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Messages - Code_Name_Geek

#331
I have a few comments to add if that's alright!

-About the eighth notes at the beginning, I would keep staccato marks on all the eighth notes for consistency. Obviously eighth notes followed by rests are short by default but having staccatos on them makes it extra clear they are meant to be the same length as the staccato eighth notes in measures 2 and 6.

Quote from: Latios212 on April 17, 2019, 06:26:53 PM- In the second to last measure, write the first E flat as D#. This may seem odd because it is directly followed by more E flats but it's important to highlight the same movement in the two equivalent but transposed phrases - you have a B chord with the fourth (E) resolving to the third (D#) and then a B flat chord with the fourth (E flat) resolving to the third (D).
-If I'm understanding correctly what Latios meant here, the first note should be a D# (the one under the B natural) like you've changed it to, but the two following ones should stay as Ebs (under the two Bbs). Similarly, the bass line there should be Bbs instead of A#s, to match the A#s in the right hand. The reason here is purely theoretical, I can go into more detail on this if you'd like.

-Most of the time you do a great job of showing beat 3 (which is standard practice in 4/4), but there in the bassline of the very last bar you seem to have missed one rhythm. What you want to do is split up the dotted quarter into a quarter tied to an eighth. Also, the two tied eighth notes in that measure can be made into a quarter note which is easier to read.

-There are some notes in the right hand that sound a little off after the key change but I wasn't able to tell exactly where it was, I would maybe double-check the line in voice 2 in bars 14 and 16. (Sorry I couldn't pinpoint the exact notes but I thought it was worth mentioning anyways.)

I hope that was helpful, let me know if you want me to clarify anything! Overall it looks like a good arrangement and nice choice of song :)
#332
And another new series!


Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! - Acorn Shrine
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

This one was pretty straightforward, just something simple I did to work on my ear. I didn't have any issues with it but as always, if something is a bit off feel free to point it out!

#333
Quote from: Latios212 on April 22, 2019, 06:10:43 PMIt looks good! It's fine if you want to keep the layers as-is; I just wanted you to give it some thought and weigh the options.

Very small things - the 1./2. at the repeated section would probably be a bit better off to the left, and the repeat at the end would be clearer as a D.C.

But other than that, this has my approval! ;D
Done!

Quote from: Libera on April 23, 2019, 05:06:34 PMAlso the second to last note in the bass in bars 9 and 13 is an A rather than an E (it is an E in bar 11 though).
Must have been a copying mistake, my bad. It's fixed now.

Thanks again to the both of you!
#334
Two new arrangements from two new games, including my first non-Harvest Moon arrangement! (Though it's not far off...)


Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town - Summer
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

Like most of this soundtrack, this is actually a song from an earlier game in the series (Harvest Moon: Back to Nature) but it's been re-arranged for the GBA's sound capabilities. For that reason, I credited both the original composer and the composer/sound designer from Friends of Mineral Town since I'm guessing they were the one to do this arrangement. (Let me know if that was the right thing to do!) This one might be a little tricky to play because of the repeated accompaniment in the B section... I'm open to suggestions on that!



Stardew Valley - Piano Solo (Elliott's Theme)
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

I was pretty surprised there weren't any Stardew Valley sheets on-site so this is my first contribution to that! I tried to keep it as faithful to the original as possible so let me know if there are any added or missing notes. Also, I would love some feedback from a piano player on some of the stylistic things in there (grace notes, pedal markings, etc.) and whether I notated those correctly. Are there any places I should add slurs?



Feedback is welcome!
#335
Sorry for the delay but here is the revision!

I've put some thought into those off-beats and I've decided to keep them in the right hand (though I've re-arranged the formatting to get them into the proper staff). After play-testing it a bit I found it to be slightly easier in the right hand even with the bass up the octave, which I didn't terribly like the sound of anyways. I think it was because the articulations match up better with the right hand part; for some reason, I find it really difficult to execute two different articulations in the same hand. Thoughts?

I made the corrections and added those repeats as well!
#336
Piano Arrangements / Re: Xenophanes' Arrangements
April 16, 2019, 07:13:25 PM
Quote from: xenophanes on April 16, 2019, 05:45:27 PMI tried your suggestion using Audacity to raise the pitch, and it worked very well! I updated the bass line in some sections, and added some harmonization in the second voice in the last few bars. I'll get to the other changes sometime tomorrow, and I'll create a .mus file and pdf as well. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely use it a lot in the future.
Awesome I'm glad it helped! That's a trick I learned from a bass player :D
#337
Piano Arrangements / Re: Xenophanes' Arrangements
April 16, 2019, 04:36:11 PM
Quote from: xenophanes on April 16, 2019, 03:39:22 PMThanks a lot for your input! I'll make the changes soon and update the links.
But one question: did you see anything wrong with the bass line in Cheese Land from measure 33 to the end? I wasn't so sure I got the right notes because the audio in the Youtube video got covered up by the melody.
No problem!

I can't quite pick out the exact notes myself but it sounds like that pattern in starting in measure 33 might be more similar in shape to the original pattern... I think the notes on beat 1 and beat 4 are slightly higher than what you have written, and the two 16th notes might also be some kind of walk-down like in the other pattern. I would especially check the third time this happens when the melody is on an Ab because there's a good chance the bass goes into F minor instead of F major there. The last four bars seem alright to me though. Does anyone else with slightly better ears have some input on this?

A useful trick for transcribing basslines is to import the track into an program like Audacity and transpose the entire track up an octave--this puts the bass in an octave we're more used to hearing (and helps to get the melody out of the way). You'd have to download the audio from the YouTube video to do this, but maybe give it a try and see if it makes it any clearer?
#338
Piano Arrangements / Re: Xenophanes' Arrangements
April 16, 2019, 12:50:21 PM
Welcome and congrats on your first sheets!! They look very nice so far, and you've done a great job notating those tricky rhythms especially. I just have a few comments on the rhythms in Cheese Land:

-You almost always leave beat 3 visible, which is exactly what you want in 4/4 so good job! I did see a couple of spots where you might have missed this however (like measure 44 in Cheese Land) so it wouldn't hurt to double check.

-In the section from measures 9 -14, on beat 4 you sometimes notate the rhythm as two eight notes and other times as two 16ths separated by 16th rests. I think it would be better to keep this consistent as eighth notes, and if you do think there's a length difference (I didn't listen closely enough to tell) to use staccatos on the eighth notes rather than switching to 16th notes.

And some Cheese Land comments not related to rhythms:

-I would switch the left hand to bass clef since that's what piano players are accustomed to reading, and there's really no reason to use a 15vb treble clef when a bass clef exists. If it goes too low in bass class, just write it an octave up and indicate "8vb" in the score--no need to change clefs!

-There are a couple of spots where the second voice in the right hand has stems facing up instead of down, which is causing them to overlap the top voice in places. Knowing Musescore there's two possibilities here: either the notes were accidentally entered into voice 3, in which case you just have to switch them to voice 2; or you accidentally flipped the stems when entering the notes in which case you just have to select the notes you want to change and press "x" on the keyboard and they should flip right back. It's an easy fix but it will clean it up nicely :)

I didn't look over Shy Guy Beach in too much detail but I hope that was helpful! The sheets were quite clean and easy to read in most parts and those were some pretty minor complaints, but fixing them up will go a long way!

I'm glad to see some more Mario Kart sheets in the works, those games have always had great music!
#339
Quote from: Dudeman on April 16, 2019, 01:20:29 AMThe general rule is that the piece is credited to the original game it's from. If the differences between two versions are significant enough or if obscurity is a big factor, exceptions can be made. In this case, I personally think the differences made by the GBA's compressed sound quality (I was able to notice a missing instrument in the first 10 seconds) are enough that if you were specifically arranging the PSX version, the arrangement might turn out differently, in which case I'd say this arrangement should be submitted under the GBA title. But other opinions are welcomed!
Actually on a closer listen you might be right, there's also some note length differences that could be reflected in an arrangement. Thanks!

Obviously in this case I would list the original composer, but should I credit the composer/sound designer from the GBA version as well? I'm assuming they are the one who re-arranged and adapted it for the GBA.
#340
What is the standard practice when arranging music from a game that has the same soundtrack as an earlier game in the series? Should it be submitted as the original game or as the version you based it on?

For instance, I'm arranging the Summer theme from Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for GBA which can be found below:

But though Friends of Mineral Town isn't an exact port of Harvest Moon: Back To Nature for the PS1, it is set in the same town and uses mostly the same soundtrack! Here is the equivalent song from the original:

As you can see, the song itself is nearly unchanged though the instrumentation has been adapted for the GBA's sound chip, and I don't think they're different enough to warrant separate arrangements.

I also wonder whether most people are aware that these two differently titled games have the same soundtrack but altered for different systems, which could cause confusion if they're looking for a sheet from one of those games. (And let's not get into the confusingly titled Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl, which is the PSP port of Back To Nature...)
#341
Quote from: Libera on April 08, 2019, 04:11:39 PMHow about including the harmony line in bars 17-30?  It entirely moves in thirds or sixths with the main melody which makes it pretty easy to play.  I've written it in for this picture.
...
If you're worried about it being too tricky or heavy, you could drop the lower octave in favour of the harmony line.  The thirds/sixths are very pretty in the original and I just think it'd be nice to include them.
That's a great idea! I went ahead and added those, thanks for the suggestion!
#342
Woah this is so cool, happy birthday NSM!! Wonderful job to everyone who worked on this!! It's so nice to finally have a mobile-friendly layout too.
#343
Quote from: Latios212 on April 07, 2019, 09:38:40 AMNice work! Notes look good except m. 15 beat 4 LH should be an E instead of an A. And in the octaves at the end, there's some harmony you may want to consider adding (D# E# F# G#).
Oops I'll definitely fix those, thanks!

Quote from: Latios212 on April 07, 2019, 09:38:40 AMI do have a couple of other suggestions, though:
- If you use a repeat structure for some parts that are currently the same in your piano reduction, everything could fit on one page; here's what that would roughly look like:
I never thought of doing the repeats like that, it would be nice to get it on one page!

Quote from: Latios212 on April 07, 2019, 09:38:40 AM- The offbeat dyads in the A section look fairly uncomfortable to reach in places. For the places where the bass plays G they have to be played by the right hand instead, and that could get in the way of executing the 16th note runs smoothly. One thing you can try (see if you like) is raising the bass by an octave so the left hand can play everything on the lower staff, although this would require smoothing the transitions to and from the other section to avoid jumping the bass. How do you want this part to be played? Play around with it and see what you like.
I was intending it to be played by the right hand but wrote it in the bass clef for spacing reasons (and I probably should have indicated that in the score). I have small hands so I definitely can't reach that at all with my left hand! I knew it would be a bit difficult with the 16th notes, I just don't have a good idea of how difficult it is since I'm not a very good pianist myself. I can try the bass the octave up as well and maybe I'll find an actual pianist (aka not myself) to get some input on that.

I have class in a few mins so I don't have time to do the edits now but I'll get them done as soon as I can!
Thanks again for the feedback!

EDIT: Sorry I'm in the midst of exams and busier than I thought but I'll revisit this early next week.
#345
Alright here is the revised arrangement! I didn't add those eighth notes in the countermelody because I thought they would conflict with the melody, but that melody should now be correct. I also moved the middle voice to the left hand as suggested.