Legend of Zelda - Various (Sea, Land and Sky)

[BenEmberley]

Hey everybody, got a new arrangement here.

This is an arrangement for full Orchestra, entitled "On the Sea, the Land and in the Sky", containing music from a few games in the Legend of Zelda Series.

After a brief introduction, where some of the themes are introduced, the music starts off in grand fashion with The Great Sea from Wind Waker.  Afterwards, there is a transition to a calmer, pastoral and serene collection of tunes from Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time, before the music builds up and concludes with a big, powerful rendition of The Sky from Skyward Sword.  Also made through Sibelius 7 and NotePerformer.  Hopefully, the strings don't sound so artificial!!

 

[JohnStacy]

Anytime somebody does an orchestral setting I get a little excited.

Orchestration is very nice.  There are a lot of good textures in use, both from the original setting, and with your personal choices. 
The first statement of the ocean theme at :41 I think could have a tiny bit more action in the strings.   They're just basically pads in the original, but for an orchestral arrangement, I don't think some added counterpoint would be unwelcome, simple things when the melody is sustaining.  Again at about 2:00, there is plenty going on in the brass so you don't need to make it more, but a slightly varied higher string texture.  The only reason I bring this up, is that lack of motion in the original bugged me just a little bit.  This is a tiny nitpicky thing.

The field theme is well done.

Transition to the sky theme, that would be breathtaking to hear live.

A thing I do in noteperformer is basically do 3 string layers.  One layer that is an ensemble, one layer of solo strings playing exactly the same thing, but down a dynamic level, and then a layer of short notes on the attacks, also down a dynamic.  I focus on the notes that would be a downbow when performed, and give those a marcato accent.  This is not needed in softer passages, just the heavier ones.  You can then hide those extra staves in sibelius so that your score doesn't get cluttered.  This is a small little thing that works wonders for the sound.  

If interested, I would enjoy recording horn for this.  It would be fun.

[Liontamer]

Arrangement-wise, this seems pretty solid, so that's at least a non-issue. There's a weird property with the string sustains in particular that does expose the samples; there's a warbly effect that sounds more like a fuzzyness than bow movement. Around 2:40, the bowed string samples are also pretty exposed & mechanical there; it's something that pervades the whole arrangement, so it'd be nice to have a musician who can speak to how to address that chime in. Around 3:30, the volume seemed too low, though I get the dynamic contrast involved. The shift to brass & woodwinds around 4:50 had good power behind the writing; the samples continued to strain credibility during some big flourishes (e.g. 5:27-5:33 in particular).

There's a lack of richness & tone in the samples that puts them in uncanny valley territory, though this is a strong base for the arrangement. If you could make the instrumentation sound fuller, it may help obscure some of the more exposed moments; I'd ask around in the Music Composition & Production area for advice, since I'm not saying that has to involve spending $ on other samples, but rather maximizing what you already have.

 

 

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[BenEmberley]

1 hour ago, Liontamer said:

 If you could make the instrumentation sound fuller, it may help obscure some of the more exposed moments

When you say this, do you refer to the orchestration of the piece or the Sample sounds made when I put it through NotePerformer??

[Liontamer]

2 hours ago, BenEmberley said:

When you say this, do you refer to the orchestration of the piece or the Sample sounds made when I put it through NotePerformer??

The sample sounds.

[BenEmberley]

OK, the video has been re-uploaded with a few edits and changes to the sounds, particularly in the strings.

[Liontamer]

On 1/26/2018 at 12:14 PM, BenEmberley said:

OK, the video has been re-uploaded with a few edits and changes to the sounds, particularly in the strings.

Sorry to forget about following up on this. There are still times where it's obvious the strings aren't real, and some later parts where big brass swells sound too thin/clean but that's never been the production cut-off here. Checking this out once again after your revisions, it feels to me like this is solid enough, no problem. I can't say for sure if this would pass as is, but I'd feel pretty confident in, and IMO I'm not making the perfect the enemy of the good, especially in light of the strong arrangement here. Send this on over, and please include a WAV if you still have one available. Nice work, Ben!

[Liontamer]

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