Shunsuke Kikuchi (Japanese Music) or Bruce Faulconer (USA)?

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:48 pm

Do we need to post the link to "Episodic Trunks" anymore?

DBHighDefinition · Post by **DBHighDefinition** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:49 pm

Onikage725 wrote:Do we need to post the link to "Episodic Trunks" anymore this page?

Yes, now silence slave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M56bt_cFmk&fmt=18

cRookie_Monster · Post by **cRookie_Monster** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:15 pm

ImmortalSandwich · Post by **ImmortalSandwich** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:30 pm

Episodic Trunks is okay, and I really wouldn't call it metal either. I mean, I'm a metal head, and I can show you metal. That's not it.

This however, is a much better Trunks theme IMO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv-3q2fs ... re=related

Pure awesomeness. This is where the Japanese score really outshines the American one, I think.

cRookie_Monster · Post by **cRookie_Monster** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:38 pm

ImmortalSandwich wrote:Episodic Trunks is okay, and I really wouldn't call it metal either. I mean, I'm a metal head, and I can show you metal. That's not it.

This however, is a much better Trunks theme IMO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv-3q2fs ... re=related

Pure awesomeness. This is where the Japanese score really outshines the American one, I think.

Yeah that's pretty cool stuff. Here's this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Yph1WsU4I&fmt=18

and this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hildNcOEpF0&fmt=18

then this...

If Destruction isn't metal wtf is it?

Also I brought up Episodic Trunks because people have been saying OVER EXTREME ACTION!!! I wanted to counter that point.

Innagadadavida · Post by **Innagadadavida** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:48 pm

I won't tell.

jjgp1112 · Post by **jjgp1112** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:51 pm

cRookie_Monster wrote:
ImmortalSandwich wrote:Episodic Trunks is okay, and I really wouldn't call it metal either. I mean, I'm a metal head, and I can show you metal. That's not it.

This however, is a much better Trunks theme IMO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv-3q2fs ... re=related

Pure awesomeness. This is where the Japanese score really outshines the American one, I think.
Yeah that's pretty cool stuff. Here's our studio's original take on that scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Yph1WsU4I&fmt=18

I believe this was our second take on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hildNcOEpF0&fmt=18

Destruction was the third...

If Destruction isn't metal wtf is it?

(arg I'm getting goaded into saying too much insider crap lol)

Wow, when you sync the first song with that scene it syncs perfectly

:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP6L43QdBpM

cRookie_Monster · Post by **cRookie_Monster** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:55 pm

jjgp1112 wrote: Wow, when you sync the first song with that scene it syncs perfectly :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP6L43QdBpM

Ah good, I'm glad there's another clip of that. The only one I knew of had been taken down. Note it fits even tighter than what's in that vid.

I can't remember exactly but either Trunks Power Up or Trunks Appears could give similar results. (hehe I can't get them to work myself right now....they might have been written for earlier scenes in the show...arg its been nearly 10 years)

EDIT: NOte that while the Japanese music for that scene is probably better stand alone (wow some great sounds,harmonies, and all in 7/8 time!) I think our *original* take on the scene was better. It matched the action incredibly well (bc it was written to picture), I love how it slows down into that epic theme as Trunks comes down with his sword. The sliding pitches to match the sliding halves of Frieza were pure genius I thought.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:53 am

(Meeps, whoever invented ListenToYoutube deserves a food. *downloads big audio files onto Windows ME laptop with 3.6 out of 13.3 gigs of harddrive space remaining* ).

Ahem.
I've not seen much of Z with the Japanese score. In a few places, it's painfully obvious that the music didn't adapt so well to the changes in tone of the story. In others, "...!

!".
I can think of four scenes off the top of my head that I've heard in both versions. Piccolo's death in the Saiyan saga (Which isn't really fair, I guess, since I don't think Faulconer-tachi ever went there... ur... no?) (On the Podcast.

. Awesomeness packaged. I don't recall that kind of drama with the Levy score...), Gohan and Goku in the RoSaT... (I was confused here. It was in a comparison thread where both versions were linked. The music while Goku and Gohan were sparring in the original was... disturbingly playful, but at times it didn't seem too out of place... Blah.), Gohan going SSJ2 (No contest. Ok, so maybe a little. The Dende/#16 theme playing where the Original had silence actually works very well. Gohan's inner monologue and the use of the Timechamber theme afterward... WTF? Watching that for the first time... ur... was probably the first time I noticed crappy decisions on what goes where. Unmei no hi wins, pure and simple.).
And... the Kid Buu fight. Faulconer version wins here, hands down. I mean, it's only the final deciding battle of the series... and yet the Japanese BGM was... very... generic.).

I recently (as in in the past three years) went back to certain parts of the series to evaluate things I didn't notice when it was all new. Destruction got really old in the Vegeta Vs #18 fight. Season3 obviously has the worst direction ever (Gohan hanging out by the ship, with random bass and guitar crap in the background. Weird. Umm... and my screenreader just died and I'm not sure if I tapped the capslock or not...

).
Vegeta's theme. Heh. I'm confused by this in a way; I picked up on it first time through, but not until the most recent did I notice how overused it was. Awwe.

.
I think I've seen Goku's SSJ transformation in Japanese, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't remember the music, in any case. I think I remember the dub score... Not sure how to describe it without a link (I'm afraid it's difficult to describe most Season3 music in a way that specifies a single track. Other than some very obvious ones.).

Nah. Original score in pre-Raditz is awesome. Haven't heard enough after that other than what I've mentioned. And by the Cell saga the dub score was getting likeable.

(And there's a guy wretching horribly outside. Wonderful timing, I suppose. I think it's a guy that's been cough-vommitting all freaking week (and gets on my nerves), though it sounds way more painful this time compared to the rest. I've dubbed him the Ricola mystery Vommitter. Not that my detailing that here is meant to imply anything about anything, or anything...

.
Nah, Cell onward works for me dub-side, other than that aweful aweful handling of Gohan's SSJ2-ing. Well, and we had a few rare tracks that were reused in odd places. (I.E, "Pan's theme" ... everyone calls it that, but I know it as "The song that played when Gohan started flying after the tough stuff with Cell was resolved". Now if you'll excuse me, I want to see if my CD player meant for the crappy "fandubs are better"-fest that is RFB&D CDs to play my copy of Best of DBZ VOl... ur... whichever had Future Trunks - Gohan Angers - Makyo Star - Garlic Jr - King Cold - Freeza's revival - Crap I misplaced Heroic Trunks! It comes earlier, doesn't it? - Perfect Cell - Pikkahn... Ur... Yeah. ).

[edit] Is that a shamisen near the end of Episodic Trunks?

If there were pitchbends there, that might be the most awesome thing ever. [/edit]

Bejiita · Post by **Bejiita** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:13 pm

I started out on Ocean's dub living in the UK. The actual Japanese score is the greatest by a long way. If I can remember, watching the dub I never really remembered scenes for its BGM, just for the images and voices, but watching the Japanese version you remember scenes not just for the visuals but the audio.

I can't really say much more for the original score, it's just outstanding.

As for Funi's, I can't say the same thing at all. I admit there are certain pieces that were cool, I ain't gonna lie, I'll show the ones I mean. There's this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcLHM4b ... re=related
I remember this piece mainly when Gohan is about to beat up the Cell Jr, kinds fits the scene well.

This one also wasn't bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1YGYuyETGI

But the fact that one or two (or even three) pieces of music are likable, it can't do that for the whole series, every piece of BGM comes to mind when someone asks which is better of the two, as a whole, I may like a few of the dubs tracks (slightly) but like the majority of the Japanese score (which is probably over 100 tracks), the dub just doesn't do it for me, if anything, watching clips of the dub puts me off DBZ, they bring back memories of a time when I was geting sick of watching DBZ as the music I did not like, I am not even a fan of metal music, some rock n' roll isn't bad, but in general it does my head in. Just by searching through those youtube clips to find certain tracks, (there was one I couldn't find actually which I though was a cool beat, it's during the freeza saga and the same track is used in one of the GBA games for the end credits I think, it's definately in one of the games though)it gave me bad memories of watching DBZ on saga day on Toonami when they showed the whole Freeza saga, the music itself puts you in another world completely, one that I dislike! Quite eerie, sci-fi type music, not my cup of tea.

xzero · Post by **xzero** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:40 pm

I think the dub score largely fit the series better. One argument I remember hearing against Faulconer Productions Music was that the same track is constantly being used. I think if you take the total number of minutes of unique music (including or excluding rearranged tracks from later in the series adding an underscore or something to an older track), the dub has more music composed for it, and it largely fit very well with each individual scene.

As for listening to the music outside the context of the series, I'd say that the Japanese score fares better, but the dub still wins. I'm kind of biased, but the day I found out that there were dub music CDs available (Best of I and II, and Trunks at that point) I couldn't have been more excited. I frequently listened to (and continue to listen to) the dub score as a standalone product, and I think a lot of it holds up well. Some of the songs are very specific to what's going on on screen, which makes them feel like they're jumping around at points, but overall, continuous themes (SSJ3 Transformation, Ginyu Theme, Mystic Gohan Transformation, etc) are enjoyable to listen to.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:45 pm

Hm, that interests me because I've often wondered if a large number of those who buy the CD's got into it first via the later dub (or at least anywhere on Toonami). Me, personally, I only like a few themes and really wouldn't buy the CD's. But I know there are people, like yourself, who love 'em. And while I and some others around here may not "get" that, I know if someone were to put out a "Best of the Thundercats" CD I'd pre-order it in a heartbeat. And I'm 26 years old. I'd probably have a hard time explaining that to an older cousin or younger brother.

yuusha · Post by **yuusha** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:00 am

I always felt the Japanese BGM captured the flavor of Dragonball better . Sure you get to hear "Cha-la" re-arranged 100 times over but each time it captures a different emotion. Tha's not to say the US BGM isn't good but It just feels like the Japanese BGM gets over Toriyama's sense of fun and wanderlust.

James

xzero · Post by **xzero** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:36 pm

Onikage725 wrote:Hm, that interests me because I've often wondered if a large number of those who buy the CD's got into it first via the later dub (or at least anywhere on Toonami). Me, personally, I only like a few themes and really wouldn't buy the CD's. But I know there are people, like yourself, who love 'em. And while I and some others around here may not "get" that, I know if someone were to put out a "Best of the Thundercats" CD I'd pre-order it in a heartbeat. And I'm 26 years old. I'd probably have a hard time explaining that to an older cousin or younger brother.

I saw the original dub (seasons 1-2) first, but never watched it with any true interest until I discovered season 3 on Toonami. Actually, I remember recognizing that the voice acting and script weren't that great back when I first watched season 3 in 8th grade (I'm just shy of 23 now), but the music was such a highlight for me that it alone kept me interested. When I used to play on my tennis team in high school, I'd actually hum some of the fighting themes from the dub while playing. I checked the Faulconer Productions Music website almost once a week waiting to see if a new CD was being released, and in the days between ordering one and its arrival, I would print out the tracklist and try to figure out from the names exactly which pieces of music were included that time around.

I think the big thing for me is that I've always loved video game music, and Faulconer's dub is very reminiscent of an SNES-era action game soundtrack in terms of style. It just sort of stuck. However, I recognize and appreciate that a lot of people don't like the dub score (some dislike it for the very same reason that I like it). I think it's kind of funny that it was used extensively in the second and third games in the Legacy of Goku GBA series, and reviewers often praised the music in that context (IGN called it "pleasant" when reviewing both games, though the reviewer didn't seem to realize that it was coming from the series).

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:48 pm

Heh, that reminds of the 3G website. There was this clip up just for kicks (I think taking a dig at the exact same quality you're talking about) showing part of the later-end Goku/Freeza fight. The music was replaced with, if I recall correctly, the opening stage music from Mega Man X3. And it was awesome.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:28 am

xzero wrote:
I think the big thing for me is that I've always loved video game music, and Faulconer's dub is very reminiscent of an SNES-era action game soundtrack in terms of style. It just sort of stuck.

I will give it that. The repetitive synthesis faux "RAWCK N' RAWL" works PERFECTLY for a videogame which is why I actually think it doesn't sound half bad when it's scaled down and put into a gameboy game. I just don't want it constantly blasting in the background of my DBZ nonstop. They may as well put Megama....oh wait Ocean already did that. I also think downgrading the music to a gameboy did wonders for it.

SonEric84 · Post by **SonEric84** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:13 am

cRookie_Monster wrote:Yeah that's pretty cool stuff. Here's our studio's original take on that scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Yph1WsU4I&fmt=18

This is one of the few American tracks I like, but the part at around 30 seconds is where it really shines. I wish they would have used the "Trunks theme" used in the Funimation commercial to advertise the Trunks saga in the series itself. Such a good song.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:23 am

After looking through some Bruce tracks for shits and giggles I stumbled upon a song I forgot about which is strange because it's the one dub track I really enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHrWndS5 ... re=related
Does anyone have a list of instances where this song was used? I know for sure when Gohan goes SSJ2 at the Tenkaichi Budokai and obviously Ginyu's body change ordeal.

jjgp1112 · Post by **jjgp1112** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:30 pm

NeptuneKai wrote:After looking through some Bruce tracks for shits and giggles I stumbled upon a song I forgot about which is strange because it's the one dub track I really enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHrWndS5 ... re=related
Does anyone have a list of instances where this song was used? I know for sure when Gohan goes SSJ2 at the Tenkaichi Budokai and obviously Ginyu's body change ordeal.

Any moment where a villain or major character is killed.

xzero · Post by **xzero** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:50 pm

NeptuneKai wrote:After looking through some Bruce tracks for shits and giggles I stumbled upon a song I forgot about which is strange because it's the one dub track I really enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHrWndS5 ... re=related
Does anyone have a list of instances where this song was used? I know for sure when Gohan goes SSJ2 at the Tenkaichi Budokai and obviously Ginyu's body change ordeal.

I might be missing some as I'm doing this from memory, but the list includes:

Most Ginyu Body Changes
Freeza's Defeat on Namek
A scene involving Cell blasting Tienshinhan or Piccolo
Cell's Death
[EDIT] Forgot the Tenkaichi Tournament you mentioned

I'm pretty sure the track that was planned for when Trunks sliced Freeza in half was used for Kid Buu's death. The later part of the song is played sporatically throughout the series on its own, but the part everyone remembers is that first minute and a half.

For the record, you aren't the only (for lack of a better term) anti-dub person who likes that song. That and the SSJ3 transformation in particular were frequently cited back in the day as examples of well-done music in the dub, even by those who hated the rest of the score.

Kanzenshuu

Shunsuke Kikuchi (Japanese Music) or Bruce Faulconer (USA)?

Who is online