Zelda: A Link to the Past Staff Roll

[heymagurany]

This arrangement is the First part of the Staff Roll of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and the song "Transatlantism" by Death Cab for Cutie smashed together. It seemed like a clever idea, but I'd like to know if this works or if it's too slow and/or boring.

Source Tracks:

 

My arrangement:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nFy2hvu_NGzPGG1LkO6Sftr9rTuNPzIS/view?usp=sharing

Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks!

Edited October 21, 2020 by heymagurany

[heymagurany]

I bumped the bpm a little and fixed some backing guitar issues. I think it's ready for an evaluator's ear. Of course I'll take any ear willing to spend a few minutes with my arrangement. 

[Souperion]

I kinda like how quiet the percussion is at the start, but as you introduce new elements, it becomes quite hard to hear, such as around 1:00. Try bumping it up a notch or two so it remains audible until that drumkit comes in at 2:51. Besides that, I enjoyed the expressive guitar and piano works on a good classic. It turns the victorious fanfare into a more reflective, introspective tune that grows into a triumph. Nice work here, keep it up. If you haven't already, just shoot one of the evaluators a personal message and they'll do their best to get to ya.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Souperion

[heymagurany]

Thanks for the listen and feedback, @Souperion! So I intentionally let those drums fade completely in the background. But I like the idea of keeping it a little more present. Listening to the Death Cab track, the drums stay faintly audible until the drums enter. I'll give that a try!

Is it pretty typical to have to dm the evaluators directory for a review these days?

[Souperion]

No problem.

2 hours ago, heymagurany said:

Is it pretty typical to have to dm the evaluators directory for a review these days?

As far as I'm aware. Them evaluators are a busy bunch, but a dm will get you a review in a week or so.

[timaeus222]

I don't think I have much to say here on the arrangement itself, but I will say I'm somewhat concerned that the degree you are incorporating Transatlanticism might give you issues with copyright. Maybe @Liontamer can check this out and see what he thinks. I'm pretty sure it isn't directly sampling the original, but it's closely emulating it while mashing it in. Besides that, I think the pacing is good for this context, and most of the production is already solid. Great guitar tones, and I'm not worried about them sounding unrealistic.

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I would just have a few things to say about the humanization or production.

- The piano at the beginning is a bit stiff, so you can offset the start time of the chord notes a bit more to soften the attack.

- The drums at 2:51 (mainly the snare) sound mechanical to me. It seems like the snare is about the same velocity the whole way through, and it sounds like one sample. I would at least lower every other note's velocity so that not every note is exactly the same. This is probably the biggest issue for me besides the potential for being too similar to a licensed song.

- The part at 5:27 and on is pretty loud. Maybe it's because of the added rhythm guitars there, but the whole thing sounds collectively louder than what came before it for whatever reason. Try lowering the volume of the rhythm guitars for that section and try to match the loudness of what came right before, and that should do it. Not really a dealbreaker but I figured I'd mention it.

Edited December 6, 2020 by timaeus222

[heymagurany]

Thanks, @timaeus222! I'll get to incorporating that feedback. I didn't sample anything from the the Death Cab track. Believe it or not, the chord progression of the Zelda track and the Death Cab track are the same, albeit in different keys. Perhaps I picked up on that subconsciously and that's what inspired this mix.