VGMdb
Go Back   VGMdb Forums > VGMdb Site Related > Questions and Comments > Guides and FAQs
Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old Feb 8, 2011, 05:59 AM
Nisto's Avatar
Nisto Nisto is offline
VGMdb Advisor
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,189
Default Guide / Reference for Japanese album credits

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


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
版権 = Copyright

Staff
美術監督 = Art Director
助監督 = Assistant Director
撮影監督 = Cinematographer
色彩設計 = Color Design
協力 = Co-operation
構成 = Construction
販売協力 = Cooperating Distributor
監督 = Director
販売元 = Distributor
編集 = Editing
漫画 = Manga (Comic / Cartoon)
原案 = Original Draft
原画 = Original Picture
原作 = Original Work
演出 / 制作 = Production
発行 = Publication
発売元 = Publisher
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
キャスト = Cast
ディレクター / ディレクタ = Director
イラスト = Illust(ration)
ミキシング = Mixing
プロデュース = Produce(r)

Instruments
笛 = Flute
口琴 = Harmonica
尺八 = Shakuhachi
三味線 = Shamisen
鼓 = Drums
篳篥 = Hichiriki
篠笛 = Shinobue
琴 = Koto
琵琶 = Biwa
薩摩琵琶 = Satsuma 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 characters scripts you need to focus on are kanji, hiragana and katakana.


Kana (hiragana+katakana): Consider the differences between hiragana あうもよつ vs katakana アウモヨツ (both examples are a/u/mo/yo/tsu respectively). You might not agree with me, but in my opinion, most hiragana characters are curvy or rounded in some way, and not as linear as katakana characters (from a "sans-serif font point of view" anyway). This is one thing that really helped me narrow it down in the past (i.e. before I knew most kana characters). Note also that in neither of the examples given are there more than 3 strokes (try to count them!)

Both the hiragana and katakana scripts have few characters (in comparison to kanji anyway), so they can be found allover the net, in many different ways. Before I knew most kana characters and how they were written/read, I preferred to look up the tables on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

If you know how to write your desired kana character(s) in romaji, or maybe just want to get a feel for how any kana is written, you can generate characters directly (in real-time) over on this site. I use this all the time these days.


Kanji: It should be fairly easy to determine if a character is a kanji. A simple rule of thumb: does it have more than 3 strokes? Then you're probably looking at a kanji, because as hinted earlier, most kana don't have more than 3 strokes. I recommend memorizing kanji with 1-3 strokes (there aren't that many), so that you don't go looking for kana when it's a kanji, or vice versa.

Counting strokes was my starting method of looking up kanji. The way I've learned to count strokes is to look at a few stroke order animations of various kanji. You can of course just look at lists ordered by stroke counts and try to guess the strokes, too, but that didn't work well for me in all cases (or it simply took too long to find it). When you think you've got the hang of how most types of strokes are drawn (e.g. 口 and 山 are both 3 strokes, and not 4, as one might think), it should be fairly easy to count the strokes of most kanji. When it's simply too hard to see all the strokes (which I know can happen), you probably want to resort to other methods, which might help narrowing down the possibilities at least. Below are a number of resources and different methods that may help:

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 up characters by combining so-called radicals, which are essentially parts used to compile a kanji. dancey has generously provided a tutorial for us on how this method can be used, and I highly recommend having a look at it if you have no idea what it is, as it will likely be of big help. In fact this is pretty much the only method I use to look up kanji nowadays.

Here are some sites and programs that can be used for radical kanji lookup:
WWWJDIC (web)
Jisho (web)
JquickTrans (software)
WaKan (software)
Tagaini Jisho (software)

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 the (proper) characters from the image, and it often fails, depending on the quality of the picture, the font style, etc. You should try using all the recognition methods available on the site, even if they're not meant to be used for the type of image you upload. I've found that resizing the image, and adding/removing some padding, or even redrawing the character(s) can also improve/affect the results sometimes. Out of respect for the creators/owners, please don't overuse this method. Use it if you're in a rush or if nothing else worked.

It's not over yet: you can even draw characters directly.
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 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. I haven't tried it much.

Final note: sites/programs could very well be missing a character (or even radicals) that you're looking for, so don't always rely on a single site/program.





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

Last edited by Nisto; Apr 2, 2017 at 12:47 PM.
Reply With Quote
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
JoJo music reference in UnderTale! alonyer1 Animation Music Discussion 0 Sep 26, 2016 06:59 AM
Undertale music reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that I found! alonyer1 Video Game Music Discussion 0 Sep 26, 2016 06:58 AM
Japanese Drama + Other Japanese CDs MBgov1133 Video Game Music Discussion 1 Sep 1, 2015 05:00 AM
Western versions of Japanese titles in album listings Eriol Questions and Comments 6 Jan 11, 2008 03:14 PM