prophetik music Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 (edited) I started with stating the piano melody pretty much verbatim. I wanted to establish the track so the listener would know exactly which piece from the game was being arranged. I began to change things up when the vocalist came in, and from there the piece becomes more fluid. The feel stays the same, but the progressions begin to change up as the guitar improvises over top. The piano begins to get more varied and complex as the piece progresses until reaching the climax. This was the main reason I decided to change from a cello to a singer, because I wanted to up the drama here. The piece ends with a restatement of the original tune, to tie it all up with a bow. Games & Sources Game: Xenogears Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda Source track: Lost... Broken Shards Youtube link: Edited 21 hours ago by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 several db of headroom. opens with the piano part straight from the original (same tempo, key, etc). a voice synth comes in instead of a cello and does roughly the same as what's in the original initially, but there's some nice movement around 0:40 or so. i think the instrument sounds a lot better in the higher ranges than it does in the lower ranges. a guitar comes in at 0:50 and does some more improvisatory material. around here, i really started to notice the fakeness of the piano part - many of the rolled chords have too much tension on them (the last note is too late), and meanwhile the left hand is just robotically plunking through the bassline without ever having any changes to velocity. the guitar work overall is pretty solid but it's clearly not live either. the track continues to comp through the chords until we get to a more upbeat transition into 2:26, and a switch to a triple feel. the singer tone here is a little confusing next to the piano given that it should be way stronger given where the singer's singing in 'her' range, and the piano's much louder than the voice part. the lack of velocitization through these running passages is even more noticeable in the keys - just very robotic. it goes through the A portion of the theme one more time and is done. i think this is a nice take from an arrangement standpoint on this theme. you do a lot to flesh it out over time, although i think there's probably too much straight from the original in the opening 30-40s. i like your combination of instruments as well - i agree that the idea of the singer is nice, but i'm not sure the execution is there. same with the guitar and keys, honestly - this track is screaming for live performers, and i think you'd be able to find them in the community easily. that's not to say that live is required to be posted of course - but the robotic nature of the performance for all three elements is a huge issue, and that's a relatively easy fix. this is a neat idea! i think it needs more time in the cooker. i think spending some time really carefully velocitizing the piano part, and maybe getting some help on the other elements, will really pay off. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Alright, sounds like a straightforward piano adaptation to start. Vox comes in at :18. Seems like it may gradually rise and take some turns. Plucked guitar joins in at :49 with original writing; not the most focused initial section until 1:11, though it then gets a little more interactive with the source arrangement. Arrangement-wise, I respect the approach, which was more additive with original writing, but also had some reasonable interplay & interpretation via the vox and guitar; proph brought up some sections feeling too straightforward, and I hear what he means, but there's no dealbreakers in going this route; nothing to touch there, IMO. The instrumentation's deep in the uncanny valley though, so I wish it had a more natural, humanized sound. It doesn't need live performers, Justin, but some production TLC for a richer tones and more fluid articulations would put this over the top for me. Definitely use the Workshop forum and/or Discord channel to see what more could be done to get some more refinements in place. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted 21 hours ago Share Posted 21 hours ago As the two previous judges have mentioned, the arrangement on this is not at all the issue here. I like the conservative approach with minor additions throughout. The arrangement itself is very pleasant and I could listen to this on loop with more work put into it. The interplay between the guitar and the piano is very pleasant, however; the guitar is mixed behind the piano and is tougher to focus on with the piano being much more forward. I don't love the vox but it's possible to get by with this sample. As a vocalist myself, I'm always bothered when I hear forte timbre being applied softly through samples. It just sounds unnatural. Unfortunately, the humanization of all of the parts is the drawback here. With only 3 parts, they are exposed and it makes it easier to hear when things aren't as realistic sounding as they could be. If you don't want to get live performances, that's fine. You'll just need to spend a lot of time working on the fine details of performance to sound more in line with a human performance. Now, I'm not saying things are robotic here, but they certainly could be improved. 2:33-2:56 in particular (in the piano) stood out as it seems no pedaling was utilized here. Exaggerate what you've already put in as well as adding more human rhythm/velocity variation will go a long way to improving this. Just not quite passed the finish line yet. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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