DragonAvenger Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Hello, Here is a submission of mine of an arrangment I have just completed, titled "Booster's Waltz", from Super Mario RPG: ReMixer name: LemonLime Name: Christian Floisand Email: christian@christianfloisand.com userid: 44839 Game: Super Mario RPG Song arranged: Welcome to Booster Tower Composed by: Yoko Shimomura Comments: The first thing you'll notice with this track is that it's just straight up, solo piano, which I haven't heard much of on OCRemix. I was listening to some old favorite video game music tracks and this one always stuck in my head from the moment I heard it in this wonderful game. I love the humour and absurdity of the original track and began improvising on the piano and found that it lent itself very well to a waltz treatment. So here we have a nice graceful, Chopin-esque waltz to play against the bizarre character of Booster. Thanks very much for your time! Best regards, Christian Floisand ------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Nice personalization, the implied feel of 6/8 in the original brought into a true 6/8 is nice, and the playing is pretty good. I do think the structure is pretty conservative, and the dynamics could be a little more pronounced, as well as some additional rubato, but overall I enjoyed this. The arrangement is solid, but I think you could have sold the performance a little more, by really increasing the drama. The most memorable part is when you slowly shift down to a more subdued dynamic. I do think this is over the bar, however. Good luck with the rest of the votes. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 I'm a bit on the fence for this one. Firstly, the style adaption and time signature change works really well; you were able to keep the Shimomura flavor along with adding that Chopinesque syle. As Andrew says, overall hte song feels a little reserved, when I think you could have really exaggerated the dynamics and tempo changes to get more effect. Along with that, I feel like the song itself feels a little rigid, not exactly sure why. Regardless of all that though, there are some really fun moments, like the modulation to major towards the end. I do think the good outweighs the bad here, but it's a close call, to be sure. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 This is a really neat arrangement, but like the other judges said, it could definitely have been improved with a bit more restraint on the performance/volume to give this a much greater sense of dynamics. The transition at 1:55 really needs to be smoothed out though, that should be a simple timing fix though. That said, I'm in the same camp with Deia and OA in thinking that this is still above the bar in its current form except for that one sloppy transition. It's a great take on the theme that, despite its faults, still manages to be extremely enjoyable and endearing. YES (conditional on 1:55 fix) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 I don't really have much to add to what's already been said. Nice personalization and performance. It does feel a somewhat rigid as Deia mentioned and could really benefit a lot from more dynamics and rubato as Mr. Luers pointed out. A little hesitant on the transition at 1:55, but it feels minor to me and doesn't detriment the track too much. Though there's potential for more, I don't want to make the perfect the enemy of the good Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Great arrangement, the adaptation to a Chopin-esque waltz is completely natural. I thought the writing struck an excellent balance between the source and your original additions. There were a few things that could have been better, and they are significant, I'm afraid. The lack of rubato hurts and gives this a rigidness that a Chopin waltz would not have. There's a number of moments where I expected you to slow down, but it never happened. If you wanted a pause at 1:55, it should have been longer; it sounds like a mistake though a minor one. However, the most important thing I heard was the lack of dynamic range. Did you compress this? It sounds like there's a lot of compression going on, and the piano's natural dynamic range is missing. Like, I can hear quiet parts but they sound nearly as loud as the loud parts. I wonder if that easy fix would improve this a lot. As it stands, I can't sign off on this. There's a lot of great stuff going on, but the issues are dragging it down. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Oof. If the arrangement's basically being true to form for this style by bascially having only one tempo, Christian, then the production really needs to be on point. The rigid piano articulations are definitely the obvious weak spot and affected the dynamics. Yeah, the little pause at 1:55 was kind of sloppy. Palpable also made a great point about the dynamic range of the piano sounding extremely compressed. Everything's basically at the same intensity, which doesn't make sense. I thought the arrangement was on the conservative side, but I can live with it. But the articulations and dynamic range simply need to be improved. Passing this would be pretty lopsided towards the arrangement. This isn't horrible, but the production needs more attention to detail. Use the Workshop forums, tug a few sleeves, and tweak a few details for the win. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Great arrangement, the adaptation to a Chopin-esque waltz is completely natural. I thought the writing struck an excellent balance between the source and your original additions. There were a few things that could have been better, and they are significant, I'm afraid. The lack of rubato hurts and gives this a rigidness that a Chopin waltz would not have. There's a number of moments where I expected you to slow down, but it never happened. If you wanted a pause at 1:55, it should have been longer; it sounds like a mistake though a minor one. However, the most important thing I heard was the lack of dynamic range. Did you compress this? It sounds like there's a lot of compression going on, and the piano's natural dynamic range is missing. Like, I can hear quiet parts but they sound nearly as loud as the loud parts. I wonder if that easy fix would improve this a lot. As it stands, I can't sign off on this. There's a lot of great stuff going on, but the issues are dragging it down.NO (resubmit) Yeah there's something up with the dynamic range in this piece. Everything is kind of sitting at one volume, despite the piano's articulations going from soft to loud. 1:55...what just happened? That's a very abrupt transition. I'd like to hear this re-recorded; I think the performance needs to be more varied in terms of volume and tempo. Try to be more expressive. Also the piece needs more dynamics, so try to avoid compressing the piece and let the dynamic range of the piano come through in the final product. NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 arrangement wasn't too crazy, but I enjoyed it. if the dynamics/articulations/tempo can be better humanized, then I'd be pretty comfortable with this. NO(resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 PRODUCTION [X] Unrealistic sequencing (particularly acoustic instrumentation, e.g. notes use the same velocities, mechanical timing) [X] Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics) STRUCTURE [X] Abrupt transitions [X] Pace too plodding - left hand in particular WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE TRACK [X] Creative arrangement ideas [X] Instrument choice NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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