Liontamer Posted June 3, 2023 Share Posted June 3, 2023 Remixer name: The Coop Real name: M.T. Yankovich E-mail address: Website: N/A UserID: 4510 Game arranged: Thunder Force V Arrangement name: "Guardian Unknown" Song arranged: "The Justice Ray Part 2" Song composers: Hyakutaro Tsukumo, Tek Tek, Tomomi Otani Game system: SEGA Saturn Thunder Force V OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yPWibjhBWo Comments: Greetings folks. Yeah, it's been many, many years since I submitted something, but I figured I'd throw caution to the wind and... here I am. This is a piano-arrangement of the song "The Justice Ray Part 2" from the Tecno Soft game, Thunder Force V on the SEGA Saturn (it's on the PS1 as well, but I grew up with the Saturn version, so...). Besides the drastic change in terms of musical instruments used and tempo, I also did a little shuffling to the original song's structure, moving some sections of it around to fit with the more somber-at-times tone of my arrangement. I still tried to capture the energy of the original tune at times as well, giving the song a chance to swell, fall back, and whatnot. It this remix was inspired a loooog time ago, when I was trying to do an orchestral remix of the same TFV song. That remix was basically finished, but it fizzled out in the end. A little while later, I tried to do a piano-solo version, but that too fizzled out after it got pretty far along. That piano-solo remix sat dormant for about 13 years, and I eventually found it and decided it was time to get it done. I sat down, reworked what I'd written, and finally finished it. The song title is inspired by the glitchy speech that comes up as the game warns you of the approaching final boss, and the on-screen text that reads, "Area Guard Name: Unknown." I've attached a 192kb/s MP3 of the remix to this email, and here's a link to the same file on my Dropbox account. I've had this account for years, so it's not going anywhere (I hope)... Thanks for taking the time to listen to it, and... well, here's hoping! -TC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 Wow, it's been almost 20 years since we posted a The Coop mix! Unreal. I'm not a pianist, and I know some folks here have opinions about piano performance, but I'll leave that to them. What I hear is a clever arrangement that uses the melody of the source almost exactly, but utterly changes the tone into something new. The playing sounds great as far as I can tell. The recording is oddly bass-heavy. I don't have specific advice about improving that, again because I don't have experience recording live piano; you could certainly EQ it but I'm sure there's a more elegant, natural way to improve the tone. Sounds great to me otherwise. Welcome back. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 27, 2023 Share Posted July 27, 2023 bold opening complete with some borrowed chords, an auspicious start. coop purposefully turns the energy down quickly, and switches to a slower tempo right away after that big opening. i hear a lot of the block fifths in the left hand that i heard in the last arrangement i spent time with of his (for the chrono cross soundtrack you can hear it here at like 0:40), as well as the constant movement of eighth notes jumping between fingers and octaves that he used there (1:09 is an example of this). coop's focus on a consistently represented melody above a ton of interesting middle-octave stuff is a great choice, letting the theme soar above the more complex backing parts. he again brings the energy back in a false resolution at 1:47, and continues the octave-jumping left hand fifths through the original's chord progression, and then very slowly builds back up with some nice dissonance over repeated left hand block chords. this builds towards a key change that brings it home to a very quiet resolution. this track does a great job maintaining the intensity of the original without the big percussion or huge dynamics. there's a quiet energy here that's great and consistent, and the track is both well-played and well-arranged. nice work coop. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 16, 2023 Author Share Posted August 16, 2023 Amazing source tune choice. It sounds like something straight out of 2000s New Japan Pro Wrestling. The track was 4:10-long, so I needed to indentify the theme for at least 125 seconds for the source material to be considered dominant. This was transformative enough for the adaptation to piano, with its ornamentations and all that, that I may have overlooked lots of other direct references to the source. I'll just time out what I heard on an initial look: :00-:10, :28.75-1:01, 1:07-1:21, 1:31.5-1:48, 2:03-2:32, 3:19.25-3:52 = 134.5 seconds or 53.8% overt source usage No worries there on invoking the source theme enough, just doing a trust-but-verify to tick the box. The sound quality of the piano's firmly in the uncanny valley, so it's definitely not my cup of tea, but at least the piano tone has a reasonable amount of body and the soundscape sounds nice and roomy for it, letting the sustains resonate. It's got good energy and dynamics to keep the presentation as vibrant as it can be. I'm not a gambling man, so I definitely wouldn't have bet my chips on a return from The Coop; what a pleasant surprise! It looks like a welcome back to the front page. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 I'm glad Larry did the timestamp so I am not going to worry about source, but I hear it as MW does, tons of source played very uniquely and differently. The playing is luscious, competent and emotive. The piano sample used could be better, especially considering this is a solo piece, but this doesn't detract for me; it is certainly a good enough sample for this purpose. The arrangement has great dynamics all the way through. Fabulous reimagining of this source tune. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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