Soundtrack Central The best classic game music and more

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xanadujin Mar 26, 2009 (edited Mar 26, 2009)

Man I've been away for a long time. 

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I'll be DJing (vgm!) at a club event in Nagoya this Saturday called Animericana.  It's my first time to DJ live anywhere so I'm a bit nervous, but I've spent a lot of time putting together this set and I'm pretty pumped.  Game music is pretty sparse at these kinds of events, which focus mainly on anime and j-pop, but I'm bringing a 100% game music set that will hopefully get the crowd going and give people a newfound appreciation for game music.  I'm including everything from Rockman Techno arrange, to Shin/Neo Contra, to Sonic Rush and Ollie King, to Street Fighter (various), to a few OCR tracks, and some Famicom, Mega Drive, and PC Engine chip tunes which I've remixed myself.  I wonder if people will even recognize any of this stuff. O_O  I'm going to try to swing some game images for the VJs to give people some hints.  I don't have time to go into too many details now, but I'll be back with an update after the show.  Wish me luck!

- Justin Pfeiffer

P.S.  If you can read Japanese and are perhaps interested in coming, here are the details:

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名古屋初!国際的アニソンイベント「ANIMERICANA」誕生だー!!!

~ANIMERICANA vol. 1~
Date: 3月28日
Time: 22時~morning
Place: Sound Bar M's
Admission: 1500円(1drink付)

- DJs -

ォ銀 (IOWA団)
むらさき (おきらく神楽ぁ~/アニソン祭)
デジモリオ (アニソン祭)
Ani-Key a.k.a. nago-ming (Borderless Dimension)
mil (IOWA団)
xanadujin (IOWA団)

- VJs -

むらさき
yama:kawa


Q:「ANIMERICANA」って何ですか?

A: ANIMERICANAは日本とアメリカのアニメーション・ゲーム・ネット・ヲタクカルチャーを結合させる国際ヲタ文化祭です。
日本のアニメやゲームが好きな人も、アメリカのcartoonなどが好きな人も、あまり詳しくはないけど気になってる人も、皆集まって遊べるイベントです。

Q: どんなジャンルが楽しめますか?

A: ジャンルはアニソン,アメアニソン、ゲーソン、ゲームミュージック、8ビット、ニコニコ動画、東方アレンジ、テクノ・ハウス・ヒップホップでリミックスされたアニソンやゲーソンなどが楽しめます。

Q: 他のアニソンイベントとどう違いますか?日本人の知らないアメリカのcartoonばっかりですか?

A: ANIMERICANAは日本のアニメとアメリカのアニメの音楽の融合イベントですので、もちろん日本の流行りのアニソン・ゲーソン・ニコ動ソングもあります!
しかし、アニメリカーナでは普段あまり聴く機会の無いアメリカのアニメソングとアメリカ人のお好みのcartoon・アニソン・ゲーソンも楽しめます!!
このイベントでしか出来ない経験が出来ます!


日本人3人とアメリカ人3人が国際的にアニメとゲームミュージックを合体して、ヒップホップ/ハウス/トランスアレーンジを入れて、それはアニメリカーナだよ!
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Idolores Mar 26, 2009 (edited Mar 26, 2009)

I would LOVE if some guy made a video of you DJing VGM like that. It'd be such a trip, since I can't physically go to Japan right now. sad

In any event, good luck with everything, my brother!

Chris Mar 27, 2009

Good luck, Justin! Sounds like you've got a great set planned (Hideki Naganuma X Contra X Street Fighter = Pwnage) and it should be a real treat for game music fans.

Adam Corn Mar 27, 2009

I can't make the trip from Tokyo but I hope the set and the party go great!  You should totally make an audio recording. smile

Care to fill us in on what gear you're using?  CDJs?  Traktor?  (Yeah I know it's all about the music, but I can't help but wonder!)

Carl Mar 27, 2009

Good luck, hope the people there enjoy it, even if they aren't familiar with the sources.

xanadujin Apr 2, 2009 (edited Aug 19, 2009)

Well, I'm back from Nagoya and Animericana.  First of all, thanks for all the encouraging comments.  The event was a big success and my sets went quite well!  Despite being a predominantly anime-related event with people who weren't nearly as familiar with game music as perhaps we fans are, everyone really got into the music.  People were dancing and raving and I even got a big cheer at the end.  Probably didn't hurt that I was going crazy up on stage myself the whole time while DJing. smile 

Here is a snippet of a description of the event I wrote that I sent out to some people in Japan, just to give some background about the event:

-------------------------------------------------
On Saturday, March 28th, myself and 5 other people will be hosting an international fandom event at a club in Nagoya called, "Animericana."  This event, conceived by my friend ogin, who is deeply involved in the anime club scene in Nagoya, will be a first time for Nagoya, and perhaps Japan.  With sort of an "East meets West" theme, we've assembled three DJs from both sides of the globe: Ogin, myself, and our friend Mil from the States, and three DJs highly active in the nerdcore scene in Japan.  Both sides and each DJ will be bringing their own special flavor to the table to give the crowd an experience they've hopefully never heard before.

As such, unlike your average anime club party in Japan, at Animericana you're likely to hear popular American cartoon and show themes (G.I. Joe, Duck Tales, Thundercats, anyone?) and English versions and remixes of Japanese anime songs.  This will be Ogin's specialty for the night.  Mil will be playing some hip hop and techno mixes inspired from anime and game music.  The Japanese DJs will of course, be doing their hyper anime/idol/j-pop thing.

My area of expertise, as some of you may know, is game music.  As such, I will be bringing an extended, 100% game music set to the table.  When game music appears at these kinds of events, it's usually just a song or two thrown in here and there, taken mainly from vocal themes or popular RPGs.  Then there is of course the hardcore chiptune scene, which focuses on remixing and composing chiptunes, however no one seems to have tapped into the pure game music scene yet.  As such, it is my goal to let people hear and experience game music in a way they've never heard or thought of before - one that you can actually get down and move your body to.  I'll be including raw and arranged game music, both new and old, as well as some chip themes that I've slightly remixed and upgraded myself.  You can expect to hear anything from Mega Man, Contra, and Street Fighter, to Jet Set Radio and Sonic Rush.  Since it's a cartooned themed event, I'm also going to throw in some X-Men, The Simpsons, and TMNT arcade music. smile [edit: I ended up cutting this unfortunately. sad ]
---------------------------------------------------

I did two sets: one 45-minute set at midnight, and another 30-minute set at 4:00AM.  Man, it was a completely intense experience.  Just being able to hear VGM that loud in a club was awesome, not to mention having a bunch of people getting into it as well and feeding off your energy.  My opening Rockman set got a good reaction, since the music is pretty familiar to everyone, and the chip medley I remixed hit some nostalgic cords with the people I think.  Cheers errupted when several songs came on, and one guy actually came up to me after my set and said, "Dude!  You're my hero for putting a Phantasy Star IV song in there!"  And one Japanese guy straight up started breakdancing during the TMNT OCR remix that I played toward the end.  It was pretty funny, and awesome.  With my last set being at 4:00AM, the number of people and energy was at a bit of a low, but the diehards still got into it.  I don't think many people recognized the music from my second set.  It was probably the least "game-like" sounding music out of everything, even though ironically, it was entirely raw VGM, unlike the 45-minute set that contained a lot of remixes and arrangements.

To answer your question Adam, all my mixing was done 100% with a program called Virtual DJ, which I ran from my laptop in congruence with the club's mixer controller.  I'm familiar with how CDJs work, but I have yet to practice extensively with them and think I may prefer the visual precision and cue points that software offers.  Of course, I'm just getting into this, so it's not like I was going to shell out any major dough on any hardware.  But if things keep up, I may have to upgrade my gear.  As you may notice from listening, I edited a lot of the original tracks to my liking and cut out some parts to make for a better flow overall.  Some I even changed quite drastically.  I tried to focus on energy, familiarity, and connective flow when putting together these sets.  Balancing everything together turned out to be quite the task.

That said, I've made a recording of my sets from Animericana for anyone who wants to hear: http://www.sendspace.com/file/fc5x02

I know they're long, but it's better to listen to them straight through rather than skip around.  Naturally, I'm a little curious to hear what people think. smile  Yoroshiku!

- Justin Pfeiffer

Idolores Apr 3, 2009

Prouda you, boy.

Really, this is awesome news. I was really hoping it'd go well. I can't wait to see if I can identify what's on here! Connection speed is really slow at the moment sad

Carl Apr 4, 2009 (edited Apr 4, 2009)

Glad the show went well!
I liked the 1st set a whole lot, but the 2nd wasn't really my style.

It would be fun to do something like that though, I wanted to make a VGM Dance Mix for the New Year's party I was going to, but holidays get busy and I just didn't have time to make it...  So this is kinda a reminder to put together a nice club style mix sometime just for kicks smile

Sami Apr 5, 2009 (edited Apr 5, 2009)

Good mixes. It'd be awesome to hear stuff like this at a club, and also put the mixes in proper context that way, naturally it's going to be different listening at home. The salsa-silly Quickman mix from Rockman Techno Arrange caught my ear just this weekend and it does so again, it's a really great bit. Doesn't hurt that I'm a big fan of Wangan MN and Sota F. too. Hideki Naganuma had fantastic sets in Sonic Rush and I'm guessing the Fatboy Slim style stuff in there is by him as well.

Some of the invidual tracks stand out just a bit too much, I would've preferred more segues and some more subtle mixing on the transitions. Sometimes even very different tracks can go together well without extra effort, like Falling Up Ward from Ridge Racer 7 Nite Grooves and Katamari on the Rock from Katamari Fortissimo Damashii. Also, it seems that to keep the flow, you have aimed for a steady beat and progression of the tracks. I would have liked to have more lows and highs, with some suspension leading into really big payoff climactic tracks, even in really short bursts like "Enemy Head" (06-03) from Neo Contra. Or some craziness from Kooji Hayama.

So, good mixes, with some room to improve, and I'll keep listening to get better into their feel. smile

xanadujin Apr 22, 2009

I know this comment is a little late, but thanks to everyone who listened and made comments.

Sami wrote:

Doesn't hurt that I'm a big fan of Wangan MN and Sota F. too. Hideki Naganuma had fantastic sets in Sonic Rush and I'm guessing the Fatboy Slim style stuff in there is by him as well.

I thought about including some Wangan Midnight 2, but decided it was too “mainstream” sounding for the mix I wanted to do this time, and worried that people might not realize that it’s actually game music.  The second set was entirely Hideki Naganuma and Sota Fujimori, which tested the “game sound” aspect enough as it is.  I guess it was too funky for you, huh Carl. :)  But I did want to achieve that effect to a certain degree in the second set- to sort of shock people when they realized it was entirely game music.  The Fatboy Slim stuff you’re referring to was in fact Naganuma, and came mostly from his Ollie King soundtrack, which included a few remixes of tracks from Jet Set Radio Future.

Sami wrote:

Some of the invidual tracks stand out just a bit too much, I would've preferred more segues and some more subtle mixing on the transitions. Sometimes even very different tracks can go together well without extra effort, like Falling Up Ward from Ridge Racer 7 Nite Grooves and Katamari on the Rock from Katamari Fortissimo Damashii. Also, it seems that to keep the flow, you have aimed for a steady beat and progression of the tracks. I would have liked to have more lows and highs, with some suspension leading into really big payoff climactic tracks, even in really short bursts like "Enemy Head" (06-03) from Neo Contra. Or some craziness from Kooji Hayama.

I’m not really sure what you mean here.  On one hand, you say tracks stand out too much and you wanted more subtle mixing, but on the other hand, you say the flow was too steady and wanted more variation.  At any rate, my aim was to have sections of both.  Sometimes I wanted songs to come in with a hard transition and slap you in the face.  Other times, where it was possible and felt appropriate, I blended the tracks for a smoother transition.  You may be talking about how I shortened a lot of the tracks and included a high number of them to keep the pace high.  When I first started out, I let tracks go all or almost all the way to the end.  But as I practiced more and more, I eventually felt that sounded uninteresting and felt boring leaving a single track go on for so long without transition.  I wanted to keep people guessing and on their feet.  Maybe next time I’ll leave the tracks longer and include less.  I also went for mostly power tracks, which might have kept individual ones from standing out.  I’d definitely say that Dr. Wily and FF VII from the first set were clear, climactic points though.  The boss tracks from Sonic Rush and Contra in the second were supposed to be climactic points too.

In general, I found that mixing game music can be quite difficult.  Through trial and error, I eventually found that grouping songs from a similar game, series, or composer worked best.  It’s easiest for listeners to recognize what game the music is from that way, and conversely, having a set of similar genre or style, yet from various, unrelated games, can sound sporadic and messy.  Plus with game music, you’re always dealing with different sounds in quality, large BPM ranges, and the fact that many songs are short and hard to transition to begin with, which adds to the challenge.

But, as you mentioned, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.  So I’ll keep at it and keep you guys posted about any new projects.  Thanks again for the support.

- Justin Pfeiffer

xanadujin Jun 5, 2009

I know this is ancient history, but in case anyone cared to know the entire set list for the mixes, I finally got around to writing them up.  Here they are:

SET 1-1

ROCKMAN MIX  [0:00 - 13:54]
1. Title (Rockman 2)
2. Staff Roll (Rockman 1-6 Rock Arrange Ver.)
3. Airman (Rockman 1-6 Techno Arrange Ver.)
4. Heatman (Rockman 1-6 Techno Arrange Ver.)
5. Quickman (Rockman 1-6 Techno Arrange Ver.)
6. Dr. Wily Stage 1 (Rockman 1-6 Techno Arrange Ver.)
7. Elecman (Rockman 1-6 Techno Arrange Ver.)

CHIP MIX  [13:55 - 26:39]
8. Bionic Commando – Stage 01 (GB)
9. Little Nemo: The Dream Master – Stage 01 (NES)
10. Gremlins – The Office (NES)
11. Castlevania II – The Silence of Daylight [Town] (NES)
12. The Adventures of Bayou Billy – Fighting Stage (NES)
13. Metroid – Kraid’s Lair (NES)
14. Phantasy Star IV – Machine Center (GEN)
15. Ranger X – Stage 3-1 Jungle (GEN)
16. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Dr. Robotnik’s Theme (GEN)
17. The Legend of Xanadu II – Into the Dark (PCE-CD)
18. Air Zonk – Track 07 (PCE)
19. Air Zonk – Track 11 (PCE)

STREET FIGHTER MIX  [26:40 - 34:05]
20. Chun-li (Street Fighter Tribute Album)
21. Crowded Town [SF:EX] (Technicbeat Original Soundtrack)
22. Sakura Mankai [SF:EX] (Technicbeat Original Soundtrack)
23. Cammy (Street Fighter IV)
24. Jazzy NYC [Alex’s Theme] (Street Fighter III Arrange Album)

OVERCLOCKED REMIX MIX  [34:06 - 45:32]
25. "Clash at the Mountains" Zelda: Link’s Awakening – Tal Tal Mountain Range (GB)
26. "Monstrous Turtles!" Super Mario World – Sub Castle BGM (SNES)
27. "Waste Water Wipeout" TMNT IV: Turtles in Time – Sewer Surfin (ARC)
28. "Adrenalyne Kyck" Final Fantasy VII – Hurry (PSX)


SET 1-2

NAGANUMA MIX  [0:00 – 17:26]
1. Right There, Ride On (Sonic Rush)
2. Get Edgy (Sonic Rush)
3. Jeh Jeh Rocket (Sonic Rush)
4. Bomber Barbara (Sonic Rush)
5. Let It Go (Ollie King)
6. Let Mom Sleep (Jet Set Radio)
7. Teknopathetic  - e-Pop ‘n’ Disco 80’s Mix (Ollie King)
8. The Concept of Love - The Concept of Passion Mix (Ollie King)

SHIN / NEO CONTRA MIX  [17:27 - 32:59]
9. Mission 1 (Neo Contra)
10. Mission 2 – Plant Contra (Neo Contra)
11. Mission 6 (Neo Contra)
12. Relic of Moirai (Shin Contra)
13. Submarine Power Plant (Shin Contra)
14. Jinmen Gyo (Shin Contra)
15. Credits (Neo Contra)

ENCORE TRACK
1. Beginning of the History ~ Challenger 1985 [Gradius] (Energy Force -GRADIUS & SALAMANDER-)

I didn't include the encore track in the set I uploaded.  For the encore, each of us 6 DJs chose one final song to play at the end of the show. 

- Justin Pfeiffer

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