Nozomu Aoki - Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
I remember visiting my father for the summer in Long Island back in 1984 when I was 14 or 15. I knew that I liked Japanese cartoons, but didn't know a whole lot about them. I saw Galaxy Express 999 at a local video rental store and grabbed it. I ended up renting it three times that summer. I have no idea how many times I watched it, but I was entranced by the journey "Joey" takes on the Galaxy Express, a spacebound train, to avenge the death of his mother and exchange his body for an immortal machine body. As an adult, I eventually bought the DVD and was able to watch this and its sequel in uncut form, in the original Japanese with English subtitles. Still, that old dubbed cut version is charming. Captain Harlock becomes Captain Warlock and speaks with a sorta ridiculous John Wayne accent. I guess at that age, even in compromised form, I understood that I was being exposed to a seminal and important film that informed my understanding of what sci-fi could be.
Leiji Matsumoto's epic space opera started as a manga that became a TV series that ran from 1978-1981, eventually totalling 113 episodes. In 1979, Rintaro was brought on to helm the theatrical version of the story. The result is not only an anime classic, but a bonafide classic of the sci-fi genre. Leijiverse is an excellent and informative web site dedicated to Leiji Matsumoto and his works. The soundtrack for this feature, composed by Nozomu Aoki, is alternately uptempo (with "disco strings"), haunting, jazzily playful and emotionally wrought. Definitely good stuff.
This out-of-print CD was issued by Columbia Japan (COCC-72002) as part of their limited edition Animex1200 series. I don't own the disc myself, but found this on Usenet a couple of years ago. The tags say that this was ripped by #NihonMP3@irc.mirc-x.com. BitAttack's Audio Identifier tells us that it was ripped using LAME 3.93 in --alt preset insane mode, which is 320kbps stereo mode. I found a scan of the back cover of the disc online and was able to fill in the song titles.
Nozomu Aoki - Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
1. Overture - Departure (Glittering Galaxy - Bound for Andromeda) (4:52)
2. Longing (Mother in My Mind ~ Blue Earth) (5:10)
3. Challenge (Attack ~ Rage ~ Suffering) (6:05)
4. The World of Wondrous Stars (Invitation to the Unknown World) (4:31)
5. Wandering (A Journey of Sorrow) (5:31)
6. Adventure (Solitude ~ Chase) (3:27)
7. Encounter (Space Robbers) (4:11)
8. Finale - Praying Forever (Nostalgia ~ Awakening ~ Prayer) (8:42)
96.31MB RAR archive
MP3: Constant bitrate (320kbps)
LAME 3.93 (--alt preset insane)
DOWNLOAD
Password: p-l-m.blogspot.com
11 comments:
If you put the Lame dll file in the same folder as audiograbber you can use it as an internal mp3 encoder ..
Thanks for the comment! I'm aware that you can do that, but there is a lot less control over encoding options that way. I prefer to encode with --preset fast extreme, but that mode isn't an option with the internal encoder. If you use the external encoder, you can specify the switches that control the conditions of the encode.
Plus, if you use the external encoder, you get to watch that graph during the encode. It's kind of cool if you've never seen it...
Actually, if you use the internal encoder (lame_enc.dll) and these settings:
-Select variable bitrate
-Select new
-On the low to high quality slider move it to vbr 2
-Choose Joint Stereo
. . . it is the same as the external encoder with --preset fast extreme.
BTW, "--preset fast extreme" is a legacy setting mapped to the current --V 0.
But the command window "graph" does look pretty cool, I agree!
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28124
Oh, yeah, forgot to thank you for sharing your great rips!
"Actually, if you use the internal encoder (lame_enc.dll) and these settings:
-Select variable bitrate
-Select new
-On the low to high quality slider move it to vbr 2
-Choose Joint Stereo
. . . it is the same as the external encoder with --preset fast extreme."
Sorry, that shoud read, "On the low to high quality slider move it to vbr 0." My bad!
Nice! Thanks for the tip! I haven't tried using the internal .dll for so long that I didn't even know you could do that! I guess my current thinking is just a holdover from when Audiograbber didn't give you that much control with the internal .dll.
Still, I'll stick with the external .exe and switches. I just love watching that graph too much!
Thanks again for the infomative comments!
Sure thing Kevin! It's great that you use LAME VBR for your encodes. And also that you are a stickler for proper tagging.
Your BLOG here is very cool. I especially like the Zatoichi rips, as I have seen (and own) many of those old B&W films on DVD, as well as the 2003 Takeshi Kitano remake.
Well, I use Exact Audio Copy myself with LAME, as I appreciate its "secure mode" features and the peace-of-mind that that gives.
However, I usually set my friends up with Audiograbber as it is far more user friendly and intuitive--just as you said in your little tutorial here.
BTW, did you know that you can change the colors and font of the LAME.EXE graphing window that pops up? It's kind of cool to make it match your theme's colors instead of the default boring black and white. And it's quick and easy to do, too!
Here are a few links on how to do it, in case you are interested:
http://samanathon.com/2007/03/06/customize-the-command-prompt/
http://commandwindows.com/configure.htm
Just be aware that you will need to have a fairly long encode going (5 minutes or so??) in order to give you enough time to make and save your changes before the window closes. Thanks again!
William
Thanks for the kind words about my blog, William!
It's funny, but we must think alike. I actually have my command prompt DOS windows set up with a dark green, not quite black background and light green text. It cracks me up to give it the look of an old green screen monitor!
Thanks for the tip, though. It'll be nice for visitors to learn that they can do that.
I'm going to copy some of your comments to my Audiograbber tutorial posting...
Thank you so much for the music. This is one of my favorite films of all time.
I have to give it to ya again...I'm listening to this album right now...and its top notch, thanks for helping out the fans of Leiji Matsumoto and Galaxy Express 999
hello! i just wanted to say the composer of galaxy express 999 is called "Nozomi Aoki" on most websites around. afaik. anyway, i really enjoyed your blog so far, and already downloaded a lot of interesting music. thanks for all the efforts, and the tagging work, i know it costs a lot of time. very much appreciated. peace
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