Memories of the 12/3 Ridge Racer series of projects

Ridge Racer was released at the same time as the December 3, 1994 PlayStation release.

The BGM could be replaced by inserting a music CD into the game, so I was enjoying the game by inserting various rock CDs. I was enjoying it by inserting various rock CDs.

If I had not been involved in the Ridge Racer series, my interest and action in Ridge Racer would have ended at the "replace CDs" stage.

And it was rather unlikely that I would have participated in the Ridge Racer series at that time.

I listened to rock and video game music, had no exposure to the dance scene, and was literally completely powerless in the creation of dance music.

How did you get involved in such a situation?

December 3, 1995 Ridge Racer Revolution.

I played a guitar solo for the background music on the attraction screen.

It was composed by Isayan of Ace Combat 2!

This is a fusion genre, so I just played it while Isayan taught me the phrases. It had nothing to do with dance music, and I remember finishing the job somewhat relieved.

On December 3, 1996 RAGE RACER, I was asked to use the guitar samples I played on the title track RAGE RACER composed by OKUBO and others.

Well, in case you were wondering, I also played it in REVOLUTION, and I played it in ACE COMBAT 2.

When I heard the finished RAGE RACER, I was very impressed.

I was very impressed with how my guitar could make such a dance music sound! It was a very fresh experience for me.

On December 3, 1998, for Ridge Racer Type 4, I composed the music and sound effects for the opening movie, 4 background music tracks during the race, and sound effects for the ending movie.

He joined Namco in April 1995 at the age of 22.

May 30, 1997 Ace Combat 2

December 11, 1997 Kaze no Klonoa

and after the launch of Klonoa in Yokohama in February 1998, I started hearing about the R4 project here and there.

Looking back, I really haven't been exposed to a millimeter of dance music or techno!

The new Ridge Racer has a movie, which was produced by Yoshimizu, who is a close friend and colleague of mine from Klonoa, so I wanted to do the sound for the movie! I wanted to do the sound as well!

I had experience in composing movies for Ace Combat 2 with perfect timing, so I had the know-how, and it was a huge amount of work including sound effects and timing. I think I started out as a non-strong staff member for BGM composition.

The reason for this is that, as I mentioned earlier, I had almost no knowledge of dance music at the time.

I had been concentrating on Ace 2 and Klonoa since I joined the company, so I had no idea what was going on in the background music of Rage Racer to make it sound the way it did.

So, I think I started out by researching dance music and overcoming my weakness for it, if I could afford it, while working on the movie work.

From there, each song went through various dramas.

From the results, all of Kota Takahashi's race background music includes guitar.

In other words, he could not master dance music created purely with keyboard playing techniques or synth skills, but rather he followed the context of Big Beat and supplemented it with guitars and distorted bass.

That's how weak the non-guitar draw was.

The opening track also relies heavily on guitar cutting.

However, there was a large part of the music that I newly learned other than guitar.

Also, as far as drawing out music other than guitar music, I think it was largely due to the richness of my experiences outside the development room, including music in my private life as a young man, 25 to 26 years old.

...

I can't write it all down, can I?

Next time! When will it be...