A Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright Sheet Music Archive
FAQ
Game Questions
Site Questions
Sheet Music Questions
Game Questions
1) Who is Phoenix Wright?
Phoenix Wright is the main character in Capcom’s law simulation series for the Nintendo DS: “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney”. Phoenix is a defense attorney and with the help of a colourful range of side characters he solves a number of cases over the course of the series.
The games were originally released in Japan for the Gameboy Advance but have been relocated to the Nintendo DS. The Japanese title for the series is “Gyakuten Saiban”, which means “Turnabout Courtroom”.
For more information, check out the excellent Court Records website.
2) How many games are there?
There are two games that have been released in the US/Europe:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Justice For All)
And two games that have only been released in Japan:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trials and Tribulations) [due for US release this October]
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney [currently being localised for European release]
3) Who is Apollo Justice?
Apollo Justice is the protagonist in the fourth game. He too is a defense attorney. For more information see Court Records, but be aware that the Gyakuten Saiban 4 section contains huge spoilers for the game's plot!
4) Who did the music for the games?
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Sugimori Masakazu
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Justice For All) – Akemi Kimura
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trials and Tribulations) – Noriyuki Iwadare
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - Toshihiko Horiyama
5) Where can I buy the soundtracks?
Soundtracks are available from Playasia, Sulepeter and VGMworld. Use “Gyakuten Saiban” as the keyword when searching these sites, as the soundtracks have not yet been released in the US or Europe.
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Site Questions
1) Why does this site look so rubbish?
I suck at coding HTML, and adding graphics to the pages takes up extra hosting space that could be used for sheet music. So yeah, that’s why the page layout is rather crude – but you’re here for the sheet music so it doesn’t matter, right?
2) Why is this site hardly ever updated?
I’m a final year uni student doing a clinical course, which means I’m away a lot on hospital placements and have various essays and a thesis to write. In other words, I’m too busy to update on a regular basis. Updates are most likely to happen during seasonal holidays when I have internet access to upload the transcriptions.
3) Can I help out?
If you’ve done a transcription I’m happy to host it, but it must be submitted to me as a .NWC file (see Sheet Music Questions below) so I can generate the PNGs/Word docs, and it’ll likely take me a while before I get around to uploading it.
4) I tried to download one of the transcriptions but the page doesn’t exist. What are you gonna do about it?
Email me via the contact at the bottom of the page and tell me the name of the song and the link you tried to click on. Chances are I’ve goofed up the HTML which is why it doesn’t work!
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Sheet Music Questions
1) How do you make the sheet music?
The majority of the Phoenix Wright/Gyakuten Saiban music that you hear from your DS is in midi format. I’ve obtained rips of the midis (see credits section), which I run through a program called Noteworthy Composer (www.noteworthysoftware.com). Noteworthy converts the midi file into sheet music notation, but the result is very messy (up to 15 staves of notation, tons of accidentals and the note durations are split very oddly), so I have to spend a while tidying it up and arranging it for a batch of instruments. Simple songs like the Blue Badger theme take about half an hour to arrange, while a piece with many parts such as Great Revival can take up to three hours to tidy up.
2) What’s NWC?
NWC is a file extension generated by Noteworthy Composer, the notation program I’m using. Only Noteworthy Composer or Noteworthy Player can open these files. Finished transcriptions are available for download in .nwc, .mid, .doc and .png formats so you can find one that suits you.
3) Do you have (insert song name here) for clarinet/trumpet/French horn/saxophone etc etc etc?
Likely not, and I don’t have time to transpose an instrumental line just for you – sorry. But you can do it yourself! That’s why I’ve put the NWC files on the site as well – just do the following:
Download and install the beta version of Noteworthy Composer from www.noteworthysoftware.com
Download the NWC file of the song you want from Gyakusheets.
Open the NWC file and click on the melody stave (usually the top one). Then open the Tools menu on the menu bar and click Force Accidentals. A ton of naturals should appear on that stave now.
Then open the tools menu and click Transpose Staff. Enter the following values based on what instrument key you play in:
Bb = +2
A = +3
F = +7
Eb = +9
You should now find the entire stave including the key signature has changed. If you find there's tons of ledger lines above the stave (especially for keys of F or Eb) you might be best off highlighting the entire stave by pressing Ctl+A, then holding down the Ctl and Shift keys and pressing the down arrow key 7 times to move it down an octave.
4) Do you have guitar tabs for (insert song name here)?
Nope! And unlikely to in the future, as I have no idea how to make guitar tabs – I’m a violinist so I arrange the pieces with classical instruments in mind.
5) You’re missing (insert song name here) from game 1/2/3 – are you going to transcribe it?
If the song is mentioned in the navigation section then yes, I will be transcribing it at some stage. If it’s not up there at all, then either I’ve forgotten about it or it’s not suitable for transcription. Game 4 (Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney) in particular has a lot of techno-style music that isn’t suited for sheet notation. My main aim is to have all the character themes and courtroom music from each game available.
6) All these songs are arranged for more than one instrument and there’s only one of me! What do I do?
Melody instruments: The melody for the song is always on a separate line, so just print out the melody file for the song you want and play. Where the melody line swaps between instruments (e.g. The Steel Samurai) it’s usually because it goes from treble to bass clef, so if you look at the conductor’s score and play the midi at the same time, you can figure out where the melody swaps over and which bits you need to print out.
Pianists: Get the beta version of Noteworthy Composer and grab the NWC file for the song you want from this site. Open it with Noteworthy, and click File --Page Setup. Under the Contents tab you'll see a list of all the staves with Xs in the boxes. Remove the Xs from all the boxes except the Piano L.H. (last stave in the list) and the melody (first stave in the list). Click OK and you should get the melody and the L.H. piano accompaniment showing up in the main window while all the other staves will have disappeared. Hit print, and it'll print what you're seeing (although as it's an unregistered copy of Noteworthy it'll stamp Noteworthy Composer above each stave - sorry!)
For certain songs, such as Eccentricity and the Steel Samurai, the melody swaps between the piano R.H. as well as the main melody stave - for these songs make sure you have the piano R.H. box checked as well when you print.
I wanted to do arrangements for multiple instruments because the majority of anime/game sheet music out there is arranged for piano only, and the songs from Phoenix Wright sound best when played in a group!
7) Can I buy sheet music from the Phoenix Wright games?
I looked long and hard, but there is only one book containing Phoenix Wright sheet music and it’s out of stock.
If any other books containing Phoenix Wright sheet music become commercially available I will remove from this site any transcriptions that are featured within it.
Unless otherwise noted, all content on this site is licenced under a
Creative Commons Licence.
Please do not distribute these files without permission - link to us instead!
Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice and all associated titles, music, names and character images are property of Capcom, who do not endorse or officiate this website.
All transcriptions are the transcriber's interpretation of the original author's work and accuracy is not a guarantee.
Web contact: madmazda86 at gmail dot com