Junichi Nakatsuru

Junichi Nakatsuru
Native name	中鶴 潤一
Born	Japan
Genres	Orchestral
Occupation(s)	Composer, arranger
Instruments	Piano, trombone

Junichi Nakatsuru (中鶴 潤一, Nakatsuru Junichi^?) is a Japanese video game composer and sound director employed at Bandai Namco Games. He is best known for his work in the Soulcalibur series.

Growing up, Nakatsuru enjoyed music, playing around with instruments while listening to music on the radio as a boy. His parents provided him with classical piano lessons, and he would always play popular songs with his own arrangements instead of practicing for the lesson. While attending high school, Nakatsuru played the trombone in a brass band, and was a keyboardist and band composer in his private life. He majored in art at the university and studied music theory, acoustics, and desktop music (DTM), although he was more interested in making original songs and playing them in a band.

Nakatsuru mostly incorporates orchestral tracks into his soundtracks. Commenting on the use of a live orchestra, he notes that it is vital for the scenes with a very emotional presentation and sampled instruments are not enough to express the emotion. On the other hand, he has stated that fierce battle scenes may need speed and tension that can only be done with a computer. He feels that "Audio is a key element in making scenes more evocative and expressive, thereby empathizing with the players in various situations." Nakatsuru has said that the orchestral sound of John Williams' soundtrack to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace has deeply influenced him.

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