Shenmue and Streets of Rage soundtracks coming to Vinyl

[Axm]

London-based Data Discs has announced plans to release Shenmue and Streets of Rage soundtracks to vinyl. Both albums are pressed on 180 gram vinyl and include lithographic prints for each title. Pre-orders will begin on May 30th and offer exclusive editions to those who order early. Each album will come in 3 different editions priced at £19.99.

Source: Polygon

[Peter]

Think its gonna retail at £19.99 which would astonish me

[BlueMue]

This got a conclusion after that suspicious tweet much quicker then I ever thought!
I'm more then glad that these go on for sale on a regular basis and not just as prizes. And they're affordable too!

I'm gonna grab all 3 versions as soon as I can for sure.

[Esppiral]

Official Shenmue merchandise in 2015?

[Rupert_Higham]

I am a massive Shenmue fan and enjoyed the original games. The recent rumours about Shenmue 3 and this soundtrack have made me curious - could these things be connected. Are Sega preparing fans for the HD versions of the games? This is an official Sega product.
I do like the Shenmue music but I am more of completist. This soundtrack can't possibly have all the music from the game. The original 2 Disc CD set didn't have all the music either. There was the Orhcestral CD, a Jukebox CD (packaged with aome copies of DC Shenmue), and there was the Toshiba EMI release. Even between these, some music was still missing. The label behind this release have worked with Yuzo Koshiro by the looks of it so maybe this vinyl only has music he composed for the project? I would love to see a track listing. In any case, I will give this release a miss because it is bound to be incomplete and the best version remains the Toshiba EMI original which still has the most music from the project. I hate it when they cut music from releases. This is just a cheap novelty to exploit fans. In the end how do they decide what to put on the album? How do they say this music is more important than something that may have had more emotional resonance for a player? On the other hand if the original longer soundtrack is reissued on CD that would be great. Maybe they could make a 5 disc set and include the orchestral version and the Jukebox too? I think vinyl is not the right format for games music because games are getting longer and I prefer to have the whole score and not cut down for whatever can fit on record. As for SoR, I might consider buying that although, in spite of the "remastering" there would be limits to how good the MD soundchip recordings can sound. What did they remaster exactly? It's not like the music was traditionally recorded on tape. Midi files is just data. I don't know what they mean when they say Shenmue has been remastered either. The original music did sound pretty good and the masters were great. Why mess with, or even change the sound? Does anyone think this Shenmue soundtrack is worth buying, given that it probably has very little music from the game?

[Rupert_Higham]

This got a conclusion after that suspicious tweet much quicker then I ever thought!
I'm more then glad that these go on for sale on a regular basis and not just as prizes. And they're affordable too!

I'm gonna grab all 3 versions as soon as I can for sure.

Why? This is just a retro re-release and probably cut down. It won't be a great listening experience with missing cues, and won't be worth much to collectors who would always prefer the longer, more compelte CD versions that are also tied in with the games original release. Original merchanise is cooler because it relates to the release of the game and it is what people bought then. You would be better off buying the orginal CD on the used markets than paying thrice for all versions of this Shenmue set. You will get less music. I think on this fansite we should try to encourage Sega to release more, not less.

[BlueMue]

I don't care what's on the LP. I don't even intend to listen to it, probably won't even unpack it.
I just want it because it's Shenmue. Mostly for my collection and also to show interest in the IP. Nuff said.

[James Brown]

Is the website accessible at the moment? It says enter password to enter store...i'm guessing the whole site will be available on the 30th?

I wonder what the differences will be between the 3 editions ?

[Peter]

I will most likely buy this regardless but would be really interested in finding out how they remastered this.

I wonder if the took the original recordings and remastered those or just took the CD version masters and put them on vinyl, hopefully they release that information.

[Ziming]

I will most likely buy this regardless but would be really interested in finding out how they remastered this.

I wonder if the took the original recordings and remastered those or just took the CD version masters and put them on vinyl, hopefully they release that information.

Here is the bio who of the sound engineer who remastered Shenmue to vinyl.
http://www.audibleoddities.com/about/

Found some articles on him:

http://ww2.kqed.org/pop/2014/07/22/befo ... nal-twerk/

http://trashaudio.com/2013/07/workspace ... -hatfield/

[Peter]

[sand4fish]

Definitely gonna get both SoR and Shenmue. Best memories ever! Yuzo Koshiro FTW!!!

[KiBa]

This is truly surprising, and the SoR really knocked me to the creepy hipster floor of Starbucks. Get on my wall, both of you! The beautiful art is eminently scannable too.

If they release a Space Channel 5 or Jet Set Radio, I'd probably get into a full-on good mood for at least a week.

[Rupert_Higham]

Koshiro had very very little to do with the Shenmue soundtrack (do some research). This is a fact and the guys who scored the majority of the soundtrack do not get their due. If this record only has Koshiro's stuff then it would be a very poor album since the orchestral score was done by the other composers and that was the best stuff. Most people assume that Koshiro did most of the composing but that is not true at all. Also , it is quite sad to hear people say thay they will buy these soundtracks and not even listen or open the seal. That would just prove you have no taste as you would buy anything relating to Shenmue to show interest in the IP but if you buy any old crap, Sega will be happy enough to put out crap. Fans should resist exploitation by people who take advantage of their goodwil, and without a critical perspective, record labels, games publishers etc will just release rubbish because fans will buy it regardless.
Data Discs may as well have just issued a piece of plastic saying Shenmue considering most people probably won't even play this. The sound quality doesn't even matter here because collectors value seems to be the main reason anuone would buy this. That is sad since all products of this kind should be judged and scrutinised critically for what they are. Blind fandom will only affect the Shenmue brand when silly cash-ins like this come along. No one here seems to care that this will probably be a very heavily edited and shortened version of a score that didn't even fit on two full CDs when the game came out. The SoR may be OK but I can't see how it can be improved upon the original Mega Drive sound and it is pointless to put a digital recording on vinyl because the sound will hardly gain anything. If one argues the analogue is better, that is a contradiction in terms if the music was originally composed and recorded on low fidelity digital machine.

[sand4fish]

Koshiro had very very little to do with the Shenmue soundtrack (do some research). This is a fact and the guys who scored the majority of the soundtrack do not get their due. If this record only has Koshiro's stuff then it would be a very poor album since the orchestral score was done by the other composers and that was the best stuff. Most people assume that Koshiro did most of the composing but that is not true at all. Also , it is quite sad to hear people say thay they will buy these soundtracks and not even listen or open the seal. That would just prove you have no taste as you would buy anything relating to Shenmue to show interest in the IP but if you buy any old crap, Sega will be happy enough to put out crap. Fans should resist exploitation by people who take advantage of their goodwil, and without a critical perspective, record labels, games publishers etc will just release rubbish because fans will buy it regardless.
Data Discs may as well have just issued a piece of plastic saying Shenmue considering most people probably won't even play this. The sound quality doesn't even matter here because collectors value seems to be the main reason anuone would buy this. That is sad since all products of this kind should be judged and scrutinised critically for what they are. Blind fandom will only affect the Shenmue brand when silly cash-ins like this come along. No one here seems to care that this will probably be a very heavily edited and shortened version of a score that didn't even fit on two full CDs when the game came out. The SoR may be OK but I can't see how it can be improved upon the original Mega Drive sound and it is pointless to put a digital recording on vinyl because the sound will hardly gain anything. If one argues the analogue is better, that is a contradiction in terms if the music was originally composed and recorded on low fidelity digital machine.

I take that line you wrote about doing some research was thrown at me. No offense but I never said anything about Koshiro's play at shenmue being the major draw for buying the Shenmue soundtrack. Tbh I don't know anyone who thinks Koshiro composed most of the tracks... Shenmue fans or not.
On the soundtrack quality and content, we don't know much about it but any awareness for basically abandoned franchises is very welcome in my book.