Noir

Ahhhh... but the Victory fanfare IS there! It's just not at the end, but in the middle (just before the tempo slows down before the "improv solo section"). Surprisingly, NOONE has realized it yet! I keep waiting for someone to go, "Oooh! Is that the victory fanfare in there?" but noone has. Maybe that's a good thing, because it was a total musical joke, and comes across as a really bad punn when people finally realize it's there... I've made many of my gamer friends really groan when they figure it out. About doing a remix of the victory fanfare, I DO actually have a version I've been working on now for a while. It's a flashy, running 16th note thing in 5/8 time. Although, it's just the original melodic line, and I usually just improvise a B section (the thing is SO short, it would need a lot of extra material to make it a stand alone piece). When I get around to actually writing some solid material for a B section, I may do a release of it. - Eric

Sure he did. The music in FF7:PC is exactly the same, they even did a fairly good job getting the midi to match, unlike in FF8:PC, where they did a less than adiquate job with the midi. Although strangely, I sort of like "Man with a Machine Gun" better in FF8:PC than in the PS version... weird. Anyway, that's for a different thread, I'm just babbling. - Eric

Sheet Music: I know this hasn't been brought up in this post yet, but I thought this would be a good time to say so. I'm getting A LOT of emails about sheet music for this, several per day now. I started writing sheet music for this while I was practicing, so I could solidify the arpeggios. I started getting requests while it was on WIP, so I went ahead and finished it. It's in PDF format, a 113K download. I just wish there was a sheet music section on OCR. http://www.oberlin.edu/student/ebarker/Jenova.pdf Knock yourself out - Eric

No problem, actually, I'm very impressed by the subtleties you picked up on here. Well, I still don't hear the pause at 0:45, but I bet if I took it into a wave editor, you might be right, there may be a slight hesitation, but I'm still not hearing it. As for 0:50, that's intentional, I always play that with a slight rallintando and then a slight accel, I think it raises a little tension during the rising 4ths. WOW, this is where I'm really impressed. I've never noticed that before, but you're right, heh, there is a wrong note there! It's a G when it should be a G#. It's just such an unaccented note, it slipped through the cracks, even listening over and over in the studio I didn't catch it. Hey, that's nothing to be ashamed of! "too sensitive" my ass, you're hearing can never be too accute! Anyway, true, this is a weak point... I'm assuming you're talking about the prelude. I was at a bit of a loss for how to approach this stylistically, because it's so damn hard to record well, I had to find a balance between having it smooth while having it still punch through and be audible as very concise single notes. But the side effect was that I played the first note of every pattern (especially coming down), a bit too hard. Seriously, this is the kind of critiquing I need... I was just not quite sure what you meant the first time, but thanks. - Eric

Gonna have to get a bit on the defensive here. There are a few minor speed issues, mostly having to do with rushing of repeated notes. All the major pauses were intentional, of course. Besides that, I don't know what you are reffering to. "shift hands up and down"? That actually has nothing to do with it. For my own material, I HATE A minor. Actually, having black keys in there helps your hands to get their berings. The reason is... *drumroll* the original was in A minor, and since different keys sound differently, I didn't want to change that. I always tend to play arrangements in their original key. I do share you're loathing of Chopin, but more for esthetic reasons. Never attempted to play him, primarilly because I'm really not interested. My composition teacher sometimes compares me to him, and I don't care for that, but then he also compares me to Scriabin... which more than makes up for the previous comment. Why? I played it no more or less the speed than I wanted it. If you talking about matching the original, I've always felt the orignal was too fast, and enevitably, so did Uematsu... check out the Black Mages version, it's about 72bpm (which most people complain about, but I think it helps to make it heavier and crunchier). This piano arrangement is sort of a happy medium (in more ways than one). As for "getting them down", I really don't know what you are reffering to, could you be a little more specific? Once again, I'm lost as to what you're talking about, what's that quote from? I've never heard it before. - Eric

Interesting thoughts. Well, for one thing, during the section that's up an octave, I switch up the bass, which goes into a 3 feel over the normal 4/4, creating a simple polyrythem, and makes it seem a bit off kilter and I think helps to make it a little more driving. It is interesting that you meantion the panning. That I deffinitely will look into. I think I had them panned around -60 and +60 (out of -100 to +100) left and right... which is usually a no no. I sorta went against my teachings there, usually they say to pan piano around 30-40 from the center, but I thought it helped to thicken the sound. But you're probably right, it should maybe be panned a little more subtly. In the future, I may try changing the arrangement for the second time through the melody line... basically, the only reason it's there is to get all the transitions in, and it's not very important. A bad reason to simply repeat it... it's sorta unlike me to do this, but I was silly/stupid/uninteresting, and did it anyway. - Eric

You people have said some great things... I'm glad there's been such a warm response... But actually, I'm even happier that there's been such a mixed response though. I wasn't writing this arrangement for everyone, and I'm actually quite tickled that it has caused so much debate and dissagreement... means I must be doing my job I'm not going for pure entertainment, after all. I am surprised that there was such arguement by the judges, though, over the beginning pedal point. To clarify things: yes, those dissonances were entirely intentional. It's a modal modulation of the prelude arpedgio through an octatonic (diminished) progression, over pedal point. In other words... yeah, it's sorta like playing in two keys at once. It was hard to do though, not because of the notes or anything... but because the prelude itself needs to be quite legato and smooth, while the bass should be punchy and not muddy... I'm not quite sure I acomplished exactly the best of both worlds, but I had to come to a fairly happy medium without things getting too runny and muddy. This also plays out a lot with the piano I was using (dumbass Yamaha grand... way too bright), and the recording equipment I used. There have been a lot of comments regarding the second half of the arrangement being better than the first. I find this interesting, since I never really separated the whole into two distinct areas. Fact is, it IS a relitively straight-ahead arrangement, I won't mince words about that. Really, I started off writing this thinking "let's see if I can play this on the piano", not really to make anything very unique out of it, but I started adding things here and there until you have what's here. To get a sense of where I was coming from, I STRONGLY urge people to listen to the version put out by Uematsu's "Black Mages" progmetal band. While that arrangement isn't for everyone, it adds a very new spin (read: HEAVY) on the old theme. I was probably drawing my arrangment just as much, if not more, from that than from the original. While the "piano solo" section is my own melodic contant, the idea isn't... I stole it. In any case, although I am quite proud of the outcome, I know it has a lot of room for improvement, and isn't my best work. I have a JENOVA piano arrangement going through the que right now that I think is much better. It's not quite as "out there" tonally, and is easier to digest, but don't worry, it still has some bite. Understand, in the school I'm going to, Oberlin Conservatory, tonality is taboo... most of the stuff that comes out of here (besides being pure crap, IMO) is a lot more dissonant than this. I've never been comfortable with pure atonaity, but my roots do lie in the early 20th century, where music still has a tonal basis, but strays far from it at times. If anyone is interested in some of my own work. I have a 6 movement piece (working on the 6th movement now) for piano and pre-recorded sound material, called the "Seidonia Suite". I have a live hall recording (a 5 movement version) of it online. Every other movement is piano, alternating with pre-recorded material. http://www.oberlin.edu/student/ebarker/Seidonia/ Sorry about the long post, and thanks again for all the comments, possitive and negitive! - Eric