*NO* Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 'Home Is Where the Hearts Are'

[Emunator]

ReMixer name:  Deedubs

Real name:  Mike DeWeese

Email address:  

User ID #:  52934

 

Game arranged:  The Legend of Zelda:  Link's Awakening

Arrangement Name:  Home Is Where the Hearts Are

Song arranged:  House

 

Whenever I think of a video game tune that brings nostalgia, the "House" music from Link's Awakening seems to bring all the warm memories of childhood back to me.  I first played Link's Awakening as the holiday season was coming around, and in coastal Northern California, it would rain a lot during late fall and most of winter.  Rain would be falling outside as I'm playing the game on the Super Game Boy.  In game, shortly after walking into one of the houses of Mabe Village, I would just stop and listen.  The music that played sounded so peaceful along with the rain that was falling outside my house.

 

I often think of calm piano music as rainy day music, so I wanted to give "House" a good piano treatment, inspired by a few tracks from the Final Fantasy IV piano album.  I used Cinesamples Piano in Blue for this track because I feel it very much exemplifies the intimate feel I was going for.  The arrangement title is a reference to Link's house in A Link to the Past.

 

Thanks!

 

Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S48yGfAksC8

 

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Edited May 11, 2015 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Emunator]

I agree, there's a lot of untapped potential in the House theme from Link's Awakening and I think you did a nice job exploring a lot of the different possibilities here! Your piano sample is very nice quality, very soft and appropriate for the mood you're conveying. The arrangement itself has strong dynamics, with a very natural ebb and flow as you transition between softer and heavier sections.

 

Your track starts off strong but unfortunately the fact that this is a sequenced piano becomes readily apparent as the track goes on. It seems like there's some unnatural velocity patterns that start to appear throughout the track, but the bigger issue I'm hearing is how rigidly quantized all of the notes are. Not even the most technically-adept pianist would be able to play the notes this accurately to the metronome - you need to loosen up your timing to achieve a more natural flow. Right now, the note timing is just not convincing enough and unfortunately saps a lot of the life out of a very spirited arrangement.

 

There's a rendering error at 4:00 that you need to fix, too!

 

I have no issues with the arrangement or the writing itself but the stiff sequencing is not doing justice to your writing. Experiment with some less-hard quantization and introduce some timing adjustments so that it sounds more humanized, and I think you've got a winner. Good luck!

 

NO (resubmit!)

[Chimpazilla]

Well I am loving this arrangement!  I love that you started off in 4/4 and then at 1:38 you switch to 3/4.  Ah, I just love mixed time signature tracks.  You really did justice to this little source.  The transitions are smooth, and the interpreted sections are really lovely.  The writing gets almost a bit too original sometimes, but always comes back to identifiable source.  At 3:02 it's back to 4/4, smooth as buttah.  NICE.

 

Unfortunately, I agree with Wes about this piano sample.  Maybe it isn't the most velocity sensitive sample, I'm hoping it can just be switched out for a better sample or that you have a velocity-sensitivity slider that you can work with.  I hear plenty of dynamics throughout the track, and the playing is very lovely, but the velocities are quite stiff.  The note-timing is also stiff; if you quantized this after playing it, you may have done it too severely.

 

The piano tone is nice but it sounds somewhat muffled to me, and a bit lossy as well, and I hear some resonances on the louder notes.  I think this sample is holding the track back.  I'm tempted to yes this purely on how great the arrangement and writing are, but I'd really prefer some more work be done on getting the piano sample and quantization sounding just right.

 

NO (please resubmit)

[Liontamer]

In the attempt to give the piano sound some depth and room ambiance, I thought the soundscape sounded needlessly muffly; it wasn't a dealbreaker on its own.
 
During the flourish, the higher notes from :34-:39 were the first big indication that the sequencing was too rigid. :56-1:07, 1:19-1:36 & 1:50-2:14 in particular sounded very blocky, and really exposed the sample. Actually, 2:18-2:33's exposed as well, 2:50-2:54 is egregious.... OK, so basically the entirely of the track suffers from this, as I listen on. Anything softer like 3:01-3:12 ends up sounding less exposed, but really the whole thing's way too tightly timed.
 
Well, the arrangement is structurally conservative, but certainly interpretive; easy pass on that level. However, we'll never pass something with rigid timing like this vis a vis our current production standards.
 
MikeDubs, my man, this sounds like a mess. Some YouTube n00b commenter with no ear could claim this sounds great, and get swept up in the nostalgia, but this sounds robotic and devoid of life, which undermines a strong arrangement. The piano lacks body and realism, the dynamics are much flatter than the writing intended. Sorry to seem curt, that's just how internet comments look when you can't hear any emotional context. The arrangement is strong, but the sequencing/timing kills this dead, and you're much more talented than that just based on the Mega Man Harry Potter-esque arrangement of yours that we approved.
 
Like Chimpa and Emu have said, you need to adjust timings here to achieve a reasonably realistic/humanized feel to this. On the orchestration side, you've seemingly got things on lock as far as achieving a reasonably realistic sound. You're need that same standard when it comes to solo piano.

 

It's been a while since you've submitted this, so if you haven't improved how you use these samples since then, create a thread in the Music Composition & Production forum, name it "NEED HELP: Realistic sound using Cinesamples Piano in Blue", link this arrangement as an example, and see if anyone can give you more targeted advice.

NO (resubmit)