PLAY! A Video Game Symphony

Hi guys,

Eminence is not really at friendly terms with PLAY! however I can enlighten some stuff with you, maybe it may serve to answer some of your questions.

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They should show more game video on the big screens, and less playing. Or, they could continue to show playing on the left and right screens and have game video on the middle screen.

We have the same problems with this. Many game companies, especially the biggest do not license video nor images to video game concerts as they themselves could probably hold concerts and make a disgusting amount of profit from it. However, if we were in PLAY!'s shoes, our goal is the concert. You pay money to listen to a concert, not watching FMAs nor clips from games. Eminence believes that in concert situations, these video's support the concert and is by no way, the main attraction at all. The main focus should be placed on the musicians...

At the same time, PLAY! hires out orchestras who are very much likely to be NOT FAMILIAR with games nor are they INTERESTED in games. In fact, I know for a fact from several top game music composers who were actually invited to PLAY! found the musicians and even some of the organisers rude and disrespectful, perhaps even been thought as a second class musician. We do not respect that kind of attitude, although you may have not noticed it, these musician that just performs for you just out of being paid, makes us sick.

On the other hand, we've had people complaining that the visuals and performance are not synchronised in Eminence's concerts. I'm pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) but same goes with PLAY! A real live symphonic concert do NOT synchronise music with what goes on screen. To perform from the depth of one's soul... you do not just synch. However, on the other hand, one can say Video Games Live does it! We consider VGL a new form of entertainment, not necessary a pure symphonic concert. If you have seen the video of the musicians, they are all wearing half headphones. These are called "Clicktracks" used in movie soundtrack recordings, so the musicians will be strictly in time. Actually, they don't even need a conductor when they have a clicktrack but hey, it's great to see him there ^^ That's why they are completely synched. Synchronisation is not a bad thing at all, it's just VGL is a completely different type of entertainment to that of PLAY! and Eminence. Actually, people enjoy it so it's good isn't it? Just don't expect it from pure Symphonic Game Concert.

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They show almost every game, but NOT CHRONO?! It was a huge disappointment to hear Frog's Theme being played and not see him on the screen. No Final Fantasy footage either. Maybe it has something to do with Squaresoft licensing?

Correct. Square Enix never license their FMAs unless it's their own official concert. What PLAY! did, even on their official website with Rinoa on a screen is completely illegal and a fraud. What's more, I'm not sure if they used Final Fantasy in their booklet... but from the information we got from Square Enix, that is also unlicensed.

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Everything needed to be louder.

Yes, but this is a symphonic concert, not a rock concert. Perhaps, to make it become a complete recreation of what you saw on your screen at home, you need to see it at home. This is a concert setting and if you want to respect the composer's will of a live performance, shouldn't be amped (unless there are balance issues).

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I was disappointed by the Chrono medley as well. It was my most anticipated part, and I felt that it was too short and frankly, not as powerful/emotional as it should have been. The transition to the Celtic part in Time's Scar was almost a trainwreck as far as the instruments being together. I expected to hear all of To Far Away Times, and we only got to hear the very end.

Please don't blame Mitsuda-san. That was not his arrangement, all done by PLAY! who probably don't know the piece as much as you guys, neither does he care. He/she was probably just paid and was told to "hey you, orchestrate this was this, this and that theme."

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So, they only play a few songs from Chrono, Halo, and such, and then they play like 10 minutes of World of Warcraft music. What's up with that? :-/

Orchestral arrangements and transcription takes time and money. Blizzard is great in the sense that they will give you all the needed sheet music to play. Straight from the box. However, what PLAY! failed to do was to balance the programme length. Of course, we at Eminence fails to see all the opinions of others and do not play enough of some titles etc, on the other hand, PLAY! is a deliberate action to keep costs down in terms of arrangements and transcriptions. This is disappointing to see because many of the freelance composers in Japan are very willing to provide as much material to support a very good arrangement environment...

So in all, they can do this and succeed because they have no competition. Video Games Live, imho, is a completely different stance to that of PLAY!. VGL is a show, a great entertainment. PLAY! is a symphonic concert, just like what we do at Eminence, however, the main difference is PLAY! is doing this for financial gain, at Eminence, everytime we hold a show to crowds of over two thousand, we still make a huge loss because we do not charge so much to our audience who are mainly College students and ticket revenue only covers a fraction of the cost in our expenses as we put a lot of rehearsals in, think a lot about the programming of the music and we make sure that great transcriptions and arrangements are made months in advance. Why do it? Just to achieve our goal of that one extra person to be able to hear this music by a passionate symphony orchestra, nothing more. Also, we're the only professional orchestra in the world that specialise in Symphonic games and anime music.

Anyhow, if you want to know the insides of a symphonic game concert, video game music (Japan only... dunno much about the west besides Blizzard) ask and I'll try and answer it best way I can. I believe that the truth must be known!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

That's real stupid to pay to shake ppl's hands...

At our concert, people got to meet Uematsu for free... we got Youmi Kimura's autograph for free...the world of damned moneymakers!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Wow, I can't believe they used KH visuals...

SE has strict guidelines that visuals aren't to be used unless it's an all SE concert.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hey, we don't charge to meet 7 guests from Japan... >.>

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It's not really about cancelling shows and what is business.

VGM shouldn't be a business.
It really isn't.

There is no way for young people to enjoy Symphonic VGM and still make a business out of it.

JMP is a businessman and I respect that. As a business owner, I respect his action on doing this but as a Symphonic VGM Evangelist, he has my absolute disrespect. Obviously, his prices were outrageously high so people couldn't come.

I just hope, one day, people who work in the VGM field would NOT think about the profit they make, but actually making a real contribution to a genre of music which would benifit a lot of people by being spread around the world. I only hope...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh I dont really like how the thread is spinning off.

All I wanted to comment was that PLAY! is making a lot of money through these events. Easiest thing to find out how is calculate all the reserves and ticket prices, work out their income minus orchestra, venue, PR and other expenses.

Thing which disgusts me is that we make sure our prices are so low, and we often make a huge financial loss which we have in nearly every concert. However, we need to get young people into the halls because that is our aim. PLAY! is a commercial business. I respect that but has my ultimate disrespect when they claim otherwise. If they say they want to spread this music to a lot of people, their ticketing price is putting everyone off. What's this thing about you got to pay to have a few words with the composers, shake their hand and get an autograph? You know, the guests usually don't get paid, and some guests had to pay for their own airfee to PLAY! event? (Previous events, not sure about now)

Their arrangements and stuff, I won't really have much to say except they do unique "artistic" arrangement.

Something for Mr X, you mentioned that a drum kit isnt symphonic. That's true and we don't aim to be just symphonic, it is more on the lines of being acoustic. I don't think our version of the arrangement is in anyway superior to others. This time, we chose an arranger from Japan who did the symphonic game concert in Tokyo with Konami to do our music.

Anyway enough bitching about PLAY!, I really shouldnt be since some people told me it'll make me look unprofessional. I just hope JMP will look back at what he's doing and what he's done, rethink about his influences to the market he is making, and perhaps put in a positive turn. He CAN bring so much positive change to this market.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?