Palpable Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 Kento Khromatic Kento Watanabe wkento@gmail.com http://www.youtube.com/kentokhromatic User #: 29757 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Saria's Song I liked the name "Saria's Ragtime Jazz", which is a very literal description of the piece, but also conveys the image of Saria herself playing ragtime or jazz piano of some sort, playing around on the piano and expressing her "inner song". *If this name doesn't pass submission requirements, I'd be more than happy to revise it or take suggestions for name alternatives for OCremix. Early in the morning hours I was inspired to write this piece in one sitting when I was listening to Saria's Song in my head and suddenly realized that the main melodic motif is a 3-note repeating figure, which is characteristically similar to the "ragtime riff", which creates a polyrhythmic through grouping straight 8ths in 3. After this realization a ragtime version of Saria's Song started playing in my head, and by the time I started running through a solo on the progression I knew this was something I needed to write down. Hopefully there are others who are interested in this concept as much as I was in writing it. There are a large number of solos in the middle section that are on top of the original chord progression, which is mostly original material but in line with jazz interpretations of standards (that is, almost adding more new things than retaining the old through solo sections). I tried to make sure that the original concept of it being based around the catchy Saria's Song was kept, so there is later section where the original song is quoted more bluntly and somewhat humorously. - Kento 渡辺健人 --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/download_file/20463 - 35 "Lost Woods" The only negatives I have to say about this is that sometimes the playing is too even, and it would have been cool to see more left-hand alterations in the first half to match the second half. Otherwise, this was a really breezy, well-executed take on Lost Woods. It might get a little liberal for people because the melodies are used on and off, and there are parts that only use the chords, but I thought the connection was strong enough throughout. Cool debut, Kento, and I hope we get more from you! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 A fun and playful arrangement of the theme, this is pretty great stuff. Velocities are a little rigid, but everything about this was really well done, the youtube link with the sheet music was a nice touch. Solos were great, and the connection to the source was pretty apparent almost all the way through. You definitely made this one your own. Production was clean, and if this had more velocities in it, it'd be even stronger. I just wish the final chord resolved a bit more, but it's still easily passable to me. Great work. yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Guys.. This tune may be fairly cool, but as a solo piano piece, it's not working at all. First of all, I wouldn't be surprised if it were 100% sequenced with a mouse and 0% performance. it sounds like a point and click performance. Velocities rigid, rhythms irritatingly robotic. The composition and performance don't sound cohesive because there's the left channel rhythm piano and the right channel lead piano. They aren't even written as one part, but as one instrument comping chords and one lead. You just happen to have assigned piano samples to both parts. The arrangement could work if he fleshed out the instrumentation and developed it a bit, but this is in no way subtle or expressive enough to pass as a solo piano piece. It sounds cheap. we have a much higher standard than this when it comes to solo piano pieces. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Yeah, I don't really see were OA and Palpable are coming from here. It's definitely all sequenced (the chords NEVER change velocity) and you can tell. The arrangement was quite good but it sounds very mechanical and the way you separated the pianos sound very odd. Definitely would've appreciated some additional movement in the "left hand" too. The piano sample is pretty good but where are the lower frequencies? While the arrangement is good on paper the execution falls short. If you get someone to play this (or work on humanizing it) it'll be one of the coolest arrangements on OCR but right now I can't comfortably pass this. NO(borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Bah, tough call. I'm thinking I'm going to go with Vig and Anso, it does seem a bit too quantized and mechanical to pass as human performance, and the panning definitely strengthens that likelihood. Not that there is ANYTHING at all wrong with sequencing a solo piano piece, but we generally do like you do do what you can to humanize it just a little. Alter some velocities, mainly, maybe even manually adjust the exactness of certain notes if you're feeling ambitious. The arrangement is fun and catchy, I'm pretty OK with it really. I'd say this is a very borderline call, and if we can get a quick resub where it doesn't sound quite so right-edged and robotic, I'd pass this in a heartbeat. RESUBMIT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted November 24, 2009 Author Share Posted November 24, 2009 Yeah, I'm not sure why I thought this was played - in retrospect, it does seem pretty obvious it's sequenced. But like Jimmy said, there's nothing wrong per se with a sequenced solo piano song, and I thought the arrangement made up for the evenness. There's some humanization there too, it's not totally robotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 i never thought it was actually played, but the arrangement is strong enough for it to pass, IMO. I can go conditional if you want, but i'd still yes it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 It's a pretty borderline call IMO. I'm not sure I'd go so far to say there's humanization, I mean, the sheet music (if you follow it in the youtube vid in the sub email) shows which notes are accented, etc, and since the left hand doesn't seem to change at all as far as I could tell, coupled with the panning, I'm just thinking it could be fairly quickly readjusted as a quick resub. If either of you two blokes would like to give Kento a shout and see if he'd like to tweak, I could change to a borderline YES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 If you're going to be making suggestions to the remixer, how about mentioning the idea of making the arrangement not for solo piano? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 If you're going to be making suggestions to the remixer, how about mentioning the idea of making the arrangement not for solo piano? becuz u smell. not liek larry tho but u stil smell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 I was going to say the arrangement is pretty OK, but I've been beaten to the punch to that one, thanks big giant jerk. Anyway, "pretty OK." The interpretation of the source was fairly good. The accompaniment is simplistic, though not really out of the norm of ragtime. It could definitely be a bit more interesting, playing off the melody and solos more and generally being more engaging to really get that ragtime toe-tapping feel across. Right now it's kind of generic, and that combined with the odd stereo separation gives that weird, disjointed feel Vig mentioned where it's like it's not a single solo part. The other weird part for me is the section starting at 2:12 that's decidedly unragtime. It could just be me, but that short thirty seconds or so before the bass-chord-bass-chord accompaniment comes back really throws me off. The sequencing could certainly be a lot worse, but it's still very robotic, and not just in the accompaniment. The right hand playing is really incredibly even to a fault, except for the occasional accented note. This is really obvious in the fast runs, like at 1:03 and 1:36. And, again, the panning was a weird choice, and I think a wrong one. Sorry about writing too much and generally focusing on the negatives, but I would like to see this on the site! I think it's got a lot of potential, but it's just not all the way there yet. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Yeah, the arrangement was fairly straightforward and could have used more interesting left-hand writing, even in light of the genre. As is, the full package never sounded as sophisticated as was intended in the composition. I loved some of the faster runs, but the articulations sounded very stiff and unrealistic overall, which was a big negative and undermined the compositional strength of the right-hand parts. As far as everything, Jesse said, I'mma quote it again, since he covered the production aspects as well. This tune may be fairly cool, but as a solo piano piece, it's not working at all. First of all, I wouldn't be surprised if it were 100% sequenced with a mouse and 0% performance. it sounds like a point and click performance. Velocities rigid, rhythms irritatingly robotic. The composition and performance don't sound cohesive because there's the left channel rhythm piano and the right channel lead piano. They aren't even written as one part, but as one instrument comping chords and one lead. You just happen to have assigned piano samples to both parts. The arrangement could work if he fleshed out the instrumentation and developed it a bit, but this is in no way subtle or expressive enough to pass as a solo piano piece. It sounds cheap. we have a much higher standard than this when it comes to solo piano pieces. Yep, all of that too. Not to harp on the YESs, but this shouldn't be near a pass, IMO. This is a decent base and has good energy in the writing, but the execution is way too bland (in the supporting parts) and unrealistically sequenced. I don't think you can get the execution up to par, only because this would need significant fine tuning, but I'd give it an honest shot, Kento, and see how far you can take it. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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