Sonic & Knuckles - Hidden Palace (WiP)

[Xenon Odyssey]

So....

I'm trying to make a piano mix. However, I'm torn as to what I should do first:

-Have an .mp3 of me playing the piece

or

-Have the midi of the arrangement thus far

I'm trying to make a good arrangement while hiding the fact that I've only been playing piano for two years and am not that comfortable with doing extravagent things on the keys.

So I suppose as of now (since I'm making the thread), I'll just post the midi I have (I wrote this in Sibelius 5 to make sheet music for myself).

http://xenonodyssey.googlepages.com/HiddenPalaceArrangement.mid

Obviously things will be drastically different than the actual playing, but any critique I can get on the arrangement would help.

EDIT:

http://xenonodyssey.googlepages.com/HPedited1.mp3

I added more to the arrangement, and then played it (albeit poorly).

[ResidentGeek]

Try exporting your midi to mp3 and giving us that?

I like the first change of tempo but the others were just distracting.

You also used the sustain pedal FAR too heavily. Lighten up on it.

You should go back an clean up your mistakes and add some from harmonics to it.

I also REALLY disliked the fade at the end. *ugh* It sounded like you couldn't find a good end so you cheated and faded it.

Otherwise, it's pretty nice. Still in the development stage to be sure but keep up the good work.

[Sengin]

Hmm...is this going to be solo piano, no light percussion or anything? I liked the transition and couple measures with the lava reef act 1. I don't like however the fact that the piece as a whole feels disjointed - a couple notes flow, then there's half notes and it just stops. I can see it being a slow emotive piano piece...but there's way too much resting and "open space". Stick some notes in to keep it flowing...you don't need a lot of rests to be emotive. Some parts also seem to be thrown in kinda quickly and sound like wrong notes (see about 16-18 seconds in for the left hand).

Also, needs a little more lava reef act 1 hints/references. And I hope that's not the ending, it could be made so much better. About the sustain: sustain is good, but I do agree it's a bit much. When you are actually performing the piece, don't press completely down on the sustain pedal, find a point between midway and completely down (depending on the piano you are using, it'll change - even midway may be too much on some pianos). I know you just may have put the sustain on because it's midi (and I don't know if you can adjust sustain other than "on" or "off").

I like what you've got going for a start, but it does need work. I look forward to an update. Good luck!

[Xenon Odyssey]

I'll work on rigging up my keyboard to my computer to try and get myself playing it...I understand the problem with the sustain and yes; I did just put it on because it's midi.

The change at 1:49 isn't going to be abrupt like the midi has portrayed it; I did the best I could with adding in a measure of 5/4 and having fermatas, but it wasn't enough.

The "wrong note" 16 seconds in is actually correct...however, with midi, there is no way to put more emphasis on the Bb and less on the B natural without making it feel more out of place than it already is.

And I just threw the ending on there; since it's unanimous that no one likes it, I'll work on that as well.

[Xenon Odyssey]

BUMPZ

So I added more to the arrangement and played it, albeit poorly.

http://xenonodyssey.googlepages.com/HPedited1.mp3

I messed up at 2:21-2:23, and I spliced this at two places because I seem to not be able to play things when I'm trying to record.

And I aware of the clipping, yet that won't stop you guys from pointing it out.

[Xenon Odyssey]

Some feedback on this would be really nice

DarkeSword said in #ocrwip that it might be too liberal for OCR...