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Between my games backlog and this PA thread, I made the lazier choice...


519th

[ARCADE] Frogger - "Main Theme (Araiguma Rascal)"

[TOPIC]


Frogger is a game I've wanted to cover for a long time now, but there's something that's kept me from getting around to it: composer credits. No, I'm not talking about the sound programmers that coded the music into the game, I'm talking about the sources of each individual track, because I am quite certain not a single original piece of music was written for this title. It's common knowledge that the in-game loop is an arrangement of the opening theme from the 1977 anime Araiguma Rascal, but it doesn't stop there; the other tracks consist of more anime openings, nursery rhymes, and folk songs from all around the world, and I've only managed to find the sources of a handful of them. What's worse is that there's an obscene amount of music in here for a 1981 game, with twenty different fanfares that play when you get Frogger home. How could I, in good conscious, arrange the rest of the tracks without identifying their origins first? I won't, and that's why I've decided that, until I do, the main theme will be my only sheet for Frogger. Chris Cantrell, who I found through The Cutting Room Floor, was a tremendous help in getting the music ripped and uploaded, and a couple YouTube commenters helped point out the origins of a few tracks, but since then I've been unable to find anyone who can help. If you know a good forum or Discord server I can reach out to, please let me know, because I'm stumped. Enjoy the sheet!

Very sneaky Vegetable Valley remix.

WHAT

4:37 for the glitched version, 0:08 for the fixed version, courtesy of Chris Cantrell from The Cutting Room Floor.

I've updated the title.

Much appreciated.

-The accompaniment part in m15-16 seems to break for the echo effect for the melody, but I assume you kept the L.H. the same for consistency?
-m20: I hear a C below the Eb on beat 3 too

- that's right; I didn't see any point in changing the bass line for a measure and a half, so I kept it going as-is
- I didn't even notice that re-strike, thank you for pointing that out.

Files are updated, thank you Bloop and Deku!

This all looks good to me! No qualms, sounds fine and is reasonable to play.

All right sick, thank you!

Only correction to suggest, I think - second to last note in m. 19 LH should be G instead of F?

Thanks for catching that! Fixed, and files are updated too.

-If you use the glissando tool from the bottom note of the L.H. to the top note of the R.H., it plays back as a cross-stave rolled chord. You'll have to align the glissando so it's vertical though
-End of m1 (and similar places): It's a finnicky to really play the F# to A legato, because the F# is restruck in m2 which means the player has to lift the note anyway. Something I like to do to make these parts sound legato is tying over the F# to the start of m2 instead, so it's legato, but you can still hear the effect of the doubled note in m2.
-m18-m19: Maybe to increase the effect of the sudden explosion of sound here, you could move the bass notes on beat 1 and 4 in m18 as well as beat 1 in m19 down an octave (in its original octave too). The player can use a short pedal press to hold them a little bit more to account for the jump. It's a bit harder to play, but it does leave more impact than the higher notes.
-m19: I hear a C# instead of D in the L.H. on beat 2.5

- whoa, I didn't know it could do that. It sounds so nice, too, it even functions at the beginning of the playback, something the rolled chord articulation couldn't do! Thank you for telling me this, how does that look?
- I appreciate you offering this as a solution, but after giving it some more thought, I'd rather delete those specific slurs altogether. It's something that's been bugging me since I started the revision, and in the end, those notes should still sound connected enough compared to the staccatos preceding them
- that's good, I prefer how it sounds down the octave, and I'm happy to hear it's manageable for performers
- oop, that's right, thank you for catching that

Thanks Bloop, files have been updated.

Lucky for you all, I didn't have any plans for my birthday today, so it's time to bring out some new sheets!


516th

[ARCADE] Ghosts 'n Goblins - "Stage 1 & 2"

[ZIP]

"But I thought he already arranged this track..." This is true! Except that was the NES/Famicom version, and this is the arcade version. I feel it is distinct enough to warrant its own arrangement, what with how drastically different the NES port's music is from the original. I still prefer the NES music, though, as it's (for the most part) a lot less grating.

517th

[PC] Deltarune - "Thrash Machine"

[TOPIC]

Thought I was done with my backlog? I thought so too, until I uncovered this recently. Check out the link to the topic for more information ^^

518th

[NES] Mega Man 2 - "Heat Man Stage" (Replacement)

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I wanted to include Air Man and Crash Man Stage replacements in this post as well, but decided to hold off on those until a later PA update. For now, I hope you enjoy this one!


Aaaaaand that's a wrap, folks. Would love to chat longer, but I'm not feeling up to it right now. See you next time!

I recently rediscovered this unreleased sheet from November 2018, a time during which I made several contributions towards the long-abandoned Unofficial Deltarune Arrangement Thread. After some confusion involving whether or not I could "claim" the track, I canceled my plans to post it to my PA thread, and let it collect dust for 5 1/2 years. But now that I see it's still not on the site, I figured it'd be a good idea to revive and submit this arrangement.

If you opened the original version of the sheet linked above, you probably noticed that I tried to account for as many voices as possible, meaning that nearly every note in the RH is in octaves. This is no longer the case in the new version, as I wanted there to be a sort of build-up into the B section. I also tried to keep the harmony lighter; there is some trade-off between hands at certain points, excluding m. 24 & 25 (BTW, anyone know how to get those cross-stave rolled chords to work in playback?). Bottom line is, I am fairly happy with the final product, but if some extra attention could be directed towards the LH/RH relationship in m. 18 - 29, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Continuing on with my Mega Man 2 replacements, we have "Quick Man Stage", theme of the most notorious stage in Mega Man history

You'll notice that I took a certain liberty from m. 9 through 16, and that involves replacing the original bass line with an inversion of the accompaniment pattern, rather than transcribing the bass line verbatim while omitting the accompaniment. This may come across as a controversial change, but with all due respect, I stand by it as this setup preserves the groove far better than the alternative. Aside from that, this is a pretty straight-forward arrangement.

Oh, and please change the sheet's title to "Quick Man Stage" Thanks!

- Sorry I typo'd, yeah I was referring to how low the left hand gets at the end of m. 24. I was thinking raising it by an octave starting with beat 2 would make it easier to move to the pattern in m. 25. You could omit beat 4.5 in the RH if you like although upon looking closer it doesn't really get in the way with the LH even if the LH is raised an octave. I'll leave it up to you to decide what you prefer!
- That one wasn't a typo, I think I hear the bass playing the same C as it does on beat 4.5 of m. 41. Though honestly it's really hard to tell without pitching it up an octave and even then I'm not 100% sure. If you think the F octave is right, I'm fine with that since it fits musically anyway.

- How about I do this: I'll bump the LH up the octave, and change RH's beat 4 to a quarter note, because due to the abundance of effects overlapping and the fadeout, it's anyone's guess as to what's going on in that beat. I also think it will make the transition into the next measure easier for that hand
- you're not wrong about it being really hard to tell, even with the octave shift. If you don't mind, I'll just go with F because it's the closest thing I can hear, and it fits musically like you said

Files are updated, thank you Latios!

- In m. 4 beat 3, I think I hear the bass restrike the Bb (if you agree, just restrike the lower one?)
- How about moving the staccatos on top of the small notes in m. 17/19?
- The low bass figure in m. 25 seems like it might be tricky to transfer into m. 25 from. If you lowered it to give the RH more space though, no problem I suppose
- m. 26/34 beat 3.5 LH sounds like F instead of G
- Conversely, I think m. 41 beat 3.5 LH sounds like a C instead?

- upon listening to it again, I hear it. Fixed
- yep, I can do that
- could you clarify, please? Do you mean the low bass notes in the second half of m. 24? I don't recall if I transcribed them that low intentionally or bumped them down to make room for the RH pattern, but if I were to change beat 4 of the RH to just a quarter note C, how would you like the LH written in that measure?
- yeah you're right, fixed it
- did you mean to say that m. 41 beat 3.5 LH sounds like a G instead of an F? Because I'm listening to it again and it still sounds like an F to me

Files are updated for now, let me know what you think.

You could move any single notes in m2 (a C), 4 (another C) and 6 (D and C) down an octave, so the L.H. can use the 3rd to 5th finger to play those notes. That is, if you don't mind them sounding lower. They're still less accentuated that way ^^

Alrighty, got that fixed then. Thank you for the feedback, Bloop!

-m4: Maybe instead of Cb you could use Bn here? It sounds like it's supposed to resolve back to a C
-m5: There's a little orchestra hit run going on that sounds like it's going Cb-Ab, Bb-G, Cb-Ab, Bb-G, Cb Ab Bb Cb. Including it with the chords I'd probably arrange it like this myself, but maybe see if you like something else instead or just wanna keep it as is:
You cannot view this attachment.
-m21: I think the high C is on beat 3.25 instead of on a second note of a triplet?

- I have no objections to that, changed it
- it sounds a little weird at first, but fairly close to the original, and I imagine that you arranged it this way to make performing it easier, so it works for me. Did you want the other similar patterns to do the same?
- I think you're right, fixed it

Files are updated; thank you Bloop!

This looks really decent, I don't have much to say!

I strive for the decent-est sheets around

-m2, 4 and 6: Did you leave some of the bass notes as single notes so they're more playable, or less accentuated? For the first one I think it's fine to leave them as octaves too, but for the second one maybe you could move the single notes down an octave, as that is a little bit easier to play for the L.H. (since you're able to use other fingers than the thumb)
-There's a bass drum hit in m12 and 16 on beat 1.5, which you could imitate in the L.H.
-m17 and 19: You could shrink the size of the 8th rest on beat 1 too if you want. The tie at the end of m16 should be flipped (it is flipped coming into m17 already), as well as the tie at the end of m18

- less accentuated. The first time around, I didn't even hear those notes because of the way the music is mixed, and thus decided I needed a way to indicate they're quieter than the notes surrounding them. So with that in mind, what should I change about them? And which notes in specific?
- good idea, how's that?
- I feel dumb for not noticing how big those 8th rests were in comparison. Thank you for pointing it out, ties are also fixed

Let me know what you think for the first point; files are updated in the meantime.

Also known as the "ending of every side quest" song lol

In all seriousness, this piece is really nice, thank you for arranging it, and for continuing on with Octopath Traveler.