prophetik music ⚖️ Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Other artists/credits: jnWake (Electric Piano, Lead Synth, Organ) roqdrummer (Drums) streifig (Lead & Additional Guitar) Nivan Sharma (Lead & Additional Guitar) Justin Wilbanks (Drum Recording & Editing) Besides the arrangement, I also handled the bass parts, rhythm guitars (and some additional guitars), vocals, and mixing and mastering. I was inspired to arrange this song after seeing the band F8-Bit perform it live. At home, I picked up my 6-string guitar and started playing some arpeggios reminiscent of the chord progression in the second-to-last section. In reality, I was playing a guitar part very similar to a part I came up with for one of my band's songs that happens to have a pretty similar chord progression; that part was ironically inspired by Chrono Trigger/Cross and Yasunori Mitsuda in general, so I thought it would be poetic to use it as a base to start my arrangement. My guitar was also tuned to Eb standard, and I was playing the section in Eb minor, even though the original section was in B minor, so it results in a wildly different key than the original for the intro; once the band kicks in and the original first section kicks in, it transitions to G# minor, a half-step down from the original, and it remains a half-step down throughout the song and the two key changes found in the song. The structure is more or less like the original, aside from some added bars in some transitions, as well as the last two sections each having a repetition; the OG second-to-last section starts with a more laid-back variant much like the original, but then it explodes into a bombastic, epic version, featuring streifig's huge lead guitars. Then, with an extra sick drum and guitar fill, the final section starts without the melody and instead has a beautiful and melodic guitar solo (handled by my longtime vgm friend Nivan Sharma!), before finally coming back to the original melody (with an added harmony!), and an extra little set of rhythmic jabs and a drum fill to send it off. Style and genre wise, I labelled this as Prog Rock/Prog Metal in my YouTube upload title, as I typically do on my channel as the best-fitting label, but I also took some inspiration from some post-rock/space rock with the shimmery and big reverby guitars (big reason why streifig was invited onto this project!), as well as more alternative metal and post-hardcore music when it comes to the driving rhythm of the drum part I gave to Roque, and the kind of rhythm guitar parts I came up with; the arrangement inevitably became more proggy with what I got back from Roque though, as well as the bass and keyboard parts, and the rhythm guitar parts aren't especially noticeable or at the forefront with the melodies and other embellishments added on top. This was originally done as a submission to Dwelling of Duels in March of 2025 for one of its Free months. Since then, I recently did some mixing/mastering touch ups and finally uploaded it to my own YouTube channel at the start of July. Games & Sources Chrono Trigger - Chrono Trigger Chrono Trigger - Schala's Theme Chrono Cross - Radical Dreamers ~Le Tresor Interdit~ These two are not the focus of the arrangement, and are just referenced as easter eggs that are pretty subtle, especially Schala's Theme; the main melody is referenced in the intro section by a guitar kind of in the background, and Radical Dreamers is referenced in the second quieter section in the middle and the bigger section right after that by a few instruments; first by a shimmery clean guitar + vocals doing the Chrono Cross melody (which is important in the game's story), and another background guitar doing the main melody; then in the bigger section, the CC melody is played by the lead synth. In both sections, one or two guitar parts reference the guitar arpeggios. Wasn't entirely sure if I really needed to note these sources since they're just easter eggs, but maybe better safe than sorry.
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted August 1 Author Posted August 1 opens with some vocals over guitars. the guitar parts sound really nuanced and nice here, and the vocals sound pretty indie. there's a huge build into 0:46, and i love the pause on the chord that is used for this. band tone is great and in your face, especially the kick beater which i really like. bass guitar tone is lost a little. the characteristic CT funk sound starts at 1:05, and there's some fun backing elements here to keep it fresh. lead guitar at 1:36 sounds fantastic. the panned rhythm elements in this section are IMO too panned and are distractingly wide, but i like what they're doing. there's a big break at 2:03 with some nice percussive elements and little blurbs in the instrumentation. the vocals here form a nice pad to everything else. another big build into 2:37, and i again like how driving and heavy the kick especially is here. 3:02's a hair-raiser, and the immediately following section is fantastic - that first chord is excellent. layering in the synth lead from earlier with the last piece of the melodic content as part of a harmonized end line is great. there's a final chord and it's done. what a ride! the opening was a little worrisome given the vox sounding pretty meh, but this takes off and never looks back. i really enjoy the overall shape of the piece and the highs are just perfect. excellent work. YES
Liontamer ⚖️ Posted August 8 Posted August 8 Chronolicious. :-) I disagreed with the intro box not sounding good; I was definitely here for it and it sounded fitting for the mood of the intro, no qualifications necessary. I didn’t make out any "Schala" but heard "Radical Dreamers" usage around 2:17, so someone else can clue me in on where that was overlooked for "Schala". Everyone handled their parts beautifully. Special shoutout to roqdrummer for really sophisticated perc work that had major synergy with the rest of the performers. Epic treatment, BBB and crew, this was amazing. YES
Hemophiliac ⚖️ Posted August 12 Posted August 12 Initially got worried by this intro because these opening vocals are delicate and don't seem to be landing directly on the note (the pitch, but you do immediately correct yourself). Fortunately this is just an understated intro to set the mood. Once we get past that, we're launched into the stratosphere in the Epoch. Gotta say, production on this one is fantastic. The balance of parts is especially well done and the drums are killer. Overall the structure is mostly the same as the original, which is fine. The devil's in the details on this one. The countermelodies and embellishments are highlights for me, such as at 1:18-1:20 (sounds like a synth panned right). Adding an extra few bars for transition at 1:01-1:04 was great. The 3:03-3:21 new material was excellent, that's the kind of stuff we love to see here. I'd like to see some more of that in the future. This is a semi-conservative but fun arrangement with some personalization. The instrumental performances are strong and the production is excellent with some of the best drum mixing I've heard in a while (live drums do wonders!). Great work Triple B and crew! YES
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