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The main theme of a highly addictive game I picked up the other week. The theme alone is motivation enough to suit up, strap yourself to a rocket and try to go to space.

It's strings-, horn- and percussion heavy, but based on a few YouTube videos I've seen, it has decent potential to work well on a piano. Alas, the few YouTubers making sheets for their performances don't do a very good job of it, I think NSM could do that a lot better.

Also, hi!

[We can't simply submit sheets without people's permission.]

Some of you might remember the old Abandoned Arrangements thread. That one died down, but I think the idea still is relevant.

Basically, the problem is that some arrangers create arrangements - good arrangements at that - at a faster rate than the site uploads. This typically leads to threads full of finished arrangements, that rarely are submitted or uploaded to the site (fun fact - The first arrangement Dahans made for NSM still isn't uploaded). Then, for one reason or another, these arrangers begin visiting NSM less frequently, they don't arrange as much any more and don't visit the submission threads - yet their arrangement threads are still full of ready-to-be-submitted sheets. Finished sheets even, readily approved and ready to be uploaded, if anybody just got around to do so.

After a while, file hosting sites will delete files from accounts that are unused. This phenomenom is known as "link rot", and it eventually leads to threads full of dead links, possibly linking to that one song you've requested time and time again. Once again I'll use GreekGeek's submission thread as an example. Loads of good songs not on site, many of them just a quick touch-up away from being upload-worthy, but many of the links are dead and the rest won't remain for long.

I think there is lot of unused potential lying around NSM's abandoned arrangement threads. Many sheets of varying degree of progress and quality, but some are good and some excellent, and it would be a waste letting them all go to oblivion. This thread, this project, tries to do something about it. Namely, collect and backup sheets from forgotten arrangement threads, with the goal of preserving the effort that went into creating them, and - if we get the consent of the arranger - maybe finally get them on site one day, or pass them on to people who can finish the job started long ago.

The previous Abandoned Arrangements thread uncovered one important fact: We can't simply submit sheets without people's permission. Unless the arranger has specifically given consent, we wouldn't be legally allowed to put the sheets on site (and while we're in a legal gray zone as it is, the people we'd be offending would be our own comrades - people who've dedicated time and effort to help NSM - it would be immoral of us to upload their work behind their backs). However, I think we're free to catalogize and backup the files here on the forums.

So at first, the project would concentrate on mapping the extent of the problem. Finding sheets with active links from old submission threads, making backups if necessary (I downloaded all I could find in GreekGeek's thread), gathering them in one place and maybe trying to get in touch with the arrangers.

I think some discussion could also be in order before we get started, to really find out and agree on what to do. Here are some proposed points of discussion:

• What counts as "consent" of the arranger? Would files under the header "sheets for submission" count as a permission to upload? Personally, I think we should differ between sheets only needing formatting work, and sheets needing larger corrections. The former would be okay to polish and submit under the widest definition of permission, while the latter would require approval from the original arranger.
• What constitutes an abandoned thread? Should we start at threads that haven't seen activity in six months? One year? Two years? Never?
• How much are we allowed to do without the consent of the arranger? Would simply the gathering of links, or re-hosting them entirely, count as piracy? Some might object to the idea of their old, embarrassing work being dragged out of their dying thread and put in a .zip-file in an active thread for all of NSM to see.
• Any other viewpoints?

Also, coincidentally, the only arranger to actively permit the old project to use his files was Bespinben, who left for Mormonism almost to the day two years ago. If he keeps his old promises, he'll be back next week, probably a little disappointed that the project went nowhere. Let's hope we can get something started for real this time, overcoming the obstacle of "unintended piracy".

Any thoughts or ideas?

A couple of years ago, Dahans made a lovely duet arrangement for my brother and me. Super Mario Sunshine's end theme for cornet and piano.

However, even though it is his favourite VG song, my brother was reluctant to play it on his cornet, so we never got to play the arrangement toghether. Though recently, after I've moved from home, he's begun asking for sheets of the song again, so I printed it for him. However, as he's a somewhat new player, the piano notes confuse him, and the amount of pages makes it a little messy, so he wondered if it was possible to print just the cornet part. Is it possible to split the sheet, and get the cornet notes only?

Instructions on how to do it (In NotePad/Reader) or an uploaded MUS or PDF would be very appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance!

[February 1, 2012]

An idea that suddenly fell into my head.

I think we have all seen them. Enthusiastic arrangers who put up a bunch of great arrangements in their threads, but suddenly leave before submitting any. Or what about the trusty guys who show up every once in a while, update their thread, and then disappear until long after the current submission thread has closed. Or those who submit songs, but their issues never get fixed, and the arranger leaves never to be seen again. Or nearly finished in-progress arrangements that go nowhere as the submittor leaves.

Basically, the Submissions sub-forum is full of arrangements, finished arrangements even, that never made it to the site. During my time on NSM, I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of arrangements go this way. As a friend of his, I'd like to use GreekGeek's arrangement thread as an example. Lots of songs, most of them not on site, with the downloads links intact. For now.

As we know, sites like MediaFire delete inactive files after a while. The phenomenom is known as "linkrot", the word alone makes me sad. At the moment, we have dozens upon dozens of arrangements sitting in their threads, waiting for the inevitable deletion while nobody looks at them. Lots of wasted potential. Hundreds of man-hours going down the loo. Their creators have moved on to other hobbies. This is where the "Abandoned Arrangements" project (AKA the "Saving the Sheets" project) enters the scene.


My proposal is this: We gather as many links to "dying" arrangements as possible in this thread. Find new storage for them if need be. I'm aware that the vast majority of them will need slight fixing, tweaking or reformatting before the sheets can go on site, but that wouldn't be very hard work. For most of them, it's a stroke with the 8va brush and fixing our website URL in the copyright section, then saving as a PDF.

Then we let the AA project be a legal submittor for the updates. I, or other AA project volunteers, can submit the files to the submission threads on behalf of the original creator. The original arranger (as well as the fixer, if the sheet required a lot of work) will be credited in the usual way. The amount of submissions from the AA project need not be different from the amount of submissions from any other contributor.

For the time being, we can look at submission threads that haven't been posted in since February 1, 2012. If the creator of the thread has been online any time in the past half year, we PM him/her before polishing the sheets.


At the moment (as in, right now), I don't have time to gather links. School starts in half an hour. However, I usually have enough time to contribute to this (which reminds me, the Arrangement Contest stuff will be done soon). However, I could need a volunteer or two to skim through the sheets as we gather them.



Do anybody think this is a good idea?


Stuff and its status:

[DS] Pokémon Black/White - "Dragonspiral Tower" - Bespinben Zip Submitted, pending approval

[DS] Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum - "Mt. Coronet" - Bespinben Zip

[GBA] Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - "Title: Main Theme" - Bespinben Zip

• *Note - Layout MUST be Landscape, so as to preserve the 4-bar hypermeter. Do not modify sheet to change to portrait, it WON'T work.
  *Note 2 - For those concerned about playability:

[GB] Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal - "Johto Wild Pokémon Battle" - Bespinben Zip

[N64] Star Fox 64 - "Start Demo 1 (Starfox Main Theme)" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Battle Against Dusknoir" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "On the Beach at Dusk" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Goodnight" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Guildmaster Wigglytuff" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Dialga's Fight to the Finish!" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Temporal Tower" - Bespinben (Replacement) Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Time Gear" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Top Menu Theme" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Awakening" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Boss Battle" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Escape Through the Snow / Snow Refugees" - Bespinben (Replacement) Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Fanfares Collection" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "File Select / Whiscash Pond" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Lapis Cave" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Mt. Blaze Peak" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "The Other Side" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "There's Trouble!" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Tiny Woods" - Bespinben (Replacement) Zip

[DS] Pokémon Ranger - "Ending Story" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Ranger - "Ranger Base" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Ranger - "Title Screen" - Bespinben Zip

[Arrange any video game song for a solo instrument. The following instruments are banned:]

Welcome to the third arrangement contest! Big applause, everybody!

This time, the rules are simple:
Arrange any video game song for a solo instrument. The following instruments are banned:
 - All keyboard-based instruments (including, but not limited to, piano, organ, harpsichord, electric piano)
 - Harp
 - Voice or whistling (yes, we're being picky)
 - The primary instrument of the song being arranged (for instance, arranging Haunted Merry Go-round for accordion wouldn't be allowed).

Apart from this, anything is legal as long as you can comfortably make sheets for it (car horns, glass bottles with water, or dial-up modems would technically be allowed, but tricky to submit).

Your score will be judged by the following criteria:
 - Relatability/Originality (how closely it follows the spirit of the original, and how creative it is)
 - Playability
 - Formatting*
 - Miscellaneous stuff such as performability, length, overall impression, etc.

*These things should be present:
-an original title (quotation marks not necessary)
-subtitle (stating the game it's from)
-original composer
-arranger
-bpm
-Instrument name
-duration
-copyright

We encourage you to be creative with your instrument choice. Points might be deducted if we get in tons of sheets using the same instrument. For instance, if we get in six violin sheets, neither of their arrangers will get points awarded for creative instrument choice. If we only get in one bagpipe, full score for him (long story short, the fewer people who arrange for the same instrument, the better).

Please try to keep your arrangement shorther than five minutes. It's up to the individual judgrors to decide whether or not this deducts points, but please think about the poor lads who have to go through every single measure in every single sheet to check for playability and formatting. Listening to it shouldn't be an exercise in patience either.

Send me a PM with your sign-up and instrument choice. You'll then receive an ID number, to put in your sheet instead of the arranger's name (check the thread for the previous round for more details).
If the instrument you want to use has been claimed by many others already, I will issue warnings. For instance, say I get four members all wanting to arrange for the sax, and five for the violin. Then I'd post something along these lines in this topic:
"If all sign-ups hand in, the following instruments will be penalized:
 - Saxophone [ x ] points
 - Violin [ x+1 ] points"

You get the idea. Also keep in mind that from experience, only about 60% of the sign-ups end up handing in. If you still feel that the violin is your best instrument, then go for it. Perhaps the five others end up being terribly busy or lack motivation to finish, and you're the only violinist to hand in. Then you'd suffer no penalty.

An extra point will be awarded for a creative title.
This to avoid boring titles like "Brinstar - Trombone" or something.

The deadline is June 7th, unless something extraordinary happens.

All hand-ins are to be sent to me. Upload your sheet to a file hosting website, and PM me the link, or PM me for a mail address to send it to. The easiest thing would be just sending a .MUS, but if you have issues with conversion from other programs, add a PDF and a sound file too.

Our prominent panel of judgrors are:
MaestroUGC
Dudeman
SlowPokemon
Olimar12345

Any of them may or may not participate. A judgror will not rate his own sheet.

Any questions, comments or rants regarding this round go in this thread. If you have suggestions for other rounds, those go in the brainstorming topic.

Have fun!

The main theme for Civilization IV, "Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin, was the first piece of video game music ever to win a Grammy Award. It won the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)" category of the 53rd Grammies, in 2010. The song was also used in the opening ceremonies of the World Games of 2009 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and as a featured segment in the choreographed Dubai Fountain. Wouldn't that be something to have on our site?

Lyrics are also provided:

Baba yetu, Yetu uliye
Mbinguni yetu, Yetu amina!
Baba yetu Yetu uliye
Fu jina lako litukuzwe.
Utupe leo chakula chetu
Tunachohitaji utusamehe
Makosa yetu, hey!
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe
Waliotukosea usitutie
Katika majaribu, lakini
Utuokoe, na yule, muovu e milele!

Ufalme wako ufike utakalo
Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni. (Amina)

This song serves as a proof that mostly anything will sound great if you translate it to Swahili and let an African gospel choir sing it. In this case, the lyrics are the Swahilian version of the ordinary, run-of-the-mill, not-my-cup-of-tea Lord's Prayer.

Would it sound good on the piano? Let this video speak for itself.

[waltz]

Welcome to our second arrangement contest! As you might have guessed, the theme this time is waltz.

Imagine the New Year's Ball at Princess Peach's castle. Game characters from far and near have come to attend, the ballroom is packed with people. Luigi has dug his suit out of the closet. Mario has reluctantly let Bowser have the first dance with Peach. Link is wearing his finest green hat, walking hand in hand with Zelda down the ballroom floor. Captain Falcon and Snake are both eager to ask Samus out. Kirby and Jigglypuff are both oblivious to everything but each other. Nathan Drake and Lara Croft stand in a corner, discussing their latest adventures.

Suddenly, a cough is heard, and a tiny voice calls for attention. The game characters pair up as Toadsworth straightens his glasses and lifts the conductor's baton. Then, he turns towards...
Yes, who exactly? Which piece is played during the grand dance? The Ball programme only says that it's a waltz based on a non-waltz video game piece, but which game, which theme, and which instruments are played, that's up to you. It can be a full-blown Toad orchestra, a Goron steel drum trio, a lone Creeper with a guitar, or anything in between.

Take any song from any video game, excluding pieces that already are waltz-like, and make a waltz out of it. That means, songs like The Song of Storms and The Comet Observatory can not be used. You can use any instruments you may like. In case you are in doubt whether your selected piece is valid, PM MaestroUGC and ask. As a rule of thumb, no songs in 3/4 rhythm are allowed.

Your score will be based on the following criteria:
1) Orchestration: Do the instruments serve the music? A simple copy/paste would result in a low score, while a dynamic orchestration would yield something higher.
2) Preservation: does the arrangement make it clear what the original was while meeting the criteria? If the arrangement only makes a single reference to the original while it does something else entirely, then it'll get a low score.
3) Creativity: does the arrangement go beyond the criteria? If it only does the basic change, low score.
4) Criteria: does the arrangement meet the criteria for the challenge? If no, low score; barely, middle; totally, high.
5) Popular vote: each entry gets a correspoding score from everyone who votes, an average from the votes for the piece out of all the votes.

We're doing blind voting this time. That means that all submissions are to be sent to me. I will not partake in judging, nor will I vote in the poll, or tell the judgrors who made what. Upload the .MUS-file (the only accepted file format, but your version of Finale should not be an issue) to a website and PM me the link, or PM me for a mail address to send it to. If I post it here, spambots would pick it up, so I prefer to have it this way. This also means that the sheet should not contain the arranger's name, but please tell me who you are when you submit. It would also be nice if you gave your sheet a title, to make it easier for us to catalogize (for instance, Waltz of Brinstar). The piece's file name should be the same as its title (WaltzOfBrinstar.mus for instance). Also include a YouTube (or similiar) link to the piece you based your submission on.

Here are some example waltzes for inspiration:
Strauss:
Blue Danube: Video Sheets
Kaiser Waltz: Video Sheets
Voices of Spring: Video Sheets

Chopin:
Grande Valse Brilliante: Video Sheets
Op. 69 No. 1: Video Sheets
Op. 70 No. 1: Video Sheets
(Thanks to MaestroUGC for providing the examples)

The deadline was March 17th. Nothing extraordinary happened.

The winner gets to choose between a copy of Minecraft or a Steam game of the same price (20€, ~27$).

Let the arranging... and discussion... uhh... END/CONTINUE!


The contestants are among these guys:Clanker37
Olimar12345
Brassman388
SlowPokemon
insaneintherain
K-NiGhT
Dahans
MaestroUGC
Bespinben


THE ENTRIES:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61044072/AC2/MUS-files.zip
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61044072/AC2/CurlySwing_MP3.mp3 -- One of the sheets was written in XML, and didn't take the conversion to MUS very well. The arranger asked me to provide the sound file for listening, as it reflects the intention of the arranger better than the MUS does.

These would only be the .MUS files as submitted by the contestants. The judgrors have received all the other files sent in. This is because some entries were created in different programs than Finale, so there would be some formatting differences. The public are asked not to worry about this.

Poll is up. Voting for yourself is wimpy.

[Inverse the mood!]

Hi folks! We know it has taken a while, but it wouldn't stay true to the NSM spirit if we got this done overnight, would it? After a lot of back and forth, public suggestions and some periods of hiatus, we got this ready.

The theme of this round is:
Inverse the mood!
A lot of video game songs are grim, dark themes played to illustrate absolute despair or just plain scaryness. The main villain's lair, deserted ruins full of monsters, zombie crypts, the examples are countless.
A lot of other video game songs underline a go-happy atmosphere, where smiling characters frolic under the blue sky and everyone is friends, all is all right and expressing worries would give a guy jail time. Sunshine and happiness is an absolute must, and magical mushrooms aren't uncommon.

But what if it was the other way round? How would it sound like if the undead roamed the happy fields, or the crypts were cleaned, lit and given a new paint job? How would Bowser's Castle sound if Baby Peach inhabited it? What would Route 2 sound like if all the Gastly in Kanto decided to move there? If a game like Left 4 Dead was reworked to be a mood booster for depressed preschoolers, how would that affect the music?
You decide! Your task is to take any video game song, and invert its mood. Make a skippy-beat song dark and gloomy, take a scary theme and turn it into a feel-good song, or anything in between. You may choose whichever instruments you like, but don't go overboard with them - unless you have a really good reason to do so. Also remember, you are to fix, add to and tweak existing songs - not make new ones. If you're a "definition type of guy" you might call this a remixing contest, but that word is hush-hush on here and tends to scare away potential participants.

Your score will be given on the following basis. Each category gives up to 5 points:

Concept and Execution (What does this music say and how do I say it?) Creativity is a key factor here. You don't have to be very good at writing music to get points, as this category rewards good ideas as much as musical talent. If you have a good concept, and manage to pull the idea of without gaping over too much, you will haul in the points on this one. Likewise, a perfectly formatted, fully playable piece with a sensible selection of instruments will suffer if it's plain boring.

Balance and Colour (How does the music overall blend together tonally?) Did you manage to make that jolly song as depressing as a November day without Internet connection? Is the feel of the music right? Have you created an atmosphere the listener would recognise? And does the song still resemble the original enough?

Instrumentation and Tonality (How effectively was my instrument choice?) And do every player contribute enough to the main "picture"? Sure, that bagpipe solo might sound awesome for those fifteen seconds, but then the bagpipe also has to play a part in the rest of the piece. Likewise, if all you hear for 90% of the piece is the piano, and then the 10 other percent are full of other instruments, you get a low score.

Playability and Technique (How hard is this piece? Is it playable?) Have you paid attention to the range of the instruments? Is the score equally challenging to play for all the instruments? If you for instance insist on adding flute arpeggios to a song like Dire Dire Docks, you better give the rest of the ensemble something to work with as well. If you have to hire a world-class professional musician to play the trumpet part, while the other instruments can be covered by a school band, you've done something wrong.

Score presentation (Is the score easy to read? Did I write the music correctly?) If you follow the NSM formatting guidelines, these will be five simple points to get.


You sign up for the round by handing in a finished product. No need to state in the forum that you enter/abstain, as it won't have anything to say if you don't hand in anyway.

After the judges have had their say, we'll make a poll so YOU can vote as well.

The winner of the judge's voting will get to choose a prize: Either a copy of Minecraft or a (one) chosen Steam game costing less than â,¬15 (£13, $20). We'll also see if we can make a small signature banner documenting the achievment of the winners for everyone to see for all eternity.

The accepted format is .mus. There are entire topics on this forum dedicated to the people who can't make a .mus file on their own. If you're one of them, check them out.
 
You submit by uploading the piece to an external site and posting the link here. If you've submitted arrangements to the site before, this shouldn't be new to you. If you haven't, head over to the Submission sub-forum to see how others do it. The judges will follow this thread closely, and a list of submissions will be edited to this post. Also, we kindly ask participants to post a link to the original piece along with their submission. Failure to do so (within the time limit, that is) will affect your score, be warned.

Submissions will be accepted from now on until midnight on October 31, 2011 (yes, Halloween itself). The judges will also be able to participate, but won't have anything to say on the scoring of their own piece (or was that score, seeing as "scoring" could refer to the sheet itself? Anyway, the jurors may be in play, but won't judge themselves).

Feel free to ask questions.

Now, have fun!

Submissions:
Dahans' piece, based off Pokémon R/B/Y - Lavender Town

SlowPokemon's piece, based off Pokémon B/W - Route 4

Olimar123's "Dissonance in the Lost Woods", based off The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Lost Woods

[(tl;dr version: You'll get a virtual cake if you reply "Yes, good idea!" to this post)]

Topic hijacked - it's relevant enough already and multi-page threads attract more attention. And I don't want to flood the entire sub-forum.

Basically, discuss arrangement contests here.





Some of the more nit-picky of you would probably insist that this be called remixing contests, but anyway:

This idea has been stuck in my head for some time, yet it's taken a while to come up with some details and build up the courage to publicly propose it:

Now that we've got a more open attitude towards orchestral submissions here, would it be an idea that we ran some informal arrangement competitions to make people more familiar with other instruments than piano? Or simply give people an opportunity to play around with their favourite musical styles? Or just tweak the beloved songs a little?

I'm thinking something along the lines of a set of competitions, running for a period of time (a month or two. We're not known to be in a hurry on this site). Unlike The Musical Showdown, the rounds would be fully independent of each other, and a single task would be given for each competition. After a winner is declared, it's back to blank sheets, and a new round could be started. The way I've thought about it, is that we could have one "theme" for each contest, with very loose specifications.
Examples:
 - "Calmify" a theme (essentially what's been done with Pokémon's "SS Anne" to "Oceanic Museum", or SM64's "Inside the Castle" to SMG2's "Special One"
 - Arrange a VG theme for (insert various (and sometimes obscure) instruments, i.e. fiddle, organ or bagpipe).
 - Make a VG theme ROCK! (Two words: Gourmet Race)
 - We Want a Waltz: "Ballroomify" a theme.
 - Given a theme, who can make the best arrangement?
 - Lyrics? (hey, not all of us are good with Finale, are we?).

There would obviously have to be a set of judges, basing themselves on a set of criteria, and perhaps an additional popular vote. And it would require some organization, of course. Perhaps even prizes as well? Even though I'm on a student budget, I could probably cough up some kr for prizes for a couple of rounds. It wouldn't be any expensive stuff, but it would anyway be a token of your effort and perseverance... or if you were the only attendant of the competition, your ability to overcome procrastination. And I feel that concept and execution should have as much to say as technical skill. "Something for everyone" is a great goal to strive for.


But for the time being, I'm just wondering what people think about the idea. Is it feasible? Could we motivate enough people? Do we need to focus our effort elsewhere first? What are really those weird creatures in the background of Shiverburn Galaxy? What limitations do we have to work with here (I'm thinking what the various versions of Finale are capable of, for example instrument selections and such)?
Do you feel that you have an answer to any of these questions, please press that "Reply" button and type in your opinion. Thanks in advance!



(tl;dr version: You'll get a virtual cake if you reply "Yes, good idea!" to this post)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KYeQAmtbmU

A neat song from a neat game. Sad and a little gloomy at first, then the spectacle of the amusement park kicks in, and the sad mood is gone. At the end of the song, it's time to go home again, but with this fun day etched into your memory forever.

Could someone do it? Pleeeease?

Thanks in advance!

[[SNES] - Donkey Kong Country - "Jungle Swing"]

Browsing the site, you can often come across songs arranged in our early days, when the arrangers were few and inexperienced, and the songs can be described as mediocre - at best. However, many of our arrangers only see that the song is arranged, and thus don't bother to arrange themselves - the song already is on site, so why care?

So I thought a topic for requesting replacements could be useful. Let's face it, some of our songs need to be replaced, as the current ones are just ugly. Post requests, and I'll update this first post. Remember to put in a reason why you want it to be replaced.

For a start, here are my requests:
[SNES] - Donkey Kong Country - "Jungle Swing" - the current version of this song doesn't do it justice at all. The bass line is lacking, and it all lacks the "oomph" of the original.

[N64] - Super Mario 64 - "Hazy Maze Cave" - While this is one of our easiest arrangements and great for beginners, it only plays a fraction of the song - and not very accurately at that.

[SNES] - Earthbound - "Twoson" - "the beginning (...) doesn't seem to quite matche with the real one... "

Because we NSM-ers are all playing video games, we're also all basement-dwelling nerds who never see sunshine and only get our exercise going to and from the toilet (not speaking for those of us who have replaced their comfy game chair with a toilet, of course). We're also musicians, meaning that we spend our little non-gaming time in front of a weird instrument playing songs nobody like, or have heard of, for that matter. The combination of the two hobbies, a game music obsession (a term that makes scholars cringe when they hear it, while psychologists get busy taking notes), obvoiusly mean that we are socially dysfunctional and never get to see other people face to face, and thus are almost certain to never exercise actively.

However, should the unlikely situation arise that somebody forced us to do physical exercise, which game songs would fit the purpose as background noise to distract the mind from the gruelling pain? I know it's almost certain that none of us has tried it before, but if anybody have ever exercised to game music before, what songs did you listen to? Do you have any good suggestions? A link to the song in question would be fine.

Myself, I've tried a few songs:

The Anime version of "Kanto Gym Leader Battle" is excellent for push-ups or similar strength exercise.

SSBB's "Gourmet Race" is for when you really need to blow some steam.
In a similar vein, "Pokémon Battle Theme" (Animé version of RBY Trainer Battle) is great for high-intensity intervals, as it lasts for almost exactly one minute.

More to be edited in as I remember more. Do you have any ideas?

There has been some discussion of this subject around on the forums, and I figured out I might as well make a poll about it.

Say, you're going camping for a week. Tenting, to be more specific. And of course, the weather is extreme. You have to stay outside and do easy work (say, doing weather measuring) for about ten continous hours a day. You have ample food, clothes and fuel, but you have to walk some distance to fetch water. In what temperature would you rather do it?

+40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), with 80% humidity and equally long days and nights (Equatorial savannah)
or -40 degrees Celsius/Fahrenheit with a strong breeze and twice as much darkness as daylight (Arctic winter)?

In short, do you believe extreme heat or extreme cold is most uncomfortable?


Myself, I have experienced the winter, but not the heat. Still, I believe working in the heat would be a breeze provided you had enough water, and some shade. Cold, on the other hand... -25 is horrible enough, and 40 would be outright lethal. You have to balance your clothing perfectly, or you'll end up freezing (sweating is a BAD thing when it's cold). Your fingers and toes are always numb from cold. Stay in motion, or you'll regret you stopped. Clothing restricts movement, and never mind going to the toilet...

Your thoughts?

With all the art topics suddenly popping up, and the generally good response to Pokémon drawings, I thought I could join the trend and share some pictures. I spent the better part of boring classes at secondary school drawing, and among huge amounts of crap, it resulted in this. Those of you who know me on Facebook might have seen those before:




What the hell is this one actually looking at... or rather, why is its foot on fire? As you can see from its stance, it's leaping upwards, not going downwards like I seemed to think when I drew this. I probably used a picture as a reference while drawing, and added the fire for effect. It didn't save me from screwing up the left foot, though.




Sharpedo is actually ridiculously easy to draw. Just start with the contour of its back, then work from there. Screwup guaranteed when you add the star at the end, though.


Yes, the eyes are too big, and it's not round. Though, excuses exist for both:
1) Eyes don't grow. They keep their size during the entire life.
2) As seen in the games, Pokémon eggs aren't round, even if the Pokémon inside it is. So a newly hatched Pokémon will have some deformities due to the imperfect shape of the shell.
This is a baby. Cute, eh?

These two were drawn with the aid of pictures. Both were my Facebook profile pic for some time:





I have uploaded some more pictures, but in hindsight, I realise they are too ugly to show here. It's been a while since I last drew a "full" picture. I want to pick up the pencil again, though, so if anybody could help me with some critisism, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Title should be self-explainatory. If you don't celebrate, but still bother to read this topic or even reply to it, please say what you do in the month of December while the rest of the Western world are busy satisfying the shop owners.

Guess I can start myself, to prevent this from being a way too short opening post:

For me, Christmas is a time one has to spend with family. Seeing as most of my family live within a manageable distance, we can meet several times during the Christmas period: when we bake cookies (according to the tradition, it has to be seven different types), when we help each other clean and tidy the house, when we meet on the day itself, and generally on a lot of occasions in the days following Christmas Eve.

For some reason, it's the evening of December 24 that is the big day of celebration in Norway. It's the day many Norwegians go to church (fun fact: 90% of the Norwegians who attend church services, do so only on Christmas Eve), it's the day the Christmas dinner is consumed, and of course the day all the gifts are unwrapped. December 25 is "the following day", the day spent relaxing, kids watch cartoons and play with their new toys. It's also the most common day of greater family gatherings, seeing as people commonly choose to spend Christmas Eve with their near family. This, of course, varies a lot.

A traditional Christmas dinner in Norway commonly features so-called "ribbe" (pork ribs), "pinnekjøtt" (very salt lamb ribs), cod, or the (in)famous lutefisk (look it up, and vow never to eat it). Or, apparently the fourth most common Christmas dinner in Norway, frozen pizza. Nobody quite understand why.

In the midst of all the cozy mid-winter celebrations, the guy responsible for the entire mess is somewhat forgotten. Until not long ago, schools and kindergartens used to set up plays with the traditional evangelium around Christmas, but as an increasingly larger part of the population take distance from religious content in public institutions, this has become less common. Many schools also stop having a Christmas service in church for their students. As stated, Norwegian churches are only filled once a year, and Christmas in its literal content has become more of a tradition than the actual focus of the celebration. To put it like this, Norwegians celebrate Christmas like the Disney characters do, except that nobody eats Turkey.

So, what do you do around Yule?

[Completed and on site]

Completed and on site
This is one of my favourite game songs from my childhood - and I still play the game. The epic, Medieval-inspired theme hammers once you open the game, and is one of the very few songs in the game (the other that I can think of are the win/loss themes, and some short tunes played whenever a story is told before/after a Campaign match).

With a heavy bass, I think it would sound quite good on the piano. Anyone agree?

Another try to make a request. Hopefully, somebody will take it (unlike my previous one (hint, hint)...).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pUzB7aAk24

35 seconds of awesome, or what? Peach's castle's famous theme from Super Mario 64, rewritten for piano. It might not be the entire piece, but what we hear does indeed bring memories.

Please, anyone?

[Completed and on site]

Completed and on site
Ask any nerd. "Still Alive" from the Portal credits is a modern classic. One of the wittiest video game songs ever made, both adding to the game experience and the character of the singer (the manic "assistant" - GLaDOS), and actually making people stay over the credits for once. I heard this song first yesterday, and I'm already addicted. I'm probably not the only one, as when I mentioned it to a fellow artillerist, he responded by singing the song.

The song can be heard here.
The piano sheets are already on site, and are actually pretty good. However, they lack one crucial part of the song: See for yourself.

Yeah. The lyrics are missing. I guess it wouldn't be too much of a job to add them to the existing arrangement? After all, the current version is only half the experience. It's worth it. Please, anybody add and resubmit.

Thanks in advance!

Oh, no, not another rant...

Don't worry, this is just a question:

Basically, the vast majority of game music consists of loops, starting with a small intro, then looping for all eternity.

Due to practical reasons, arrangements of this music have to stop somewhere. In the sheets, this is often illustrated by a repeat, and players have to decide for themselves how many times they want to play the loops. So far, so good.
But as said, it all has to end. And that's where the question comes along.

Arrangers, do you prefer to make an ending for everlooping pieces, or just let it "die" after the (optional) last repeat?

Not making an ending would be more realistic, seeing as the original theme just keeps going, and stops only when you exit the actual area or turn off the game.

On the other hand, it often sounds a lot better if the tune has a proper ending, and just doesn't stop after a lead-up to another repeat, like the sheets tend to do.

Of course, people can make their own endings if they so want. That's another fact to consider.

What do you think?

[establish an uploader team]

Hello everybody, please be prepared for a bit of a rant here.

Let's face it, the site moves at snail's pace at the moment. Uploads about twice a season, except for the summer. Most of the forum
activity is condensed in one topic. Senior members leaving, new ones not staying. We're not a big site, but there is potential to do
so much more. Also, the infrequent updates and anonymous community may keep possible contributors from ever contacting us. We're an archive as if ran by an institution, but there's a community behind it. I have a few suggestions that could help us get more
recognition:

 - More uploaders (preferable two more). At the moment, there are three people here (I think) with access to the uploader script.
However, these are people with a life outside NSM, and never get enough spare time to revise and upload the submitted sheets. It
doesn't exactly help either that only one of them will take responsibility for updating at a time. I think we should establish an
uploader team, with specific guidelines to follow, such as the formatting of sheets. The team members don't need forum moderator
powers (at least outside the Submission subforum), but a team with knowledge, a goal and guidelines is better than a single mod doing
the task. This team would also be responsible for keeping track of the "fulfilling the requests" competition.

 - Next, establish proper guidelines for uploading. That includes a strict keeping to schedules. For example, a set day of the
month updates are set to be on. Sweeping, with comments, will be done by the team continously (read: Whenever a team member gets
time, he can revise a post and write "approved by (member name)"), and the submission thread will be closed for submissions two days
before the update is set to take place.

 - Also, as the amount of "classic" unarranged songs are spiralling towards zero, I think we should establish a new section of the
site dedicated to full arrangements. There are plenty of them lying around in various threads by now. There should also be a note
somewhere that it's less likely that a full arrangement request will be taken than a piano one, if any. They are arranged, formatted
according to the guidelines, why shouldn't we upload them if we get the arranger's permission?

 - Many people go to other sites instead of NSM because they have to download a dedicated program to view our sheets (which in turn
they'll have to register for to download). I suggest that we add .pdf-files to the sheets, or at least a selected few (main themes
from well-known games, for example). If the download counts are affected, we can expand on the concept. I know, there is a lot of
work in converting and uploading 1300 files, but if we start with ten or twenty, it wouldn't be much of an issue.

 - Promoting NSM some way would be cool too. A bunch of people here are active on other forums, and if we just ask them politely to
mention NSM in some way, we might get more visitors. Also, if we finish that video project, it will be good PR.

 - Make the community more visible. If we create a "members" subforum, only visible to registered members, we could have a little
more privacy. On the other forum I use, this subforum is very popular, with the "photos of members" thread getting a thousand visits
a week or so. Competitions would be nice too, or annual "member awards" (with categories such as best arranger, best newcomer, most
friendly, most knowledgeable, etc).

What do you think?