DragonAvenger Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Listening Prescription: Headphones I couldn't test it on any real speakers, other than my laptop. And I feel like it's necessary, to catch all the nuances of a digital VSTi Piano. Contact Information ReMixer name: Shindoh Real name: Sean Husmann Website: Not Yet Your UserId: Still Pending Submission Information Name of game arranged: Street Fighter II Name of arrangement: Ken - Fighting the Piano Name of individual song arranged: Ken's Theme Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: Has already been added to website. Link to the original soundtrack: Already in sound archive. Own comments about the mix: My god, I love the original theme of Ken in Street Fighter II. This theme has been in my head ever since I was little, playing Street Fighter II on the SNES with my best friend. It never got old for me. Even after all these years, more than a decade later I still have moments where it just pops in my head, and I would repeatedly play with the melody and go freestyle with my mouth, changing small bits and pieces, dividing and adding notes. Why it is the way it is: My very first thought, directly after I got the idea to record it, was: "It has to be original". I thought why bother recording it, if You just copy the original, anyone can do that. What inspired me to use the piano was Reuben Kee's arrangement of a Final Fantasy Theme, "Those Who Fight on the Piano". I loved the power and energy it had. I think I never heard such a powerful piano piece before that. And noone had ever done this theme with a piano before. At least nothing I liked, otherwise I'd remember it. Then, who is Ken? - Ken is playful, full of energy, powerful and fast, never giving up, always coming back. So that should be the way I rearranged the music for the piano. Listening to it should make You feel excited, feeling the energy, watching Ken with Your ears. Colorful. Imagine the bass notes becoming his heavy punches, the higher the bass note, the higher the heavy punch. Imagine Ken's fighting, each main melody high note becoming a quick punch. With a grin on his face. A lot of back and forth and short notes represent his playfulness. After the main melody finishes, we get "Another Round!", the chorus kicks back in, now more powerful than before. Ken doesn't give up, he keeps fighting, gets back up. Here we go again!! The notes become Ken's voice for a moment: "I said...!". Now not only do I always have this theme in my head, but I love playing it on the piano. I love building up tension at the beginning. I would like to add: Reuben Kee has been a big inspiration to me, when I was younger. To see what beauty he could do and create, really motivated me. I cried more, than when my own grandpa died, when I heard what happened. ---------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 There are some interesting arrangement ideas, mainly how you approached the 'chorus'. I think there's a lot you could do to expand on this, and fill out the arrangement more, however. There are many times where you have only one line playing at a time, making things very sparse. I'd look into filling out your chords more, or incorporating some counter melodies. The piano overall sounds pretty mechanical, and could use some humanization. I'd definitely look at changing the velocities of the left hand, as they are hitting only as hard as possible, making the arrangement seem clunky. Some more dynamic variation would help as well. You've got a start here, but there is a long way to go. Keep at it! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 The sequencing is sounding pretty smashed, and though I understand that you are going for a powerful sound, there needs to be more variation. I do like the alterations done to the melody, but more often than not, it's just single bass notes and a single melody line, with no harmony or counter melody. Also somewhat strange is the strings intro and then solo piano. The concept of this is really interesting, but the execution needs to be more polished. No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Yeah, I'm really liking the arrangement here. You've got a great base to work with. However, I don't think this track quite nails down the level of nuance and dynamics that are needed for a solo piano mix. The sample quality itself definitely has a tinny-sounding quality to the mid/high-range notes, but that is probably a surmountable issue on its own. To get around that, you'll need to really work on your velocities, which are hammering away much too forcefully and consistently even for a hard-hitting piano track like this. This issue is most noticeable when you have the same key being struck several times in successful - even the most technical of performers would still show subtle differences in how they strike the key with each repetition. Basically, you need to scale back your velocity levels overall and save the max velocity hits for the most powerful moments in the song, and work on crafting something that has a little bit more flow and sounds more like it's actually being performed. In addition, I'll also agree with OA that the strings sound too out of place, though they might be a really nice fit if you were to bring them back in later in the arrangement. Truthfully, for OCR's standards, a 1:44 song would usually need some more expansion anyway in order to pass the bar, so if you feel like reworking this it might be cool to work in additional material that utilizes the orchestral elements in a more fleshed out way. Just some food for thought there NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts