Mother World (Mother/Earthbound Zero)

[Shade Levora]

After nearly a month of composing, I have created a massive nearly 10 minute arrangement from the classic game Mother (Earthbound Zero).

So far, this is easily my best and most beautiful song Arrangement yet. I wanted to capture the same emotion using instruments that could transition from soft to epic proportions.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/355735

Enjoy ;}

[Shake]

That saxophone ain't fooling anybody.

Otherwise, I like. Although I feel the piano in 'Pollyanna' (the second song you transitioned to) was a bit too fast at times. The flute and other instruments also sound disjointed (as opposed to working in harmony) around the 2:45 mark. It's as if the song stops halfway to bring in the other instruments. It's this song you're trying to play, right?

I know very little about FL Studios (or music composition in general) but you need to fix that.

[docnano]

Damn, I had just typed a lengthy reply and when I went to submit, I was logged out. All is lost.

Anyway, here's the gist:

- Nice arrangement and harmonies. It's clear you spent a long time on this!

- Phrasing could use some work, especially solo instruments (cello, piano, sax). Let me know if you want an example for piano and I can record something using your material. Solo winds and strings are, unfortunately, trickier to simulate. Some extra reverb on the sax and cello might help fool some people's ears.

- More dynamic contrast from section to section would be nice. Think about which sections should be really quiet and smooth, and which sections should be loud and epic, and exaggerate those differences!

- I think I detect some tempo changes in there, but you could milk them some more. For example, really draw out that buildup to the gong/tam tam hit at 4:16. And mega crescendo here.

- Mallets are a little plunky in beginning -- I'd use unbroken octaves or even single notes. Maybe also bring it up an octave.

I enjoyed it, thanks and good luck!

[Modus]

Wow, what an effort... First of all, ultra noob warning here. I'm simply leaving comments as an average listener. That said...

I thought the mood was really cool, very nostalgic and overall it made me feel fuzzy. However, it seems to me that there were no velocity adjustments through the entire song, meaning every note was hit with the same intensity as the next, most obvious at times when you repeated the same notes. I imagine orchestras are incredibly difficult to emulate, but I think simply staggering the velocities ever so carefully would make the arrangement seem more human overall.

The other thing is that in sections like 4:30 it seemed that some legato movement would have been more appropriate. Maybe extending the notes past their normal cutoffs would help smooth that out.

I really liked the cool delay effect on the strings in sections like 4:40. Just sounded really cool. The whole thing was pretty epic.

The arrangement was really cool to me, but I'm very reluctant to comment on anything other than execution. Like I said.. I'm just a listener and have a long way to go to give 'pro' advice.

[Shade Levora]

Shake: For the Saxophone I could not find a reverb that would justify it, though after at least 6 versions I could not find one that made it sound any better. Also: I never put in the song (Because I loved you) since it's from Earthbound. (Mother 2).

Docnano: Taken in mind, thanks.

ExoByte: I added loads of Velocity changes (though many are very minor), since they were applied to mostly the Flutes and Strings, They are not as noticeable as I would want.

Thanks all.

[Calum]

You can tell you've put a lot of effort into this! And these songs are really great.

Just some tips that you don't have to take:

I'm not a huge fan of the timpani at the start.

They sound a little too ominous for what I think of as a really sweet and innocent tune, the start.

at 0:48 the tuned percussion (sounds like celeste or musicbox?) plays G then B in it's kind of returning phrase. I think it should be B then D or G then D.

At around 1:10 you have strings playing a constant D which then moves to a G which kinda jars my ears, harmonically. So perhaps change or take that out.

I like the transition into the next theme.

There seems to be some timing issues. It sounds like you missed out a beat in some bars around the 1:55 or so. At 2:02 it seems like you want a kind of breakdown to the bare essentials, but you don't go far enough in just taking away some of the instruments. Perhaps you could think about altering the production here, for example EQing just the high end for just that section?

Similarly there isn't much production/dynamic contrast, so you could try to add more to make it a little more exciting.

02:14 - the melody + accompaniment are out of sync with each other, so have a look at that.

03:00 the woodwind countermelody seems to be in the wrong key? Is this intentional?

All the transitions flow relatively smoothly which is good.

There certainly are a lot of gongs! That's not necessarily a bad thing.

It does seem to be quite long and doesn't change in instrumentation/genre/production very much. Perhaps if you are certain you want to stick with just orchestral maybe think about concentrating on different families of instruments for different themes. I do like the synth ending, I don't know if that was a direct sample or you programmed it. If it's the latter perhaps you could think about using more synths throughout to make this piece a bit more varied.

All of that said, this is quite a feat! I really commend you for orchestrating a huge medley of one of my favourite game soundtracks.

Keep it up!

[Shade Levora]

Calum: Thanks for the tips. The Celeste notes I borrowed from some sheet music, though It even sounded slightly different on there.

I can see what you mean about the D-G strings. It was a good for the mood, but also differs slightly.

2:02 I didn't quite get the rise I was going for sadly.

The woodwind at 3:00 seems to be right for me, (Though if it's just me than I'll have to second look it.)

Thanks and glad you enjoyed. ;}