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Pokémon Music Appreciation Thread: Bring on the Trumpets! (X/Y soundtrack on 11/13!)

K

Kokonoe

Banned
Real Gam Tower is great and it sounds much better in FLAC.

I think Ruby and Sapphire has the second greatest Pokemon Center theme, but the others aren't on the same level as the original and that one in my opinion.

Nocturnowl said:
Nice post there kokonoe, reminds me just how awesomely nostalgic Red/Blue music is, perfect skipping music you say for Celadon eh? Yes I can see that angle, great town themes across the board.
Click to expand...


Thank you. My favorite tracks from Pokemon games I believe are Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Colloseum and the TCG.

I don't think there's a single track I don't like in Colloseum other than the goofy Mirror B clone one. Mirror B's second theme is pure awesome, but his original theme fit more with the Ludicolo more.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Razek said:
To the bolded, that is precisely what I want to avoid when remixing music. However, a music lover will point out that the composition in the remixed version is much stronger overall. The only real issue I have with that one is it isn't very 'gamey'.

I can understand your POV regarding how remake arrangements should sound. A lot of Pokémon fans either want the new arrangements to simply be instrumentation updates, or the original music. But I can't understand 'gamey' being used as a term in an argument. The arrangements in HG/SS are game music tracks—how are they not 'gamey'? Is game music supposed to be some set style and/or genre of music, like old Famicom music? I don't think so, and I find that part of the argument difficult to defend.

I made it sound like it was a blanket for all of HG/GS. That was incorrect of me to do. I liked quite a few tracks better than the original. I actually thought the remix version of Cianwood City's theme ended up very awesome with it's acoustic guitar rendition. The lead instrument can be a bit grating at times however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1f9WJd64No
Click to expand...
That arrangement is awesome, as was Ichinose's Ecruteak arrangement.

And how could no one mention the best music from Colosseum yet?
Kidding, but it's still nostalgic
.
 
U

udivision

Member
Does anyone know the name of Stadium battle song which is essentially the R/B lass eyecatch made into, well, a battle song?
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
You know what I want? Cool music to listen to while using Pokédex 3D. 3D Pro better have something smooth and comforting, at the least. It'd be a missed opportunity if there wasn't any music to switch on or off.
 
A

Azure J

Member
Dragoon En Regalia said:
Hey, guys: who's your favorite Game Freak game musician? We haven't really talked about this yet. A lot of different musicians have made music for the mainline Pokémon games, and they all have unique styles (except maybe Morikazu Aoki—she was a chameleon).

Junichi Masuda is known for his simplistic, minimal style of arrangement and composition, often contrasting rampant battle tunes with low-key dungeon themes.

Go Ichinose is known for his romantic style of melody, combined with a natural sense for instrumentation, funny passages, and musical sense of humor.

Hitomi Sato is known for her unique chord progressions and frequent usage of complex melodies and harmonies.

Shota Kageyama is known for his background in orchestral arrangement, and showed off his ability to set context in BW's soundtrack.

Minako Adachi is a stalwart from an earlier era of game music, alongside Masuda and Ichinose. She hasn't contributed much to the games yet, but her work in BW was well-prepared and provided a contrast to Kageyama's originals.
Click to expand...

Masuda or Ichinose would be my absolute favorite with Kageyama being the absolute runner up.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Some of those tracks have already been posted, btw.

I may rag on Kageyama's work a lot, but he's definitely a good game musician in his own right. I feel he excels at orchestral arrangements in particular.
 
S

Sgt.Pepper

Banned
Dragoon En Regalia said:
Some of those tracks have already been posted, btw.

I may rag on Kageyama's work a lot, but he's definitely a good game musician in his own right. I feel he excels at orchestral arrangements in particular.
Click to expand...

Kageyama tracks in Brawl were some of my favorites. His Zelda mountain arrangement was fantastic.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Just took a peek at some sloppy album credits for the new Super Music Complete.

Ichinose produced more music for B&W2's soundtrack, but he didn't do enough. He's contributing less to these soundtracks than he did back in his Gen 3 Golden Era™, and that makes me sad. Meanwhile, Sato is improving on a regular basis. Stuff like Virbank City and both Rebirth Mountain themes are great stuff, though they still lack useful melodies. And I'm surprised at how much of Platinum's music she did. I could have sworn he did more tracks like Distortion World.

And I have nothing against Sato, since she's a great Pokémon game musician and is able to carry a soundtrack by herself nowadays. But Ichinose's tracks and most of the soundtracks he's led have pushed the envelope for Pokémon music for such a long time. I can't help but feel that Sato's stuff, while well-made, isn't well prepared to fill in for a lack of Ichinose-grade material. She has her own unique style of composing and arranging, and that's fine. But her inability to graft amazing melodies onto stylized pieces, the same way Ichinose can, is going to hurt future Pokémon soundtracks in the long run—so long as they don't have more material from Ichinose.

You know what puzzles me, though? Kageyama barely did anything for the new sountrack. It was all Sato and Ichinose, with Sato arranging old tracks from Kageyama. I'm certain Kageyama must be updating the sound team's sound capabilities and sample libraries at the moment, since Ichinose rearranged the Pokémon theme with higher-quality sampling. In addition to that, he'd have to be working on new music for Gen 6, and I bet he'll be an active leader in the games to come. We'll just have to wait and see.

Reading these track credits was interesting and disappointing. I honestly believe that Ichinose is the lead musician of the sound team, and he should be providing more material to these soundtracks than he is at the moment. The only argument I can use against him having less of a presence is that, since his material is so stand-out anyway, he's just making the rest of the sound team look bad every time they make a soundtrack. Which is funny, and a sign that soundtrack contributions from each member of the team should be more consistent and balanced overall.
 
S

ScraftyDevil

Banned
Alright, let's revitalize this thread! Here are all of my favourite songs from the Pokémon franchise; regardless of whether or not they've already been posted. I'll do small analyses on them if someone is interested.

Unwavering Emotion - Pokémon Black and White (2)

Deoxys Theme - Pokémon Emerald & FireRed/LeafGreen

Legendary Beast Theme - Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver

Ghetsis Battle - Pokémon Black and White

Elite Four Battle - Pokémon Black and White

Team Plasma Battle - Pokémon Black and White

Final N - Pokémon Black and White

Cynthia: Before the Storm - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Cynthia Battle - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Distortion World - Pokémon Platinum

Arceus: Dueling a God - Pokémon Platinum

Looker's Theme - Pokémon Platinum

Team Galactic Battle - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Galactic Boss Cyrus - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Elite Four Battle - Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Rival Battle - Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Frontier Brain Battle - Pokémon Emerald

Slateport City - Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Encounter with Lance/Red - Pokémon Gold and Silver

Ecruteak Town - Pokémon Gold and Silver

Route 47 - Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

Champion Battle - Pokémon Red and Blue

Gym Battle - Pokémon Red and Blue

Miror B Theme - Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Shadow Lugia - Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Cipher Head Evice Battle - Pokémon Colosseum

Mewtwo Battle - Pokémon Rumble Blast

Primal Dialga - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness

Entei's Rampage - Pokémon Ranger

Mewtwo: Second Phase - Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs

Go-Rock Quads Battle Theme - Pokémon Ranger

Second Map Theme: Peaceful Times - Pokémon Conquest

Must... Resist... Urge... to post BW2 music...
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Praise be thy scrafty fellow!

I'm going to review the Black & White 2 album quite soon (though I'm working on something else at the moment), but here's a translation of musician comments from the album's liner note extras.

Dogasu's Backpack said:
Satou Hitomi talks about how surprised she is that they actually produced enough music to fill a whole other CD set. Personally, I think she's right to be surprised; all the music in the first three discs in this set debuted in Black 2 & White 2.

According to Ichinose Gou, the voices of Homika and her drummer used in the most amazing song to ever be created for this franchise (Disc One, Track 13) were provided by members of the games' graphics and planning staff. They don't give any names, however, so my stalking continues.

Satou Hitomi wrote the story for the PokéWood movie Mahou no Kuni no Fushigi na Tobira (魔法の国の不思議な扉), which has the given title of "Die Pforten des Zauberreichs."

Both of Akuroma's themes ("Akuroma's Theme," Disc One, Track 38 and "Akuroma Battle!," Disc Three, Track 2) were purposely written to be all over the place, just like Akuroma himself.

Ichinose Gou says that the music used for Seigaiha City (Disc Two, Track 36) was originally written for Sangi Town. The sound staff eventually changed its mind because they thought the vacation-y vibe of the song fit Seigaiha City better.

The Dark Trinity's Theme (Disc Two, Track 34) was written to appeal to foreigners' idea of what a "ninja" is.

The name of the ice cannon on the Plasma Frigate is known simply as the "Kyurem Cannon" (キュレム砲).

The music for Route 23 (Disc Three, Track 9) was written to remind players of the music used for Route 26 in Pocket Monsters Gold & Silver (Nintendo DS Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver Music Super Complete, Disc Two, Track 1). Both Isshu Route 23 and Kanto Route 26 connect to the Pokemon League Reception Gate in their respective games.

The second half of N's Theme (Disc Three, Track 12) includes elements that are meant to remind players of the protagonists of the original Pocket Monsters Black & White.

Adachi Minako states that "Pokemon Party!" (Disc Three, Track 33) was originally written for the TV series Pokemon Smash!.
Click to expand...
Courtesy of Dogasu's Backpack. It's unfortunate that there weren't more detailed comments from the musicians involved. But the whole making-of section, rich with developers' concept art and commentary, makes the whole album purchase worthwhile.
 
C

ColtraineGF

Member
While searching for some things I came across an interview from 2011 detailing some of the music process behind the games, from a more technical perspective. Interviewee is Shota Kageyama.

GAME FREAK AND THE PRODUCTION OF POKÉMON
What made you enter the game music industry?
I started playing piano when I was four years old and from the 4th or 5th grade onward, I started to enjoy arranging and composing music rather than following a score. I liked games, too, and my parents used to take me to orchestral concerts of game music. So I was familiar with game music. In junior high school, I started to listen to various types of music, including J-pop and American music. In my senior year, I heard “Moldau” on desktop music (DTM) in music class, and I was surprised to find that such system existed! This is what I want to do!

Then I started DTM, but to be honest, my first gear was Yamaha’s XGworks! Then I switched to XGworksV3.0, SOL, SOL2, and then to Cubase VST5.

In high school, I created programmed a CD and I received the Best Composition reward in a national contest; after which I wanted to be a composer. Later in college, I was playing in a band while making a demo tape, and I sent the sound source to various record labels and music production companies. After I graduated college, I started working part time for a game production company for sound debug/sound effect creation and learned about music production thanks to Mr. Yasunori Mitsuda of PROCYON STUDIO CO., LTD. And now I’m working for Game Freak.
Click to expand...
Can you tell us about the music production system in Game Freak?
In the beginning, everybody could choose their own DAW, but now everybody uses Cubase. For game music production, which mainly uses an internal sound generator, a detailed MIDI editing feature is essential. I like Cubase’s intuitive processing, which enables me to do what I want to do. Maybe I am simply not an expert with other DAWs [laughs].

I even converted other DAW users to Cubase, explaining how easy Cubase is. They liked it too, and thus Cubase became the universal DAW at Game Freak. Having universal software within the company is a huge benefit because we can share the project data. As for the platform, we use Windows PCs because they are easy to systemize with the machine for developing the game. I use a PC running the 64-bit version of Windows 7, which is optimized for DAWs.
Click to expand...
Is there any game-specific required skill in sound production?
You need to be knowledgeable in internal sound generators and developmental machines, as well as have music production skills. The sound generator of Nintendo DS has limited polyphony, and it is the sound designer and his/her technique that’s needed to create the sound within this limitation. So I utilize all of my energy when choosing the sounds. For example, when I choose a sound, I take everything into consideration including voicing, whether the sound of a drum set is necessary or should be cut for listening purposes, or whether or not it is reasonable to cut some sounds when bass sounds and the bottom note of a piano chord are in unison, etc. I utilize very detailed programming techniques along with musicality. Maximum polyphony includes sound effects (SE), so it requires expert skills [laughs].

Another important factor to consider is data capacity of a game. The skills of a sound designer are challenged by trying to create good sound within the limited data capacity. Sometimes, graphic data and sound data fight over the data capacity [laughs]. It is another important skill to make the data capacity as compact as possible.
Click to expand...
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
So I'm done refurbishing this thread now...

YVTaWVa.jpg


We've got a new Pokémon soundtrack, damn it! It's coming out on the 13th, just a bit ahead of those distracting console launch dates. You can import it on pre-order right now from CD-Japan; alternatively, you can get the game soundtrack from iTunes around that same date. Be thereeeeeeeeeeeee...

Now that it's been about a year since we left, I would hope that some folks have really enjoyed the latest Pokémon music coming straight out of their 3DS'. I think it's a solid set of tracks, though not as good as it could be given the improvements in sample quality. The best channels for listening to music from Pokémon X/Y belong to Genodennis and Crunchii, who have hosted most if not all tracks in game-rip stereo. Maybe this thread won't be as active as it could be given everything that's about to happen on Gaming-side, but I'm optimistic.

There still hasn't been any progress on releasing new music from the anime nor sound versions for spinoffs, but we now have access to new music from HarmoKnight (composed by Adachi and her friends from PURE-SOUND) and Soriti Horse (all done by Ichinose). With Ichinose completely uninvolved with Pokémon for the first time in a long time (not even any special thanks in the credits!), it's possible that he's currently toiling away on music for potential remakes or sequels or whatever. Meanwhile, Kageyama's led Adachi, Sato, and Masuda (probably arranging most of his battle themes once again) to imminent victory. I know I sound like the Tenkaichi Budokai announcer right at this very moment, but that's the way it goes around here.

If you really like this new soundtrack and would consider OST-of-the-year-award-worthy, then make sure to stop by the upcoming game music awards thread Nert and GhaleonQ put up every year this December. Game music's always evolving and, frankly, putting itself to shame within the year ever so frequently, but I bet you guys will no doubt nominate the Game Freak sound team for something.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
X and Y were a downgrade from B&W2. BW2 felt more varied, with surprisingly short melodies that didn't use arpeggios like crutches, and most of all, repeated and looped wonderfully well and didn't become annoying for long stretches which is crucial for Town, Dungeon and Route themes.

It did however come off as a good album as it were; everything dripped with continental grandeur and sophistication as per the setting, with tracks in generally special or distinctively non-Kalosy areas (like the power plant) given their own flavor to point out this distinction.

Oddly enough, I felt the X and Y battle themes were better (which as a series has been merely servicable as a whole). They take a more nuanced approach to each track and the opponent themselves rather than a single-minded uptempo charge.

Nocturnowl said:
Nice post there kokonoe, reminds me just how awesomely nostalgic Red/Blue music is, perfect skipping music you say for Celadon eh? Yes I can see that angle, great town themes across the board.

Time to bring in Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD
These games would share quite a few themes due to the setting being the same in both games, for this outing the battle themes stand out a fair bit more which makes sense as battles are more of this games angle with the limited overworld sections.

Colosseum
First Battle
Used for weaker trainers and most early game battles, not sure how to describe why I like this theme, something sweeping about it, I guess it gives off that beginning of an adventure feel.

Trainer Battle
The most often heard theme in the game, better get used to it because battles take a lot of time here, it's grown on me a lot over the years, it's not really that remarkable but I dig that little piano opening.

Cipher Peon
Quite an interesting blend here for the enemy team, gives me a "lets go for it" sort of vibe if anything, you could question its suitability as it's oddly pleasant but who cares, I like it.

Pokemon Center
Putting this in because Kokonoe's mention of R/B having the best pokemon center music led me to some inner turmoil, I didn't know whether to agree or bring this version to the conversation.

Phenac City
Okay lets get at least one town theme in here, a very pleasant theme that takes a shift for the merry, a remember first hearing the shift in tone and being quite jarred.

XD Gale of Darkness

Cipher Peon Battle
Okay so unlike the last Cipher battle theme this one basically becomes the main battle theme and as such it's very similar to the previous trainer battle with the same little piano thing going on, like many battle themes in this game it could do with being a bit longer.

Miror B
Miror B trades his old salsa style music for some funky disco style music

Cipher Admin battle
Okay this is odd because it really feels too short, like it had an intro cut off but what there is is pretty grandiose, not as intimidating with the slow build of Colosseum's Ciper Admin theme but I like it more.
Click to expand...

Now these games have wonderful battle themes. Playful, purposeful and doesn't use an increased tempo and blind swerving time signatures to add shallow tension to otherwise mediocre tracks.

Dragoon En Regalia said:
So I'm done refurbishing this thread now...

YVTaWVa.jpg


We've got a new Pokémon soundtrack, damn it! It's coming out on the 13th, just a bit ahead of those distracting console launch dates. You can import it on pre-order right now from CD-Japan; alternatively, you can get the game soundtrack from iTunes around that same date. Be thereeeeeeeeeeeee...

Now that it's been about a year since we left, I would hope that some folks have really enjoyed the latest Pokémon music coming straight out of their 3DS'. I think it's a solid set of tracks, though not as good as it could be given the improvements in sample quality. The best channels for listening to music from Pokémon X/Y belong to Genodennis and Crunchii, who have hosted most if not all tracks in game-rip stereo. Maybe this thread won't be as active as it could be given everything that's about to happen on Gaming-side, but I'm optimistic.

There still hasn't been any progress on releasing new music from the anime nor sound versions for spinoffs, but we now have access to new music from HarmoKnight (composed by Adachi and her friends from PURE-SOUND) and Soriti Horse (all done by Ichinose). With Ichinose completely uninvolved with Pokémon for the first time in a long time (not even any special thanks in the credits!), it's possible that he's currently toiling away on music for potential remakes or sequels or whatever. Meanwhile, Kageyama's led Adachi, Sato, and Masuda (probably arranging most of his battle themes once again) to imminent victory. I know I sound like the Tenkaichi Budokai announcer right at this very moment, but that's the way it goes around here.

If you really like this new soundtrack and would consider OST-of-the-year-award-worthy, then make sure to stop by the upcoming game music awards thread Nert and GhaleonQ put up every year this December. Game music's always evolving and, frankly, putting itself to shame within the year ever so frequently, but I bet you guys will no doubt nominate the Game Freak sound team for something.
Click to expand...

Not really. :p
 
K

Keyouta

Junior Member
I like X and Y's soundtrack, but I didn't find it outstanding, I only thought a few themes really stood out to me when they played (Power Plant / Pokeball factory theme and Geosenge Town to name two), when compared to R/S, D/P, B/W. The lack of Go Ichinose was disappointing, I wonder what he's working on? Ruby / Sapphire remakes?

I'm interested to find out who composed that Power Plant theme for XY. It's, in my opinion, the theme that will stand out for me when I think of the game's soundtrack.

Edit: I guess it's just going to take a while to get accustomed to the songs in XY, I'm going through the music right now trying to pick out what I like!
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Adachi's my best guess on the Power Plant ditty, but I could always be wrong. Usually, though, musicians featured in the game credits are listed in rank order of contribution, starting with Kageyama on top (he being the sound director) and Masuda on bottom (because he mostly does battle tunes). Adachi's above Sato and below Kageyama, so I suspect she's had a much bigger role on this soundtrack than on B/W's.

As far as battle themes go, Colosseum and XD could be better. Many of the tracks just feel tinny or lack exciting development—something that Ichinose and Masuda have avoided at the cost of going overboard (Team Plasma's B2/W2 theme is an example of this). Cipher Peon is absolutely one of the best Pokémon battle themes, however, simply because of its multi-layered arrangement, crossing timpani beats with a roving bass-line felt below piano and guitar. I love it when battle themes escape from convention, but not when that ends up being a poor approach in terms of execution.
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
Yeah X/Y just wasn't as good musically as Black(2)/White(2), but I knew going in that X/Y wouldn't be able to outdo my favorite video game soundtrack ever. lol.

I do like X/Y's music overall a lot more than than Gen 3 and 4, though, and when the soundtrack comes out, I'll be listening to several of the battle themes. (Though actually I was disappointed with the seemingly smaller number of battle themes this time around. Gen V had about 20 million of them...)
 
K

Keyouta

Junior Member
I'm surprised as well at the low amount of battle themes. I also found the Team Flare theme to be a big step down from the Team Plasma one. This was also the first Pokemon game where I didn't care for the credits theme!

I hope their next games step it up musically, for the inevitable Gen 3 remakes, as well as Gen 7.

I wonder what tracks from previous games will be in the XY soundtrack.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
What really gets me is that Korrina gets her own special battle track while none of the leader-specific gym dungeon themes return from B2/W2. Most of the leaders look real gimped next to those in Gen V, many of whom had some interesting involvement with the main-game story—this change in sound direction is rather telling!
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
The soundtrack's up on iTunes! Observations:

•Adachi's done some of the best tunes here (Parfum Palace, Route 8, Victory Road, Glittering Cave (seriously thought this would be Kageyama), Anistar City—you name it), but she's not the one behind Kalos Power Plant. That's Kageyama, apparently, and I never would have guessed it (I kept the possibility in mind...). Still, Adachi's now done some of the best eyecatch licks yet and many if not all of the area themes, essentially filling out Aoki's role during Gen 3.

•Sato's mostly absent on this one, which makes sense given how much work she already does designing the games. This primary pairing of Kageyama/Adachi explains why everything feels like it's paying homage to other JRPG soundtracks: both musicians were knee-deep in such an environment before coming to Game Freak. Masuda was always ad-hoc, Ichinose's got some more diverse tastes, and Sato learned mainly from Ichinose and Aoki.

•Kageyama did those great Super Training themes that sound more like battle themes than the actual battle themes. Adachi also arranged Masuda's themes for Team Flare—they're all great, I think. Still no credits for some tracks at all (Lumiose and Shalour, for some reason)! Worse, Mystery Gift's now accredited to Sato, not Ichinose (he originally composed it for FR/LG), which is almost as bad as crediting Kageyama for composing the printer-error theme from Yellow (rearranged as the Pokéwalker theme).

•The Origins arrangements are disappointingly repetitive and same-y; only the Bicycle arrange dips into Kageyama's orchestral strengths, but it's simply the wrong track for that. I really like what he can do with guitar and synth, though, so that's always a plus.

•Way too many piano themes in this one. I love N's Farewell, but the only one I'm going to remember is AZ's theme; Emma's feels obnoxious and Looker's is pretty decent. Less useless are the PR jingles that bang out some fresh ideas that would otherwise have gone unused by the musicians here.

All of this, I assume, will be consistent and improved with what's in the album liner notes.
 
Robin64

Robin64

Member
Downloaded from iTunes! £7.99 is an absolute bargain price for 212 tracks. Looking forward to hooking my phone up to my 5.1 system at home at giving this a blast.

(Also amusing that each track alone is £0.79, meaning you could spend £167.48 on this if you wanted to)
 
Boss Doggie

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Holy shit.

The OST quality is really on a different level vs. audio rips or the actual 3DS. Makes me wonder if this was the intended sound quality.
 
J

Joqu

Member
The OST is reasonable priced, I think I'll bite. I was pretty disappointed by the battle themes we got this time though, and these are always my favorite part of the soundtrack. :(
 
F

Forkball

Member
The series has a lot of awesome music for sure. I especially like BW's soundtrack. One of my favorite pieces is the original Champion theme from Red/Blue. It really hits you after the reveal that Blue has become the champion. I really love the isolated beats at the very beginning after the rapid introduction.
 
U

User 73706

Banned
Man, Gen VI's gym battle theme has to be one of my favorites in the franchise. Gen V was probably the best for that classic battle theme feeling, but that imposing air and the speed the track carries itself at are great. I almost wish it was the Horde Battle theme, though. Those Alien 303 Bass Synthesizer riffs in the very beginning would really add to the atmosphere of, say, fighting a group of Trevenant.

EDIT: Also, explanation for the ridiculously improved sound quality on iTunes: the Game Freak music team has relied on a pretty consistent software instrument ensemble since the HGSS days, just making additions where the hardware allowed them. In the past, though, the DS infrastructure had them using MIDI files in the game's code and accompanying soundfont libraries to generate music and most sound. I'm guessing a significant hardware upgrade allowed them to use straight-up audio files for the majority of the game's sounds. The MIDI work and soundfont implementation still happened, but in the team's computer-based digital audio workstation rather than the handheld hardware itself. The audio files were likely compressed on the 3DS for storage space reasons, while we're getting more realized renders with less compression in the album's release.
 
A

ayxqp2

Neo Member
I'm a little befuddled by some of the official track listings. The Legendary and Champion themes are credited to "Junichi Masuda, Shota Kageyama & Game Freak" (which I would assume implies composition by Masuda + arrangement by Kageyama) but Masuda stated in an interview that he'd only written the Wild/Trainer/Gym/Elite Four battle themes this time. Likewise, the static fanfare themes (item obtain, trainer defeated, etc.) are credited to "Shota Kageyama, Junichi Masuda & Game Freak".

I'm also very curious to know what separates the composition/arrangement process for Masuda's battle themes. On the Black & White soundtrack, the arrangement was apparently done by Ichinose, but Masuda expounded his approach to their composition and instrumentation at great length on his blog (which to me suggests the arrangements had a more proprietary status to him).

Would this necessarily imply that he presents a rough-hewn demo to the sound team and has them produce the finished result?

I once even asked him on Twitter if he'd written the subtle arpeggio that plays during the finale of the Team Plasma Battle theme, and he confirmed that he had. :X
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
ayxqp2 said:
Would this necessarily imply that he presents a rough-hewn demo to the sound team and has them produce the finished result?
Click to expand...
I've always thought this was the case: Masuda writes it and then sends it to the designated arranger who will co-ordinate the soundfont; whether or not Ichinose added any of his particular stylings to these pieces is ambiguous. One of the things that makes this more difficult to figure out is how similar Kageyama's battle-theme arrangements in X/Y are to Masuda's techno remixes of battle tracks (the RGB legendary theme rearrangement's unique to Kageyama, however, and it sounds a bit different structurally). Basically, the real question is to what extent arrangers have any influence on what Masuda writes besides preparing the overall sample selection. Kageyama's not as likely as Ichinose to change things up in unexpected ways, given the difference between Sato's original version of Colress' theme and Ichinose's battle arrangement (both of which are very easy to determine by style). Kageyama's arrangements for HG/SS and Origins are fairly straightforward aside from differences in instrumentation.
 
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