Curse

Lishy · Nov 29, 2009, 02:39 AM // 02:39

Hey guys
I tried a go at arranging some of the Seiken Densetsu 3 music. Results came out better than I thought.
Anyways, these are the arrangements I've made so far from SD3.

Ancient Dolphin
http://www.mediafire.com/?nek5khczm24

Nuclear Fusion
http://www.mediafire.com/?lyqw0twmxtj

Weird Counterpoint
http://www.mediafire.com/?nfm5gyz4d3j

And as an added bonus, in celebration of Mushihimesama Futari's release to the 360, I tried a go at the stage 3 theme of mushihimesama 1

Walking on the Land of Flame
http://www.mediafire.com/?k2zntezwmwk

And yes, I'm a japfag who plays Japanese games more than English

Hope you like the music. If anyone here is interested, I may post more. Constructive criticism please!

Revelations · Nov 29, 2009, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Not even sure this belongs in Nolani, but I'll make a couple of comments. I'll probably be rather critical and/or scathing, so if you're not likely to want that sort of feedback, then you should skip my post.

I'm not sure I'd even call these arrangements - they're note for note precisely the same as the originals in many places. In musical terms, arranging a piece doesn't actually involve simply copypasta-ing bits of the original. It is expected that you vary the piece beyond simple reordering.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia - crappy source I know.

arranging "involves adding compositional techniques, such as new thematic material for introductions, transitions, or modulations, and endings...Arranging is the art of giving an existing melody musical variety"

See the article here.

Lack of dynamic contrast makes them overall a little boring/repetitive. Try playing with dynamics, particularly the bass drum(?) sound in the third. As it stands currently it overrides nearly everything else, and while this may be desirable for one section, having it the same throughout gets somewhat gyrating. Most editors have either programmable or even real time volume modification features - they aren't there just to look good.

For the purposes of showing off an arrangement, converting to mp3 and adding a bit of reverb is rather obnoxious, when you can retain the ~20kB file size without the reverb. For a final polished work, go ahead, but I was under the impression it was the arrangement, not the final production work that you wanted to display.

The first is a little boring. It makes good ambient background music for a game, but an arrangement of it should involve more variation. Ambient music typically has no discernible melody - when you 'arranged' it you should have perhaps given it one, unless you intend for it to remain generic background music. Chord sequence and harmony would have been other strong additions to an arrangement of this piece. If you wanted to get really creative you could have even experimented by turning it into a canon - with small changes to chords such repetition suits this form well.

You ended the second one about 2 bars too late. Piece reaches a 'climax' and eventually comes back down and prepares to end - similar to most Western music (and before you can call me out on Japanese video game music, know that it follows Western trends.) - however, it then starts to build up again for about a bar, and then suddenly ends. It sounds awkward and cut off.

In the fourth the pads hurt my ears, did you honestly have to remix with that much synth crap? Instrumentation plays a part in arrangements, and I really see no point in using half a dozen synth tracks plus drums, unless you really find it more pleasant than the alternatives. There was also about a minute silence at the end of the track.

I apologize if this isn't what you wanted to hear, however, I am curious as to roughly how much time you put into this, and what MIDI soundbank they're recorded from.

Lishy · Nov 29, 2009, 05:38 PM // 17:38

I don't mind the criticism. Actually, I'm glad it's constructive as opposed to someone who says "It's good" to anything. You've probably met those people before ^

Actually, thanks for going in-depth and being constructive, I might add.
I was confused whether to call these arrangements or remixes though. I guess I'll just call it playing with an old snes game's composition with a soundfont, though if you can come up with a better definition, correct me

A lot of the Seiken Densetsu midis are really just ripping the original music with the spc midi ripper, and then fixing each of the channels by ear by disabling the channels playing in ZSNES. Percussion also needed to be done completely by ear since they all ripped to bass drums x_X

As for the endings of each of the songs, I'll admit I didn't feel the need to loop them since I would do so later in the future after I get some criticism as like here

Yes, the first one IS supposed to be ambient. Though it's the only one I would go as far as to say changed in composure, aside from the second mp3 in which I used some harmony with a shamisen.
Though Ancient Dolphin's original was even more ambient, I simply wanted to recreate it after hearing the results of what a Yamaha piano would sound like in it as opposed to a quiet marimba.

The fourth one was actually much more quieter before, but for some reason I made it like this. Blah, I don't know why I did that. I guess I'm just a synthtard as opposed to the trumpet I used earlier

I still have the previous version saved though, fortunately.
I will however admit that I did base off of a midi for the last one since ps2 games use streamed audio and such as opposed to something like SPC. I wasn't able to make out the notes of this song.