Your favorite anime/game bgm composer(s)?

[SwordSkill]

i'll have to say Yuki Kajiura, Taku Iwasaki, Joe Hisaishi, Nobuo Uematsu, Ko Otani, and Yoko Kanno. these people are just incredible in creating music.

[ShiroiHikari]

Mm, Yoko Kanno definitely. Was it Nobuo Uematsu that did Chrono Trigger?

[SwordSkill]

yup. ^^ but he's generally better known for his work on the Final Fantasy OSTs.

[TheMelodyMaker]

Was it Nobuo Uematsu that did Chrono Trigger?

You're half right. He and Yasunori Mitsuda both worked on the music for Chrono Trigger; but Mitsuda alone went on to compose for Chrono Cross while, like SwordSkill said, Uematsu stuck with the Final Fantasy games. (I'm thinking he may have done the music for a couple of Square's older NES games too, like World Runner and King's Knight, although no credits are given.)

I don't think I really have a favorite composer; there are so many good ones out there. (If you were to ask my mom, though, she'd probably say that I'm her favorite. )

[cbwing0]

Let's see...I don't know most of the artists' names, so I will just list the shows whose soudtracks I like:

Bruce Faulconer
(Rurouni Kenshin)
(G Gundam)
(Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight)

[Zilch]

Nobuo Uematsu and...think his name is Harry...Harry something...the dude that did Metal Gear Solid's music.

[shooraijin]

I rather like Kenji Kawai (he does a lot more than just anime BGM, tho'), and Akihisa Matsuura.

[Debitt]

Yoko Kanno and Nobuo Uematsu all the way! ^_^

[Aka-chan]

Nobuo Uematsu all the way! ^__^ I really like Yuki Kajiura, too, especially for her work with Noir, even if I’m not into the series itself – oh, and Taro Iwashiro for his work on Rurouni Kenshin.

[Omega Amen]

From Square-Enix fame: Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata, Masashi Hamauzu

From Metal Gear Solid 2: Harry Gregson-Williams

From anime: Yoko Kanno (the only composer in anime whose music has stood out to me)

[suoh12]

definitely Yoko Kanno and Nobuo Uematsu. its people like them that make me want to patronize any works they've made.^^ Love those BGMs.^_^

[Link Antilles]

My favs...
Final Fantasy: Nobuo Uematsu
Metal Gear Solid 2: Harry Gregson-Williams
Zelda: Koji Kondo

[MasterDias]

My favorite video games composers are Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda.

I enjoy the music of Motoi Sakuraba, who worked on the Star Ocean and "Tales of..." series, as well.

[glitch1501]

oh course Nobuo Uematsu(FF RPGS), and John Williams(Starwars, Indiana Jones), and
whoever does the music for Beyond Good and Evil!!!

[Link Antilles]

oh course Nobuo Uematsu(FF RPGS), and John Williams(Starwars, Indiana Jones), and
whoever does the music for Beyond Good and Evil!!!

Yeah, I love the music for Beyond Good and Evil! I have the PC version and I'm looking for an extractor online to pull the music from the game to MP3 files.

[Enthralled]

Favorite Video Game composers would have to be:
Yasunori Mitsuda
Michiru Yamane (Castlevania SotN, Aria of Sorrow, Lament of Innocence)
Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill 1-4) - very creative and original
Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 1-3, Shinobi III)
Hitoshi Sakimoto (Vagrant Story, FFT - with Iwata, Breath of Fire V)

Fav Anime/Movie composers:
Kow Otani (Haibane Renmei)
Marco d' Ambrosio (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust)
Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away)
umm.... I can't remember who did the soundtrack for IRIA.. ahh... that person
Hans Zimmer (The Last Samurai)
Danny Elfman
Elliot Goldenthal (Alien 3/Resurrection, Interview with a Vampire)
ahh.... thats all I can think of right now....

[glitch1501]

Yeah, I love the music for Beyond Good and Evil! I have the PC version and I'm looking for an extractor online to pull the music from the game to MP3 files.

i extracted the music, its so good! i recomend doing it, ill pm you a link if you want me to

[Link Antilles]

i extracted the music, its so good! i recomend doing it, ill pm you a link if you want me to

Cool, sure! I've been searching for good while now, thanks!


I forgot to add Kenji Yamamo, he did the music for Super Metroid and Metroid Prime!

[TheMelodyMaker]

If memory serves me correctly, no one has yet mentioned Nintendo's composer Hip Tanaka; he did the music for the original Metroid and Kid Icarus (NES), as well as Super Mario Land and Balloon Kid (Game Boy). Those were some good tunes. ^_^

[Enthralled]

So he's the guy that did the Metroid soundtrack... do you know if he's the same person who worked on Super Metroid?

[Destroyer2000]

Hm...Judy and Mary, for their works with RK.

[TheMelodyMaker]

Credit was give to some other fellow (forgot his name) for the music in Super Metroid, but I recognized some arrangements of Hip Tanaka's original Metroid music in there too. If you've played both, compare the music in each when:

- At the title screen
- Loading/continuing from a save point/password
- Picking up a key item

(In my opinion, the original pieces were better than the arrangements; maybe because that's what I'm more used to hearing. ^_^ )

[Link Antilles]

Aight, I found a list of peeps who composed for the Metroid games:

Metroid: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka (as we already know)
Metroid II: Ryouji Yoshitomi
Super Metroid: Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano
Metroid Prime: Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma
Metroid Fusion:Shinji Hosoe, Minako Hamano, and Akira Fujiwara
Metroid Zero Mission: I can't find


Kudos to all these dudes!

[Enthralled]

Oh sweet! Thanks for the list. For the older NES games not many composers are named... (not that I'm aware of... or maybe I just don't pay enough attention during the credits!)

The Melody Maker: Yeah, I would much rather have the original peices than arrangements. For my money, I don't think it gets much better than the NES soundcard!

[iamneo19]

Dude...

Nobuo Uematsu is, needless to say, the man. His Final Fantasy piano tracks from FFVIII are absolutely astounding. I draw to them all the time. Also, Sephiroth's theme was ingenius. It's so addictive. Can't stop listening to it over and over and over again! Also, from FFX, Besaid Island and the track for that nice long cinematic at the end when the Aeons disappear around the ship was killer!

Yoko Shimamura is the name of the composer for Kingdom Hearts. Most of the stuff is smaller and trivial, but worth listening to (The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea" being very questionable, however...) At first I was upset that they didn't have Sephiroth's theme on the soundtrack from the Coliseum Platinum match...but now that I finally have the original "One Winged Angel," I can't complain, and have no desire to. The original is better anyways. On top of those tracks, the last track on the second disc, "Destati," is an orchestrated version of the last fight, and is much shorter. I love it. The strings' climax near the end of the track were really kool.

Those are my favorite two from games. In a nutshell, the ones from movies I like...

John Williams (Star Wars...duh, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Land Before Time...they made too many of those da...I mean, movies...ahem!)
Hans Zimmer (The Rock, Gladiator, Pirates of the Carribean, Lion King)
some of Jerry Goldsmith (some of Star Trek, not all)
Don Davis (Matrix movies)
Rob Dougan (Matrix movies)
Juno Reactor (Matrix movies)

From,
Neo

[Bobtheduck]

Akira Yamaoka
Yoko Kanno
Nobuo Uematsu

That's about it... There are other anime/games I like the music for, but those are the only ones that really stand out to me... Even Nobuo, in my opinion, put out a lot of stinkers to get to the good stuff... I mean most of it fits, but it's just not outstanding... Akira, on the other hand, has amazed me in almost everything he's done... Besides being the sole musician (not counting vocals) he's also the one in charge of the sound effects, and he's much better at his Job than Nobuo in my opinion... Granted, Akira didn't have to make the sheer NUMBER of songs that Nobuo did, so that may account for a good amount of the difference.

One I *shockingly* was not fond of, at least for game music, was "Harry Gregson-Williams" I just didn't think his in-game music was that good... The only good song in the whole thing was the opening, which was not a looping song. I think the looping songs in MGS1 were better than MGS2. And, um, I found "The Best is Yet To Come" (that gaelic song from MGS) to be much better than the ending song for MGS2... I love his work in movies, though... Spy Games and enemy of the state are two good examples.

[skynes]

Aight, I found a list of peeps who composed for the Metroid games:

Metroid: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka (as we already know)
Metroid II: Ryouji Yoshitomi
Super Metroid: Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano
Metroid Prime: Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma
Metroid Fusion:Shinji Hosoe, Minako Hamano, and Akira Fujiwara
Metroid Zero Mission: I can't find


Kudos to all these dudes!

Indeed. The music from the (older) Metroid games was creepy and perfectly fitting though I think some of Metroid Prime's music was a bit too technoey and nicey. Especially in Phendrana Drifts, that tinkling gentle music is unbefitting for a Metroid game.


anyone ever heard of the Black Mages?
http://www.geocities.com/akai_sakura/TBM.html

These guys play Final Fantasy songsi n rock and metal! Sounds really good.

[Yamato145]

Nobuo Uematsu
(and T.M Revolution )