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  #1  
Old Feb 11, 2012, 03:25 AM
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I suspect the "関 雅充" credited as the recording engineer for track 1.03 should really be Tomomitsu Seki (関 朋充), who was part of STUDIO emPOINT.
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  #2  
Old Mar 27, 2013, 11:35 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CHz View Post
I suspect the "関 雅充" credited as the recording engineer for track 1.03 should really be Tomomitsu Seki (関 朋充), who was part of STUDIO emPOINT.
You can be sure about that, on this album is also credited along with Ayane.
It's quite likely, although not confirmed, that the "ハルナ" credited on here is this artist. I don't see this game or album mentioned in her blog/diary. Anyway, ハルナ can be only read as Haruna, there's no discussion about that.

And the elusive 片山耕一 is driving me crazy to find a source for a romanization of his name. Discogs and MusicBrainz are the only sites to give a romanization, but it's just a guess, nothing official or confirmed.

I forgot to mention that the other recording engineer un-romanized (中島次郎) is Jiro Nakajima. Sources: twitter account credited as assistant engineer other credit the last one

Last edited by isdapi; Mar 28, 2013 at 10:59 AM. Reason: Adding info
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 01:40 PM
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Originally Posted by isdapi View Post
I forgot to mention that the other recording engineer un-romanized (中島次郎) is Jiro Nakajima. Sources: twitter account credited as assistant engineer other credit the last one
The Jiro Nakajima on those three albums (most of the Buck-Tick DVD credits come from the 1998 album release) was part of Sound Sky Studio during the '90s & 2000, and I've never been unable to find his name in kanji. How sure are you he's the same person as the 中島次郎 who shows up in 5pb records starting around 2007?

I've found some of those same album listings when trying to find something definitive for his name myself, but I've never been totally sure they're the same guy.

EDIT:

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Originally Posted by isdapi View Post
Anyway, ハルナ can be only read as Haruna, there's no discussion about that.
Haha, well, let's have a discussion about that. It's not a big deal, but just as a personal rule, I don't romanize names that are entirely in hiragana or katakana unless they're obviously a first and last name, because they frequently turn out to have stylized romanizations. Especially ones in katakana.

As an example using ハルナ, HΛL vocalist Haruna Hamada used that name when she was still with the group, but in English it was stylized as HΛLNA, not Haruna. (I don't think it's her on this album.)

Again, not a big deal, and certainly not VGMdb policy. Just my policy.

Last edited by CHz; Mar 28, 2013 at 02:18 PM.
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  #4  
Old Mar 29, 2013, 03:45 PM
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Let's take it in parts:

Quote:
The Jiro Nakajima on those three albums (most of the Buck-Tick DVD credits come from the 1998 album release) was part of Sound Sky Studio during the '90s & 2000, and I've never been unable to find his name in kanji. How sure are you he's the same person as the 中島次郎 who shows up in 5pb records starting around 2007?

I've found some of those same album listings when trying to find something definitive for his name myself, but I've never been totally sure they're the same guy.
Have you looked at his twitter account? I mean, his nickname is nakajilow and if that's not a direct reference to his real name (Jiro Nakajima), I don't know what else could be. If you're wondering if this nakajilow is a recording engineer working for 5pb., then translate this '録音のお仕事してます。' and look at the artists with whom he tweets (Zwei_Megu, HIMEKA, chiyomaru5pb). All of them are affiliated, in one way or another, with 5pb.Records.

And if you're asking me how I know if the Jiro Nakajima who was part of Sound Sky Studio is the same guy that 中島次郎, I'll tell you that there is no absolute certainty,. Even so, it's reasonable to think that if someone named "Jiro Nakajima" worked as sound engineer previously in another company is reasonably sure to accept that he followed his career as sound technician in another company (It would be a totally different story if this Jiro Nakajima had credits as sound engineer for Sound Sky Studio during the years he has worked for 5pb, but that's not the case). You know, in an ideal world all the artists would have official pages where you could verify with absolute certainty in which albums the artists had participated. I mean, when we all submit a new artist romanization there is always a little uncertainty associated with it.

I would go even further, how do we know for sure that a freelance musician who has worked in several albums and with different people throughout his career is the same and not a different artist with the same name/romanization? Easy, we just guess it because there is no ultimate proof (except the artists' discographies) that demonstrate he's always the same artist. All of this is to say that if you have an artist whose name is "Koichi Setsumaru" and all the credits he has as musician is as guitarist and then you add an album with a Koichi Setsumaru credited for guitar performance and you link this album to his profile, you're guessing that he's the same artist credited several times before, and you'd be certain almost always (99% of the time) but there is always a little uncertainty about the fact he may be a different artist. So, in short, if you know that a certain guy is credited for a fixed role in several albums (maybe not vgm or anime related) and if you see the same guy credited on an album in our database, then what's more likely: that they're the same artist or that they're different artists because they've worked on not related albums, with different people and different studios.

It all comes down to what amount of uncertainty one is willing to assume. There is always risk involvement in this bunissess, and it's decision of each one of us what it's acceptable and what it's not. My only guide in dubious cases (or not so obvious cases) it's the common sense and if I see more than one evidence pointing to the same direction, then I'll think that will be the right direction.


Quote:
Haha, well, let's have a discussion about that. It's not a big deal, but just as a personal rule, I don't romanize names that are entirely in hiragana or katakana unless they're obviously a first and last name, because they frequently turn out to have stylized romanizations. Especially ones in katakana.

As an example using ハルナ, HΛL vocalist Haruna Hamada used that name when she was still with the group, but in English it was stylized as HΛLNA, not Haruna. (I don't think it's her on this album.)

Again, not a big deal, and certainly not VGMdb policy. Just my policy.
As far as I know, each one of the katakana's syllabograms corresponds to just one sound, but I know that the some artists take liberties with their 'stage names', and for japanese artists and their eccentric romanizations is even worse. That's the magic of the romanizations of the japanese language, you can stylize them as you see fit. But one thing are unusual cases, like the HΛLNA you mentioned, and another thing is the common practice. I'd say that 90% of the time is used ハルナ it's intended to be read as Haruna, plain and simple.

Anyway, I understand your point of view and your policy in this case and I don't mind if you prefer to revert to ハルナ.
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 05:46 PM
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With regard to the Twitter account, I never doubted that it was his, but how can you tell from the username that it's Nakajima and not Nakashima? That's why I didn't mention it. And really, if you're taking the reading from the username, why not Jilow?

About your larger point, you're totally right of course. We all have different lines at which we're willing to decide that something is proven, and I think it's pretty clear from other discussions we've had that my line is higher than yours. I've just been burned from so much bad information from apparently trustworthy sources over the years that I like to be really, REALLY sure about everything I add to the database.

I'd be personally satisfied if I could confirm that the Sound Sky Studio guy's name in kanji is the same, because there are a lot of different ways you can write Jiro, but I've been unsuccessful the couple of times I've tried.


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Originally Posted by isdapi View Post
But one thing are unusual cases, like the HΛLNA you mentioned, and another thing is the common practice. I'd say that 90% of the time is used ハルナ it's intended to be read as Haruna, plain and simple.
Yep, this is absolutely true, which is why I don't make a fuss when people do romanize those kinds of names. I started doing it because of doujin albums, where unusual romanizations happen more often than albums like these.
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Old Mar 30, 2013, 02:03 AM
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With regard to the Twitter account, I never doubted that it was his, but how can you tell from the username that it's Nakajima and not Nakashima? That's why I didn't mention it. And really, if you're taking the reading from the username, why not Jilow?
Again, I can't prove that 中島 is read as Nakajima and not as Nakashima, although the former is rather more common. Anyway, what leads me to believe that the family name of 中島次郎 is Nakajima and not Nakashima is the existence of a recording engineer credited as Jiro Nakajima. And about Jilow, it would be another case of stylized romanization, just a liberty of the artist, but in this case there are no hits for anyone named "Jilow Nakajima" and neither for "Jilow Nakashima", that's the difference.

And well, I don't know if this will be enough or not for you, but it's worthy of mention:
Credit 1 Credit 2 (On these albums there is a Jiro Nakajima credited as assistant engineer as part of the Studio Terra)
Credit 3 (On this album, the same as credit 1, you have all the credits in japanese, and guess what a 中島次郎 is credited as 録音助手 (assistant engineer).

I haven't been be able to connect him to Sound Sky Studio but I have been able to do it with Studio Terra which is a sub-studio of EMI, a company with which 中島次郎 has collaborated in several occasions.

Now, it's up to you.

Last edited by isdapi; Mar 30, 2013 at 02:06 AM.
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  #7  
Old Mar 30, 2013, 03:39 AM
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I'm not really inclined to trust the English Wikipedia article for Ringo no Uta when it misreads "Great Eida" as "Great Sakaeda," but all the other names are correct I think. I'm pretty sure it's just a translation of the Japanese article for the album, as that has all the staff names in Japanese, so that article can verify most of the names in your credit 3 link and vice versa. Credit 2 link is probably fine re. Jiro Nakajima though.

The Studio Terra / EMI connection is interesting, thanks for finding that. Studio Terra used to have some profiles of their engineers ([1] [2]), but unfortunately he never had one, so it seems like he left by the time those pages went up. I guess a potential career path is looking like Sound Sky Studio (~1998 - ~2000) → Studio Terra (~2003) → 5pb./MAGES. (~2007 - )? I'm still not totally convinced, but a lot of my trepidation was because 中島次郎's only results were for 5pb. and Jiro Nakajima's only results were for Sound Sky Studio, so this additional history is making me feel a lot better.

One more Studio Terra thing: apparently both 中島次郎 and Studio Terra alumni Kaichiro Mouri (毛利 嘉一郎) were engineers on the 2007 ED single of Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o, which isn't in the database yet. They recorded separate songs at different studios, though, so I think it's just a coincidence!
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