FFShrine

And here we are again, setting 'theft' and 'copyright infringement' on the same level, which these two terms are clearly not.

How ya doing, buddy?

To clarify something: I own a original copy of the first volume of VGL.

Two reasons why I bought it:
(i) A rip was available on the net, so I could sample the album. I don't like buying the pig in a poke, especially when I can't predict at all how the listening experience might turn out. If I know the arranger/composer from other works, I can do prediction to some extent. Wasn't the case back then.
(ii) I liked the majority of the album's tracks.

This also influenced my decision to purchase two copies of Christopher Tin's original album 'Calling All Dawns', one for me, one for my mom. But not before sampling the album for a prolonged time. And yes, you guessed it, from a rip someone posted on the net.

Without condition (i) I wouldn't have bought a large amount of album in my extensive collection. For me filesharing increases sales figures, because people have easier access to a much wider range of music. The probability that I might find something that pleases my ear increases with the range of available music.

Of course this also spreads the money that people spend on music and that's probably what the major record labels don't like at all: People are no longer 'restricted' to the music that your hometown's record shop is selling, or what the mass media are playing all day long (did I mention that I have no TV at my home?). We see (formerly) big artists complaning about decreasing sales and everyone blames filesharing on the net. I instead suspect that people just found better alternatives there and are now buying different music.
I used to buy every album that 'Meat Loaf' released, but I stopped after 'Bad Out of Hell III'. Why? I found better alternatives with the help of the net (I can't thank blah enough for recommending Kalafina to me).

So why haven't I purchased the second volume, which we're talking about here? Because condition (ii) isn't satisfied. I already explained this on VGMdb, but I'm going to repeat it here:
- Constant cheering is a no-go for me. I want to hear the music that the band/orchestra/soloists are playing. I don't want to hear the audience throughout the whole track.
- The arrangement are weak and emotionless. Thomas Böcker's Symphonic series has raised the bar for arrangements a lot and I honestly don't see any improvement here compared to Volume 1.
- Too much copy and paste from Volume 1

Just stating my personal opinion here.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

It's a live album which is the companion to the live show and DVD/Blu-Ray. The cheering and excitement are part of the draw for a lot of people (especially ones who like the energy and excitement of a live experience as opposed to same old rehashed studio arrangements). So if you don't like live recordings, then I understand that you probably wouldn't like this album. That being said, your explanation of hearing the "audience throughout the entire track" just isn't correct. Once the couple of seconds of excitement and cheering at the very beginning of the song are through (mostly before the songs start) it is very much on the same quality level as any studio recorded album. The link I gave above of the Civ IV music I think is a perfect example.

I like recordings of live performed music, but I don't like when events are more and more reduced into a mere 'show'. Primary reason why you will never see me attending any of the VGL events. For me arranged VGM belongs into a concert hall with the main focus on the musical aspect. No fancy lightshows, no big screens showing game scenes and no 'games' to get the audience involved.

So yeah, I'm clearly not the audience you're targeting.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

In regards to your subjective comment/opinion about "weak arrangements", that's cool, it's your opinion. I'm not going to try and change your mind. If you think the Civ IV music link above is "weak" then clearly we're on different pages musically... and that's okay. I would never expect people to have the same exact music tastes.

IMHO the Civ4 version of Christopher Tin's album is the most perfect one. Adding or removing anything kills the song, which for me lives from the interplay between the male vocalist and chorus. Adding more solo vocalist destroys this balance for me and therefore makes the arrangement inferior to the already existing ones.
This year's Symphonic Legends' arrangement of 'Aquatic Ambience' lived only from the interaction between strings and piano. And the balance was perfect. Just adding more and more components to an arrangement doesn't automagically make it better...

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

Your final comment about cutting and pasting from Volume One is also incorrect. Again, I'll use the above Civ IV as an example (totally new arrangment, singers, vocals, etc.). Also brand new to the second album was Mega Man, StarCraft II, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Lament of the Highborne, FF7 One Winged Angel, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mass Effect, Mario, Zelda and Martin Leung's FF piano arrangment and Mario piece (which btw, were recorded in a studio for the album... not live). That's 12 brand new songs right there! The same pieces that appeared on the first album (God of War, Advent Rising & Castlevania) were brand new recordings... and mostly becuase the album is a companion piece to the DVD & Blu-Ray.

Yes, but new recordings just don't cut it for me. That's what I'd like to see on some compilation album, like Yasunori Mitsuda's 'Colours of Light', which has most of the tracks remastered. And IMHO the CT/CT track was very disappointing, it sounded like it was 'ported' straight out of the OST.

And I'm well aware why this is done: To make segments of an arrangements instantly recognizable for the 'mainstream' audience. VGL is never going to include an experimental Metroid arrangement like the one from Symphonic Legends.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

I'm not having a problem with anyone. In fact the only people I've seen pirate our products are the hardcore game music fans.

You've seen them? Sorry, but I'd like to see a concrete proof that these so called 'hardcore game music fans' pirate your releases more than the rest. What with this 'hardcore' term anyway? Maybe the 'casual game music fan' is just better at hiding the fact that he also illegally grabbed your releases from the net?

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

Lets be clear, 50% of the crowds we get at Video Games Live rarely even play video games. They probably have kids, friends or boyfriends who do, but don't necessarily play games themselves (although after seeing our show they definitely start to take a bigger interest). We sell hundreds of albums, DVD's & Blu-Rays at our live shows... always. If what you said above was the case... this wouldn't happen. All the casuals would just go home and try finding it for free. Again, we've done a TON of market research on who comes to Video Games Live, who bought the tickets and why... etc., etc... I can't speak for other game concerts and I'm sure because of the nature of those shows, the audiences are very different and not as mainstream I would imagine (which is TOTALLY fine and awesome... just not what I'm interested in accomplishing as my goals).

And I'm having a big problem with this statement. Massive market research always means that one is after enlarging the possible audience, making the whole event more mainstream. I oppose this trend, since this always involves lowing the quality of the whole event. We've seen this trend in the video game sector, or also in the movie sector. Games and movies are more and more 'dumbed down' to target a larger and larger market.

At this point I like to quote Thomas Böcker:

Quote:

Basically, I want to achieve something, I want to set new standards. I think this is what makes us different from a lot of the competition: that we are not a purely commercial production, but are aiming for artistic freedom. This is luxury, yes, but it was a long and hard road until there. No question that we are also following rules of the market; after all, we want to entertain and the success at the box office is necessary in order to continue with the series. However, with the loyal and open-minded fans that we have, we can try some experiments and prove to the world of orchestral music lovers that video game music is much more than movie soundtrack rip-offs and superficial entertainment.

Original interview here: Game Music :: Interview with Symphonic Legends Producer (September 2010)

I'm deeply grateful that Böcker is opposing this sad market trend.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

As I stated previously we all love the idea of people hearing our music and passing it around for free... as long as it's not for sale. But a pat on the back and a positive e-mail doesn't pay the bills. I'm very good friends with many Japanese composers and most of them make very little money unfortunately. They think it's funny how everyone around the world thinks they are big rock stars in Japan and make tons of cash. It just isn't the case. And I'm speaking about the BIGGEST Japanese names... names you all know and love (and I'm sure have illegally downloaded their music). j/k

OK, so let assume that everyone on this world would stop illegal filesharing instantly. What would that change? Do you really think that japanese game composer's income would skyrocket?

I presume most of us know that what we're doing is against national and/or international law. But most of the legal text concerning digital copyright comes from a time where the internet wasn't widespread at all. So maybe the law is outdated and needs some reforming (Pirate Party *hint hint*)?

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

@LeHah: Luckily Tommy Tallarico isn't going on a rampage here, like Lukas Kendall from FSM did when he found out that the ST box was shared on ffshrine...

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