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Doujin VGM
For those who don't know what it is, it's basically the Japanese equivalent of what some people call "remixes," or fan-made video game music arrangements.
The Japanese VGM arrangement community is significantly different from the American one in that artists don't submit their works to central sites like OverClocked ReMix, VGMix, or Dwelling of Duels. Instead, everyone has their own site and provides their own hosting, although occasionally members of the community will come together and contribute to group projects known as "events." Due to the nature of the doujin music community, finding sites on your own is fairly cumbersome, especially if you don't understand Japanese. And even then, it takes time to separate the good from the mediocre and plain bad. Therefore, the purpose of this thread is to share and discuss your discoveries and recommendations. If you've never even heard of any of this until now, that's fine. A few people have taken it upon themselves to highlight/catalog these sites. Here are links to some of their sites, along with a couple others to get you started. Keep in mind that most of the MP3s are packaged in LZH format, so you'll need software such as WinRAR that can extract that type of file. Databases/Search sites http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/3573/cmcbagt7.jpg - Probably the biggest existing database of doujin sites currently. http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/3852/zettaiffah7.jpg - Devoted to Final Fantasy arrangement sites. http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9080/sinbanabj8.gif - Another search site, with handy drop-down boxes for various categories. http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8789/81842806nt5.gif - An amazing searchable catalog of literally hundreds of doujin sites, even including American ones. http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8189/cbb1qq9.png - A blog run by several members of the doujin music community. Also keeps track of sites like OCReMix and VGMix. Otokei Doujin Database - Pretty self-explanatory. 2chan doujin CD thread - Where the cool Japanese people go to talk about the latest albums. E-Wind - Another OCR-like arrangement site. [Remix/Arrange] VGM Sites - A good list of both Japanese and English VGM arrangement sites. Great place to start. niki's finds - Gotta plug a fellow doujin-lover. ;) Blogs http://music.readalittle.net/ - The site that started it all for me. Currently on indefinite hiatus. :( Noctilucence - A cool VGM arrangement review blog. Disaster - A daily log of the latest doujin site updates. Probably the closest thing you'll find to a Japanese OverClocked ReMix. ;) Good Nintentions Gone Bad - An interesting blog devoted to VG arrangements and...porn? Nitouhei's Blog - Another good arrangement blog. Fairly regularly updated. Events May 6: http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/2518/tron2b1bu.png March 12th saw the debut of two doujin events: Celestia Project Vol. 2 ~ Jazz Festival and the King of the Aces High Decisive Battle. http://personal.utulsa.edu/~david-hsu/images/cele2.jpg Celestia Project Vol. 2 is the followup to Celestia Project Vol. 1, which consisted completely of Square/Enix arrangements and was a massive success with over 80 submissions. Unfortunately, to say that Vol. 2 does not live up to its predecessor is more than an understatement. There were no game restrictions this time around, but all submissions were required to be in a jazz style. There was a disappointing total of 12 video game arrangements, of which roughly half are even listenable (no offense to any contributors who might be reading this). However, the project is perhaps saved by its other half: a collection of 10 original pieces also in jazz style. I personally recommend the ones by millstones, YK, and Tadasuke in particular. The theme for Vol. 3 is as yet undecided. http://personal.utulsa.edu/~david-hs...s/gekitsui.jpg King of the Aces High, on the other hand, with its heavy metal/rock theme, is a real treat for any VGM fan. Organized by CROW'SCLAW's own Taka, one might compare this event to a Dwelling of Duels free month uber-competition. The Decisive Battle is the third round of the contest, and original submissions were welcomed as well this time. Coming in at 44 VG arrangements and 24 original tracks for a total of 68 submissions, KotAH rivals the success of the Celestia Project Vol. 1. In this tribute to the mighty axe, there is plenty of distortion, overdrive, and wah-wah for all. Personal highlights for me include "CHRONO TRIGGER" and "GREAT GREEN GREENS", as well submissions by B.G.M., yu-suke, and of course best of shape. Voting is being held until the 19th, although I haven't been able to determine exactly how to actually vote. Results will be announced a week later, on the 26th. Update: The winner was Lix, with his Romancing Saga Minstrel Song arrangement "Devine Devide." February 10: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~david-hsu/images/ban1.jpg Artists: Azu Piano Black Magic Orchestra Dorothy Cafe Labyrinth of the Lily Innocence -Twin Aperture- Last Leaf MintJam Mu Prism MTR Midi New White Sapporo Electric Brain Room Spelunker S.S.H. Symphony Zero Venus Cord ViViX/Godspeed |
I haven't heard much doujin VGM, but I <3 best of shape's work on Noise Mutation -SaGa Frontier Remix-. Great techno (and some rock) mixes of Ito and Hamauzu's work.
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Indeed. :)
Two more events to report: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~david-hsu/images/ban1.jpg Song For Rydia is, as one might guess, an event dedicated completely to Rydia's Theme. It opened on February 10th, and there are 13 tracks in all, with quality ranging from gentle to grating. Still well worth checking out for the few gems, such as the beautiful vocal rendition. There's also a demo track containing samples of each submission for those who are interested. http://personal.utulsa.edu/~david-hsu/images/mario.jpg Super Mario Brothers 20th Anniversary Festival was released March 1st in celebration of Mario's 20th anniversary last year (though I think they should'ved waited until Mar10 :) ). Participation was relatively small, with a mere 5 tracks total. The arrangements are mostly decent though, and even if they're not to your taste, it won't take long to go through them all. |
I thought Doujin VGM meant VGM made for Doujin games.
Danm was I off. |
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I remember some time ago (as in like last year), there was supposed to be some kinda game arrange radio show, and somebody (perhaps niki?) was supposed to have recorded it. One of the participants was Saitama Saisyu Heiki (S.S.H) who you probably already know. Anyone got any info on this?
In other news, fans of S.S.H might want to check out a new free mp3 at his site. http://www.ssh.ne.jp/mp3/mer.zip |
New SSH song is rather badass. Sounds like he went a step up with the synth he was using, drums sound better than before. Is there a tinge of live guitar in this one too? I always wanted to know what kind of synth/programs he used. He's really all over the place in the doujin scene. (and with over a gig of mp3s of just HIS stuff)
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Might this answer your question (regarding sound equipment/progs)? http://www.ssh.ne.jp/file/profile.htm |
I didn't really like Identity too much, it was just a long version of basically any other song I've heard from him. Some of his stuff can get kind of generic, due to the redundancies of the synth I suppose. For stuff like Identity, I like his involvement in Jesus is Dead better (or what I assume is his involvement) in songs like Level 7.
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New event!
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/2518/tron2b1bu.png Released May 6, the theme for The Revival Of Nostalgia event, or TRON for short, was music from games released in the 20th century. A slightly broad criteria perhaps, but the results were good nonetheless, with a total of 21 entries from 19 artists. The highlight for me the completely rockin' Mog arrangement by YAMAGEN. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite doujin groups. |
Dhsu, seems like you know a lot of VGM doujin. Do you know any place where I could get Zelda VGM Doujin? (or nintendo related):)
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Sorry, the only thing I can suggest is OCReMix. Japanese arrangers seem to usually ignore Nintendo games, focusing more on Square, Falcom, Shanghai Alice, etc.
Edit: Well, I found this, which is a list of websites with Zelda mixes (there are currently 174, I think). Most of them are either MIDIs or American arrangers though...I haven't found a Japanese site with Zelda arrangements yet. Still, some pretty good ones in there. |
Ahhhh I'm glad I'm not alone in my love for Doujin music! Those links for the events where awesome by the way (Celestia, etc.). Should add more days worth of music to my collection >.>
Here's another good site for doujin vgm compilation (updated daily): http://pine.zero.ad.jp/disaster/ And the awesomesauce and origin (?) of them all: www.muzie.co.jp My all time favorite amateur (doujin) composers has to be Mint Jam. Their stuff is strictly O.O guitar/rock: http://www.mintjam.net/index2.htm Now here is my dilema. I'm not sure how many of you live the US (most I'm sure), but it is hella and I mean HELLA difficult to come by doujin vgm arrange cd's (as you may/may not know). 99% of the websites that do sell them (and are of course based out of Japan) do not do international orders. The most popular and widely used ones include: melonbooks.co.jp, toaroana.jp. akiboo.com, and w-canvas.com. (Please be advised that these are doujin everything retailers and you must be 18+ to enter the websites due to adult content). Not only that but I couldn't place an order there if my life depended on it (my Japanese is ftl). Unfortunately you won't find any doujin cd's at any US import retailers (gamemusic.com, amazon.com, etc.), which is a crying shame. So I've been trying to get my hands on this relatively new gem http://soundonline.info/blaze/#02 for the last couple months with no success ;_; . I'm a big soundonline fan (RO remix's ftw), and even though the CD is for sale in Japan, I have no way of acquiring it >_< . So if you read this far, is anyone having the same problem and/or have any advice? tyty |
Just a headup, I've started uploading doujin albums in lossless on gftracker, 5 torrents on there right now. I'm also doing requests for whatever I have, the list is on there as well.
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I don't know if MintJam technically counts as amateur anymore...they've done a good number of professional/commercial works by now.
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Damn dhsu. You're solely responsible because thread makes me attracted VGM doujinshi. :lolsign: After being addicted by VGM It seems I will become VGM doujin yankee in several weeks later.
Where should I begin to hunt then? Any suggestion? I have downloaded couple mp3s from the site you mentioned before, but I dont know where I should go for the next stop. |
Do you any doujin groups or sites that focus on arrangements for anime soundtracks? I've been looking for something like that for a long time, especially any remixes of Yoko Kanno's music.
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Actually I know some vgm doujin site that providing the links to their recording, but the problem, they are japanese. I dont know what song I downloaded.
Try this http://azupiano.net It's a vgm doujin group named azupiano, they have great arrangement for several FF music. |
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By the way, your link is broken. Can you fix it? |
Okay, I might have a new favorite arranger now...
Site: Sepia 'n' Gamers 34 arrangements, each from a different Famicom game, and each with a different style. One might think this diversity would have a negative impact on the arrangement quality, but every single one is brilliant. Highly, HIGHLY recommended. Edit: Link fixed. |
This one give some samples of Chrono Trigger arranged album.
Chrono Trigger Arrange Album http://www.ismusic.ne.jp/crimson_village/artbana01.gif http://www.geocities.jp/crimson_village/cd/ EDIT: I think this thread should be sticky-ed |
Ok... another new sites.:)
Dorothy Cafe http://fumapero.com/link/images/dorothysbanner.gif http://dorothyscafe.milk.tc/ Spellunker http://www.hector87.net/spelunker/b_images/band_pic.gif http://www.hector87.net/spelunker/main.html |
Allright so I solved my problem. If anyone wants to order doujin music cd's (or anything else from Japan for that matter) use this service http://www.akibado.com/index.html . This Japan based company will purchase the item your interested in and ship it internationally (I used it, it works). I post this for posterity ;p
I've been out of the flow for a while so I'll follow up on some of the links that have been provided. My external HD broke so I lost hundreds of hours of music unfortunately ;_; . I did have good 'ol S.S.H. backed up though. That man is a genius for sure. ^^b Edit: Oh yeas. Dhsu, you arrange your own music, I'm jealous! And...that link doesn't work~ fufufu |
Haha, I left out an 'l' at the end. ^_^; Try it again now. :)
Thanks for the link! I'm sure many of us wish we had found this service earlier at some point. ;) |
new sites :)
Dhsu I think you should index all the sites listed in this thread. http://prism.web.infoseek.co.jp/img/banner/muprism.jpg http://prism.web.infoseek.co.jp/music.htm Midi + MP3 = Tactics Ogre, Saga Frontier II, Romancing Saga, etc. Very nice. Just listen to the performance of this Variation VGM doujin listing (too much sites and I havent checked them out. Perhaps later) http://www.dtm.ac/cgi/foundnew.cgi?phase=new http://blackmagic.cool.ne.jp/banner.gif Black Magic Orchestra http://blackmagic.cool.ne.jp/ |
Wise fwom youw gwave! I'll update the links after I put up my writeup of the newest event. For now though, here's an x-post from ThaSauce.net. :)
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He just came out with possibly one of the most interesting arrangements of Wild Wild West I've ever heard. His music is just so visceral...even his versions of overdone stuff like "Chrono Trigger" somehow manages to get my blood pumping, even after repeated listens. So yeah, check him out, definitely one of the best VGM arrangers on the scene right now. |
Thanks for the Doujin links.
YAMAGEN is AMAZING! I love his guitar style, I got the same feeling that I got when I first listened to Mintjam and SSH. :D It seems the Song For Rydia website has vanished without a trace. Since you linked to that one vocal song I got that, and that blew me away! Rydia is one of my favorite characters in a video game and that vocal piece made my day. Does anyone have all the entries from Songs for Rydia? If you could upload them to my web server via ftp if that is the easiest way, that would be awesome. I made a special account for it, please pm me for the info. Then I can leave them on the internet for other people to download too. I also found the funniest doujin song name ever at TRON: 09 - [My Dream Has Gone With Tinkling of the Bell When the Fireworks Burned Out in the Wintertime] by NASA |
There's a mirror of Song For Rydia here: http://sakika.heavy.jp/rydia/sd.html
Enjoy! :) Double Post: First post (and sig) is updated. :) |
Thanks Dhsu!
Do you or any other doujin collectors ever go on VGMCentral and share your doujin collection? I am StarBeamAlpha on there and I am currently sharing 19.7 GB worth of Doujin music :D I have some rare suff so check it out. I basically downloaded everyone's list for a month and downloaded any Doujin I could find, I LOVE doujin music! But now since I have so much I can't find any new doujin cds, I need to find out how to get and use winny, the japanese p2p program. In the mean time I am scouring the web, keep the links coming. ^_^ Oh BTW I like your Elfen Lied remix, it's such a sad song with a lot of feeling in it, I would just space out during the anime since you are bombarded with so much destruction and you could feel it in that song. |
Some nice Kirby stuff here: http://azuregem.seesaa.net/
There's a main site with non-Kirby stuff, I think, but never checked it out. |
Surprised nobody has mentioned Crow's Claw. Official site here: http://www.crowsclaw.info/down.php
You can find their other releases on FTPs on this very site. |
Well, the reason is that originally I intended to use this thread to post new finds, but at this point anything is appreciated. :) Thanks for the contributions, everyone.
And by the way, thanks for the compliments, StarBeamAlpha. ;) |
Not to sound demanding, but would it be possible to make a list of games that these artists have arranged? I would very much like to know, for example, which artists have arranged Ragnarok Online music. If there's a list like this online (that isn't in Japanese), that would be fine too.
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bit tough Kaleb, because the music that usually listed in their page are mixed between one and another games, to list all games they are working on is quite tough, because there are just too many of them.
But let me know if you want the romaji tracklist of sepia n gamers, I have transliterate the titles from the original tracklist, but it needs more proper identification though, because they arranged many lesser known old nintendo games (like Kid Icarus, Ganbare Goemon, and many games that I never heard of). Spoiler:
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Not that it's specifically targeted to Doujins, but I'm sharing a good amount of those in this thread:
http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/my...kis-finds.html Enjoy ~ |
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http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~namas/midi/index.html this site has Gyakuten Saiban (逆転裁判) arranged mp3s. =D |
N.K.T.Kid is a talented guy almost nobody has heard of yet. Just by looking at his discography, he arranged exactly the things I love: SaGa 2, Metal Max 2, Metal Max Returns <3
http://park15.wakwak.com/~n.k.t.kid/ If you click on music, you can listen to an awesome MM2 arrangement and 3 tracks from SaGa 2 Arrange Style. Great stuff, but impossible to find more of :-/ |
I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread, because I've discovered Yamagen's Devileliet. Extremely polished, well-arranged rock VGM. Nice.
About Black Magic...the FF3 Mp3s I d/led were note for note transcriptions of the DS version. |
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http://curious-cat.net/rays/piano/contents.html Piano arrangements of the music from the Ray Series (Force, Storm and Crisis). What I've heard so far is good, so give it a listen.
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Oh, totally forgot to advert it here, but I'm currently seeding a torrent of my full Doujin VGM collection (16,5 gigs). Grab it here:
http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/my...s-torrent.html |
Wow, awesome. I wish I had the hard drive space (or even the time) to listen to all this.
Regardless, much thanks for the torrent, niki. :) |
Do any of the doujin sites have any Kingdom Hearts remixes?
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Hey, it's been a while, but I just thought I'd let everyone know that Celestia Project Vol. 4 was released on March 25.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/5...e4ban01ae2.jpg The theme this time was "Red and White," I'm assuming to reflect the cherry blossom season. Huge turnout this time with 87 tracks total, both original and arranged. Not surprisingly, the tracks are split into separate "red side" and "white side" song packs. The password is sakura20070325. I haven't actually had a chance to listen to every song yet, but so far I'm a fan of yu-suke's "SNOW." His voice is a little shaky sometimes, but the melody is memorable all the same. Also updated the first thread with some extra blogs I forgot to include. Quote:
Hope that helps. |
They're BOTH Hikari, not Dearly Beloved. But thanks.
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Ah, you're right, I guess I remembered it wrong. Now I kinda want to find out where I heard the one of Dearly Beloved...
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If there's a Dearly Beloved remix, PLEASE link it. :)
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Of course.
In other news, I just found out that Sepia 'n' Gamers closed down. I can't read the message on his site, but it's definitely a great loss for the community. |
Slight off topic, but this guy did a great remix of Star Stealing girl from Chrono Cross. Its' a rock version.
http://www.myspace.com/timlydonmusic |
Since no one's mentioned it yet:
Music Fantasy Tactics http://mft.exdeath.jp/topimg/img52_25578.png Dunno when it was released, it says March 16 2006, but the second part also reads the same date, so I'm assuming the site crashed and was reupped around the same time... All remixes from Final Fantasy Tactics spanning many genres of music http://mft.exdeath.jp/mft1/files/mft1_all.lzh Music Fantasy Tactics 2 http://mft.exdeath.jp/topimg/img40_toptest.png Dunno when it was released as well. This time it consists of both Final Fantasy Tactics as well as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance music. http://mft.exdeath.jp/mft2/files/mft2_all.lzh And finally Music Fantasy Tactics 3 http://mft.exdeath.jp/img/mft3_400.png Released February 10, 2007 For some reason this one isn't compiled into one zip, so you have to download each file seperately. http://mft.exdeath.jp/mft3/eid17.html |
Sweet, I've been wanting to listen to the first two MFTs but could never find the actual MP3 archives. Thanks for the heads up!
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While looking for the first two, I didn't realize there was a third one. So its all good. Only problem is they're all tagged kind of strangely...
MFT is pretty much how I first got into Dojin music |
I like Zephyr-cradle they do FF, Chrono Trigger, Ys arranges. They have two albums with a third on the way.
http://www.zephyr-cradle.info/sound.php |
Man, I wonder why I never listened to doujin vgm before. I have a few tracks here and there, and I think this thread is great for people who are just starting to get into doujin music.
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Does anyone have (or know where I can find) anything from encounter+ ?
I think they are doing some sort of original fantasy doujin music, similar to Sound Horizon... |
I recommend my fan arrangement of Shingetsutan Tsukihime!
XTHost.info download page That original OST is adorable! |
Dhsu told me about this thread earlier (sort of).
I did a lot of research into the doujin scene a few years ago, I'll have to see if there's any artists not mentioned in these pages and post them. Until then, have fun trying to dig through Muzie, it's the JP equivalent of MP3.com: muzie “ú–{ő勉‚̃Cƒ“ƒfƒB[ƒY‰¹Šy”zM&ƒRƒ~ƒ…ƒjƒeƒB[ƒTƒCƒg |
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