G@bz - Zelda is on the horizon, no worries!

Raymond - I’m going to do another Castlevania podcast, HOPEFULLY in the near future. I’m thinking about devoting a whole episode to “Symphony of the Night,” which I think has a lot of cool stuff in it!

matt - thanks for your patience, sorry man! It’s a big effort, but I’m working on it!

Taz - thanks for your kind words! I’m glad that you’ve found something that you really enjoy, I enjoy it too! I hope that the show continues to broaden your musical mind!

windragon122 - not dead, but thanks for asking
Alexander - I’ve thought about the “Tales of” series, actually… I haven’t played them enough to really be any sort of authority on it, but hopefully soon. “Star Ocean” would be really fun too, I just need to get on it! So much to play!

Cheers

When is the next one? its been over 3 months.

Still, anxiously awaiting the next installment!

It still marvels me that this podcast exists.

Right, then, now that I’ve got that - probably the sycophantic thing I’ve written in a good many years - all that remains is for me to thank you and and to say that I can’t wait for the next one.

Taz

How About Looking at Star Ocean Series? The diamond from the series was “Star Ocean: The Second Story” it was one of Enix’s Greatest RPG creation that I know. The music is absolutely phenomenal with some of my favourite battle themes, it’s also necessary to use music in the game in order to improve characters skills like listening, composition, and sense of rhythm with actual instruments. The composer Motoi Sakuraba has great experience with video game music with, The “Tales of _____” Games, The Valkyrie Profile Series [that should be another good suggestion], Mario Tennis/Golf, Golden Sun Series and of Course the “Star Ocean” Series.

I hope you can take this opinion and maybe make it into a podcast cause that would be… quite Awesome! Hope your doing great and have a Belated Canada Day!

Love the show, and getting antsy about when the next one will come out. I also have a suggestion for a show topic. You’ve been delving into the fantasy genre for a while now, so I thought a little science fiction music might add a little crease into the podcast. If you haven’t played Mass Effect or heard its soundtrack, it is vastly underrated and deserves at least a look at.

- Ben

I also wanted to share a show idea I had while listening to my iPod this morning: Rei Kondoh’s score for Okami. In addition to being a really awesome soundtrack, there’s all sorts of potential topics lurking in there. There’s the use of tons of traditional Asian instruments mixed with more modern stuff, and then there’s the intriguing use of thematically appropriate sound effects as instruments, including things like scissors, bird chirps, and clockwork.

I agree with your point of “7/100+ and ‘only one’” - that’s fair. After listening to the show again, it does kind of come off that way. I’d love to hear your “pre/post-PlayStation FF music,” commentary… I have ideas on it too, it’d be fun to swap notes
Commenting on your comment (lol), you can be as frank as you want because it’s an open discussion, which I think is part of the fun of the podcast/Web 2.0 medium. The show doesn’t pass a “peer review” board and there is WAY more that I could do, but I think that it would have negative repercussions by being to exclusive to JUST the music academy. This isn’t to say that I don’t do independent research that doesn’t make it onto the show (say… key relationships between thematic work in FF6, or something, just an example), but the podcast does study a lot of the wheels and cogs within a game’s musical score. Albeit, some more than others, but I try to keep it thoughtful and authentic while still making it accessible for people to listen and learn from (my training as a music teacher has a hand in that).

If you ever want to contribute to making the show more in-depth and authentic, then definitely send me a note and let’s talk… really. I’d also love to see some of your notes from Crisis Core as well!

Thanks for your criticism and listenership!
Kenley

Really, this is all a matter of peer review. To be frank, and speaking as a composer and (reluctant) member of the musical academic community: it is really easy to pass off this podcast as an “academic study of music” when it does not face any sort of verification or peer review.

There is no mistaking what is meant behind the “academic study of music” label, and though I’m sure a large portion of your audience is made up of people who have little to no academic or classical background or training in music, that doesn’t change that fact. Simply put, my gut reaction was to “correct” your assertion, and looking back at the language used in my previous post, I’m sure I could have been less off-putting.

And, if you will allow me to be even more frank, I personally do not think the content in this podcast meets musically academic standards. Again, I have seen the comments left by visitors here and on iTunes and see you have garnered an audience, but my assumption is that the majority of your audience — fans of video game music they may be — do not necessarily qualify as a peer review board within musical academia.

I think you should strive to go even further in depth behind the musical aspects of the score; you do a fair job discussing the score in a general Layman’s sense, but there is so much more you could discuss, for the sake of your mantra and label for this podcast — and this is coming from someone who has studied the score to CRISIS CORE.

(Here I go again rambling!)
I hope you take this more as constructive criticism from a fellow musician and member of “musical academia” (I also hope I was more clear in my language). Good luck with the show!

FinalFanatic - definitely a fair point, “To Zanarkand” shouldn’t have been ignored and I feel quite embarrassed that I didn’t mention it (actually, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t mention it specifically… man, I have to play that game again) and “Via Purifico” (which is also quite stunning).

To be fair, though, you’re talking about 7 pieces in a volume of hundreds and hundreds of musical works. While Uematsu does use piano, I still think it’s fair to say that he rarely uses piano, simply be the sheer volume of works where there are many more instruments. Comparison to the solo piano in CC, well… I don’t really think there’s a comparison. Your points are definitely valid, I just don’t agree.

(And yes, it is a piano quintet, my bad).

And while we’re being nitpicky, Masashi Hamauzu wrote “Travelling Company/Travel Agency…”

James - THANK YOU for finding that spot, you rule! I appreciate your attention to detail

In the show you were wondering where “A Moment of Courtesy” plays. It plays in the scene where Zack meets Cloud for the first time.

I say this only because you make it sound like Uematsu rarely ever used the piano. If anything, I think Takeharu captures Uematsu’s feel and style in Successor/Importance of Truth in terms of the left hand’s harmonic figures. They’re very reminiscent of the left hand part in Zanarkand.

Though, obviously CRISIS CORE has much more piano than other FF titles, I just thought it was worth mentioning that Uematsu HAS used the piano, and several times. It’s just whenever you I hear you say, “I can only think of one tune [that's solo piano]“, I’m likely to suggest you should go back through the soundtracks again.

Anyway, this ended up being longer than I thought.

Stay tuned and thanks for posting! Definitely makes me a happy researcher
Kenley

I giggled when you said its time to turn your brains off before the FXN section lol. I loved the episodes of the fxn podcast you were a part of btw.

Extremely interesting stuff