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If you care that I just released an arrangement of a Christmas song in the summer, I've published Sleigh Ride Galop today! Leroy Anderson's wintertime hit is now in the style of a galop, and you can listen to it and get the sheet music here.

Granted. It's a Microsoft phone. Good luck transferring your apps' save states to that. Even worse, it starts crashing and being stuck in airplane mode a month after you buy it.

I wish I were better at piano.

I don't think Waluigi was trying to be disingenuous with his comments. In fact, I think his first point about the behavior of virtual instruments inside a DAW is probably the most compelling point he has. That said, perhaps the question we should ask is, is the sound itself the composer's intent, or the data inside the piano roll of a DAW? If the former, then Olimar's probably right. If the latter, then Waluigi.

I'd normally err on the side of what people hear when they listen to the soundtrack. With that being said, sometimes things get really blurry given the complete behaviour of the virtual instruments in the song and/or the notation software I use:

• Due to the limitations of Shovel Knight's music (must be on a .nsf, 900 Hz basis, etc.), several trills (especially at quarter note = 180 bpm) have their notes in 3:2 ratios. At that point, I treat trills as if they consist of 32nd notes instead.
• As if fixing Meta Knight's theme (from Kirby Super Star) isn't hard enough, Musescore won't let me make a tuplet that crosses a barline (for the section of the theme that's a bunch of G's straight). I'm not sure that Finale will let me either.

Granted. They're all calling back asking for extraordinarily inconvenient interview times (5:00 AM local time much?). Also, half of them want you to do medical tests before they'll evaluate further.

I wish my acne were cured.

Your wish will be granted non-ironically...next time.

I wish for a new computer.

Granted. You then suddenly find that none of the colleges and universities care about AP tests. (I think Canadian universities care more about IB exams.)

I wish work were less stressful.

I'm signing up as an arranger. Going to have fun with this!

Also, what counts as "pieces from two different series"? Example of how messy this can get is below:

• Undeniably, Techock and Electroman Adventures are from two different series and do not share a series--Techock is in Castle Crashers but not Geometry Dash, while Electroman Adventures is in Geometry Dash but not Castle Crashers.
• But Jumper and Electroman Adventures are from two different series, aren't they? Jumper is in Castle Crashers and Electroman Adventures is in Geometry Dash...
• Wait...no...Jumper is also in Geometry Dash.
• Assuming Jumper and Electroman Adventures count as being from the same series, do Katamari on the Rocks and Soulcalibur II: Brave Sword, Braver Soul count as being from the same series, as they both show up in Taiko: Drum Master?
• But one of the songs above is from Katamari Damacy and the other is from the Soulcalibur series...
• Pushing the above to the extreme, do two songs count as being from the same series if they both show up in the same Super Smash Bros. game, or do only songs original to the Smash Bros. series count as songs from Smash Bros.?
• If you draw the line somewhere in the middle (e.g. I count Jumper and Electroman Adventures as being from the same series but I don't count 2 songs that are remixed in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as being from the same series), where do you draw the line?

And I hope there's a rule against rearranging an existing medley, right? (I don't think a rearrangement of Taiko March is in the spirit of the competition, despite the song already combining themes from Sky Kid, The Tower of Druaga, and Legend of Valkyrie.)

(I have multiple entry ideas involving two songs from very different series that I do not believe share a game; don't worry. I just think too much like a tester sometimes...)

Also, does all the musical material have to be derived from the pieces I chose or can I compose original material (for transitions, endings, introductions, etc.) and put it in my entry?

(Don't worry; the pieces I choose will have very prominent roles in my entry...)

I have seen far too many translations for the song titled "My Friend and the Setting Sun..." ("Friends and Sun" as in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZV6oC0L_Ec and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUOubU_DOwM, "Sundown and Friends" as in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba24HkTRXGs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkYv6Dye8rM) that I find it hard to trust any translation of Kirby Super Star (Ultra) track titles.

(Admittedly, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUOubU_DOwM has the name of the Revenge of Meta Knight credits cut scene as "Friends and Sun", while I've read in Youtube comments and a purported interview that the song was influenced by the folk song "House of the Rising Sun", so "My Friend and the Setting Sun" may be the most appropriate title. I think I've read that the Japanese title translates the most closely to "Friends and Sun".)

...On another note, it's possible that anyone who has a copy of Kirby Super Star Ultra may beg to differ with any OST translation; I've read that one of the cut scenes' titles (and its incidental music) has its name in the English version of the game's Sound Test as "Galactic Knight", and NONE of the cut scenes' songs are in the OST for the most part.

I personally find that this piece switches ostensible keys so often, and the ostensible keys are so ambiguous, that I'd rather have no accidentals in the key signature.

(Ostensible keys are especially ambiguous when, in Bar 4, the top voice has an A major chord harmony and the bottom voice is definitely playing D minor chord arpeggios.)

Still another of my earlier pieces is an incomplete piano suite, the Suite in E Flat. You can see all its complete movements here and read about the movements in the OP.

EDIT: I've published one of my most experimental pieces today--Kids On the Monkey Bars here! Normally, my sense of tonality isn't that fuzzy, but the kids are bad at singing...

"Does anyone know the directions to St. George's Academy?"

While it's probably not my absolute favourite puzzle game, the worst character art-wise in Peggle Blast (IMO) is Phoebee. I understand she's a bee, but her eyes are far too wide apart and her lips look so annoying.

Dishonourable mention goes to Roxy, who looks pretty masculine despite ostensibly being female according to Popcap (the creators of Peggle Blast)--to the point where I'm still confused about her true gender--and who looks like she just swallowed a huge dose of cocaine whenever she gets a power-up.

[fill in more frequencies]

The song was giving me a big Sonic (The Hedgehog) vibe at first, which is surprising to me since I can't really listen to half the Sonic songs in Super Smash Bros. (and several of the final boss themes) because they have lyrics (understandable lyrics in songs generally irritate me).

Hehe, you've got a good idea of how to use reverb and you know more-or-less how to work with instrumental textures, so that's great

You know yourself best, because pretty much all that I was going to comment about was mentioned here. Which is fantastic; it shows that you're constantly analysing your mixes and trying to improve, which is awesome

You're right - the main weakness of this track lies in the textural side. It's almost always too thin, hehe. You know it.

The simple answer to making anything sound fuller is to fill in more frequencies. Basically, if your parts take up a balanced set of frequencies, the track sounds fuller (and noisier + muddier once you cross the threshold), because the individual notes stick out a lot less due to harmonic smearing and whatelsenot. In the compositional stage, the best way to do this is simply to...well, add parts. "Parts" meaning, simply, notes. Throwing in some ambient pads which just hold chords is a really good start. Writing a piano part skillfully is the next step, and writing with four-part harmony in mind comes after

The reason why your music sounds a little thin is because your melody is too distinct. There's a wide frequency gap between your bass and melody which no major parts fill in, and so both those parts really stick out. Throwing a pad part in between the bass and melody (i.e. in the mid range) covers a lot more frequencies and makes everything sound fuller.

So that's the biggest fix you could do - add more parts if you want more beef~

That reminds me of the time I tried arranging a Beethoven work for heavy metal band (no, it's not one of his famous songs--yes, I think Yngwie Malmsteen would have fun shredding the snot out of the piece I picked)--I had to give the rhythm guitar a lot of stuff to do in the middle frequencies. (A hint as to which song I picked: the rhythm guitar was luckily occupied with counterpoint for around half the song, but it's the other half where I had to give the rhythm guitar something to do in order to make it sound like a metal remix.)