OCR04788 - *YES* Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Zelda's Daydream"

[Liontamer]

Artist Name: Shea's Violin

I started arranging this song on a live stream but I made a mistake and forgot to change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4 before I recorded a piano part for it. Without realizing what I had done, I started recording the violin lead line and very quickly found out that I had the time signature wrong, but I improvised the lead line to fit into the 4/4 structure. At the end of the first take I listened back and I really liked how it sounded: lazy, drifting, dreamy, wandering. I kept the first take and built the rest of the song around this "Bob Ross Happy Accident (tm)."

On the second pass through the melody, I gave the guitar and mandolin a very free interpretation of the melody before heading to a solo section and bringing the melody back at the end with a reharmonized version of the source borrowing the Eb from the B section before ending back at the tonic.

I almost didn't post this because it was such a deviation from the source and spawned from an accident, but after I did I got several messages asking me to submit this to OCR, so here we are!

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Games & Sources

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time: Zelda's Lullaby

[Liontamer]

Sounds lovely. I dug the acoustic guitar vamping at 1:10 and appreciated things cricling back to more overt variations of the melody at 1:30. The shift back into the violin taking point at 2:15 was cool, and I enjoyed how it was produced, as it sounds more like an e-violin. Rancho relaxo throughout and has tons of personality; nice work, Shea! :-)

YES

[prophetik music]

opening is a touch off in timing, which was a bit jarring for the first bit of a piece. violin has a ton of bow noise, which is a neat way to make it feel very organic and nearby. the 3 vs 4 feel of the vin against the piano is nice. a few of the vin attacks are questionable, but the sustained tone is beautiful.

rest of the band comes in at 1:06, and this entrance is also a little shady. guitar work is just beautiful. violin sustains sounded a touch loud, and the bass doesn't quite fit the rest of the acoustic instruments, but does a nice job keeping the track moving in a rhythmic fashion. 

subsequent solo section at 2:14 is more muted, and again i appreciate the earthiness of the violin playing style. there's one more recap of the B theme and then the A melodic material with some new chords, and it's done.

from an arrangement perspective, this is a fun, languid take on an iconic theme. there's actually more soloing (and less source) than i originally thought on my first playthrough, but certainly a preponderance of it. from a mastering perspective, i think that it felt louder than it needed to be, and that the guitar especially had more highs than i wanted given the amount of hard attacks you had with it. overall, though, this is well over the bar. it's a strong addition to the catalog despite a few issues with mastering and performance.

 

 

YES

[Emunator]

I love when happy accidents like that completely end up changing the course of an entire arrangement :) I think it led you to somewhere fantastic in this case, because Zelda's Lullaby inherently leaves a ton of space between the notes that allow you to play around with improvisation without pulling too far away from the core melody. There was never a point where I doubted whether or not we were still in Zelda's Lullaby territory. Your palette of instruments is on full display here, and everything is in its right place - the recording quality is unilaterally warm and lush, and you handled the mixing and mastering with care.

I do think that some of the parts feel a little too improvised, and this is felt particularly during some of the transitions when you add or subtract instruments from the ensemble feeling just a little bit sloppy. There's certainly potential for this piece to be a little tighter with a few re-records, but it's hard to deny the charm it has in its current state, either. I loved it and think the community at large will too!

YES

[Chimpazilla]

This is lovely.  I do agree with most of the little nitpicks mentioned by the other Js, some of the violin attacks are slightly awkward, the violin is mixed a bit loud as are the guitars when they come in, the performances feel almost too loose at times, but it feels so real and organic, completely charming, it makes me smile.  Great combination of instruments.  Really nice personalizations on the theme, super nice work.

YES