Ryu Umemoto

Here's a last minute addition for day 5 of Weaboo Week. Ryu Umemoto was a video game composer who worked primarily with FM synthesis and scored mostly shoot 'em ups and eroge (pornographic visual novels). He passed away earlier this year at the tragically young age of 37.

Ryu Umemoto, Ryu Takami - Eclipse "The Album" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.1 (2007)

Unlike subsequent entries in the Rare Tracks collection, this album offers CD quality audio rather than music created under strict hardware limitations. This definitely results in a greater variety of styles, but I find myself more drawn to Umemoto's pure FM music. Luckily for me, this album features a bonus disc comprised entirely of FM arrangements.

Download V0 (4S)

Ryu Umemoto - Desire "The Origin" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.2 (2008)

This is probably my favourite Rare Tracks album. I consider it a masterwork of FM synthesis with several amazing tracks. Ishtal and Reflector are two such tracks, and the album even features subtly different renditions of these themes played on alternative sound chips.

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Ryu Umemoto, Ryu Takami - Xenon "The Origin" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.3 (2008)

Xenon "The Origin" takes the multiple renditions theme of the previous volume even further by offering the complete soundtrack as recorded on both the YM2203 (OPN) and YM3438 (OPN2C) sound chips. Some of these tracks have an intriguing lo-fi techno sound that's not the sort of thing I expect to encounter on a video game soundtrack.

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Ryu Umemoto, Ryu Takami - EVE burst error "The Perfect" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.4 (2009)

This marks the end of the Rare Tracks series, with the exception of a special volume only attainable by purchasing the first three together. I considered getting this shortly after learning of Umemoto's passing, but the cost of about $100 was just too much for me. It appears to be out of stock currently... for now you'll have to settle for Vol.4 which contains about 2 hours of sweet FM tunes.

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Ryu Umemoto - Konoyo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo: YU-NO (YM2608 rip)

This is probably Umemoto's most famous soundtrack and spans an impressive 5 hours. There's a little debate as to whether Ryu Takami, Umemoto's close collaborator, also worked on this, so don't deem my attribution of this solely to Umemoto definitive. As far as I know, official recordings of the soundtrack in its original FM format were never released (in spite of its popularity) so provided here is an excellent rip by Knurek in direct link form. Hopefully this won't crash anyone's server...

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(Source)

Ryu Umemoto - Akai Katana Original Soundtrack (2010)

Another CD quality audio soundtrack, with some FM thrown in for good measure (it's what Umemoto does best, after all). Tracks 15 and up are voice samples from the game. I don't recommend listening to them, but decided not to exclude them for completion's sake.

Download V0 (MF)

Ryu Umemoto - NIN2-JUMP Sound Track / Akai Katana FM Sound Collection (2011)

The first half of this album covers NIN2-JUMP, which I believe was Umemoto's final solo soundtrack. It's a neat mix of FM with more modern samples and sounds. The second half of the album remixes the Akai Katana soundtrack in a similar FM fusion style.

Download V0 (MF)
Download FLAC (4S): Part 1 Part 2