Last Tuesday, a new song pack for the Taiko + smartphone game was released, but information on new song packs is scarce with only the in-game messages to alert us of any news. Thanks to MDSN for the heads-up!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Namco Taiko Blog (30 May 2013) - June's Donchare animals
After a whole month of -let's face it- NO new stuff from the Taiko Team whatsoever, we are two days from June 2013. Which means that another Don Challenge post is in the air!
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Feature: Visit to NicoNico Conference 2
Want to know a bit more about what went on in the NicoNico Conference but couldn't because pictures, video and player testimonials were so scarce? One Taiko fan from Taiwan, named Woolala (烏拉拉), went to Japan to attend the conference. He is one of the main committee members of the petition campaign to bring Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo Version outside of Japan, and aside from enjoying the events and obviously being able to play the new Taiko's event-exclusive songs, he was also there to look for Etou and ask him about exporting Sorairo.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Made by You: Can't Hug Every Cat and more
(this was supposed to be up for Sunday but circumstances prevented me from publishing it so I'm doing it now!)
What is this song? Is it even a song...? Read more about it after the jump, and a few other excellent creations too!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Song of the Week! 25 May 2013
This week is just brimming with adventure, with two songs from a single console Taiko game, one of the few that we have yet to talk about!
Friday, May 24, 2013
pikaby asks: Taiko speed limits
With the adjustment of the difficulty standard in Taiko no Tatsujin, many old songs with once-difficult patterns have been downgraded. The only ones left in the 10* Oni tier are songs with an extreme level of complexity, songs with extremely high tempo, or both.
Many newer Taiko songs place emphasis on extreme tempo to make their charts difficult; Venomous and Angel Halo from Ridge Racer 3D are both at BPM 224 with almost unmanageable streams, Hakuchou no Mizuumi ~still a duckling~ Ura takes the original BPM240 chart to a whole new level of tiring, S represents one of the fastest J-pop songs out there, Telecastic fake show reaches up to BPM 218 with tiring clusters, Suuhaa 2000 is a BPM320 song masquerading as a half-speed song, and the latest one, Juukinzou Fugitive, the new, yet unreleased Gumi song, is set to be the next gauntlet with crazy clusters at BPM 260.
With this increasing speed, there has to be some sort of physical limit to it; how fast the machine can detect an individual hit and how fast how hand/thumbs can hit all the notes. What do you think that limit is?
Many newer Taiko songs place emphasis on extreme tempo to make their charts difficult; Venomous and Angel Halo from Ridge Racer 3D are both at BPM 224 with almost unmanageable streams, Hakuchou no Mizuumi ~still a duckling~ Ura takes the original BPM240 chart to a whole new level of tiring, S represents one of the fastest J-pop songs out there, Telecastic fake show reaches up to BPM 218 with tiring clusters, Suuhaa 2000 is a BPM320 song masquerading as a half-speed song, and the latest one, Juukinzou Fugitive, the new, yet unreleased Gumi song, is set to be the next gauntlet with crazy clusters at BPM 260.
With this increasing speed, there has to be some sort of physical limit to it; how fast the machine can detect an individual hit and how fast how hand/thumbs can hit all the notes. What do you think that limit is?
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Namco Taiko Blog (23 May 2013): Etou on How to Make Music
Half a year ago Etou shared a talk with us on how he makes his crazy Taiko notecharts. Today he's sharing with us a lengthy lesson on how he composes his songs! It's a long wall of text so I'll just try to get to the gist of it. Let's see what Etou has to teach us this time!
Now to make a song, what would Etou do? Planning is the first step!
Figure out the genre, atmosphere and tempo of the song. Genres like rock, metal, pop, techno...all of them have distinct rhythm s to them and the resulting notechart that comes out of it are also distinctly different. The song atmosphere would be whether it sounds gloomy, bright, hopeful, cheerful, energetic..as well as making changes in the notecharts depending on the mood of the song, it also gives players a different energy when they play with a different song atmosphere each time. Tempo is BPM, or how fast the song plays.
Two examples are given: the first is Tokoyami no Mori, a slow-paced, gloomy song, not too hard, but gives off that sense of difficulty with its threatening mood. On the other end of the scale is a fast-paced, super difficult song like mint tears, which has an upbeat mood to it. The difficulty of the performance and the emotions that the song gives the player will ultimately decide what type of notechart you go for! Trust your instinct!
Secondly, song structure.
If you've ever been to a karaoke joint before, you know how song structure works without needing any explanation; the stanzas, chorus and bridge are parts that make up a full song, each differing in function.
The usual flow of a song would be intro > stanza A > stanza B > chorus > outro. Because Taiko songs are usually about 1 1/2 minutes long on average, it follows this structure without needing a bridge or a stanza C, much like the opening theme song of an anime. Structure is what makes each song special! The example given is Zero no Nocturne, one of the new Namco Originals from Sorairo. Think of the parts that make up the song. They're all different, right? Imagine if a song has no structure and has the same tune from beginning to the end! That wouldn't be very fun to play. There needs to be different levels of tension to different parts of the song, ending in a climax and resolution, like a good story.
Next is whether the song needs vocals or not.
If the song is meant to be an instrumental it's straightforward, but adding vocals is a much bigger challenge. Once again, the song's mood dictates the need for vocals and what words should be sung at which points. It's a whole lot of planning, and the right voice has to be chosen otherwise the whole composition is ruined. Taiko notes aren't laid down by percussions alone; sometimes vocals provide sense to the chart and help make highlight points for notes and stuff.
To some extent, vocals restrict difficulty, at least for Etou, who mentioned that songs with no vocals are easier to make tougher notecharts for, which is actually true in certain cases.
Finally, with the song done, the final step is to make a chart that matches the song perfectly! The three basics are:
-Understanding the song's genre, mood and tempo
-Understanding the song's structure and highlights
-Understanding the song and the instruments that play behind it
It's kind of like....um, how do I put it into an example...
-Approach a person you like
-Understanding this person and become friends with him/her
-Understanding him/her in a much deeper way, almost to the point of becoming lovers
And then! Make notes that suit the song. Give it the 'boom' factor!
There will be yet another notechart talk by Etou in the future, and continuing the analogy, this step is akin to :
-Becoming lovers, and setting up a plan for a date
See you next time!
Link to original page
Now to make a song, what would Etou do? Planning is the first step!
Figure out the genre, atmosphere and tempo of the song. Genres like rock, metal, pop, techno...all of them have distinct rhythm s to them and the resulting notechart that comes out of it are also distinctly different. The song atmosphere would be whether it sounds gloomy, bright, hopeful, cheerful, energetic..as well as making changes in the notecharts depending on the mood of the song, it also gives players a different energy when they play with a different song atmosphere each time. Tempo is BPM, or how fast the song plays.
Two examples are given: the first is Tokoyami no Mori, a slow-paced, gloomy song, not too hard, but gives off that sense of difficulty with its threatening mood. On the other end of the scale is a fast-paced, super difficult song like mint tears, which has an upbeat mood to it. The difficulty of the performance and the emotions that the song gives the player will ultimately decide what type of notechart you go for! Trust your instinct!
Secondly, song structure.
If you've ever been to a karaoke joint before, you know how song structure works without needing any explanation; the stanzas, chorus and bridge are parts that make up a full song, each differing in function.
The usual flow of a song would be intro > stanza A > stanza B > chorus > outro. Because Taiko songs are usually about 1 1/2 minutes long on average, it follows this structure without needing a bridge or a stanza C, much like the opening theme song of an anime. Structure is what makes each song special! The example given is Zero no Nocturne, one of the new Namco Originals from Sorairo. Think of the parts that make up the song. They're all different, right? Imagine if a song has no structure and has the same tune from beginning to the end! That wouldn't be very fun to play. There needs to be different levels of tension to different parts of the song, ending in a climax and resolution, like a good story.
Next is whether the song needs vocals or not.
If the song is meant to be an instrumental it's straightforward, but adding vocals is a much bigger challenge. Once again, the song's mood dictates the need for vocals and what words should be sung at which points. It's a whole lot of planning, and the right voice has to be chosen otherwise the whole composition is ruined. Taiko notes aren't laid down by percussions alone; sometimes vocals provide sense to the chart and help make highlight points for notes and stuff.
To some extent, vocals restrict difficulty, at least for Etou, who mentioned that songs with no vocals are easier to make tougher notecharts for, which is actually true in certain cases.
Finally, with the song done, the final step is to make a chart that matches the song perfectly! The three basics are:
-Understanding the song's genre, mood and tempo
-Understanding the song's structure and highlights
-Understanding the song and the instruments that play behind it
It's kind of like....um, how do I put it into an example...
-Approach a person you like
-Understanding this person and become friends with him/her
-Understanding him/her in a much deeper way, almost to the point of becoming lovers
And then! Make notes that suit the song. Give it the 'boom' factor!
There will be yet another notechart talk by Etou in the future, and continuing the analogy, this step is akin to :
-Becoming lovers, and setting up a plan for a date
See you next time!
Link to original page
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