SC-88Pro: ZUN's MIDIs the way they were intended to be heard (100% COMPLETE)

~Hakurei Shrine~ > Touhou Addict Recovery Center

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DeityDiz93:
This has really come a long way, and I'm beyond overjoyed to hear this project has reached 100% completion now. I've just finished listening to the new tracks, too, and ending off on the final song really brought me chills knowing I've now listened to each of these tracks in the highest of quality we could hope to ask for. While this is definitely not the last time I'll chat about this project, these are my thought overall now that this has finished:

Since this project kicked off, I've been sharing this project as much as I can with as many people as possible, and while it's not as big yet on YouTube, which I hope it will in time, almost 30,000 reads makes me very happy this forum post has gotten out there. Your efforts here have honestly have been the highlight of the entire forum to me as a Touhou (but specifically a ZUN) music enthusiast, so your hard work getting this to people I will appreciate for as long as I listen to Touhou music, really, thank you a billion times over so very much!!

I cannot thank you enough, truly, doing this has only made me more thankful to be a Touhou Project fan, and the wait was well worth it, so no need to apologize at all since, after all, you only got confirmation about the trial yesterday in your time. ＾＾

I hope to share this forum post and various other posts about this with as many people who are interested in ZUN's music now more than ever, especially now that you've reached the end. Originally, I didn't think that much when ZUN talked about the SC-88Pro in his music comments, but now I see what he meant by
--- Quote ---But then again, if you don't listen to it with an 88 Pro, it's pointless. (;_;
--- End quote ---
more than ever; it is well worth the listen with the SC-88Pro sounds, so that's easily why I'm beyond thankful to you, Romantique_Tp, for taking a crazy amount of time and energy getting this out there without any errors or mistakes; I will never stop being thankful for savvy nature regarding the SC-88Pro itself and even just audio in general. What you have brought the Touhou community is phenomenal, and every track you've spent time with; even down the edit you put on the arranged Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients to cut down on the high-pitched noise in the original track, is well appreciated and fantastic!

It's funny to me how I originally thought I had heard all of what ZUN had to offer, but it's clear that this project can show a whole new side of ZUN's music to everyone, and I'm sure ZUN has plenty of unreleased music we might never hear stored away or even deleted, but I've mostly been fine with what music has come out despite this possibility. ＾＾;

If I had anything else to say in parting thoughts about this project overall, it's that I feel kind of silly for getting so hopeful for the C60 trial version of Kioh Gyoku music because on one hand it would have been cool if there was something unique to them, but I'm alright with the fact that we no longer have to worry about that when it might have not have surfaced. At this point, the only things I wonder about is if the Japanese audience will be able to get access to hear these at some point with the same kind of information about this music as you've shared (I also wonder about the idea of these appearing on something like Niconico at some point), but, in light of getting stuff out there, I hope to see the rest of ZUN comments on some of these music pieces on the Wiki that are still untranslated to get translated, but I'm hopeful they will get translated in time.

This all said, I will continue to support you and continue to share this work with all who are unfamiliar with it, but just know that I will never forget the time you spent on this. Thanks again for everything you've brought us, and I give to you my best regards; besides, it's the least I can do and say for receiving such a stellar selection of music. ＾＾

Romantique Tp:
Thanks guys.

Here's what I know about the C60 trial version of Kioh Gyoku (稀翁玉).
All of this info comes from @ronronmilk96, who knows a lot about ZUN/Ponchi (pbg)-era Amusement Makers and owns an impressive collection.
My japanese isn't perfect, but I'll try to translate some of the info posted by him. (See the post below for images)

-Nearly all of the character art is different, including the character portraits, battle cut-ins, title screen and ending.
-The ending shows a picture of VIVIT holding a small cactus while wearing a sleeveless shirt. (Cacti are an important energy source in the Seihou world)
-3 stages, but no character win quotes and only one background set in a grassland.
-Differences in VIVIT's sprite.
-No music comments by ZUN.
-The music is in WAV, but they're just SC-88Pro recordings of the MIDI files included with the final version.
This confirms that the WAV music in the final version are arrangements, while the MIDIs played on the 88Pro are indeed the original versions.

-The music from the C60 trial version: (YouTube Playlist)

-It seems that at this point Kioh Gyoku was considered the third game in the Seihou series. Shuusou Gyoku (秋霜玉) and the unreleased PC-98 STG prototype (Neo Gian) shown at 1998 Hatoyama Matsuri are considered separate games. ZUN composed Fly Above Hatoyama at Night (夜の鳩山を飛ぶ) for that prototype, since it originally had no music.
The Windows prototype of Shuusou Gyoku was also referred to as Neo Gian. It included "Plastic Space", "Frontal Attack" and "Inventive City".

Romantique Tp:
Here's a few images, again thanks to @ronronmilk96.
The C60 trial version of Kioh Gyoku is super rare. As far as we know, these images are being posted to the internet for the first time ever today.

-Title screen

-The playable characters, VIVIT, Gates, Mei and Mai (Click to expand)

-The ending picture

Drake:
vivit please that is not how you hold a cactus

DeityDiz93:
I see Frontal Attack remains the ever elusive musical track it is. I hope the track surfaces at least one of these days, but thank goodness we have something else that has been elusive surface, the C60 trial version images are really neat, so thank you so much for sharing them! Kind of a pivotal piece of Seihou's history for sure. ＾＾

I wonder what the ending text says exactly, or if the artwork could be ripped from the game's files to show the most minor differences between the trial and final game exactly without the interface/text boxes obstructing it, but eh, passing thought really that I myself am not too concerned about since I'm very thankful to ronronmilk for their help in not only sharing the vital information on the C60 trial version, but bringing these images our way as a neat referecne, it's awesome to be one of the first few people to see something never before seen like this. Truly, this makes me wonder how long until people make fan art of Vivit's exclusive ending picture here, but sadly Seihou fan art is as scarce as it comes, so probably not for a while unless someone really cares about being the first to draw it. ＾＾;

--- Quote from: Romantique Tp on October 18, 2016, 11:40:06 PM ---Just a little heads up to everyone, I talked to Mangekyou (one of the people who had recorded the Seihou 1 soundtrack with the Windows MIDI synthesizer), and while they refused to take their videos down, they did agree to temporarily make their videos private to give my recordings a chance to have their YouTube search rankings improved.
--- End quote ---
Taking a look back, I see that Mangekyou has unprivated his Seihou music uploads, but as I said before, it's to a fault with the Windows 7 default Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. As someone who has heard Seihou 1's MIDI soundtrack with the GS Wavetable Synth on Windows XP, it's frankly unbearable to listen to his videos because it's missing bloody instruments everywhere, bleh.

What I will ask is this: Have you asked Mangekyou, besides at one point getting him to take down/private his videos, encouraged him to link the SC-88Pro videos you uploaded, as well as the thread? It's probably ideal to do on his part as apposed to others freaking uploading music from this thread without crediting, 'tis a jerk move to be sure. I think the efforts of this thread should never go unnoticed, which is why I am aiming to promote this project as much as I can, so could you ask him about this since his videos are back up?

Believe it or not, back in the day had plans to do exactly what this thread attempted to do and bring this MIDI music to the rest of the Touhou community myself, only one thing, I was using the GS Synth to do it since I had no idea about the SC-88Pro. I did start my plan though, which was cut short when my laptop with Windows XP died, stopping any hopes I had of doing this myself, and this was somewhere back in 2012 or so; however, I had at least recorded a few tracks, but was never completed before my laptop gave out, and the reality is I was using Stereo Mix and recording with Audacity in .mp3 at not the best quality settings, so kinda wasted effort in a way even if I know better now.

There are others who have done what I did; however, the user Clockorkzone has uploaded a lot of the arranged Seihou 1 arranged versions on his channel as well as a few of the in-game tracks using default Windows MIDI synthesizer from XP, so there's that; however, he's never finished uploading all of them so it's incomplete as well (the channel seems completely inactive too). I'd honestly would have preferred back in the day to see a full series of uploads like I tried to set out and do, so that's why I'm very thankful for this thread.

Personal opinion wise? I don't think the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth version sounds too bad at all, but you could argue that it wouldn't be that different to use something like SoMiRe or even VirtualMIDISynth to listen to the music, but honestly the matter with alternate soundfonts can be such a can of worms that it's not really something I'd think worth sharing on YouTube because then you'd have probably hundreds of different versions of the MIDI songs in that case, I'm only showcasing the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth here because I find it unlikely that people who bought Seihou 1 back in the day would have their own personal SC-88Pro when they listened to the music, t'was probably with the the default GS Wavetable Synth, if that makes any sense.

I suppose the point of me posting this is to ask this: Is it an issue at this point for those who uploaded/will upload the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth versions to YouTube> Even if it's on the grounds that it's what you hear by default? Ultimately I'm not going to go out of my way to get another Windows XP and do what I originally set out to do, so I wouldn't really expect me to do this since I favor this project, but you never know if someone else might get the same original idea as I and didn't know about this thread in advance.

If you ask me, it's not completely unwelcome as long as it's not the more limited version of the default GS Wavetable like in Mangekyou's Seihou music uploads where it's missing instruments everywhere, but also, I'm a firm believer that the ideal situation for these uploaders to link the SC-88Pro version in the description given it is "the way they were intended to be heard."

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