ff10 Twilight Piano

[bluelighter]

Hi!

This is an arrangement of ff10’s Twilight in Piano. I really love the original music of Junya NAKANO, atmospheric, and very murky!

Source : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7zqbhUl3H8&feature=search

Mix :

In the introduction and at the ending, I use a little the principle of arpeggios of “The Deceased Laugh” by Nobuo UEMATSU. In this piece, I tried to keep the sinister atmosphere of the original track.

Sorry about the prod, I recorded this by my poor way . I used an analogic cordon wich I plugged on my PC, hence the blower. When the arrangement will be finished, I’ll record this with a real acoustic piano. Some parts are also too difficult to me; but, idem, with a real piano I think I’ll manage more to play it.

Any feedbacks, good or bad, are welcome! Hope you enjoy...

Thanks

[Daybreaker]

There's no melody. Like you said, it's very atmospheric. It makes for a very nice, subtle background--whoa, take that back, just hit the end part. Okay, until the end part, it makes for a very nice subtle background, but I don't think it works well as a song.

[MojoHamster]

I quite enjoyed this piece. I subscribed to your Youtube page so hopefully I can hear the HQ recording. I felt there was just enough suspense in trying to guess what the next chord in the progression might be to keep it interesting.

I do love the arpeggios from The Deceased Laugh too. Well, I enjoy the FFX soundtrack immensely.

From my somewhat amateurish point of view I would say the most important thing to concentrate on when you come to record this is the dynamics and thus expression. Nothing felt too jagged or forced in that initial recording and it needs to stay that way.

Ultimately the challenge when trying to show quality in a piece with a lengthy and more basically arranged section in the middle is to show that you have purpose.

[Eino Keskitalo]

I'm agreeing with MojoHamster a lot. I really like this piece, it does require a lot of expression to pull off satisfyingly, but I think you can do it. I'm looking forward to the final piece!

--Eino

[bluelighter]

Thanks guys for comment!

I agree this version need more expression. Normally, with a real piano, there are more contrasts between different parts. I’m going to work more on arrangement (some transitions don’t work IMO). And, I’ve to train more on piano.

After, I hope I can make the real record!

[bluelighter]

Hi!

Here is the last vesion.

http://www.reverbnation.com/bluelighter

I've made the record with a real acoustic piano, so the result is cleaner. I think the mix is nearly finished. There is only the end where I made a little mistake. The last concord must be more late. I'll try to correct it at the last trainning

I don't hope to post this some day on OCR. I know the arrangement is not enough for standards. But, I hope this piece has now more consistency.

Hope you enjoy !

[Eino Keskitalo]

It sounds very beautiful on the piano. Mad skills. I think this does a really good job making an interpretation of the original, which is basically "just" synth chord washes.

The suspense overall in the piece is pretty good. I do feel I zone off a bit in the part that begins at 02:54 - I kind of wish it would surprise me a bit in some way, or maybe the dynamics/expression in that part isn't quite as good as in the previous part. That's pretty much the only crit I have, though of course in such a moody and minimalistic piece it affects the whole piece. But the piece is pretty good already, I just feel it could be improved a bit in that area.

I'm of course not a judge, but I don't see why this arrangement couldn't end up in the front page - this place is supposedly open to all genres of music, and this is a creative VGM interpretation that's (IMHO) pretty close to being great.

--Eino

[bluelighter]

Thanks man!

I'm glad that you like this arrangement!!

The part at 2:54 has the quality sound as the whole piece. But, seeing that I play in high-piched, we well hear the light noises there are back.

I don't have studio to record in. It's the reason why I can't post it on OCR. I'll think to a solution to record this.

Thank for your comment

[bluelighter]

Hi!

I've finally made a new record, now directly linked to a synthetisor. I find the sound cleaner

http://www.reverbnation.com/bluelighter

(the first of the list)

I have put some reverb on this, I wonder if there is not too much. I had choice between this or a sound really to dry.

Also, I wonder if the result is enough loud. I couldn't do better because of saturation at the end.

What do you find about this? Is this quality of record presentable to OCR?

Thanks for your feedbacks

[Eino Keskitalo]

Hey, cool to see an update! I'm still enjoying it a lot. I'll try to give it a closer listen later to comment on the reverb and piano sound.

--Eino

[bluelighter]

Hey, cool to see an update! I'm still enjoying it a lot. I'll try to give it a closer listen later to comment on the reverb and piano sound.

--Eino

It would be great

[timaeus222]

It's not the amount of reverb that's an issue with this track; it's the reverb preset you're using. Perhaps you can spend some time experimenting with more reverbs? This sort of sounds like hall reverb, just a guess. Maybe you can try something else and compare?

[bluelighter]

Thank you!

I've put another file without reverb added after the record. What do you think about it? Is it too dry?

http://www.reverbnation.com/bluelighter

I feel it acceptable but I'd need an extern ear

[Eino Keskitalo]

It took me a while, but here's a few more comments.

Doesn't sound too dry to me. The piano sound seems ok to me as well. I think I liked the real piano sound more, but it was some time ago so I can't be sure. It sounds good enough to me in any case, especially the quieter parts. Of course I can't speak for the judges panel, I think I have a lower standard for production/sound quality than them.

I had to turn up the volume on the computer to hear the track properly, so it's a bit quiet on the quiet sections. The loud things are then really loud! Then again, classical music usually has a big dynamic range.

I feel like the arrangement gets a bit predictable as it progresses in my opinion, and I sometimes lose focus on listening to it (around 03:30 maybe?). But sometimes it seems just fine. I don't have a concrete suggestion unfortunately. I do enjoy the minimalistic style/feel at the same time.

You could see what the workshop moderators think by setting the thread up for mod review.

--Eino

[bluelighter]

Thank you!

I post it on OCR. For the moment, this record is the best I can do with my way.

I've amplified it and compare with other piano pieces of OCR. It's a little less loud; but I think the volume is acceptable.

Let's see if it will be accepted

[bluelighter]

Hi,

Further to the OCR feedback (

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43014), I’ve understood my arrangement was not developed enough.

I’ve worked on a better version: introduction and first part conserved, 2nd part rethought. For this last one, I’ve introduced the melody of Seymour Theme, that well marry with harmonies of Twillight.

www.reverbnation.com/bluelighter

(First position, and 2nd for the old version)

What do you think of this new arrangement?

This version is a demo, I’ve not recorded this in ideal conditions. There are some parasite noises those I can’t delete. To have the best quality recording, which solution would you recommend?

• Acoustic piano: better sound of the instrument but risk of parasite noise. Are there some mixing to apply on it to get an acceptable version? Or must we use a real studio for this kind of record?
  

• Electric piano: directly linked to recorder. Weaker quality sound IMO but not noise.
  

For these two attempt, I had feedback of really poor sound quality. I understand but I don't know how get sthg better at this step.

There would be also solution of MIDI keyboard. But, I don't think it will allow me to keep the play feeling (tempo nuance, random speed notes at the end...)

Thanks for your help !