandore
バスーン = Bassoon
ファゴット = Fagotto
フィドル = Fiddle
イングリッシュホルン = English Horn
コーラングレ / コール・アングレ = Cor anglais
カヤグム = Kayagum
ホーメイ = Khoomei
イギル = Igil
アナラポス = Analapos
ヘグム = Haegeum
ケンガリ = Kengari
チャッパ = Chappa
チャンゴ = Janggu



Looking up Japanese characters

First of all, you need to know what it is you're looking at. The main character sets you need to focus on are kanji, hiragana and katakana. I'm no expert at describing the differences and so on, but in my eyes, I'd definitely say hiragana is curvy, and both kanji and katakana have pretty linear strokes in comparison. Katakana does look kanji-like in some cases, but doesn't really have any character with more than 2 or 3 strokes (= doesn't have too many details). And as you may figure, the kanji table consists mostly of 3+ stroke characters, so ultimately you can think like this:

Hiragana and Katakana: Consider the differences between hiragana あうもよつ vs katakana アウモヨツ. As you might see, the hiragana characters clearly have more curvy edges and is seldom as linear as katakana (definitely so, when viewed with sans-serif fonts at least). And also: none of these examples have more strokes than 3.

Kanji: Does it have more than 3 strokes (あ, も, ウ, モ, ヨ, ツ are all examples of hiragana/katakana-only characters with 3 strokes (tip: try to count the strokes))? Then you're most likely looking for a kanji. One thing that may also help, is to memorize kanji with 1-3 strokes, so that you don't go looking for hiragana / katakana in a kanji table, or the other way around.

One last thing to note: some kanji looks scarily alike katakana (e.g. katakana タ vs kanji 夕). If you don't know the language at all, you ofcourse can't know which one's right in the context, so you should definitely try to actually translate the sentence with an automated translator to make sure that nothing is left untranslated, like "abcタdef" or something (in which case, you most likely copied the wrong character).

The hiragana and katakana scripts, as stated above, has few characters (in comparison to kanji at least), so they can be found allover the net, presented in different ways. I personally prefer to just look up the tables on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

But if you know kana well, you can generate the characters directly from romaji to hiragana and katakana here.



For kanji, it is obviously a bit more complicated, especially depending on the number of strokes it has. You should also be aware that sites / programs could very well be missing a character you're looking for.

The way I've gotten used to looking up kanji, is to count the strokes. I recommend looking at stroke animations of a few simpler kanji, and when you think you've got the hang of how most details are drawn (e.g. square boxes have 3 strokes, etc.), you shouldn't have too much trouble counting strokes. When it's simply too hard to see all the strokes, you probably want to resort to other methods, and I couldn't recommend using radicals enough (in which case counting strokes also becomes very useful).

I often use these sites when going by the number of strokes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y_stroke_count
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/c...wwwjdic.cgi?1B

It is also possible to look characters up by combining radicals to narrow down the search. When I started this thread, I personally wasn't aware how it was done, but luckily a tutorial was generously made by dancey
Sites and programs that can be used to do this:
WWWJDIC (web)
Jisho (web)
JquickTrans (software)
WaKan (software)
Tagaini Jisho (software)

However, there are definitely more ways than that. You can also try to have an OCR service identify the character(s) by uploading a picture: http://appsv.ocrgrid.org/nhocr/. Unfortunately, it is not always successful in recognizing it, and often fails, depending on the quality of the picture, and the font style. You should also try using different recognition methods when it fails to recognize something, even though they might not be meant to be used for the type of picture you upload. Doing this has helped me a few times when it otherwise fails.

But it isn't over yet: you can also draw the character.
http://nciku.com has a pretty good tool which has actually worked good for me plenty of times! Be aware, though: they list some Chinese characters, too, and you wouldn't want to mix a Chinese character with a kanji!
http://kanji.sljfaq.org is another alternative, but it has not worked as good as nciku's tool for me.
http://chasen.org/~taku/software/ajax/hwr/ I got this suggestion from dancey, and I haven't tried it





If there's something important I forgot, or if there is something to correct, please let me know!

[Secret Squirrel]

I've seen "Pf" for piano (aka Pianoforte).

[Nisto]

Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel

I've seen "Pf" for piano (aka Pianoforte).

Added What's the simple shortened version of just Piano though? I'm certain I've seen one somewhere.

Also, I vaguely remember "Perc" (percussion) being used somewhere, but can someone verify the abbreviation?

[Blitz Lunar]

most likely it'd be Pno.
also Perc is frequently used for Percussion, yeah.

[Nisto]

Hasn't "Pi." been used for piano?

[Dag]

Good idea.

Other JP stuff that may be useful:
演奏: performance
作編曲: composition and arrangement
音楽: music
効果: (sound) effects
サウンド: sound (generic)
アレンジ: arrange (generic)
ヴォーカル/ボーカル: vocals
唄: song (uncommon) (this and 歌 refer to vocals)

This page contains a bunch of abbreviations, but probably not all correspond to what is used in Japanese booklets.

[AcidBeast]

Sometimes the instruments/music staff are in katakana, here are some:

キーボード (keyboard)
フルート (flute)
ギター (Guitar)
ベース (Bass)
ドラム (Drums)
パーカッション (percussion)
コーラス (chorus)
オーケストラ (orchestra)
ブラス (brass)
マンドリン (mandolin)
アコーデイオン (accordion)
ピアノ (Piano)
ストリングス (Strings)
オーボエ (oboe)
クラリネット (clarinet)
ホルン (horn)
トランペット (trumpet)
トロンボーン (trombone)
バイオリン・ソロ (Violin Solo)
ボーカル / ヴォーカル (vocal)
ナレーション (narration)
ミキシング (mixing)
プロデュース (producer)
シンセサイザー (Synthesizer)
ゲスト・ミュージシャン (Guest Musicians)

[Nisto]

Here's another site with some abbreviations:
http://www.edition-peters.com/music/guide.php

[Xenofan 29A]

Here, on pp. 7-8, Lat. is used to refer to latin percussion.

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Nisto

鼓 = Drums

It should be judged on a case by case basis, but I think this is basically supposed to represent more traditional Japanese percussions, and like Taiko, I think it's the best to keep it in Romaji (Tsuzumi).

One of the most oddest I ever came across is "Prog" (see this scan). Progressive Rock Arrangement, maybe?

[Gigablah]

I was under the impression that "prog" was short for "programming" (e.g. synthesizer programming).

[Nisto]

AcidBeast suggested the Kanji for me. She said it was specifically "hand drums". But the hand part was apparently not so important, so I decided to leave it out. She also said she had only seen it used in a booklet once, so maybe we should leave it out for now?

[Carl]

A good reference, nice idea Nisto.
And ditto what Blah said (prog = programming)

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Gigablah

I was under the impression that "prog" was short for "programming" (e.g. synthesizer programming).

How couldn't I think of that *facepalm*

Originally Posted by Nisto

She also said she had only seen it used in a booklet once, so maybe we should leave it out for now?

If your list is intended for reference, it's okay. I suggested keeping it Romaji (like Taiko) if you translate the performance credits from Japanese to English. Some instruments such as 二胡 is fine to replace by the English name like Erhu, though.

[Nisto]

I just saw 初回封入特典, on a sticker. Does this indeed simply mean first print?

[Xenofan 29A]

It means first print (初回) pack-in (封入) bonus item (特典).

[Nisto]

I added a little tutorial on looking up Japanese characters. Any expert; feel free to revise it, heh.

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Nisto

アナラボス = Anarabosu

It has to be アナラポス / Analapos, I think. A very rare instrument created by a Japanese.
http://www.akiosuzuki.com/web/profile01.html
http://www.geocities.jp/city_memo/kaneda/ana.htm

[Nisto]

Originally Posted by Cedille

It has to be アナラポス / Analapos, I think. A very rare instrument created by a Japanese.
http://www.akiosuzuki.com/web/profile01.html
http://www.geocities.jp/city_memo/kaneda/ana.htm

Good catch. I've gone ahead and changed it.

[dancey]

It might also be worth noting the katakana for "Drama" (dorama). There is also this site that I've used but I think it's weighted more on the stroke count and less on the OCR of the kanji:

http://chasen.org/~taku/software/ajax/hwr/

I am at work write now but I wouldn't mind screenshotting a simple guide on how to use jQuickTrans to rebuild kanji. I do this all the time

[dancey]

Another common katakana I see in booklets is "Irasuto" which is short for Illustration.

[Nisto]

I've added Illustration and Drama. I'll add the link, too.

If you could do a tutorial on compiling via radicals, that'd be great! I'd like to get more experienced in that, too.

[dancey]

Sure, I'll work on that tonight when I get home!

[Dag]

For drama cds:
キャスト: cast (voice actors)
出演: 'cast', 'appearance/performance' more or less, I've seen it used to credit the voice actors in talk tracks. Not sure if it also applies to drama tracks.

Also maybe this could help:
曲: music, song. This is the generic term for a musical piece.

[Xenofan 29A]

If you're adding Japanese traditional instruments (they show up very, very rarely, of course), I've got these, which I'm sure have all shown up in video game/anime scores.

篳篥: Hichiriki
篠笛: Shinobue
琴: Koto

Edit: I'm not so sure that I've seen them used (other than samples in Okami and such) but:

琵琶: Biwa
津軽三味線: Tsugaru-jamisen (Something like a shamisen made of snake skin rather than cat skin)

[Nisto]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. All added.
Xenofan 29A: I was actually suggested to add more rarely used instruments, so it doesn't matter what kind they are.

[Xenofan 29A]

Well, then I've got a few more. Again, I've only heard these sampled in VGM, to my knowledge, but they are used in Okami and Okamiden, for sure.

笙 : Shō
高麗笛 : Komabue
竜笛 : Ryuteki
鉦鼓 : Shōko

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Nisto

ピアノ = Piano
オーボエ = Oboe
クラリネット = Clarinet
ホルン = Horn
トランペット = Trumpet
トロンボーン = Trombone

If you're covering those major ones, here are missing;

フィドル = Fiddle
ヴィオラ = Viola
セロ/チェロ = Cello
コントラバス = Contrabass
チューバ = Tuba
バスーン = Bassoon
サックス/サクソフォーン = Sax / Saxophone
ファゴット = Fagotto
イングリッシュホルン = English Horn
コーラングレ/コール・アングレ = Cor anglais

二胡 = Erhu
鉄琴 = Glockenspiel
木琴 = Xylophone

[Xenofan 29A]

Of course, an English Horn is a Cor anglais, just as a Fagotto is a Bassoon, so they should be grouped together.

Also, 木琴 can mean an orchestral Xylophone, but it can also mean a traditional Japanese variety, and in those cases would be translated Mokkin.

[Cedille]

I listed them separately since I thought we should go with Fiddle not Violin if it's フィドル which is printed on the booklet, but there might be some discretionary selecting between bassoon and fagotto (my musical knowledge is rather limited and I'm not the best person to talk about this =p).

Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A

it can also mean a traditional Japanese variety

There are some plucked percussions included in Japanese traditional music, but I feel they are generally called Koto. I do think 木琴 can include some variations such as Marimba or Kalimba, but can't think of an instrument that can't be called anything but Mokkin. Then again, I'm not the best person to talk such and you'd know more.