*NO* Touhou Eiyashou: Imperishable Night "Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect Orchestral Arrangement"

[Emunator]

ReMixer Name: Parmpreet Gill

Real Name: Parmpreet Gill

UserID: 37312

 

Original Game: Touhou 8: Imperishable Night

Arrangement: Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect Orchestral Arrangement

Original Song: Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect

 

Additional Information:

Original Composer: ZUN

 

This is an orchestral arrangement of the stage 1 boss theme from Touhou 8. I took the original chord progression and melody, and spread it across a wide range of orchestral instruments. I tried to retain the original identity of the track while adding in my own embellishments. There is a simple counter melody being played by the clarinet and french horn. It is subtle but still noticeable if one listens closely. The several percussion instruments used also lend for a sense of rhythm not found in the original piece.

 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kAOz5huQg0

 

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Liontamer
closed decision

[prophetik music]

at least 4db headroom on this one.

pretty straightforward presentation of the melody originally. the violins are playing spiccato from the sound of it, which is a bit of a weird choice. i'm guessing this is due to sample limitation since it sounds pretty not good. there's a key change at 0:41 with more of the same in a lower key this time. there's another transition to the intro lick at 1:04, and it's back through the same thing we already heard, with no real ending. from an arrangement perspective, this ain't it, daddy - there's essentially one minute of cover here (which is itself repeated twice each time) repeated a total of two times. there's little to no adaptation apart from the instrumentation change. the countermelody you mentioned is entirely inaudible thanks to no real ensemble panning or setting of the soundstage (more on that later), leaving us with a melodic line that's essentially cribbed directly out of the original with no modification, and block chords underneath that which don't really do anything else. the percussion concept is nice but it's repeated the entire track and doesn't really change much. the ritard that occurs at the beginning of the one-minute loop is nice, and a good throwback to the original, so that's good. there's not really any dynamic contrast, either, which is disappointing because that's an easy way to add flexibility and contrast to a track like this. lastly, it's really short, which makes it harder to add transformative content to a mix.

from a technical perspective, there's several issues here. the first is that your samples are not terrible, but they're not being used in a fashion that's idiomatic. an example is using the spiccato ('bouncing') articulation for the strings in the melody. that's not something that'd be used for fast moving lines, and as a result sounds weird when it's being used for faster runs. similarly, the trumpet that mirrors the melody is sustaining the entire bar, and never breaks for a pseudo-breath or anything. this also adds to the uncanny valley sound that makes it sound more fake. the second technical issue is that everything's right in the middle so it's difficult to identify what instruments are doing what, and it mashes the sound together. subtle panning would do wonders for allowing the ear to differentiate between what's going on. the third issue i'll point out is the dense orchestration. you've got a lot of instruments just mirroring each other. be more intentional about what's doing what, so that there's room to fit in more countermelodies or other concepts.

this needs a lot of workshopping. i'd suggest breaking it down to just the first loop - roughly the first minute or so - and then building out from there. think about new ways to update the melody, ideas to expand the melodic and harmonic content, and ways to add dynamics as a starting point.

 

 

NO

Edited January 11, 2022 by prophetik music

[MindWanderer]

I was going to write almost exactly the same thing, just in fewer words.  Artificial instrumentation, too conservative and too little variation, and mastered too quietly.  proph goes into more detail, so read his evaluation closely and take it to heart.

NO

[DarkSim]

Not much I can add to prophetik's excellent feedback on this one, but I will say that there's already a terrific Touhou orchestral arrangement on this site from a different game, but a similar-sounding source. Have a listen to PrototypeRaptor's amazing Devil's Advocate from 2010, and try to strive for these heights! Pay attention to the progression, the dynamics, and the ebb and flow of the instrumentation. I'm not saying it needs to be as good as Devil's Advocate, but there's a lot you could learn from that ReMix that would help you here. Best of luck!

NO