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View Full Version : Can we gauge soundtrack quality with the packaging?



Missy
06-10-2004, 09:57 AM
It's probably happened to you. You see a soundtrack somewhere (eBay, a website, whatever) and you think "wow, that looks good". So you buy it. You anxiously await its arrival and when it finally comes you rip open the parcel and slam in in your PC..... Only to discover it is terrible!

Now if you're wondering which soundtrack I'm personally referring to look no further than the Dracula X Remixies CD.. I bought it because (dur) I love dracula X music and already own the original soundtrack. So I thought a remix album would be amazing. The box art looked quite shabby but I thought 'hey, you cant judge a book by its cover. If the CD is good I dont care about the box art'. But upon listening what I found was a handful of half hearted remixes (in my opinion). Anyway I'm not making this post specifically to whine about the Dracula X remixies CD, this is just an example.

I know the old saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' but in my experience the box art tends to be a reflection of how much effort has gone into the music itself (I mean they didn't even spell "Remixes" right on the box in my example!).
If you compare this to other arranged albums like the Rockman Zero Remastered tracks here on CocoeBiz, Shining the Holy Ark soundtrack by Sakuraba, or Panzer dragoon Zwei Alternative Elements (if you're familiar with those soundtracks) you find amazing box art with equally amazing quality of the remixes.
I was just wondering if anyone else has found this trend in any soundtracks they've picked up on their travels? Or even the opposite to what I have found?

dma
06-11-2004, 04:32 AM
I never picked a VGM CD (or any kind of music CD) because it had a fancy cover.
But i already picked one because i heard the game and then music was great/interesting. And finaly it wasn't that much interesting. ;)

Existensia
06-11-2004, 10:13 AM
I tend to believe the packaging USUALLY tends to reflect the love and tastefulness that went into the album. Not always though - Arc the Lad's OSTs' album covers were just logos and I loved them to death.

The box art usually gives me an idea of what type of music to expect of the CD. For instance, an album with midget characters who have cat ears on the cover will probably (atleast in my experiences) contain happy music, lacking seriousness, like the artwork suggests. This, of course, is when I am searching completely randomly.

I usually operate by finding a composer I like and buying as much as I can find of his or her works though.

el jacko
06-23-2004, 07:11 PM
Any US Nintendo published album follows a very specific set of guidelines:

1. crappy packaging
2. awesome music
3. some screw up with the mastering of said music

I reference the Eternal Darkness and Mario Kart 64 OSTs as evidence.

Mikal Aganti
07-01-2004, 08:43 PM
I agree completely with the last statement. The Nintendo Power CDs are very disappointing with a mere single-sided insert. No fancy boooklets like the Japanese releases.

TerraEpon
07-01-2004, 11:07 PM
Any US Nintendo published album follows a very specific set of guidelines:

1. crappy packaging
2. awesome music
3. some screw up with the mastering of said music

I reference the Eternal Darkness and Mario Kart 64 OSTs as evidence.

Actually, at least Super Mario 64 has the exact same contents as the Japanese release, musically. Crappy book though.

-Joshua