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Old Mar 9, 2010, 06:52 AM
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Sorry for bump this old thread, but since a long time I noticed that there is no consensus on some albums in the database.

I'd like to say that I disagree with the composers featured on several original soundtracks with reprises of games previously released, like Rockman 9, Seiken Densetsu 4, Super Mario RPG, Nintendo Allstar! Dairantou Smash Bros., Akumajo Dracula Judgment Original Soundtrack and some official arranged albums, like Final Fantasy Ukulele Solo Collections and Journeys on a Piano.

In contrast, some composers are not featured on original soundtracks like Dissidia Final Fantasy (Nobuo Uematsu), Segagaga Soundtrack Collection Blue (Hiro and Masato Nakamura), Radiata Stories Original Soundtrack (Motoi Sakuraba) and several arranged albums.

The main reason is written below, since currently there is no way to filter the doujin albums on featured works:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
I'd rather not remove the other stuff - misc official arranges, compilations, since I think they are generally of interest to someone who is viewing a discography.
Even if one day a filter will be implemented, I think the featured option should be used only in specific cases that I listed in the end of my comment.

Hiroki Kikuta and Yoko Shimomura didn't compose new music specifically for Dawn of Mana. Even is a game original soundtrack, the tracks from Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and Legend of Mana are arranged, like so many other tracks of arranged albums without the involvement of composers in database, but doesn't have composers assigned as featured. For instance, Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix – obviously Koichi Sugiyama didn't compose new tracks specifically for this CD. In my opinion, use the featured option only in original soundtracks and not in arranged albums is inconsistent.

Another example: Dairantou Smash Brothers DX Orchestra Concert, which has arranged tracks of Super Smash Bros. Melee. The composers of old Nintendo games was assigned as featured. But I removed this featured because, in practice, are arrangements of old Nintendo tracks like any other Nintendo arranged album.

When is clear that the composer participated of the album as an arranger, we don't assign as featured. This isn’t accurate in my opinion because if we use rigorously the same criterion that we use on original soundtracks that I mentioned before, the same album should appear twice in the discography of some artists, which I really don't like, with the composer credit on the list of featured works and arranger credit in regular discography. For example, in the Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra Album there are four tracks that Noriyuki Iwadare originally composed for Gyakuten Saiban 3 – three tracks was arranged by Iwadare himself and one by Kaori Komuro.

Moreover, very often the composer was involved on arranged album and isn't explicitly credited. In the album Echoes of War, composers Matt Uelmen, Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford are assigned as featured composers, but in this interview Hiroaki Yura said: " We have worked with Derek Duke and Glen Stafford from the music department. Our arrangers have been to Blizzard HQ to discuss and receive a tour of the games”. About Super Mario RPG, Koji Kondo appears in Special Thanks list and Nobuo Uematsu in Extra Special Thanks list of game credits. How will we know if they really had no involvement in the soundtrack?

Finally, I think it's almost impossible for us to know exactly which composers participated directly in concert collections like PLAY!, VGL or Game Music Concert series and unnecessary try to find out for this purpose.

I would like to restrict the featured option only for:

1 - Doujin albums without the involvement of original composers (in other words, without the license for the IP rights of the compositions)
2 - Classical composers
3 - Licensed music. This include arranged tracks of songs originally composed for another purpose (movies, original work etc.), like covers of mainstream music in Bemani albums or Disney songs in Kingdom Hearts.
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