KDSD-00024~25: Baten Kaitos: Owaranai Tsubasa to Ushinawareta Umi Original...

[Vert1]

I wish there was an arranged album for this soundtrack.

[Medina]

I'm a little confused when someone is credited for the "score" apart from the composer / arranger, like in this album... maybe I just don't understand this term. What exactly does that make Chiaki Kato's role?

[Zanasea]

Writing the score for the musicians?

[Medina]

Okay... it's just that I always see "original movie score" for sale, and what's on that CD is just the background music written for the movie. But it's always a composer that writes the score and is credited for it, so score and composer credit are always kind of one and the same. So when I see two different people credited for these things, I'm confused as to what it means. I guess after seeing so many of these original scores for sale, I'm confused as to what "score" really means... I've always just seen it as another way to say "music", sort of like the VGM world has its different terms like original soundtrack versus original sound version (what's the difference there?).

So a score is... like sheet music or something?

[Jormungand]

Yes, a score refers to sheet music that displays all instrumental/vocal parts of a piece of music. It is intended for use by a conductor, recording engineers, etc. to follow along with as the musicians play. It is different than the individual sheet music parts for each member of the performance group. I.e., the "full score" is different from the "Violin I" part.

And yes, in Hollywood jargon, score is often synonomous with the background music of a movie. The same terminology migrated to VGM usage. I use it myself in reviews and discussions, with the assumption that most people understand it as analogous to the actual soundtrack.

As for OST vs. OSV... there is no real difference. At one time OSV might have meant the music as it appears on the CD is exactly how it sounds in the game. But it's an outdated term.

Now, in this instance, yes, the "score" probably refers to the orchestrator/arranger. They might also be referred to as an engraver. Basically as Zanasea said, the person who produces the sheet music for musicians to play from and the conductor/sound staff to read from.

[Medina]

Okay thank you for the information. That clears things up.

[Mac_Tear]

A note about the actual English tracklist: some tracks like "Sun-Light Pierces and Flows", "Many-Storied Building of Sand" or "KeppakuDan" sound a little weird to me, I liked former translations more. Track 2-20 is translated like "Acceptance and Refusal" so why not use it this way?

[Dag]

There is no tracklist changes logged, so I guess you mean the other translation used by #gamemp3s and other sites.

The current one wasn't so hot so I went ahead and swapped it.

Old tracklist:

01 Prologue Mine 0:46
02 Brave Fish of the Heaven's Pole 2:26
03 To the End of the Journey of Shining Stars 3:28
04 Soul poetry 1:41
05 The true mirror 2:38
06 Vitriolic a stroke 2:53
07 Condemnation of Darkness 2:43
08 Glowing cloud 2:27
09 Chaotic dance 2:13
10 Rumbling of the earth 2:28
11 Coolant 0:37
12 Between the Winds 1:49
13 Gentle wind 2:36
14 Into the Dark Night of the Moon Butterflies 2:32
15 Sun-Light Pierces and Flows 2:26
16 Limpidly flow 2:44
17 Soft labyrinth 2:40
18 Bellflower 2:03
19 Imperial dynamics 2:25
20 Flows of the Ice Mist 3:03
21 Feudal guardian 2:17
22 Flighty spirits 2:20
23 Tenkai Flower Temple 1:48
24 Mystery crystal 2:19
25 Rotted and Decayed 2:00
26 Holo Holo 2:23
27 Spirit Fountain in Azure 2:11
28 Dust Sand in the Wind 2:38

01 Dead beat 2:49
02 Disorder 2:17
03 Many-Storied Building of Sand 2:24
04 Divine white bell 1:54
05 Start on a voyage 2:47
06 Glittering violet moon 2:37
07 Twisted Time and Distorted Sky 2:33
08 Strike off the enemy 1:51
09 Awaking Calamity 1:53
10 Late at Night 0:14
11 Level up! 0:10
12 Class up! 0:15
13 With the Spirit 0:12
14 Splash of Shou 1:27
15 Bottom out 1:53
16 Hailstorm 2:02
17 Depression of Heaven and Earth 2:05
18 Brave way 2:12
19 Enshrinement 2:14
20 KeppakuDan 1:25
21 Survival from The Force 3:17
22 The true mirror ~guitar ver~ 2:38
23 Kings of the Nine Heavens 2:50
24 Violent storm 3:40
25 The Last of Evil Party 1:47
26 Ground Advent 3:50
27 Deep Sea of Tears 3:36
28 Addressing Stars 7:29
29 To the Party of the Next Century with the Air of White Peach 2:11

[Mac_Tear]

Yes, this looks definitely better, this is the one I mean Thank you

[Hellacia]

I've added the game's sound test to the tracklists. It's a very neat sound test in that it takes into account the actual soundtrack titles provided they were written in English, rather than calling them "Versus ____" or "Action Scene" or something lame. The tracks originally in Japanese have some pretty decent translations too (though it looks like they kind of threw a couple out).

砂上の楼閣 seems to be a phrase that refers to a house built on sand, meaning it is likely to collapse, so it is also called a house of cards. I think it's an idiom more than a literal phrase (but what do I know). Still though, the sound test has it translated as "Castle in the Sand", so perhaps there is such a place in the game, and the phrase is used more literally? I tried to research it at GameFAQs, but was unsuccessful. Someone who has played the game would know better. At any rate, 砂上 means built on sand, and 楼閣 seems to be "many-storied building", which could be a castle I suppose.

[Vert1]

Amazing album. Not one filler or bad track on here.

[Mortavia]

It's an amazing album indeed, and I agree that there's not any filler. I won't say there's not a single track I don't like, but they're very few (well, 2). For the most part, this may be my favorite Motoi Sakuraba soundtrack, because I hear phrases that tell me it's his work without making me feel he's churning out his old recycled sounds. He gets that criticism and sometimes I agree with it, more in the case of Valkyrie Profile / Star Ocean (and he writes a LOT of game music, I don't blame him too much), but for this soundtrack, I can't say that at all.

My favorites (I'll try to limit this!):
112 Between the Winds... it's so tranquil, I can listen to it over and over again and never get tired of it.
203 House of Cards... I can't explain why other than "there's something about it", it's so unique, and when the percussion really sets in I love it so much.
227 A Deep Sea of Tears... I'm a sucker for this stuff when it's done well, and I feel everything the violin does in this song, and the piano backs it perfectly.

This is of a list of MANY favorites! Haha. But I'm keeping my promise to myself that I'm going to be concise about it... I could list quite a few more. To be specific, I found 201 Deadbeat and 221 Survival from The Force to be particularly offputting, but I won't go into detail about why. But unlike my list of favorites, those are the only two I can name that I will skip with prejudice if they come on. Yeah, this is a great soundtrack.

[dissident93]

I agree as well. Some of these tracks remind me a lot of Motoi's old Wolf Team compositions. (my fav era of him)

[kokujin]

Originally Posted by dissident93

I agree as well. Some of these tracks remind me a lot of Motoi's old Wolf Team compositions. (my fav era of him)

Same for me, I don't normally like his newer stuff, but this soundtrack is very good, it fits the game very well.

[Jormungand]

Anyone have sheet music for the keyboard parts of "The true mirror"? There's about 3 of them in the tune (the original version, NOT the e.guitar version):

1) light/airy synth pad for chords throughout the piece, and some melody (like at 1:32)
2) harder synth pad/lead, as featured at 0:41 and 1:20
3) organ which does a lot of acrobatics between sections and takes the lead at 1:09 and 1:44

I'm particularly interested in the organ part. Unfortunately the spastic glissandi make some parts nearly impossible to sequence by hand. I don't know how Sakuraba records this stuff so regularly without inducing a heart attack.

Also I really want that organ. Anyone know the gear?

The meager google results that I found, including the midi file from vgmusic.com, were unsatisfactory. Those glissandi really sounded like guesswork, and I wasn't really convinced of their accuracy.

Spoiler:

<3 The true mirror
I want to learn how to play the organ part at 1:44. So cheesy and awesome.

[student41269]

Originally Posted by Jormungand

Also I really want that organ. Anyone know the gear?

Best guess it's the Korg CX3 clonewheel, which he was known to use on other projects at the time, but I could be wrong - the character here seems to me a little warmer than the organs on, say, Star Ocean 3. Whatever it is, it's particularly nice with that soft overdrive, silky smooth modulation (probably very slow chorus), and the percussive attack switched off. Also the movement around the stereo field is a dead giveaway of the Leslie effect - medium/fast but shallow. You should be able to get a fair approximation on any sound module emulating a Hammond B-3 or C-3, with only the lower 3 or 4 drawbars registered plus the effects above.

My favourite Sakuraba 'standard battle' theme by some margin

[Jormungand]

Originally Posted by student41269

Best guess it's the Korg CX3 clonewheel, which he was known to use on other projects at the time, but I could be wrong - the character here seems to me a little warmer than the organs on, say, Star Ocean 3. Whatever it is, it's particularly nice with that soft overdrive, silky smooth modulation (probably very slow chorus), and the percussive attack switched off. Also the movement around the stereo field is a dead giveaway of the Leslie effect - medium/fast but shallow. You should be able to get a fair approximation on any sound module emulating a Hammond B-3 or C-3, with only the lower 3 or 4 drawbars registered plus the effects above.

My favourite Sakuraba 'standard battle' theme by some margin

OK, so I made an attempt at eliciting a similar sound from my available virtual instruments. Started with a B3 from Kontakt; way too traditionally organ-sounding. The Kontakt Rock Organ was a better base; it also already had light stereo panning build in. I added a slow chorus (though it unintentionally made the sound brighter, not quite what I wanted).

I then reduced the attack by a little, and extended the release by a lot. Touched up with some reverb.

The final result

Not quite the sound I wanted, but it's a start I guess. Really appreciate your input on the sound though. Very helpful! Excuse the sequencing here, some of the runs are basically impossible to notate.

[Eidolon2010]

New release ^^