Great timing. I've been writing a short essay over the past few weekends which is, coincidentally, relevant to this topic.
To know what is enough is to know what is more than enough.
I’ve taken stock of my remaining collection of physical, tangible, actual, original CDs and grouped them 3 ways: Keep, Sell, and Undecided. I first thought about making these categories: Exquisite, Important, Interesting, Mundane, and Pitiful, but my opinion changes enough that I would spend all of my time super sorting.
The Keep category contains those CDs I can listen to effortlessly and enjoyably, though it does have some I keep simply because they are unusual or strange. The one CD in the keep category that I do not like at all is Famicle Parodic 2. I have spent some time recently trying to devise a way to explain how it’s not a rare CD, but something beyond, so far beyond that there is no English word suitable for explaining how rare it really is. Consider for a moment that when you spend weeks or months trying to find a CD, you will consider it rare. I feel calling such a CD rare is justified. But what if you spend 13 years trying to find a CD? If a CD that takes 6 months to find is rare, then how can one that takes 78 months to find also be rare? Shouldn’t there be some kind of scale? Another reason why I think Famicle Parodic 2 is far beyond merely being rare is because no one else found it during the time I was looking for it. If they did, they were tantalizingly taciturn. But I don’t think anyone in this entire community that browses soundtrackcentral.com or uses vgmdb.net managed to obtain even as much as a low quality mp3 rip. If that had happened, it would’ve found its way into my grip, eventually. So, Famicle Parodic 2 is the only CD I have which I consider to be a trophy album, due to the fact it remained elusive for 13 years, not once showing its jewel case face on ebay and seldom, if ever, appearing on Yahoo Japan Auctions. It wasn’t particularly expensive, at 5700 yen (in Amazon Japan’s marketplace), which came to $75 after Shopping Mall Japan’s fees and shipping charges. I first became aware of Famicle Parodic 2 through J.G.M.L. in 2000, which listed the CD as Famicom Cool Parodique. That misnomer may have been the reason why I or no one else found it, because we had the wrong name. It’s entirely possible, then, that I am wrong about the supposed superior, unmentionable, unfathomable rarity associated with it.
What started this new collection? Several months ago I was listening to the Fatal Fury Image album through my headphone amplifier, which was connected via USB to my PC. Thus, I was listening to the album from my hard drive (ape format). I found it challenging to listen to, as I did 10 years previously, but this time I stuck with it. I listened to the whole album and I must say it’s one of the most peculiar and strange listening experiences I have ever had. Each track seems to have been made by different groups of people from different time periods, places, and ethnicities. The very next night I listened to it again, but I played a CD-R in my Marantz CD player. The difference in sound quality was apparent; I could hear details that were not audible when using my hard drive. I became convinced, once and for all, that a PC cannot compete with a device that is designed to play audio CDs – a CD player. I put away my PC and decided not to worry about my vast digital collection; I don’t listen to but a small percentage of it anyway.
A few days after that happened I saw a first printing of Salamander ~Again~ beckoning to me on YJA with a BIN of 2500 yen. I couldn’t resist. I already have a CD-R of the original, but damn, I never owned the first printing. I effortlessly purchased it and next saw a MIDI Power Pro5 ~Salamander~ right next to it with a starting bid of 3000 yen. I won that auction for just 3000 yen. So I decided, right at that moment, that I would rebuild my collection of originals. I have knowledge now that I didn’t possess when I started collecting, so I only need to buy those originals that I know are worth it. I don’t have to experiment and buy everything like I used to. As an example, I don’t have to buy the Dracula Tribute Albums, since they contains many tracks my ears earnestly eject, to prevent insanity. Another example is the Paladin’s Quest Arrange album. I won’t buy it again because of the drama tracks, even though the arrangements are among the best in all of game music. I do own one album with drama tracks that I’ve decided not to sell – Wizap!. I had originally joint purchased that album back in 2005 and sent the album to other guy without having made a copy. I forgot. And I forgot that I forgot to make a copy. I tried to listen to it in 2013 and couldn’t find it in my collection, so I bought it again and decided to let it sit on my shelf, as a reminder. If I want to listen to an album like the Paladin’s Quest arrange or Samurai Spirits 3 Arrange Sound Trax, then I use a CD-R.
The greatest justification for rebuilding my collection is that it makes enjoying what I have within the realm of possibility. I could never within my lifetime actually assess my feelings about each of the 2,500+ albums on my hard drives because I will never listen to all of them. Due to this fact, I uncloseted* my PC and deleted several hundred gigabytes of game music (permanently) and can now fit my entire digital collection in less than 800 gigabytes. I used to fill up 1200 gigabytes. I’m still shearing the shiny platter on a daily basis and in a few months I may have less than 700 gigabytes.
In some ways, I would have done well to have not bought any game music until this year. Here’s a specific example: I recently purchased Snatcher Battle, Zoom Tracks, Perfect Selection and Midi Power ver. 5.0 for 3800 yen. Not 3800 yen each, but 3800 for the lot of four. I recall that Snatcher Battle could not have been touched for less than $150 twelve years ago (in any condition). Another specific: I found Gradius Perfect Selection 1 and 2 for 4500 yen. Some things haven’t changed, though. Certain albums, such as Sword Maniac and Shining the Holy Ark, are still hovering around $100, as they were a decade ago.
In summary, the first part of my game music hobby was the experimentation phase, in which I purchased as much as possible. I also traded heavily and downloaded a deluge of data. The whole point of this phase was to determine what was good. I had to sell albums I liked because I needed the money to buy unheard albums. I rationalized this behavior by consciously reminding myself that CD-Rs sound the same as originals. The second part is the culling phase, in which I am concomitantly engaging the third phase, which is enjoyment. I now only listen to originals or CD-Rs of originals through my headphone set-up (Marantz CD player, Headroom Balanced Amp, Sennheiser 650s).
*uncloseted = to have removed an object or oneself from a closet
Adam, I have noticed that the OGC albums have a large amount of coughing, paper crinkling, and other noises. I did not hear any of these noises when I owned Bose speakers or used Sony headphones (MDR-V900).
