KodamaSoft

Fragments of Gratitude -a When They Cry Tribute Album-

Written by Robin

Check JP article

The When They Cry series is one of the most beloved visual novel series of all time. This immense universe is loved by all kinds of people, of all kinds of horizons from all around the world. This album is meant as an homage album to celebrate it all in music.
Our next series-centered arrange album will be focused on the When They Cry series. It will be album KSDL-0006, and set to release for Comic Market 100 on August 13 of this year. The album will feature arrangements of the series, and will also permit image work to some extent. We are looking for artists willing to participate in this grand album/EP, and everyone is welcomed like always! There’s no limit to genres and style, so long as the finalized album has at least those three of those mandatory products represented in the final release:

  • Higurashi When They Cry (PC Visual Novel)
  • Umineko When They Cry (PC Visual Novel)
  • Ciconia When They Cry (PC Visual Novel)

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE, AND THERE’S NO LIMIT TO THE AMOUNT OF PARTICIPATING ARTISTS! Don’t let your lack of experience cloud your will to join us. Please, by all means, come over and give it a try if you want to. Of course, it’s a passion project, but you will still be compensated for your work. The project is based on revenue share, and all artists will receive revenue from the album’s digital sales. If you participate, payment will be done individually and post-release, based on the album’s sales. All participating artists will take the same cut: All revenues from the sales will be divided by each individual that has worked on the release. As I am the one in charge of the Bandcamp and BOOTH pages, I will be in charge of banking the sales every month, and as I have done with previous albums, I will be sharing the total revenue across each person via PayPal, whenever needed (most people usually ask for the payout every few months, as requesting for the payout every month can be a repetitive process with little compensation considering our generally modest sales). In any case, please don’t expect too much from the sales. They make for some relatively okayish pocket change, but nobody will be making a living out of the album’s revenues. For now, the album is planned to release August 13 of 2022 for Comic Market 100. More information for the deadlines, participations, submissions and other below. We advise you to read the whole thing to get a better grasp of the project.

If you could share this to artists who you think may be interested, it’d be greatly appreciated!

Release Information

  • Album Title: Fragments of Gratitude -a When They Cry Tribute Album-
  • Catalog: KSDL-0006
  • Publish Format: Doujin/Indie
  • Release Price: [Will depend on track numbers/runtime, TBA]
  • Classification: Digital Arrangement / Original Work Album
  • Publisher: KodamaSounds

General Rules

The rules below apply to anyone willing to participate.
Do not participate if you do not have basic empathy, or sense of respect towards other people. This should go without saying, but any kind of toxic/aggressive misdemeanors are prohibited. The project is centered around inclusivity and diversity. If this is not not part of your values, please do not apply.

  • (Not mandatory but highly recommended) Participate in the project’s general discussions on the KodamaSounds discord. If you wanna participate, say hi and tell us you’re here for that, and you shall gain access to the private artists channel. Since this is a community project, we’ll need to have you be okay with communicating about your art alongside a bunch of other artists.
  • Have a valid Paypal account so we’ll be able to send you your revenue share, if you wish to receive payment. You do not have to absolutely receive payment, but all work deserves a reward, even if it’s light!
  • No stealing assets. This should go without saying. Resampling shouldn’t be a problem, so long as you do not claim someone else’s work as your own.
  • Keep secrecy on the project, especially when it comes to other artists than yourself.
  • Send us complete and objective credits for your works. More information in the appropriate topics below.
  • Do not let us know of your interest in the project at the last moment. We have deadlines and would rather avoid any last minute additions.

Deadlines

  • Before July 23: All tracks must have been finished, mixed and sent to our mastering engineer (if needed). If you already mastered your track as a professional or with a professional, this step is not needed, unless the track is deemed too loud or not loud enough compared to the rest of the album. We will not accept new additions if you have not displayed interest/said you wanted to participate In the project beforehand past that time.
  • Before July 30: Please send to Fivda a sample of at least 35 second of your choice for your track, or the full track with a timestamp. This segment will be used for the previews and the announcement. If no time is indicated, we will be picking a part of the track on our own. Please fill in the credits guidelines as well. Artwork and logo must be finished by this time.
  • On August 6: Announcement, Website, YouTube/SoundCloud preview, Bandcamp Preorders will be all up alongside the definitive list of artists and final track order. Mastering will also be be finished, and the final master files will be added to Bandcamp and BOOTH.
  • On August 13: Final release of the album on Bandcamp and BOOTH. Unless necessary, there will be no more additions and changes.

Music Participations

General Music Rules

  • Going through our own mastering engineer (malicent) is not necessary if your track already went through professional Mixing/Mastering, or if you are a professional yourself. But please note that we may post-master your track lightly if the sound is deemed too strong/low compared to the rest of the tracks on the album. We want quality. You will need to export a decently mixed master of your track in .wav format, in its purest form, as you originally want your track to sound like. All tracks will be checked thoroughly to make sure they follow our quality control. Lossy transcodes will very easily be perceived. Once the track has been received by our mastering engineer (if needed), we will proceed to put the tracks on the Bandcamp/BOOTH release. We will make sure that your track has no loudness discrepancy within the album compared to other tracks.
  • Be transparent with information. We WILL need as much information as we possibly can to make accurate credits. More about that below.
  • You are free to make more than one track for the album. But please note that this would be considered a bonus, and it would not influence the revenue share. There will be no revenue share difference whether you produced one or more tracks, so keep that in mind if you do this for that reason. Tracks are limited to three maximum per artist.

There is no limit to the time of your track. It will however need to at least be 1:30 minutes long, and cannot exceed 15 minutes. Keep secrecy on your track. Do NOT show a preview on social media. You can announce that you participate in the album, but please do not share anything related to the album until release. You don’t need to make an arrangement! Image / Original work is authorized! More about that below.

Like for TYPE-MOON, there’s a lot of 07th Expansion related things. This is why, ideally, we’d like to avoid representing spin-offs, and would rather focus on the original mainline WTC installments, being those three:

  • Higurashi When They Cry (PC Visual Novel)
  • Umineko When They Cry (PC Visual Novel)
  • Ciconia When They Cry (PC Visual Novel)

If those three above are 100% confirmed to be well represented, those other products will be authorized:

  • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri/Kizuna (Console Visual Novels)
  • Higurashi Daybreak
  • Golden Fantasia
  • Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni
  • ROSE GUNS DAYS
  • TRianThology

Once we do get the three products represented, we might authorize a bunch of spin-off related tracks for the album. But I think it’s important we focus on the original plan.

Mastering

Please follow those rules for the final mix of your track, and export it with those settings:

  • WAV 32bits, Floating Point.
  • Resampling Quality of 512 point-sinc.
  • Headroom around -6db to -12db.
  • Don't use any Limiter or Clipper on the Mix Bus.

Side notes:
Same applies to full tracks or individual tracks in case of Mastering by stems.
Make sure your mix is as accurate and decent as you can make it. The point of mastering isn't about fixing mixing errors, but about improving the sound of the final release.
If you are not sure about the sound of your final mix, you can send it to our mastering engineer if you want a second opinion.

Arrangement Rules

Your submission must be only related to 07th Expansion games, and by that, I mean in its entirety. No partial arrangement of any other series should be present in your submission. You can however, of course, mix multiple games/tracks in your submission as long as all source material originates from 07th Expansion./ You cannot make arrangements of free of use/licensed music from 07th Expansion games, with the exception of tracks composed by -45 and Koji Kusanagi. This mainly concerns the first four episodes of Higurashi, and Ciconia Phase 1. If you are not aware of which tracks are free of use or not, please ask us by all means.

No original music from fangames should be arranged. The games you can arrange for this album are the original PC sound novels, and eventually other 07th Expansion games mentionned above if the quota has been met./ You cannot re-arrange tracks from other doujin albums. Slight and obvious references may be permitted depending on how important it is to the track. This is a subject of discussion, so make sure to ask and show us an example if you plan on doing this.

Once you have decided on your arranged track choice, please ask us to give you access to the arranged track participation spreadsheet. It is a tracker spreadsheet where artists can input any tracks they may be interested in arranging to ensure that some artists don’t end up working on the same track, and avoid possible repeats.

Image / Original Work Rules

If you feel inspired, it’s possible for you to make original work for the album. This is kind of a blurry line, but the only requirement is that your track needs to “feel related” to When They Cry in some way. Not in the sound of it, but the sentiment behind the story and characters. Of course it’s not like there’s any rigid proof for that, especially when it comes to instrumental music, but the general idea behind original/image work is that you need to compose and arrange your track in spirit with the Series, a character, a place, a scene, etc.

Submissions Format & Credits

Once you think your track is ready to go, you will need to send us your track via Discord, Twitter or Mail. Contact information is all the way down below. You can send in a preview/lossy version of your full track on the artists Discord channel to spark some discussion too, if you want!
Please format your musical submission in such a way:

Send the below information to Robin/Fivda through Discord/Twitter/Mail.

  • 35+ Seconds long preview of your choice for your track (.wav preferred, but it can be .mp3 or other) for the preview/announcement
  • Detailed Credits:

Detailed Credits Exactly as Shown:

  • Track Name:
  • Display Artist (What artist field you wish to see used digitally attached to the track. Can be Vocalist, Arranger, Vocalist & Arranger, Arranger feat. Vocalist, circle name...):
  • Composer (For Original Work) (if multiple, seperate with a ;):
  • Arrangers (if multiple, seperate with a ;):
  • *Vocals (if multiple, seperate with a ;):
  • *Lyrics (if multiple, seperate with a ;):
  • *Instruments (for live instrument only. Please input the specific instruments. Do not simply write “instruments by”, and list down all live instruments used, and by who):

  • **Programmed by
  • **Produced by
  • Mixed by
  • ***Mastering Engineer:

  • ****Used Software:
  • ****Used VSTs & Samples (Doesn’t need to be a complete list, but you can quote the unusual ones/noticeable samples/VSTs, like non-MIDI triggered samples, i.e. .WAV clips that last with the intent of being longer than a single note):

  • Original Composition(s):
  • *Original Track(s):
  • Source(s):

  • ****About this track (A description of your track, your thoughts, a short story… Anything that could tell us more about your track):

  • *Full Lyrics:

https://yourbandcampusername.bandcamp.com

* = Applies if necessary
** = If left unspecified, we will go with the idea that the arrangers are responsible for programming, production, mixing and mastering.
*** = Applies if different from our mastering engineer
**** = Optional

Please make sure to input any Circle/Organization name following each credit (except for “Display Artist”) if you have any.
Example: “Composer & Arranger: Fivda (KodamaSounds)”

We would also appreciate if japanese characters are romanized to ensure that the album credits are uniformized. We will also make sure to translate the roles from Japanese to English with accuracy. If you want, you can ask us to show you the translated roles, to ensure that things are as you intended."

Terms of Use

All rights to your music are exclusively yours. Meaning you are free to reupload your track anywhere else, reuse for any other album, whether for commercial or free use, but only at least 12 months after the album release, and if you quote the original release of the track as “originally from Fragments of Gratitude -a When They Cry Tribute Album- published by KodamaSounds” somewhere in the description of your re-release. If at any time, you wish for your track to be pulled off from the release, modified, or want information changed in any way, you are free to do so at any time by contacting us. You are free to upload your track to YouTube/SoundCloud/Similar Sites at any moment at least only once the album releases, with a link to the album in the description.

Contact for Questions and Submissions

You can contact us at any time on the Discord server, whether it’s for questions, or to tell us you’re done with your submissions, or by DMing/mentionning us on Twitter. You’re also free to ask for help for other artists on the Discord too! Once you’re on the Discord, and you’ve told us you want to participate in the project, we’ll give you the appropriate role so you can join us in the artist channel. You can use this channel to learn more about more details on the release that are yet to be available to the public. You’ll be able to showcase your tracks here. Submissions however, complete tracks or pieces of art, are safer to be sent in DM either on my discord Fivda, or by mail at fivdaaurion@gmail.com

KodamaSoft contact information:

Fivda, the project leader’s contact information:

  • Discord: Fivda
  • Twitter: @Fivda_
  • Mail: fivdaaurion@gmail.com

malicent, our mastering engineer’s contact information:

  • Discord: malicent_
  • Mail: cocytust@gmail.com