Little Busters! - Music Discussion

Key Discussion
#1

Little_Busters_Original_Soundtrack_-_Cover

Use this topic to talk about music that is related to Little Busters! That is the Little Busters! OST, arranges and remixes that you find out there (always giving credit to the original author and giving the source), or sharing your own transcriptions, arranges, vocal covers…

Pretty much anything that has to do with both music and Little Busters!

Common route spoilers are allowed, but try to still be sensitive and use common sense to spoiler tag what you think that needs to be hidden. lease mark character route spoilers, including Refrain, with [spoiler] tags, providing adequate context in parenthesis.

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#2

My favourite tune I have uncovered so far is “Up in the Morning” and then “Two sugars” and “Boys Don’t Cry” (which I was relieved is not the one by The Cure!). Inevitably it is the piano based themes for me that stand out.

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#3

My favorite was “Exotic Toy Box”. I often listen this when doing some works in school. Oh, and also often getting caught singing Little Busters! loudly in class.

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#4

Two Sugars and Boys Don’t Cry are top in my list. Exotic Toybox, on the other hand, isn’t as appealing to me as a standalone track, but it sure is pretty good as an accompaniment to the VN and a mood setter. Its tune and instrument choice reminds me a lot of some tracks in the middle Pokemon generations, especially 3rd and 4th generations.

So Little Busters! got released today. It wasn’t a surprise, everyone had been preparing for this day for a long time, and while I still haven’t been able to lay a finger on the VN, I still did my preparations.

We’ve now seen the beginning of LB. Kyousuke coming back? No, before that. The menu. Such a lovely, yet intriguing melody. Defined rhythm, vague time signature. Defined harmonics within each voice, but lots of voices fighting each other. Truly one of the best tracks of the OST.

That’s why I decided to arrange it for the only instrument of which I have a minimum degree of knowledge, the piano. To be fair, I thought it was going to be way simpler than what it turned out to be. The beginning seems very easy: a few notes and far between and an extremely minimalistic accompaniment during the first bars. But then, all of a sudden, more voices appear and they all start talking to each other. They are like people speaking: they are all unique in that they don’t seem to 100% work with each other harmonically, but they are still there, merged in a sound composed of tons of arguments, opinions and concerns.

It was extremely difficult to depict all of that in a single piano track while keeping it arguably simple, so I opted to partially ignore the song structure to allow me to construct my own so that I could showcase the different voices in it in different sections of the arrange.

The time signature is very vague, especially at the beginning. This is something that made me meditate 2 weeks before writing the first bars. Consulting with some piano majors that I know, they told me that it was indeed vague and that the effect seemed to have been put there intentionally. My guess on this relies on knowledge from Refrain: This tune sounds when the ripples video plays, that is, when the fictitious world is being created. The vagueness of the time signature can perfectly represent how the world doesn’t have a defined shape at that stage, and all the different voices depict the different characters of LB arguing about whether to create this new world and, what to do in it if they finally decide to create it.

Anyway, it’s an intermediate difficulty piece, but the first part before the heavier left-hand accompaniment kicks in can be learnt by pretty much anyone that has been playing the piano for a week and knows the names of the notes. I didn’t quite like the final result since I don’t think that I managed to convey the feeling that I saw in the song, but it didn’t turn out to be horrible, so there’s that. I hope that at least someone enjoys it. That alone would make it worth it.

If you’re going to play it, keep in mind that the simplest parts are written with rather short note values that rely on high reverberation to sound like the original. If you don’t have any way to replicate a similar reverberation to that of the original song, feel free to apply full pedal when you feel that it’s needed.

So sheets and MIDI file in the youtube video description. Please enjoy! :yahaha:

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#5

Just heard that one today for the first time, I really like it although as you say if you didn’t know the VN it would probably just be like “what the hell are you listening to?” I feel like the composer was trying at a Russian feel ( folky tune rather than some heavy stuff like Prokofiev or Mussorgsky). Although time spent with the character is short so far, it’s optimistic melody seems to fit very well.

And just as an example while much Russian folk music is a little melancholy here’s an example of something more happy sounding

EDIT:
For the first time I slowed down at the Title Page and listened to the music “A World is Born”, that is very soothing indeed. I’m listening on lo-fi but it sounds as if it could be played on a gamelan ensemble although I guess it is more likely just composed that way and played on keyboards? I haven’t analysed it but it sounds as if it has no musical key and just using a mode of some sort?

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#6

Clear Weather After The Rain instrumental is such a good track. I really like its placement after the baseball game whether you win or lose, its relaxing melody fits so well with the relief of it being over and it’s such an uplifting tune too. It works well with the scene where Kengo decides to play baseball with you all too.

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#7

The music has been interesting. a mix of intense and light in really interesting transitions. I did find it unique among my extremely few vn experiences that the beginning started without any music. I have not encountered that kind of opening in any of my other VN starts. Yet the game still hooks you in. That is quite interesting.

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#8

I don’t know if I would call it my FAVORITE track, but the one that probably had the most impact on me was one that played in Refrain (the title might be considered a small spoiler so I’ll “refrain” from mentioning it). It’s not really a song as much as it’s a mismatched collection of sounds (beeps?) with no real rhythm, and it’s one of the most chilling tracks I’ve ever heard in a VN, even out of context. It’s been 5 years since I first heard it and it STILL unnerves me.

That said, my favorite track to listen to is Boys Don’t Cry, hands down. I think I really came to like it after hearing the vocal arrangement they used for the Refrain anime, but even without that, it’s such a beautiful, nostalgic tune, and I love the way it slowly builds up.

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#9

Hikari ni Yosete

I was waiting for Mio’s route to post it, but since @BlackHayate02 went ahead, why not share it now?

The motivation to arrange this piece is pretty simple: it’s already amazing by itself. I really liked the tune, so I decided to give it a try.

I made small changes to the piece to improve on what I thought that the piece lacked the most: presence. It’s normal since it’s a BGM for the VN, so it shouldn’t be too notorious as that would take away attention from the text itself.

To make the music have more presence, I added a stressed extra octave down on the left-hand accompaniment for the middle and final parts. This establishes the chord progression with strength and complements the right hand bigger chords at certain points. The right hand has received a lot of chords and intervals to make the harmony more interesting throughout the whole piece. Finally, since the original song wasted the opportunity to build so much tension during the final bit, I oriented the final part towards tension-building with changing right-hand chords during the last few measures, just before regressing to the original chords in the song to peacefully de-escalate the tension into the much more calmed (and maybe mysterious) final arpeggio. To hint this sudden tension build-up, I also added some voicing to the right hand before the final part.

All in all, I’m extremely happy with the way the arrangement turned out to be. It keeps the feeling of the original, but at the same time, it’s engaging and somewhat exciting to hear.

Sheets and MIDI file in the video description, as always.

If someone is interested in an easier version, let me know and I’ll put some time into reducing those right-hand chords and tweak some other aspects to make it beginner-friendly.

EDIT: Forgot to mention it, but the tempo was upped to 80 bpm just because I liked it more. :stuck_out_tongue:
Feel free to use the one you like the most and, since you have access to the MIDI file, you can always change it there.

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#10

I found the sheet music for ‘Two Sugars’, or at least one effort at it and depending on how accurate it is, this a very complex composition indeed. For a start the time signature is 5/4 ( think ‘Take Five’ by Dave Brubeck or the ‘Mission Impossible’ theme’, or parts of Seal’s ‘Kiss from a Rose’). This compound time explains why the tune sound a little “jerky” or better to say perhaps it’s hard to pin down the beat unlike a more standard 3/4 waltz or 4/4 song.

However, I’ve also seen a 12/8 version so. who knows…?

I’m not good at discerning the right key signature although I think E flat Major rather than C minor?

Anyway, although short it is a beautifully composed and sadly will be forever beyond my ability to play, but would love to see if the maestros here could give it a go!

http://ichigos.com/res/getfile.php?id=2979&type=pdf&token=b3b4d2dbedc99fe843fd3dedb02f086f

Synthesia version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39g9TeW3wWM

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#11

It’s indeed a funny time signature. 5/4 signature is a compound time signature that is normally sung as:

1 2 3 1 2, stressing those ones, similar to how 4/4 stresses the 1st and 3rd beat.

The sheet you linked uses 5/4 and 3/4 time signatures, making a somewhat interesting beat pattern that can be simplified to a sum of 3/4 bars with occasional 2/4 bars.

Two Sugars was on my list, so I’ll cover it at some point during this bookclub, probably during Komari’s route or so.

I can try to arrange an easier version if you want.

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#12

Thanks Mogaoscar, I’ll leave it up to you if you want to have a go but even an easier version will be too hard for me I think!

I do enjoy songs in “unusual” compound time signatures…another one is ‘The Terminator Theme’ in 13/8.

#13

I checked out the score as well, and it seems like the piece is on free rhythm. Key composers can get rather experimental when it comes to rhythms sometimes :'D

Chopin’s famous Nocturne Op. 9-2?? :ramenset:

The score didn’t seem to have a key signature for the piece, but based on the cadences, it seems like an Eb major piece. It’s kind of hard to tell when the very first chord played is dissonant (Ebmaj9 to be specific). Ahaha.

By the way, I could try cleaning up(? organizing? can’t quite find the right word) the transcription, if anyone is interested.~

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#14

There is a similarity, but as Mogaoscar says, listening closely to ‘Two Sugars’ does suggest 3/4 + 2/4 combinations but as you say the composer most certainly played this “from the heart” rather than sitting down to say “I know, 5/4 would be really cool here!”.

#15

Two Sugars is arguably my favorite track from the entire OST, and seeing you guys discuss it at length is quite exciting (even though I know nothing about music theory and signatures and whatnot) :ahaha:

One thing I would like to share is my surprise at learning of a vocal version of the track. It comes from a CD single featuring Kanata, of all characters, and talks about peoples’ dislike of pickles. Quite relaxing to listen to:

This rendition, more than anything, is actually what is making me excited to find out about Kanata’s route (no offense to her character)

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#16

Pretty good to be honest. It slightly changes the original melody and adds a lot more accompaniment stuff, plus Suzuki Keiko’s voice is unexpectedly amazing (I’m aware that it’s been edited). I always associated this song with Komari for some reason, so seeing that it was sung by Kanata’s VA shocked me at first.

However, PIKURUSU keeps making me laugh, it sounds like a stupid topic for a song, even if the point of the song isn’t the pickles themselves. (Haruka route spoilers) The pickle seems to be a metaphor for Haruka and Kanata’s relationship near the end of Haruka’s route. It’s something bitter and undesired, but they are both doing their best to make it edible and delicious.

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#17

‘Lamplight’

I haven’t time at the moment to examine this in any detail ( sounds like 6/8? ) but I really like this song even though it is a fairly straightforward melody it is lovely and atmospheric. It would also fit into the Clannad OS quite seamlessly.

#18

I’ll quickly go over the OST used in Mio’s route. Naturally, spoilers for Mio route here. Mio’s theme is Approaching the Light. Naturally it plays whenever Mio is the focus of the scene. After Mio is replaced by Midori, her theme no longer plays. Instead it’s always the more mysterious or sad tracks like Lamplight, In the Town of Unending Rain, If I Realized in Time, or Thin Chronicle. I think this further emphasizes the time when Approaching the Light does play: when Riki finds her submission in the Tanka Contest. The sound is nostalgic because you haven’t heard it in so long and its comforting because you and Riki remember that yes, Mio did in fact exist.

Another good track is Little Melody which first plays in Mio’s route as well if you follow the bookclub route order. To me, Little Melody just sounded very hopeful and basically sounded like the music equivalent of saying, “You did well to get this far.” Hearing this track is like an achievement. You worked hard. That’s the feeling I get. For Mio specifically its you proved that you are worthy to be the one who brings Mio back. You resisted the way of the world and instead fought for what you believed. You believed in yourself and you trusted others at the right time.

So far, I’m really having fun analyzing the music and the feelings they invoke. Because I know the names of the songs from my many listens, I’m able to pinpoint where certain tracks are played and what they mean. LB does an amazing job of combining the text and music to bring out the best of the medium.

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#19

I think music is the best medium for conveying pure expressions of emotions. I want to convey my thoughts on each of the tracks as I come across them.

So let’s start with the very first track A World Is Born. My first thought was that the music was very light and airy. It evoked a sense of nostalgia, which was enhanced by the way the Little Busters are drawn as though they were in some old dusty photo album or maybe someone’s old sketchbook.

As I sat and listened to the track for a while I felt something else. It was like waking up in the morning, slowly and without a care in the world. There are no obligations and no worries, just the quiet joy of a new day. Recently my life has been much more hectic, like Rhapsody in Blue (linked for anyone unfamiliar) so the quiet happiness I felt from A World is Born was a breath of fresh air. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEOo28lsbc

On the way to the cafeteria to see Kyosuke the first track of a new game is reminiscent of Mission Impossible. It’s energetic, but somewhat reserved. It makes me feel like, “We’re ready for anything and we know we got what it takes to get there.” Which I thought was a very appropriate feeling when I found out it‘s titled Mission Possible ~but difficult~.

When we enter our first Heroic Battle we are greeted with a track very reminiscent of 2D fighting games like Street Fighter. It’s very high energy and gives a feeling of running, jumping, and just always moving. There’s no way to stay still once that gets flowing through you!

Two Sugars has more of that quiet joy that I felt from A World is Born. It’s a very sleepy track, never getting fast or energetic. It is also simple and evokes a sort of childlike feeling. It’s a very nice track to accompany Riki fondly remembering how he became a Little Buster.

We start each day by listening to Up in the Morning. This track continues the light and airy feeling of most of the tracks so far. To me this feels like a gentle stroll in the sunshine surrounded by nature. Walking on a forested pathway with the sun peeking out, with a river or lake off to one side to look out over and take in nature’s beauty. It makes me want to go outside. Right up until I remember there are bugs out there, yuck!

And now the last track I’m going to talk about this post, Boys Don’t Cry. This first plays when Kyosuke decides to form a baseball team. The guitar and piano combine to uplift the heart. Like hope bubbling forth from deep within. The violins bring that feeling from deep down up into my head and bring a smile to my face. This track is very emotional for me because of the way it seems to express Kyosuke’s earnest feelings for his friends.

The next bit of music that plays is the opening, but I’m going to save that for its own post. I look forward to hearing what others feel as they listen to the music.

Btw cj I haven’t gotten to Mio’s route yet, but I look forward to reading your spoilers when I get there!

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#20

‘A World Where Nothing Happened / Nanimo Okaranakatta Sekai’

Well this one is so quiet and minimalist that it’s quite easy to miss it completely. It sounds almost like something totally experimental that Radiohead would do in the Kid A/Amnesiac era mixed in with what used to be called “New Age”. Then it becomes almost not so much a tune/song as it is a soundtrack to… something very weird and faintly disturbing that might be key (ahem!) to all of this…

‘In the Town of Unending/Incessant Rain’
Another very lovely piano piece that has grown on me a lot, it is a mournful and reflective song that tends to play at moments of sadness / revelation / character crisis. Deceptively simple sounding but this transcription shows it’s quite a complex piece in 3/4 with key changes and naturals thrown in for good measure

http://ichigos.com/res/getfile.php?id=2905&type=pdf&token=ca198ea36508254839a1d7a24e4a3302

and here’s a rather nice “cover version” which shows how busy the left hand gets too…

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