Liontamer Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Arrangment Information: * Arrangement Title: "Tyrian Main Theme (Orchestral)" * Length: 2:36 (Min:sec) * URL: * Additional Information: I certify that the aforementioned work is in fact my own arrangement. The filename has a CD track number in it because I suffered a recent loss of data and was lucky enough to have burned that onto a CD to play elsewhere, so it was then ripped back with iTunes. I have since gone through data recovery and got most of the lost data back, though it was on a tertiary drive and there wasn't much on that drive to begin with. Contact Information * HyperFreak * Wesley W. Boynton * wwboynton@gmail.com * http://www.wesleyboynton.com * UserID: 22589 Submission Information * Tyrian * "Tyrian (The Song) * Composer: Alexander Brandon * I acquired the arrangement rights as a student from Alexander Brandon personally a few months ago, and since then have been making my own arrangements of the music from the 1995 Epic Megagames release. This is my semi-orchestral version of the main theme from the game, utilizing several soundfonts by way of FL Studio 6, including but not limited to Violin, Viola, Cello, Upright Bass (Bowed), a varied selection of symphonic wind instruments, and percussion sampled from Kontakt Battery (VST via FL6), a Roland Orchestral Rhythm soundfont and Virtual Drumline 1.0, a marching percussion soundfont developed by Tapspace Productions that samples the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps marching percussion section. Thank You, ~Wesley Boynton Composer and Independent Recording Artist Gnarly Sunshine Records Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Sample usage everywhere is pretty bad. There's just no realism at all to anything. String attacks are all the same, the violin lead is really weak, the percussion is really punchless and out of place, woodwind notes are all the same too, etc. Everything is in need of some humanization to get things sounding good. After the intro, which sounded completely original to me, the rest of the mix is pretty much just a straight adaptation, with some simplification in a few places. There really needs to be more interpretation of the source than just converting it to be more orchestral. Changing the melody, adding new accompaniment lines and harmonies, and splicing in more original material like the intro are all ways you can use to increase the arrangement factor. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 'Ili has pretty much hit everything I would cover here. The arrangement is quite conservative, keeping most of the original parts, though transposing them to new instruments. The new percussion was a good addition, though I think this needs more melodic and structural variety, something to truly set it apart from the original song. And I think your production needs some work too. The instrument quality is good, but the articulations are very rigid, each note being played exactly the same, unrealistically. Smoother attacks and some variation on attacks and releases would help add the realism this lacks. Careful with your volume levels too. The percussion sounds thin, while the woodwinds coming in at 1:13 are overpowering. Keep working on your skills. I'd recommend experimenting with the parameters of your instruments to get more natural sounds. If your software has presets you can try, that may help a lot. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Tyrian (PC Rip) - 30 "Tyrian, The Song" It's certainly cool that you got permission from Alex Brandon to go forward with this; he's definitely a stand-up guy and supporter of the fan arrangement community, always glad the word on video game music is being spread. But other than that, I don't have much to add. No offense, Wesley, but for all the background given on this track, there's nothing in the end result to justify being long-winded. The track is way too quiet. The sample are decent, but all of the attacks and articulations lacked any realism. The textures were flimsy. The arrangement was by-the-numbers and underdeveloped for an orchestral adaptation, compared to what we're looking for based on the submissions standards. Better luck next crime. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Feels like everything has been said.. Pretty low-quality samples, quiet mixing and not much arrangement to speak of. Work on really expanding the original instead of just adapting it. Try adding original harmonies, change in chordal structure or changes to the original melody. Then start looking into production and maybe even searching for some new samples. There should be free ones better than some of these. Good luck with your next submission! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 After turning my very loud speakers up to nearly full I could just about hear something happening in the first 40 seconds, but really, if I'm being forced to crank my speakers to hear anything at all, theres something wrong. More or less everything is too quiet and then you have one or two things that end up sounding comparably huge, and the result isn't convincing. The samples aren't the greatest quality, but you haven't really helped them out too much. I know there are some good enough free samples out there (squidfont) that can produce some believable sounds when use properly, so your production values need to be strong to get the best of them. Make sure everything is audible through track volumes and EQ, find some nice reverb settings and pan everything so that it blends, as opposed to conflicts with itself. In terms of writing and arranging; I know you were aiming at a semi-orchestral style, but aren't we missing a few layers somewhere? Parts like 1:53 should have some harmonies in different instruments, and there should be generally more part interaction. For the most part I can hear only a bassline and a unison lead, nothing else. There aren't any chords or intervals other then octaves anywhere. Listening to the source I can hear harmonies and chords everywhere that you've actually omitted, so instead of interpreting and adding to the strengths of the original, you've actually removed them. Listen to some more orchestral music and keep an ear out for these sorts of things and note how grand and full it makes the overall sound. Try posting something in the wips forum and hopefully you'll get some advice from people with more orchestral experience then I have, but for now this isn't well constructed, and not very idiomatic arranging. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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