#1
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A break from the technical stuff. Favorite artists!
Just sorting through all this data can get boring. We all like music here! Let's talk about our favorite composers and just what we love about them!
To start, I'll say I really like Yoko Shimomura. Of course, all her tracks are great, but there's this thing she has her violinist(s) do where they belt out like 20 notes in a bar or something. You can hear it in her rendition of the Dessert theme in the SSBB soundtest, as well as the battle theme in Radiant Historia. Just to add, I also really like Tenpei Sato's 'Little Love' from Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. I still scorn the music industry for having all copies of the soundtrack OOP! |
#2
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Oh hands down, that's the best song from Rhapsody. It's actually been a VGM favorite of mine... probably since around the time Disgaea came out in the U.S., which is when I went back to see Marjoly's roots. Yeah, it's a VGM great.
My favorite composers are Junichi Nakatsuru, Hideyuki Fukusawa and Chamy ISHI. Sorry I can't be cool and say my favorites are more obscure composers, I like what I like |
#3
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A lot of my favorite composers are female. Leading the field is of course Yoko Shimomura, but I'm also very fond of Michiko Naruke, Yoko Kanno, Yuki Kajiura, Riei Saito (even though she has essentially only one entry here), Akiko Shikata, Azusa Chiba and Haruka Shimotsuki.
No particular order in the above listing. Thinking about it, I might want to add Manami Kiyota since a substantial amount of music for Xenoblade came from her. |
#4
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As anyone who knows much about me knows, my favorite video game composer is Yasunori Mitsuda. His sense of color, harmony, rhythm, and pacing put him ahead of everyone else in my book. Second would be Masashi Hamauzu, who deserves far better than what Square-Enix has given him.
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#5
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1) Takayuki Negishi: still have to find something which beats his work for "BLOODY ROAR" & "BLOODY ROAR 3".
2) Takayuki Nakamura: "EHRGEIZ: God Bless the Ring", especially Dungeon 6 & the arranged version of DER EHRGEIZ.. 3) Noriyuki Asakura: Again, I'll give the titles of two games - "Tenchu" & "Tenchu 2". 4) MASA, Yasuhiro Misawa, Kenji Nakajo, Toru Hasebe: Trust these guys to bring rock in the Three Kingdoms. 5) Reijiro Koroku: Awesome job for "Kessen II", masterfully performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, if I might add. A pity that the tracks on the soundtrack are so short. |
#6
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VGM:
Masaki Sasaki (I'm a sucker for these soft synth melodies) Akihiko Mori (Mystic Ark, need I say more? I love anything else I've heard by the guy as well; Bounty Sword, Wonder Project J, Gokinjo Bouken Tai, Kidou Senshi Z-Gundam, Seifuku Densetsu... grand.) Falcom jdk (from Ys to VM Japan, Falcom is quality vgm. I'm a total sucker for vgm synth-rock and they mastered it.) T's MUSIC (There are so many T's MUSIC composers I like, so I just list the unit, same as jdk - I mainly love them for their heavier stuff, e.g. Satoshi Miyashita on Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire or Lords of Thunder; but the softer side of T's MUSIC is great as well, Sentimental Graffiti <3) Daisuke Ishiwatari (Guilty Gear, of coarse) S.S.H. (VGMetal, yo!) Hiroyuki Iwatsuki/Iku Mizutani/Kinuyo Yamashita (their stuff on the SNES is probably some of the best of the entire catalog) Barry Leitch (you have to listen to Top Gear material) Matt Furniss (this guy + Mega-Drive = win; PUGGSY is one of my favorites) Alexander Brandon/Dan Gardopée/Andrew Sega (Deus Ex/Unreal/Crusader stuff) Michiko Naruke (Wild Arms/Noora to Toki no Koubou/Tenshi no Uta I & II - superb) Jun Senoue (Sonic) Zuntata (my favorite of the bunch is Hisayoshi Ogura - Night Striker/Ninja Warriors/Darius <3) Nobuo Uematsu (I constantly listen to FF V-IX. You can say what you want about Nobuo, these soundtracks rule.) Shinji Hosoe (IBARA, Driving Emotion Type-S, Under Defeat, several namco games) Kentaro Kobayashi (CYPAAA TRUPAAAS) Hyakutaro Tsukumo I definitely forgot some important ones... it's late. Last edited by Zethe; May 15, 2012 at 04:36 PM. |
#7
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Let's see: Jesper Kyd - he can make amazing electronica/orchestral mix, every time; Takenobu Mitsuyoshi - Shenmue theme is bloody carved into my mind; Adam Skorupa, Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz, Pawel Blaszczak - memorable work on The Witcher games; Junichi Nakatsuru - Soul Calibur music isn't the same without him; Kow Otani - I think Shadow of Colossus OST is perfect, also some great tunes for Haibane Renmei and so on; Howard Shore, Clint Mansell, Don Davis, John Williams (not vgm composers, but who cares); Joe Hisaishi (hm I wonder why); Gerard Marino, Cris Velasco, Ron Fish (God of War comes to mind, but also many other titles of course), Yuki Kajiura and Nobuo Uematsu. That pretty much covers it
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#8
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Praise the lord in heaven! I've found the Eden of sountracks!
@Hella: It's a little sad to see Tempei-san doing a lot of fast-paced stuff when he's able to perform such mastery, no? @Liquid: Kanno-san's amazing, isn't she? Her versatility and ability to pack emotion into everything she does is mindblowing! Not to mention her when she has Illaria Graziano on vocal! Xeno: I haven't listened to much Chrono trigger, but what I have been exposed to has continued to leave an impression on me. What're your favorite works of his? Zeth: Dai-chan <3 Oh, and I remember being totally captivated by Noora and always playing the soundtest on the site. I still whistle the big guy's theme! xD Ohhh! And I'm really fond of Shinji's work in Fate/EXTRA! Hmm... I guess it's fair to add that I also really like Shoji Meguro. The vocals he dishes out with the P1, 3, and 4 ladies are always fantastic! Of course, there's Lotus Juice and the regular BGM to consider, but who can list it all? |
#9
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Well, I like (just about) everything, but especially Xenogears/Xenosaga Ep. I (as per the screen name), Chrono Cross, Soma Bringer, and his original album Kirite, which is pure gold.
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#10
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HUGE, HUGE fan of Michiru Yamane and the Konami Kukeiha Club right here! I have more soundtracks from Konami than anything else.
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#11
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Oh, and Noriyuki Iwadare. The music in the Lunar games is FANTASTIC. Especially the Sega CD version of Eternal Blue.
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#12
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Tsukasa Tawada is my current favorite, amongst so many other luminaries that never get the attention they deserve (like Toshiharu Yamanishi—who needs Hyakutaro!).
Plus Alpha/Rodland E.D.F. Moon Crystal Ihatov Dungeon Master series ZXE-D Dragon Quest sound design (VI-VII) Universal Nuts Keio Flying Squadron Genius Sonority Pokemon games Chin Sports (maybe some of Pole's Big Adventure? Track credits differ everywhere!) He's done a wide range of great projects with varied styles all across the board, and he's ranged from competent to amazing in every single one of them. Yet no one's made much note of him in the Western game music community, though I'll change that soon enough. |
#13
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PYON-MO: one of the few composers who understood how to bring oldschool RPG music to modern games. I was never too fond of Farland story music but working for Studio e.go for ten years she consistently composed good music and I can't say that about any other composer. Some games company absolutely needs to hire her again.
Recommended: Izumo series, Wind of Ebenbourg, Vagrants.. Hideki Higuchi: I hope Instant Brain was his first step towards composing for bigger games, because he's by far the best visual novel composer right now and all his recent game soundtracks were outstanding. I love his immediately recognizable music style. Recommended: Popotan, Dear my Friend, Elysion Hijiri Anze: So many relaxing, soothing melodies and awesome piano music from her in 2011, it's incredible, but ever since Sakura Musubi in 2006 she's a favorite of mine. Recommended: Wanko & Lily, Amesarasa |
#14
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For me:
Akiko Shikata Haruka Shimotsuki Akira Tsuchiya Noriyuki Iwadare Ken Nakagawa Daisuke Achiwa Kow Otani Nobuo Uematsu Koichi Sugiyama Yasunori Mitsuda Yoko Shimomura Michiko Naruke Michiru Yamane Yoshitaka Hirota Tetsuo Ishikawa Iio Yoshifumi Motoi Sakuraba Kaoru Wada At least that's all the artists I remember right now to which I've taken quite a liking. |
#15
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Some composers who always delight me:
Japanese: Nobuo Uematsu Kota Hoshino Masami Ueda Manabu Namiki Hitoshi Sakimoto Yoko Shimomura Hayato Matsuo Noriyuki Asakura Hisayoshi Ogura Miki Higashino Koji Kondo Akira Yamaoka Yuzo Koshiro Western: Jason Graves Alexander Brandon Grant Kirkhope Jake Kaufman Peter McConnell Rom Di Prisco Tim Wynn Tim Wright Frank Klepacki Sascha Dikiciyan My tastes are pretty diverse and enjoy many of these artists for very different reasons. |
#16
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Quote:
http://vgmdb.net/album/9259 It contains an extended version of Little Love. I think I got my copy from avatar, so I'm not sure if they updated their marketplace in a while or not. But yes, on that note, I really enjoy Tenpei Sato's music, both his faster paced stuff as well as his more emotional, slower music. |
#17
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Yuzo Koshiro (Can't go wrong with the master)
Nobuo Uematsu (The reason I'm here. He's ok, i guess.... ) Yasunori Mitsuda (Ain't he cute?! ) Hayato Sonoda - Wish there was more known about him. No confirmation of what he's composed, but judging from the games he's worked on, I'm pretty confident of his core melodic style, and very attracted to it I might add. This guy knows his VGM history, Falcom's status within it, and is clearly ambitious in that regard. Ken Nakagawa/Daisuke Achiwa - These two also have a fantastic sense of what VGM should sound like, atleast to me. Jin-Bae Park (ESTi) - Gold. Everything he touches. Kenji Ito - This time last year, I would have known next to nothing about his music, but thanks to the SaGa/Seiken box sets, I can safely say Ito's also one of my favourites. Mainly drawn to his ballad-ey side, but his more aggressive stuff is also inspiring. Noriyuki Kamikura - Very excited to see what becomes of his VGM career. Manabu Namiki - Incredible. |
#18
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Quote:
And I think you about nailed it with Nobuo being okay He'll never make one of my lists, he just writes gobs of mediocre stuff. I don't dislike him, he's written some great tunes, but they're few and far between. |
#19
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In the past, I would have thought of "Underneath the Rotting Pizza" as a filler track, but nowadays I quite enjoy it. Coincidence??! ...Yes |
#20
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"Cleyra's Trunk" is okay, but it doesn't stand out much. |
#21
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I love all kinds of music, but I have a very particular taste that I only know how to sum up as any mixture of jazz, fusion, funk, progressive music and cuteness which tends to set my favourite game musicians apart from the rest. haha. I'll pick one of my favourite soundtracks of theirs each too.
Soyo Oka / Super Mario Kart Koji Kondo / Super Mario 64 Kazumi Totaka / Wave Race 64 Daisuke Shiiba / Tomodachi Collection Hirokazu Ando / Kirby's Return to Dream Land Jun Ishikawa / Kirby's Dream Land 3 Hayato Matsuo / Syvalion (SNES) Motoaki Takenouchi / Shining Wisdom Yasuhiko Fukuda / Super Bomberman 2 Norio Hanzawa / Alien Soldier Yusuke Takahama / Super Smash Bros. Brawl Yasuyuki Suzuki / Operation Logic Bomb Yasuhisa Watanabe / Senko no Ronde Masashi Hamauzu / SaGa Frontier II Junya Nakano / DewPrism Eriko Imura / Wagyan Paradise Naofumi Hataya / Sonic CD Luna Umegaki / Choro Q3 Hiroki Kikuta / Secret of Mana Kazuko Umino / Pu.Li.Ru.La Harumi Ueko / Legend of the Mystical Ninja Based on these I'd love to see what other recommendations people have. I am hoping I can still find some killer game musician that I don't know about yet who's written a bunch of mindblowing stuff.
__________________
iridescentaudio.co.uk |
#22
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Based on your description and selection you may like Gokinjo Bouken Tai by Akihiko Mori.
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#23
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1. Yasuhisa Watanabe / Senko No Ronde, Puchi Carat, etc.
2. Yuzo Koshiro / Bare Knuckle 2 3. Motoi Sakuraba / Anything 4. Kenichi Okuma / Gotzendeiner 5. T's Music / Anything 6. Shinji Hosoe / Ibara 7. Manabu Namiki / Anything 8. David Wise / Donkey Kong Country 2 9. Masafumi Takada / killer7 10. Masaharu Iwata / Baroque I really need to improve my good artist recognition versus knowing what games have good soundtracks.
__________________
Before the heavens, before destiny. Last edited by Vert1; May 16, 2012 at 05:14 PM. |
#24
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To take from Fuminori's little reflection to Saya (SOS):
[i]"Pretty soon I won't be able to live without you." I love you, VGMB. My head's spinning at all the artists everyone's so happily listing~ Thank you, Don! I hope it's still around, but if not, I can just hook up my speakers to my DS! Haha ha! Anyways, some more artists since I don't want to get left behind! -Shoji Meguro - His stuff is fun, plain and simple. Nice bass lines, and lots of fun to be had with his vocal tracks. I particularly enjoyed him in Persona 3 and 1 -the PSP version made after Persona 4, mind you! -Toshimichi Isoe - I've only listened to his work in The Devil on G-Sting, Song of Saya and Ever17, but I'm afraid that's all I'll ever need. All of his tracks, though few in number, always get me going! -Daisuke Ishwatari - This beautiful monster's slapped together a whole mess of nice heavy rock tracks. In his Blazblue phase, he's gotten even more bold by mixing in various instruments for a very cool effect. Last edited by Bravebeat; May 16, 2012 at 09:07 PM. |
#25
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I'm curious about Universal Nuts, I've played a bit and liked what I heard so far, apart from that I only heard the 3 Saturn cdda tracks. I love the ZXE-D PS cdda, the official soundtrack seems to have some slightly arranged tracks according to the ones I've heard + that 7 minute first track. Will be getting both from Isabela. Last edited by Zethe; May 18, 2012 at 01:49 PM. |
#26
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I need to find some-way to listen to ZXE-D, Riot Stars, and Universal Nuts. They're difficult to get ahold of, anyway.
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#27
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Listing favorite artists is tough for me. Well, let's see if I can come up with a few. Get ready for some seriously mainstream selections!
Nobuo Uematsu / Final Fantasy For me, this is "the man." I still remember scouring the internet for MIDIs from that "Final Fantasy" series of games that I didn't really know anything about. That search eventually led me to discover Napster, the existence of physical video game soundtracks, the Game Music Online store and finally my first video game soundtrack: Final Fantasy VII. Over ten years and literally hundreds of soundtracks later... here I am! Motoi Sakuraba / Star Ocean My first non-Uematsu RPG soundtrack was Star Ocean 2. I think a friend told me it was like Final Fantasy in space. Not sure how well that holds up, but it sure sold me at the time. Sakuraba's music really resonates with me for some reason. Although he can be a little hit / miss, I'm always willing to take a chance and enjoy the ride. Yasunori Mitsuda / Chrono Cross Mitsuda's more recent works haven't had much impact on me, but I think that's primarily because he set the bar so high early on. Works like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Kirite never get old. Even if Mitsuda never catches my attention again, he'll still be a favorite for those works alone. Yoko Shimomura / Kingdom Hearts I have a strange relationship with Shimomura's music. I love her distinctive style and approach, but sometimes the results really don't gel with me. Parasite Eve didn't do much for me, but Super Mario RPG, Legend of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts totally knocked my socks off. She's also very versatile and is one of the few composers who can write ridiculously happy music that still manages to captivate me. :3 Yuzo Koshiro / Etrian Odyssey Some people use synthesizers; Koshiro OWNS synthesizers. He knows how to make technology sing and I love every second of it. His FM synthesis in particular is just gorgeous. And not only are his sounds and textures lavish, but he crafts beautiful melodies too. I can't go wrong with Koshiro. Naoshi Mizuta / Final Fantasy XI Never a popular choice. XD This man nearly ruined Final Fantasy for me. I hated the FFXI soundtrack when I first got it. It was too different; it wasn't what I expected. I kept coming back to it though and slowly, very slowly, it began to grow on me. Then came the expansions and eventually I was playing the game online with friends. Now it's become one of my favorite soundtracks and Mizuta continues to catch me off guard with works like Blood of Bahamut, Hikari no 4 Senshi, and Final Fantasy XIII-2. Was it just repetition? Did Mizuta wear me down? Maybe. If so, then I'm glad that I gave him the chance. Last edited by Boco; May 18, 2012 at 02:57 PM. |
#28
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Quote:
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#29
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I have Soma Bringer, but I only listened to it once. The samples sounded promising which led me to order the soundtrack. It ended up being somewhat disappointing though. Not really sure why. I should probably listen to it a few more times before I completely write it off.
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#30
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Huh! Well I loved it at first listen. But I'll admit one of my favorite types of music is what I deem, "autumn music". Stuff that would fit in a deciduous forest around autumn time, and alot of Soma Bringer has this vibe.
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