Bruce Faulconer's 'full potential'

[UnbiasedDBZfan]

According to one the former members of Faulconer Productions, Bruce Faulconer was not at 100% when composing the DBZ American score. He even says this

'Inspite of my beef with the guy and his ways...the man is an AMAZING composer. Unfortunately virutally no-one here has actually heard B. Faulconer in his true element. Given actual resources, time, and freedom the man could wipe the floor with Kikuchi easily.'

So does that mean if Funimation gave Bruce Faulconer more of a variety of music, he could have done better? We'll never know, but we can wonder.

[cRookie_Monster]

DBZ is full of chances to do lots of different kinds of music, and we did!

The issue was that we had only a few days to complete each episode, wall to wall music, and not enough budget to hire live musicians to play each piece.

btw Mike and Julius disagree with me on the statement you quoted above. Mike would say Bruce can't make anything original, he can only imitate. Julius I think would just say Bruce is completely incompetent.
I tend to like Bruce's darker side of writing, derivative or not. I love his use of dissonances and such. His work, especially the stuff I've heard for full orchestra, really shows his chops for writing that kind of music. It's not the kind of thing that would be successful mainstream though... Julius' writing on the other hand has a style that I think lends itself very well to public acceptance (ie the SSJ3 theme). Bruce to me is more "Ginyu Transformation" and "Cell Jr's" music. These are pieces that are more likely to get oohs and ahhs in the academic music world, a place where nonstandard harmonies and rhythms are prized. I don't really care for his rock style (main theme, closing music).

[Akumaito Beam]

I really try not to judge anyone's professional work based on their old Z stuff. I have to imagine a big part of everyone's steady improvement had a lot to do with more money thus more time and resources to fine tune things. I'm not going to get mad at the guy who was told to play Green Sleeves on a Nintendo cartridge but only managed to churn out Yankee Doodle because given the circumstances it was a pretty astounding effort. I don't claim to know what sort of potential anyone had back then but I'd imagine they certainly didn't have the time, money or resources to find their inner most zen muse. DBZ was almost the only thing keeping Funi afloat for a pretty long time.

[cRookie_Monster]

Actually with the Cell Saga we had less time than ever, though we did have Ben for editing which helped. I worked more hours than I ever heave during that period of time.

I get the feeling the staff was pretty small during the Buu Saga, but I'm not 100% sure. It sounds like it was mostly Bruce and Julius alone...which I can't imagine...considering for Cell we had Mike, Scott, Bruce, and Ben.

The gear or players available to us really never changed that much...I shouldn't get further into that though. Except maybe that my tenure there was the only time they had an inhouse guitarist.

[Fionordequester]

If it's any consolation, I still think, after watching a bunch of the Orange Bricks version of Season 6, that the soundtrack you guys composed was the best I've ever heard in a show. The only thing that dragged it down was occasionally questionable placement (honestly, I really think the wall-to-wall music is something you get used to after a while, though as a video game fanatic, I wonder if it might not bother me as much as most others).

[Gonstead]

Man, hearing about that just gives me more respect to you and the Faulconer crew.

The Cell Saga stuff is some of my most favorite out of the soundtrack. Must of really been straining to get everything right in such a hurry.

(honestly, I really think the wall-to-wall music is something you get used to after a while, though as a video game fanatic, I wonder if it might not bother me as much as most others).

I have to agree with this. The wall-to-wall placement really isn't that noticeable when you're not focusing intently on every single little detail instead of just sitting back and enjoying what's presented to you. I've become so accustomed to it that I rarely notice music playing in some parts and my focus is on what's being said and done in those scenes.

[dbboxkaifan]

"the man could wipe the floor with Kikuchi easily."

That guy obviously has no respect for other musicians.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

"the man could wipe the floor with Kikuchi easily."

If memory serves, the one who said that was cRookie_Monster.

That guy obviously has no respect for other musicians.

I agree.

[Akumaito Beam]

Actually with the Cell Saga we had less time than ever, though we did have Ben for editing which helped. I worked more hours than I ever heave during that period of time.

I get the feeling the staff was pretty small during the Buu Saga, but I'm not 100% sure. It sounds like it was mostly Bruce and Julius alone...which I can't imagine...considering for Cell we had Mike, Scott, Bruce, and Ben.

The gear or players available to us really never changed that much...I shouldn't get further into that though. Except maybe that my tenure there was the only time they had an inhouse guitarist.

My fault, I apologise for speaking ignorantly on the music side of things.

[cRookie_Monster]

"the man could wipe the floor with Kikuchi easily."

If memory serves, the one who said that was cRookie_Monster.

That guy obviously has no respect for other musicians.

I agree.

You are right, probably wasn't the best thing to say, and honestly I'm not comfortable with people displaying in their sigs as a battle theme.

I do have respect for other musicians. To even say something positive about my mortal enemy is just weird (BF). And I certainly don't claim to be the best. In jazz school I felt humiliated and demoralized every day by the amazing talent all around me. I'm too ashamed to even play at the local jazz jam sessions they have at lunch at my work place. I have tremendous respect for those guys. But you are right, I should have shown more respect for Kikuchi. It can be easy to get pulled into all the flame wars and such, I do try to keep a level head. My real intention was to point out that most people have no idea what Bruce's real strengths are, and I did it in a less than ideal way.

[dario03]

Personally I always liked most of the Faulconer music. If it was done in a rush then I have even more respect to the guy and his crew.

[Zarathustra]

It would have been fantastic if BF was at his best during the time and it's a shame we won't be able to hear it...

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Are there any examples of Falconer in a better-funded endeavor?

I do have respect for other musicians. To even say something positive about my mortal enemy is just weird (BF).

I didn't know we were treading that kind of ground...

[Gonstead]

Are there any examples of Falconer in a better-funded endeavor?

You could try here - http://faulconer.com/subpages/projects.html

[Cipher]

To say nothing of Faulconer himself, I wonder what we might've gotten with, as cRookie_Monster indicated, the lack of a wall-to-wall mandate and a little more money being put behind the soundtrack.

These days, I kind of just accept Kikuchi's music for the series and forget there even was a replacement soundtrack, and that it was how I was first introduced to Dragon Ball Z. But every once in a while, I'll catch a clip on Youtube or something that really does make me nostalgic for it. I just stumbled upon part of the Goku and Paikuhan vs. everyone in Hell scene with the Faulconer Productions score earlier tonight, and you know what? I liked what I was hearing. Made me want to give the series another watch with that score. Oh well; if only.

[Attitudefan]

You are right, probably wasn't the best thing to say, and honestly I'm not comfortable with people displaying in their sigs as a battle theme.

I do have respect for other musicians. To even say something positive about my mortal enemy is just weird (BF). And I certainly don't claim to be the best. In jazz school I felt humiliated and demoralized every day by the amazing talent all around me. I'm too ashamed to even play at the local jazz jam sessions they have at lunch at my work place. I have tremendous respect for those guys. But you are right, I should have shown more respect for Kikuchi. It can be easy to get pulled into all the flame wars and such, I do try to keep a level head. My real intention was to point out that most people have no idea what Bruce's real strengths are, and I did it in a less than ideal way.

Dude, your stuff is amazing! Don't listen to what others say! Many of these people are blind because all they see is that Kikuchi did this for their favourite show etc. I love a lot of music, and I love both for what they are, stand alone or with DB!

Your recent stuff is amazing!

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Your recent stuff is amazing!

Just got back from "Have some Epic".

[Attitudefan]

Nice

[UnbiasedDBZfan]

You are right, probably wasn't the best thing to say, and honestly I'm not comfortable with people displaying in their sigs as a battle theme.

I do have respect for other musicians. To even say something positive about my mortal enemy is just weird (BF). And I certainly don't claim to be the best. In jazz school I felt humiliated and demoralized every day by the amazing talent all around me. I'm too ashamed to even play at the local jazz jam sessions they have at lunch at my work place. I have tremendous respect for those guys. But you are right, I should have shown more respect for Kikuchi. It can be easy to get pulled into all the flame wars and such, I do try to keep a level head. My real intention was to point out that most people have no idea what Bruce's real strengths are, and I did it in a less than ideal way.

Dude, your stuff is amazing! Don't listen to what others say! Many of these people are blind because all they see is that Kikuchi did this for their favourite show etc. I love a lot of music, and I love both for what they are, stand alone or with DB!

Your recent stuff is amazing!

Same. Most of your work barring the F-r-i-e-z-a saga was good(had to spell Freeza wrong, because the work the FP Freeza saga score is known as that)