Professional Game Composers and Amateurism
 

Video Game Music is a domain in which amateurism has been taking a very important place along the years. Few are the VGM fans who don't listen to a fan remix everynow and then. Some even mostly listen to those.

The opinion of professional game composers towards fan arrangements tend to vary. It is a known fact that Nobuo Uematsu frowned upon the doujin music circles in a few occasions.

Others, though, have the opposite stance and actually participate in non official projects.

In the Japanese doujin circles again, a recent example is Hyakutaro Tsukumo, of Tecno Soft fame, who arranged Kenji Ito's music from the SaGa series on the latest Dangerous Mezashi Cat's doujin album. The result is quite awesome btw and I highly everyone to get it now.

Hiroshi Nishizawa, who composed part of the Selected Sorcerian music, released unofficial soundtracks of that work of his through the doujin market as well.

Ryu Umemoto, composer of many of C's Ware great (in Japan) successes such as Yu-No, composed (under an alias) original music for digital novels, also released through the doujin market.

That's only a few examples. Anything to contribute on the topic ? =p

If I were a professional game composer, I would definitely embrace fan arrangements and even contribute to a community with my own unofficial fan creations. It's homage. Arranging existing music is a great way for aspiring composers to get experience too.

I'm much more willing to embrace informed amateurism; that is, fans who are sensitive to the original's context and keep it in mind, and even possess a healthy amount of musical knowledge. I think there's a line that shouldn't be crossed, in the case of, say, trance remixes of Zelda music. Taking the music out of its original genre is something I'm not too fond of, especially if it were a piece of mine that were redone in such a way. But I know people like to do that, for whatever reason.

I particularly enjoyed Jeremy Soule's rearrangement of Terra's Theme from FFVI.

Who could forget Dark Chronicle and Rouge Galaxy Premium arrange albums ! We have a list of who's who composers, such as Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Kenji Ito .... pay tribute to Tomohito Nishiura. Those are high quality arrangements and worth checking out. I really enjoy both of the them.

Heh, that reminded me of that ~20 minutes Bare Knuckle arrange Yuzo Koshiro released on some forum a couple years ago. =p

I see nothing wrong with fan arrangements. In fact, its a great way for music to be re-integrated into a more contemporary setting. There are so many amazing NES games with stellar soundtracks, but its difficult for people unfamiliar with the medium to listen to the nes and not see beyond the limitations.

Arrangements utilizing modern sound software really allows all kinds of different people to see the beauty of the music. Thats fair, as many NES soundtracks are doomed to be forgotten. That would be a crime considering the incredible breadth of insane musicality.

Then again, and as Cellius pointed out, sometimes its difficult to touch a piece of music without ruining it. I'd be lying if I said that 50 percent of amateur arrangements preserved the good standing of the original. However, its really fun that music can inspire others to give back in the same way that they initially received.

He made that before he get famous though.

Ugh.

No.

I'd like to appreciate arrangements done in ways I both expect and DON'T expect. Really hate people crapping on arrangements "that aren't repsectful to the spirit of the original" or whatever that's supposed to mean. There's not liking something for personal and subjective reasons, but it's annoying to read of people going "it's not allowed" to be approached a certain way as if it's an objective violation of some apparent rule of remixing.

I think most composers are quite supportive. Tommy Tallarico has mentioned OCR numerous times, and put togeter Earthworm Jim Anthology along with Mustin with arrangements from the OCR community.

Jeremy Soule is very supportive, even beyond his submission of the Terra remix. He says it's a composer's duty to help growing musicians that will some day take their spots.

Yuzo Koshiro also contributed to Merrignon, a score for an imaginary game that was composed mostly by demosceners in Europe.

Thank you for that polite response.

Don't play dumb. You know what it means. There's a reason appropriate music genres exist within different genres of games, why one style works where another doesn't, you should know that. I don't appreciate being completely dismissed just because you're so defensive. Pretty sure I don't want to listen to Saria's Song set to techno beats and warm pads. Don't worry, it's just my musical taste; it's not going to jeopardize yours. :)

And I'd argue against that. Total Annihilation was very popular, and really propelled his career forward. Even more, the remix was posted in 2004, and Morrowind came out in 2002. He was already quite popular. =)

That's all it deserved.

That's bullshit. That's what it means. Look where your argument is coming from. "There's a reason appropriate music genres exist within different genres of games..." At what point are we talking about within games? The genre of an arrangement isn't required to fit the mood of the game the original music is from.

In many cases, an arrangement is a standalone work, not "within a game" or requiring anything to do with "original context." In your close-minded way of thinking tied to the game, you just don't feel that certain genres are permissable. So when po! & The OneUps did a great jazz arrangement of Axelay, that wouldn't be "schmup-y" enough for you or some garbage. Of course I'm not gonna be polite about telling you how stupid that sounds.

Needing the preservation of original context is fine for personal taste but is a shitty MO to apply broadly, not even to the fan arrangement community but to many professional arrange albums as well. You can dislike something, but that's not to say it's not even a viable arrangement idea in the first place. There are many who can walk away with both nostalgia and genuine appreciation at an arrangement that's conceptually outside the box. Or in your words "for whatever reason."

I kind of understand where Cellius is coming from. If I'm familiar with an original piece, I have at least an idea of what I want it to sound like. Going out of your way to make it sound radically different...No offense to anyone, but it seems rather ego-driven to me. Like, using the original track to promote yourself. I guess that's all well and good if you like the actual arranger's work from the start, but not so good for a listener looking for a satisfying arrangement. One of the reasons I loathe the Chrono Trigger: Brink of Time album (sorry, can't think of a fan arrangement I legitimately despise...Mmm, good thing?) is because it seems like an excuse to show how many funky effects and solos the arrangers can cram in, with the actual arranging of the original tunes more or less an afterthought. Gets old really fast, since I can care less about who GUIDO is and what kind of music they make for a living. The Rockman X arrange (why take a score knee-deep in heavy metal and do a full-on jazz-fusion arrange?), F-Zero (ditto) and some of the more junk techno arranges (think FF Mix and the Konami Remixes albums) stand out the same way, rather infamously.

For example (don't hate me, Dhsu!), I was never a fan of piano arrangements. To me, it's totally backwards to take a more complex piece and strip it down to a single instrument. Great for piano fans mostly, but I get bored of them really fast because I don't particularly care for much solo piano. I haven't heard a single arrangement that's changed my mind about that, despite many featuring some of my favorite pieces (and I don't just mean the dumbed-down FF or DQ ones).

But then again, it varies from listener to listener...What's acceptable to one might not be acceptable to another.

As for the topic on hand...I believe the Super Sweep members release albums at the comikeets as well. I'm pretty sure that's how Tobi Tsukihime and Mama-san's Volleyball were put out. And also, I believe Hiroki Kikuta put out Alphabet Planet at one of the doujin events (and maybe Lost Files). And then there's SSH and Mintjam, who made the jump to being "professional" by getting contracted for doing soundtracks (and in the case of SSH, professional arranges with the Atelier albums).

A quick question: Have you heard the piano arrangement of "The Trial" from CT? It's entitled "The Trial in Concert". Nothing less than a masterpiece, IMO.

Grow up.
Are you one of those people who are so 'open-minded' that no musical style is too inappropriate for you to consider and you end up going 'whoa this guy is pretty deep.'

Right, but why don't you consider where I'm coming from for once instead of being an immature ass about it? GoldfishX said it well. Create an outside-the-box remix for the sake of going outside the box? OOooooh let's all commend their bold vision because I'm open-minded. That's where I draw the line. I'm going to stick with my Zelda example here: you can't possibly tell me that BogusRed's heartbreaking piano rendition of Into the Golden Sunset is on the same level as some random upbeat hyper-techno remix of Saria's Song. Sorry, you can't endorse everything, as you claim to. Where are your standards? What makes one arrangement viable and another worthless, if you're so accepting?

Which is kind of my point when I mentioned the term informed amateurism. Don't you dare tell me that my opinion isn't meaningful just because it doesn't align with your standards of artistic vision or intent.

"Hey guys, I'm going to create an arrangement of Aeris's theme, but I don't want anyone for any reason to be reminded of Aeris or Final Fantasy VII EVER."

Agreed. It boils down to who you are serving in the end: yourself or the community.

I usually prefer a "radically different" arrangement. It doesn't take much skill to transcribe a song, note for note, and effectively "upgrade" the quality of the original piece. A real arranger should be able to interpret the music and take it somewhere different stylistically, and add their own voice to the piece. It's always fun to see where arrangers can go with a piece, and as a musician myself, I have to commend them for their vision, because I can't seem to arrange anything other than the way I first described.

Yes. My beef is with people who don't do this, but still change the style dramatically. Liontamer The Defender seems to think I would hate a worthy jazz arrangement on principle. Or the Final Fantasy Piano Collections. It's stuff like the Zelda main theme thrown into Fruity Loops and given a repetitive electronic bed that I can't abide.

Cellius and Liontamer, keep it civil please. The core of your mutual animosity is the most common one on the internet, AKA not saying in my opinion enough. That's an official warning ~

Never heard about that Yuzo Koshiro Merrignon thingie. I'll have to check it out.

You mean you can't abide bad quality.

Cause "inappropriate" arrangements are a myth. There's no such thing.

As professional game composer I just can't imagine being in a position where I feel that someone's remix of my work is disrespectful or something like that. That's just arrogant, not to mention retarded. In fact, the day someone arranges a game song of mine will be a glorious day.

And as an VGmix dude I would never arrange a track that I didn't like. I mean if I arrange a track, it's always in some way because I want to pay my respects to it (and perhaps the game it came from). Sure, I may make it into a loud IDM breakbeat thing, or perhaps make an orchestral arrangement of something from the NES, and that's not appropriate, or what the composer intended. But that's the whole point of doing it.

Arrangements can (and should) be creative. They should discover things in a song that a composer never even thought of. Of course to what extend you want to hear stuff like that is up to everybody personally. My favourite thing is fan arrangements where you can barely tell that it's not an original song, such as the stuff on IOSYS's albums, some of virt's stuff, and so on.

Anyway, I love VG/doujin/fanmade stuff (and VGMix, really looking forward to its return... someday). I find it kinda shocking that some game composers would disagree with me on that, according to the OP. :(

I have to say that like Cellius and GoldfishX, I do believe the original intent of a track should be considered in an arrangement. I don't like it when I can hardly recognize the connection and when the structure or mood that made the song worthwhile in the first place is all but lost. That's not to say that the arrangement should be completely straightfoward and uncreative. Only that I like for the spirit of the original track to be retained in some fashion. Otherwise it might as well be an original track with no relation to the original.

Perhaps I look for a middle ground of sorts. When something is too faithful to the original, it might seem pointless. When something deviates too much, it might miss the point.

By "complexity," are you just talking about the number of instruments? Because I've heard piano arrangements that I would characterize as being more complex than the original pieces, like a remix of "Wind Scene" from CT recently posted on OCR.

I also think simplification is a valid arrangement technique. :|

So, are there any arrangement types besides crappy trance that you dislike? Because that's the only thing you've slung around so far, so it seems to me that you just can't stand the stuff period. Either that or you just hate bad quality arrangements that sound like they were whipped together in fifteen minutes, but I'm pretty sure that most people don't like to listen to bad songs as well.*

Pretty much, yeah.

I like arrangements that display some formidable musical knowledge on the arranger's part.

Pretty much.

Never said it wasn't. I just can't think of an example where drastically and intentionally simplifying a piece would result in something I'd want to listen to.

Haha, Gold, nice stab at my two favorite arrange albums of all time (BoT and Rockman X Alph Lyra). =P

Thanks very much to surasshu for breaking down the real deal. Nearly any arrangement done by a fan is meant to be a tribute, even the poorly-created ones. In my opinion, and I spend too much time doing this stuff, I appreciate more when the arrangement is interpretive, and I laugh hearing comments from people that go "I can't recognize the original," because on the fan arrangement side we get it all the time. Any arrangement that primarilly put the focus on interpreting the source material rather than inserting original ideas honors the VGM material that inspired it. Honestly, the people making those complaints about lack of recognition, those people don't have the ear for it and end up missing out on a lot because they can't figure out what's what and don't put forth the effort, but that's their prerogative. There's nothing wrong with badass covers, and I love hearing 'em, but those are generally easier to make because the framework is the same, and if I wanted little to no interpretation melodically, I can also grab the original and listen to that.

Cellius's complaints about techno/trance/etc are just genre hate, noted by his offense to me implying he wouldn't like a jazz arrangement of Axelay. Hey, I'm just reading right into what you were saying about requiring the "spirit of the original game," and your negative reaction to me choosing a different genre and game instead of trance & Zelda and saying you'd automatically hate it just shows how your limiting theory of VG arrangements was too broad and doesn't hold any real weight. You don't even agree with yourself. That's why I reacted so aversely to it, because it's just a nonsense, blanket statement. It's pretty funny reading that I'd welcome every crappily done arrangement regardless of genre and skill though. :-D

So how much is it not having the ear for it vs. not putting forth the effort? One suggests a natural talent and the other suggests focus.

I personally feel that stripping a piece of too much of it's original melody is a little pointless. This wouldn't automatically make a piece bad, it could still be pulled of as a worthwhile effort despite how closely connected to the base material it is. But if I go into something knowing that this is a remix of song X, I am looking to hear a different take on song X. Not a similar backbeat placed to unrecognizable development leading to a brief phrase of the original. I do go in with expectations, it's just the nature of the media.

So are the looser than loose arrangements intended to just be for the sort of crowd of the trained ear and gets these things and not for the general fan, or...

Not just your stance but your apparent disdain for the other side seems hella condescending. I am open minded, but if I don't want to be to the point where something in music goes purposely above my head, I'd like not to be blamed for saying I didn't enjoy it.

<insert Doc's post here, verbatum>

Like I said earlier, it sounds to me like you expect people to make something out of what is largely an original work disguised as an arrangement of a particular piece. Sorry to say, in most cases, it's an artist I wouldn't have interest in besides the fact they're arranging a game tune I'm interested in. Not saying the artist is bad, but sometimes I feel like I'm being conned into listening to something I would have originally skipped. And yeah, I'm not real open-minded to pieces that give me that feeling once I have it on and see what the deal with it is. I treat them the exact way I do a "professional" arrangement that gives me the same feeling.

In contrast...I listen to a lot of the original material from several doujin artists, mostly because I've been introduced to them through their arrangements (SSH, Mintjam and the recent CROWZFEST compilation and "Sword of Justice" being among the more prominant examples). Being familiar with the way these guys arrange game music and the style they apply to it, it normally strikes as something I'd want to listen to when I'm not looking for VGM arrangements. And more often than not, I highly enjoy the original stuff.

Small world, ain't it?

Isn't the melody pretty much the defining basis of a composition? Well, except works that only consist of texture of course...
But I agree with that, and some other statements here.

I think an arrangement should pretty much change the style of the original piece, just upgrading the audio quality of the samples or using real instruments can hardly be called a rearrangement after all ^^. (but changing the set of instruments and choosing an appropiate style is the way to go for me)
Although personally I'm not too fond of changing the emotional impact of the piece. I remember a cover-song of R.E.M.'s "Losing my Religion" a couple of years back by some charts-pop-combo who pretty much made that song into a hyper-genki-party-dance-pop number. Which soooo fits with the lyrics...*cough*
Not a game example, but that's what I'd dislike in fan or professional rearrangements. I think one of the reasons why I don't really like Brink of Time hmm...

Sorry about being confrontational earlier regarding the discussion. There were a lot of assumptions of bad faith regarding arrangement intent in the fan community. As a very active participant as an evaluator, bad faith assumptions on what we do aren't something to be taken lightly, especially because most people accept them at face value without any real knowledge. Informed listenerism, if you will. :-P

I'm not saying you have to like anything that sounds too liberal to you. But one thing I always see are uninformed opinions about what level of liberalism is present. People's manner of phrasing their dislike is as if these arrangements involve 75% wholly original and unrelated material, and 25% glib or passing references to the actual video game music.

I don't think anyone that's trying to provide proper tribute to the original VGM would do such a thing, though it does happen. But even for a place like OverClocked ReMix where VGM interpretation integrated with original ideas is encouraged, the lopsided hypotheticals people are implying aren't common or even encouraged.

If we're going to criticize this approach, let's at least do it with some degree of accuracy. Pretty much anything sent to OverClocked ReMix where the VGM usage is less that 50% of the track's content is going to be a no-go, and situations like that actually are pretty uncommon in the first place. That's why I'm trying to leave this "largely an original work disguised as an arrangement" stuff out of this discussion, where it belongs. No matter what some people insist, that's not what's happening in the fan arrangement community.

Having worked through situations where I've had to timestamp arrangements vs. the source VGM to verify connections (i.e. working to gain an objective point-of-view of source usage rather than subjective), OC ReMix isn't there to accept things that are largely original works. A to B connections are needed that show interpretation of the VGM material compared with the arrangement, and those should make up the majority of the arrangement always.

You don't have to like the music there based off that explanation. But it's a big leap in logic to say that fan arrangement sites are actively putting the VGM to the wayside and, in many (or most) cases, barely referencing it at all. With that said, if someone is at a loss because they can't make the connections, that's not to broadly state the track is a poor tribute. It's a just a tribute you cannot ascertain the connections to, and that's a personal thing, not "a line that shouldn't be crossed." That's where it treads into the ridiculous, on account of being such a broad edict.

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Some of y'all are implying that something like this is something that should be patently discouraged as a VGM arrangement. Because while the melody is indeed in play, the genre's not "sensitive to the original's context." And let's not forget the run-on of "why did he add these compositional cockwaving original passages, wtf, he's just glorifying himself and showing off and not tributing the game music enough." What's up with that? And while this doesn't play the arrangement straight or limit itself to genres that are close to the original, this is creative, well-executed stuff. What is inherently wrong with approaching it in this way? And that example's not doing anything that's substantially different from OC ReMix or VGMix or Dwelling of Duels or others.

While Cellius agreed with Arcubalis's statement ("should be able to interpret the music and take it somewhere different stylistically, and add their own voice to the piece"), he could conceiveably still shit on that linked Zelda II arrangement despite it using the exact same arrangement approach. He would claim that it doesn't use a viable arrangement approach, when really he needs to stick strictly to criticizing the genre and leave categorically wrong conclusions of arrangement intent out of the picture. Yes, that's an assumption on my part, but does it really seem far-fetched given what he said before about people crapping up Zelda with electronic arrangements?

I'm trying to understand where the real line is between thinking something should be discouraged because that's not playing "proper tribute" to the VGM, or because your personal opinion says you don't like that genre, but you extrapolate it as being tied to a general approach on arranging VGM. Honestly, everything I'm hearing sounds like "Well, I don't want someone to approach an arrangement "that way"...except if I like the artist and/or genre, and it sounds cool. Then it's ok." Basically what Goldfish was saying. But if you like this SMB arrangement, Goldfish, isn't that completely hypocritical? It's not even 45% Super Mario Bros. By your own reasoning re: Rockman X and Brink of Time, you would now have to dislike this as well. :-)

In practice, I'm really seeing more genre-hate than arrangement-approach-hate. And look, that's fine. But at the end of the day, y'all have to be honest enough to position your opinion as "I like what I like" rather than "this track doesn't tribute the VGM, because it's not context-sensitive and sounds ego-driven due to the original ideas added." That's clearly something that's being put aside given the right track that appeals to the ears, such as Goldfish's mention of S.S.H. But he's more upfront about it and acknowledging that it's listener preference. To me, it's nothing more than that, while Cellius asserts it's something broader and, IMO, fails.

When I ReMix, there are a number of factors I take into account. Melody, harmony, song structure, instrumentation, rhythm, and tone. I've seen some comments in this thread regarding the "original context" or whatever of a song. That would fall under the category of "tone."

Now, when a remixer chooses a piece of music to arrange, they dig into the mechanics of what they think makes a song great. Maybe it has a strong melody, and they want to explore. Maybe the chord structure is interesting to them. Maybe the tone of the piece is haunting, and they want to recreate that. It could be any combination of what I listed above, and that will vary from person to person.

For example, I love the fzero soundtrack. My remix of Mute City preserves the tone of the original. My remix of Big Blue does not. Have I desecrated the original, because I chose to transfer parts of the melody, harmony, and rhythm to a different setting? I would say no, but that's up to the listener to decide. i personally think that by putting the original melody into a different context, it can give a fresh perspective on the composers work, and really reinforce what a great piece of music it is in the first place.

If you want to arbitrarily decide that the "original context" is the most important element of a composition, then go for it. I think that's retarded, personally, and you'll be hard pressed to find an established musician or composer who doesn't.

Just my two cents.

I don't have a problem with that particular arrangement. It seems faithful enough despite the genre (it may not be technical of me to say this, but I think it maintains a certain consistent spirit, albeit with more of a techno mystique to it) and also creative enough so that it's not a simple retread. I don't much care for it, but listening to the original, I don't much care for that one either. I guess it goes to show that many things can factor into the like or dislike of something.

An ideal arrangement to me is something like McVaffe's "Crystalline Caverns" remix or Protricity's "Cursed Pirates of the Sea" remix. I like it when the creative aspects seem to add to and blend with the original intent. A recent example of something that doesn't do that, despite being a pleasant track on its own, is Pot Hocket's "Sleep, My Sephy". I can see how that sort of thing might make one wonder about the arranger's intentions. I think Xaleph's "Son of Chaos" is more appropriate and effective as an arrangement. I guess you could say that I get a sense of how much a particular arranger cares for the original track depending on the approach they take. I tend to look for that passion in an arrangement.

I'm not GoldfishX, but I don't care for that one at all, and for the reasoning that the SMB aspect seems an afterthought. I see where you're going though. GoldfishX is a bigger fan of ROCK 'N than I. It's possible that the genre is playing some small role in turning me off to the track, though I believe what I'm saying when I say that the lack of SMB in an SMB-inspired track has something to do with it.

Still, it's not hypocritical of him as much as it is an admission of genre preference as an additional factor, which you do mention afterwards.

*hates GoldFishX*

Not quite...I think it's a piss-poor arrangement, but I enjoy it as a piece of music because I happen to like the arranger's general style (though I think this is pretty uninspired and standard fare for SSH...It's not in my current queue for his music, let me put it that way). That doesn't apply to either of the other two albums, where the stuff that happens "between the lines" is complete garbage to me.

With SSH, I get a decent solo that's at least linked to the main melody and the backing riffs and doesn't sound totally out of place...More or less his signature sound, which I'm accustomed to. With BoT, I get the sound of a guy walking onstage, solos that feel totally disjointed from the main pieces, a cute voice clip that says "it's the beginning of a new and exciting era" or something to that extent, a giant crash at the end of one track, random plucking for over a minute in another track and believe it or not, the few instances of the Mario melody in the SSH track sound better to me than any single instance of any CT melody that show up on BoT (and that's not a compliment for SSH). The musicians there aren't going to get on my good side anytime soon and I have no faith in their arranging abilities. I've even said in the past I think "Time and Space" is a much more professional arrangement effort of the material, despite the "fanmade" label.* My issue with the RMX one mostly has to do with the tempos, not so much unfaithful arrangements...Listening to short, quick melodies being stretched out the way they are on that album gives me a headache. How they can envision a fast-paced rocker like Intro Stage or Storm Eagle as a slow, six minute jazz-fusion piece is beyond me, but they did it. Somehow, I don't think the majority of people who heard it got the same impression. Or at least Protricity didn't..."Brainsick Metal" is by far one of my favorite fan arranges. And then there's the factor that the music to RMX and CT is a lot more important to me than the Mario theme is (which by this point, is so overdone, I almost don't want another version of it).

So just keep in mind...There are other factors at play. It's not black and white. Which is why I said I agree with parts of what Cellius said

PS...Sorry again Dhsu...I typed out the part about piano arranges, then I remembered "Oh shit, Dhsu's the piano man around here." and added the one part at the beginning. :eagletear:

*The irony there is...I think it was Mustin that bought my copy of BoT.

It's all cool, bro. In all seriosity though, a piano might be only one instrument, but what other instrument lets you hit 10 notes (or more with a little creativity) at the same time? :) Some might consider the piano to have a plain tone, but that's unrelated to the complexity of piano music itself.

As for the topic, I have to admit I always find these discussions very interesting, both because I used to have the exact same mentality of "honoring the composer" by keeping the arrangement as close to the original as possible, and also because nowadays I actually judge an arrangement's quality by how well the original melody has been transplanted into a radically different context. Uematsu and Mitsuda themselves do this all the time. Case in point: the Chocobo theme. Does anyone realize how absurd it would be if someone accused Electric de Chocobo of not capturing the "spirit" of the original track? That's because it's the whole point! An arrangement creates its own context, its own "spirit," so I hope people see why such complaints are moot at best.

I'm of the opinion that an arrangement could have 5% or simply even the same backing chord structure and still be enjoyable and a fitting remix.

I dunno, I guess I just have a more diverse taste in music. (man, that sounds arrogant, sorry)

The Black Market rap remix on the "Bound Together" Earthbound album was hilarious, so was the older Chrono Trigger "Gato" genre-crossing remix on OCR back a few years ago.

With the recent FFVII "Voices of the Lifestream" album release, a few posters on a few boards said they couldn't recognize the theme in the fanfare remix track, but I picked up on it immediately. The remix itself was great.

This is free music, guys, I can't see how you would limit yourselves to the idea that "oh, I'm just downloading this because I like the original track, I'm going to shut this off if it doesn't sound like the original (even if the song is good)". Saying that a remixer can't go against the style of the original, as if the original song is a sacred god that must not be blasphemed... that's just plain retarded. With this mindset, we'd never have great reactionary artwork or literature.

And to add, I love the F-Zero jazz album, I listen to it regularly (I know, I know... my username is a bit biased).

WHERE!??? WHO? WHEN? HOW? ...LINK PLEASE!

In my mind, a remix where you can't tell what the original song is is a pointless remix. Why do you listen to a remix? Generally because you like the original song and want to hear a slightly different take on it / different instruments used / better quality samples / whatever. If it's going to be so different than you can't even tell it's a remix of the original song, that defeats the purpose, and you're better off just calling it an original work.

TKCA-30516: F-ZERO - VGMdb beta

=/

TKCA-30516: F-ZERO - VGMdb beta

I'll see if I can upload it tonight for you somewhere.

EDIT: SHIT, beaten. Heh, well, I'll still try to upload it later.

Thanks for the info. This is an unexpected surprise!

I'd be very grateful.

Thanks fellas.

niki or anyone else who may know, I was interested in where you saw Uematsu criticizing doujin music; were there any interview links or anything of the sort in English?

Also, was he more critical of the arrangements being unlicensed and distributed, or was it more of a stance against people illegally profiting from the sale of doujin music?

I've heard Bobby Prince is very much against fan arrangements but haven't heard anything in any detail. I'm interested in who's gone on record specifically against fan arrangements and to what level they dislike them (again, stuff illegally being sold or disliking them even being made in the first place no matter what the distribution).

I wouldnt really call it Jazz though, personally ... More like, cheezy easy listening with a sax or two ? ^_^;

Liontamer, I'll ask Teioh. He was the one who first mentioned it to me back in the days.

Actually, I think you're the first person who has said anything about keeping the arrangement as close to the original as possible. I think that the degree of variation or deviation is the only thing being disputed here. The question is, how many things can or should be changed while still retaining the notion that the track is indeed an arrangement of a preexisting one? I doubt if there's any wrong or right answer.

You have a different definition of "spirit" is all. "Spirit" doesn't mean sticking to the same genre. It just means having some recognizable and resonant semblance of the original track. The Chocobo themes all have the same spirit even though the differences keep the underlying theme from getting stale.

F-ZERO.zip

There's the link if anyone's interested. Good album, although if you hate "smooth" jazz, stay away.

I would think smooth jazz would be right up F-zero's alley. Chillaxin music moves me too. This will be gravy.

Thanks JazzFlight.

*listens to Mute City and Big Blue*

Huh?

The chord progressions and voice leading would lend themselves well to jazz structure and harmony. F-zero has good source material and good rhythmic excitement, hence my statements. Of course, one might argue that Fzero's original soundtrack would lend itself "better" to rock. :p

Anyways, I am listening to the arrange album right now and its fantastic!