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Old Mar 22, 2010, 02:36 PM
kyubihanyou kyubihanyou is offline
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Location: Pearl River, NY
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Composing is the bare minimum; creating the melody and all that.

Arranging is taking it to the next level; fine-tuning it beyond it's original form by incorporating different instruments (more than just one audio source) and sometimes different artists (someone working on a single track/melody after the original composition is created). It's been utilized in original soundtracks since the early 90s, when VGM evolved beyond just 8-bits.

Furthermore, composers can also be their own arrangers, as the music that succeeds the 8-bit generation goes beyond just a melody (by incorporating instruments and all that), and are otherwise basically put there if no one else contributed to the track's arrangement, as the two fields are basically inseparable nowadays.

Those who play instruments are the performers; I wouldn't know if instruments "choosers" are technically arrangers, though arranges are generally played with instruments that may or may not exceed the capabilities of the original soundtrack. I guess arrangers are those who actually do the work of remaking the track with the new instruments in mind, whom may or may not be the same people who chose the instruments.

To simplify things, I only put the arranger in the artist box if the composed melody was previously credited either before or within the soundtrack.
(ex.) "Family," the final track from Super Mario Galaxy, is composed by Koji Kondo (since it's the same melody as the Observatory theme) but arranged by Mahito Yokota, so I leave out Kondo, as his melody was already displayed in the three variations of the Observatory theme (its original form).

There are times, however, when including both a composer and an arranger are unavoidable
(ex.) Ocean Palace and Mystic Mansion (both composed by Naofumi and arranged by Jun; completely unrelated compositions), and Emerald Challenge (co-composed AND co-arranged by Jun and Fumie; Fumie's sole contribution) from Sonic Heroes.

Finally, there's the ridiculously easy case
(ex.) Mahito Yokota arranged many classic Mario tunes composed by Koji Kondo for Super Mario Galaxy.
This also applies to full game remakes, including Rockman EXE 5DS, Mother 1+2, and Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, where the original artist is always reduced to composer whilst the arranger, as a result, becomes the new primary artist, which is usually the case.

In simpler terms, "arranged" means anything that is not just the original sound (not the OST). Medleys and remixes are the exception here, as medleys are the original sound, but ordered/connected together in a new way (the key is looking between the tracks), and remixes are the same as above except with a little more intervention within the track(s). It's tough to decide whether an "original music medley" should primarily credit the original composer or not, and if remixes should even be considered arrangements, so go with your own personal categorization from there for your own exploits.

**Oh, and the arrangers for FFXIII end at Sin. Everyone else below is a performer, so it's not that big a mess to work through.

Last edited by kyubihanyou; Mar 26, 2010 at 09:20 PM.
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