Swann

Nothing I can say can give the thanks these men and women deserve. Thank you all so much.

Congratulations!!

Yay! This one's been on my iPod since it's days in the wip forum, so it's no wonder I enjoy this version even more so. Awesome stuff right here.

Agreed, watch Samurai Champloo. Still my personal favorite after all these years.

This just blows my mind... sublime.

Hands-down one of the greatest French horn players I have ever heard. He makes arrangements for twelve horns and plays all the parts himself. Just listen, I can't do any of this justice by words alone. Final Fantasy VII: John Williams tribute: Dream Theater: His MySpace page has everything for download. http://www.myspace.com/marcpapeghin

I've got the same issue as OverCoat, that particular synth just feel really out of place. As a huge fan of Iji, I'm really looking forward to the final version of this, and I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors.

Quoted for truth.

Mad props, bro.

Sheet music you say? Look no further. http://sites.google.com/site/taylorswannmusic/ABalladForYou.pdf http://tindeck.com/listen/xloi It's a straight transcription, but for a few really minor edits and pedaling I found to be appropriate. Enjoy!

I'm 19 and I could hear to 20 clearly and then nothing higher. Yeah, same here.

Happy Birthday!!

I would be interested in this. I used to hold a number of records on OCR songs, but I haven't played in a long time so probably not anymore...

I'm not an authority on this kind of thing, but there's only thing I'd say is begging to be changed: the attack velocities on the piano are all identical, and all very forceful. For instance, at ~1:20, the background piano accompaniment is soft with respect to dynamics, but it sounds like the imaginary pianist is hitting every key extremely forcefully. The result is a mechanical-sounding piano, and you lose that nice legato feel. Anyway, I really enjoyed this. Nice work!

If you send me the midi (or I might just do it by ear) I'll record it on trumpet and then you can decide whether to use it or not. Btw, I like the way you integrated the ritard at the end. However, the strings hang over by a tiny bit, I would change it so the song fades out to the bass voice. I won't go into the theory, but ending on the tonic of the chord is "the rule" for classically-styled pieces.

Been playing this over and over since the DoD submission. Great stuff: beautiful arrangement and fantastic guitar work.

I'd highly recommend Garritan's Steinway Piano library. I've found that most piano samples DO tend to get uncharacteristically muddy/loud in the low frequencies, and while some of that can be attributed to the way the piece itself is structured, taking them down a notch is something to be considered. Best of luck!

The instruments sound pretty fake, to me. I don't have enough experience with FL Studio to help, but hopefully you know that they need to be improved. The piano chords that are panned right are pretty loud. I'd turn them down and make them more centered. The chord clusters at 1:36 sound a bit off. You have to be really careful when you write thick source that low. I won't go into a detailed explanation, but chords in the bass are much more likely to be dissonant (even compared to the same chord a few octaves up), so yeah, watch out. In all honesty, I'd cut down the part a lot. For instance, 0:45-1:00 is just too much. Have the piano's bass voice provide a subtle accompaniment rather than playing the rhythm of the lead(sax). What sabrigami was talking about: I'd definitely add in some variation to the tempo. However, I would not permanently change the tempo, only add retardando (temporary slowdown) at key moments. This will accentuate the more dramatic parts of the piece and add tension, making the resolution of the phrase much more satisfying. I'd be happy to play the sax part on trumpet if you give me the sheets, or the time to transcribe the part (PM me). Anyway, I hope this helps some. Best of luck! Swann

Sort of schizophrenic in a sense. You tend to move away from variations or change tempos/modulate very quickly. It keeps the mix from being really cohesive, imo. In addition, I think too much of the song is just straight source. You really need to put it something that makes it your own, even if it's just a small counter-melody here and there. You've got some great ideas, but try expounding on them a little bit before you move on to the next section of the song. Don't try to pack everything into one song, let your ideas develop and take root more. EDIT: I'm going to have to agree with Spakku here, it sounds more like the LttP or OoT version of Kakariko than the TP version (where's that melody starting at ~0:10?).

Niiiiiiiiiiice. This is just amazing work, man. Great variation throughout, so chill. Love this!

Oh man, I am looking forward to where you go with this.

Nice work bro. There is nothing wrong with solo piano pieces. Only critique I can give you is that dynamics are a bit stagnant in each piece, especially in the left hand. But yeah, nice work. I'm digging these. What kind of piano are you playing on?

This is pretty sweet. I wish I knew how to make music in this style. Do drop your high freqs though, at least a little.