Sword Art Online (SAO: P)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Keiri
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Wow im impressed ! Most of this music was not used at all in the show (except the ones uploaded on youtube channel) especially the vocal track with the german name, the there are some really nice slow tracks with alot of experiments . Also the celtic track is the one called climbing the wall and has the smouthest swordland arrange so far. Also love the combo of ac guitar and harp on gigas cedar. Do not skip ocean turtle! . Full review tomorrow
 
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okay..

let me review first!

wow strings fest

tenderness and strength & celebration dance & coercive power & illusions of illusion & quinella : meh. might have worked in the show though.

sometimes she is lonely & dream of the lost days & lowest of the low & we have found it, stolen memories & there is not a safe place: sfx.

Gigas Cedar: love this one. glad there is just the harp/guitar and no strings!!

you can save him! : I like the beginning and then swordland. so meh.

your dream came true & on your journey: synth in the beginning. ah!!!! nooooo.. I like the smoothness of strings but the melody is not appealing to me.

Ocean turtle: ahha this one really stands out in the ost. too psychedelic for my taste but original for sure.

climbing up the wall: this one is good ver of swordland haha.

crossing a dangerous bridge: I love this one . even though it's repetitive it works well.

run, before it's too late: vintage Kajiura. It's so simple but I'm sorry I can't help but love it. It evokes a sense of urgency and confidence at the same time so thumbs up.

the destined battle & Deusolbert : we had too many of these. Remi's part is particularly annoying to me. I like Deusolbert's second half without Remi.

I would give 6/10 :)
 
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(Does the volume go randomly up and down for anyone else?)
I actually liked almost every track (not loved though). The main motif was bretty good and memorable. I even liked You Can Save Him, and thought Swordland was well implemented. It doesn't feel tacked on. I also didn't mind the stringsfest, hue.
Anyways, too lazy to make a track by track review so MUH FAVES:

Tenderness and strength: Heroic without sounding cheesy. I liked how the tender part had the main motif in the background. Surprised the first part didn't repeat at the end.
Gigas cedar: Odd combination for Kajiura hue. Simple and cozy.
You can save him: Despite being mostly a stringsfest, I actually like it a lot. 4 motifs in one single piece and none felt tacked on.
Celebration dance: I love me some quirky, festive, folksy stuff. Shame it's short and synth.
Dream of the lost days: both melody and arrangement sound bretty nostalgic, which should be obvious from the title hue. Wish it was more developed.
Ocean turtle: No melodies but the beats are pretty catchy.
We have found it: Man, I was looking forward to this track/ It's very pretty, but unfortunately it's another short track. it feels like an intro to something heavenly ala Faith from Historia ost1. I feel musically blueballed.
Climbing up the wall: Mmm mmm you know me and muh Celctic goodness. I agree with George that the Swordland part is very smooth. I guess Swordland can sound good when it's not grand/epic n shit.
Run before it's too late: The strings aren't particularly interesting, but the beats and other sounds make it exciting. The cello part sounds delicious though. More cello battle themes plis.
Illusions of illusion: Mmm mmm oboe~I like how the first half is a bit ambiguous on its evilness, then the cello kicks it up a bit before...
Quinella: becoming full fucking evil hue. I don't mind the strings :groucho:
Deusolbert: Feels like forever since there was a track where vocals actually lead the song and wasn't just a short chant. The instrumental part after Remi's part gets me so hyped. This better be extended and performed live.
 
My review:


tenderness and strength: like the end part where all instruments combine

Gigas Cedar: Like i said before it a very rare combo of instruments (ac guitar and harp) for Kajiura but sounds very nice and relaxing :aww:

sometimes she feels lonely: Usual kajiura piano bgm but its fast enough to not get bored, and gives off an innosense vibe.

you can save him: i love the strings melody in this one, it has a very epic sounds but at the same time its not so epic that it gets boring. Also swordland is well implemented inside, feels part of the melody and not a patching, and she even put bit alice theme in there.

celebration dance: Reminds me of moonfesta in style somehow lol its really festive and dancy, too bad its so repeatitive. I think it ll sounds great live though, i can tell it has flute and percussion and accordion

your dream came true: This is quite RHH-ish the combo of trumpets and the watery sfx gives off a river image. Not sure if the drumming was needed, but sounds good overall.

on your journey: This is basically continuation of the previous bgm. Love the harmonies with the cello and harp.She finally understood that strings alone are boring.

dream of the lost days: Pretty sure this was not in the show. its really relaxing.

Ocean turtle: I love this. Also a bgm that was not in the show. Just when you think its gonna be a boring bgm, the electronic sounds and later the drum kick in, you instantly feel like you're in a digital space. If you ve seen the "Ingress" anime it reminds me alot of the soundrack from there.

lowest of the low: Even this managed to have a melody, if you follow the bling sound. I like the electronics in the middle.

we ve found it: nice melody ^_^ like kowz said i wish it was further developped

climbing up the wall: the celtic track! Love the melody and also the fact that the cello is doing harmonies to the flute, and there's even harp too. Swordland is so smooth on this one that really feels like part of the track.

stolen memories: Do not skip it, it gets jazzy after 0:46!! Really nice deep piano on this one.

coercive power: This is basically intro to "crossing a dangerous bridge".

crossing a dangerous bridge: One of my fav tracks!! i love the strings! But its too bad it didnt have a brigde with other instruments or something.

this is not a safe place: Even this gets a scary melody in the middle!

run before its too late: I like how the strings harmonize in the beginning, the electronic part really adds to the bgm, and cello is definetely the highlight. I think this was also not used in the anime.

illusion of illusions: like the youtube channel showed, this is the young quinella theme. Really love any track that has clarinet it, so this too. piano runs the letimotif while the cello harmonises the clarinet. So nice ^_^

Quinella: Even though this is the same melody the arrangement is kajura autopilot. Here the melody is played by the piano and later strings, instead

the destined battle: I dont remember this one on this show. Seems like continuation of certain tentacles scene track from ALO. This is probably the weakest track in the soundtrack.

Deusolbert: Wow this is the grandest battle bgm into in long time. Usual Remi, but i feel like it would sound better if she had less filter in her voice and could definitely go higher. Do not like that the instruments are louder than the vocal. It ll be nice when live though.

Overall i think Kajiura has really stepped up the game in SAO! Much more melodies and experimentation and its obvious she is having much more fun making than before. The studio is dumb for not using the whole tracks, it would make the show so much better.

On OST 3 there are at least 4 bgms i look for:
- The bgm that intervals "find your sword in this land" in the battle with the Intergrity Knight that arrested Alice.
- The clown guy bgm.
- the theme of the twin girls intergrity knights.
- The bgm on the fight with the solar mirror sword knight.
 
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george1234 said:
Or you can just convert the mp4a to mp3 320kbps
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Re-encoding from one lossy format to another is a no-no, and just degrades the file even further. It’s not necessary anyway, because as far as I can tell, these files are just as good as 320k mp3, and AAC is a slightly better format in terms of quality/file size.
 
I’ve seen files that I encoded in AAC being shared online as 320k mp3, which is doing people a disservice because that’s like taking a jpg and saving it as a bitmap.
 
I have iTunes, and try to get mp3 files that are 320k if possible. I did an overhaul of my music library this past year, which was an undertaking!
 
If you want 320k mp3, the album is now posted on VK, I’m guessing most likely in 320k mp3, although it’s also probably reencoded.
 
sailoryaoimoon said:
Does that just upconvert the file or actually increase the quality of it?
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What Terry said. Anyone who willingly converts lossy rips to flac (or shares them) should be punished in the name of the Moon.

(Unfortunately there are times when lossy files - even lossy FLACs - are the best you can get. Legally even. Because "reasons". One can hope those people never work on anything again.)
 
Here’s the VK link. A couple of things though. I’m not sure if you have to register as a user to see that page. Also, if you want to download the files, you have to install one of many shady browser extensions. So if you do that, I would recommend installing the extension only temporarily and uninstalling it after you’re done. I don’t think that trouble is worth it though, since the files from twitter seemed fine to me.
 
Finally listened to it in full.

Yep, still rather liking this Alicization era. Sure, I wish it was more exciting but I enjoy the music and how it sounds from Kajiura's side. The strings don't bother me as much as they should for whatever reason either. Doesn't feel labored.

Remi still sounds meh in Kajiura's tracks.

I don't see how dream of the lost days classifies as sfx @wat11 ;p (or most of the others you listed)
 
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@grunty ahah sorry I wasn't being technical by saying sfx. to me personally a couple notes and beats counts as sfx :(

I once termed 1&0 city as nice background music and @Lorde-Kowz was livid ahhaha. I will listen to the flac though.

Remi is so annoying to me here :( every time she says misterioso (?) I cringe... grrr.

I stand by my first grading still, there are awesome tracks but as a whole it's still an ok OST. but my gosh, Kajiura's OSTs this year are booming! It's a very prolific year with lovely music.
 
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