Code_Name_Geek's Arrangements (NEW: Zoo Tycoon)

Started by Code_Name_Geek, March 11, 2019, 08:10:33 AM

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Code_Name_Geek

Quote from: Onionleaf on August 25, 2019, 02:01:29 AMWhat a sweet piece to arrange, it does look like it's fun to play. :) Just thought I'd drop by to help with a couple of your queries:

• I think it would be worth including the change in accompaniment that occurs in the second repeat. Removing the repeats, adding more measures, copying over the right hand melody and changing the left hand to play staccato quarter notes/chords on each beat should do the trick.
• The bottom note in the first 4 rolled chords sounds like an A. More often than not, chords form a simple triad, so if the chord sounds pretty normal (ie. there's no dissonance) then checking if it contains a root, a 3rd and a 5th of a key is a sure way to spot any missed notes. Also, I believe there should be an A in the rolled chords on bars 10 & 12.

That's all I had for now - good luck with the rest of the polish, I'm sure it will come out splendidly.
Thanks so much for the feedback, this will be very helpful!! I hadn't thought to totally change the left hand for the second repeat so I'll see what I can do with that. Might take some time to work it out but I'll post here when it's updated. :)

Code_Name_Geek

#16
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town - Fall
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

I'm pretty hyped for the upcoming remake of this game so I'm working on a few arrangements from it in the meantime! And with fall just around the corner, this seemed like the perfect song to tackle next. This one was a little challenging arrangement-wise, but the only part I'm unsure about the notes is the left-hand chords in the last 8 bars before the D.S. I also decided to use octaves for the melody echo to emulate the stereo separation in the original mix.


Code_Name_Geek

#17
Stardew Valley - Spirit's Eve Festival
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

Happy October! I put together this arrangement partly for the Halloween update, but also because I think it's one of the most interesting songs in the game. The instrumentation is pretty unique, and there were definitely some parts that were a challenge to adapt to piano but I've tried my best to reflect the sound of the original as much as possible. There might be some missing harmonies in the intro because I couldn't quite pick those out.


Code_Name_Geek

#18
Anticipation - Puzzle Themes
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

Here's a collection of the four puzzle themes from Nintendo's video board game, Anticipation! These are all short, non-looping themes that play when you're solving the appropriate colour of puzzle, and they all have a similar bluesy sound to them. I think they adapted really nicely to the piano so I don't have too much to say about the arrangement itself. Fun fact: the soundtrack to this game was composed by David Wise as he was the only composer employed at Rare during the time this game was developed! (I unironically love playing this game with my friends send help.)

Yellow Puzzle:

Pink Puzzle:

Green Puzzle:

Blue Puzzle:

Code_Name_Geek

#19
Harvest Moon 2 GBC - Spring
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

This piece was pretty easy arrangement-wise, but I did run into a few other issues while working on it. First of all, I have exhausted every resource I know of and haven't been able to find the composer for this game listed anywhere, not even the in-game credits. Also, the track for this song is mislabeled as "Winter" in the linked OST, but it is definitely the Spring theme as heard in this let's play. As for the arrangement itself, I switched some octaves in the accompaniment to make it more idiomatic of a ragtime piano piece, as that's the style this composition seems to be emulating. I'm not sure about a few of the left hand dyads (particularly in bars 3-4 and the last 4 bars), as well as the chords in the last 2 measures, so let me know if there's anything weird there!

(The composer currently listed is Tsuyoshi Tanaka, which is an educated guess based on the preceding games in the series. I have been unable to find conclusive proof of his involvement, however.)



Harvest Moon 64 - Flower Festival Dancing
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

This is one of my favourite songs from this game and has been perpetually stuck in my head since I was about 9 years old. The formatting on this is a little messy since it's my first time trying to add a percussion part, so it probably needs some work in that department. The stomping rhythm in the second half might be a little unwieldy, so I'm open to simplifying that if necessary.


Code_Name_Geek

#20
Quote from: Onionleaf on August 25, 2019, 02:01:29 AMWhat a sweet piece to arrange, it does look like it's fun to play. :) Just thought I'd drop by to help with a couple of your queries:

• I think it would be worth including the change in accompaniment that occurs in the second repeat. Removing the repeats, adding more measures, copying over the right hand melody and changing the left hand to play staccato quarter notes/chords on each beat should do the trick.
• The bottom note in the first 4 rolled chords sounds like an A. More often than not, chords form a simple triad, so if the chord sounds pretty normal (ie. there's no dissonance) then checking if it contains a root, a 3rd and a 5th of a key is a sure way to spot any missed notes. Also, I believe there should be an A in the rolled chords on bars 10 & 12.

That's all I had for now - good luck with the rest of the polish, I'm sure it will come out splendidly.
It's been a long time coming but I've finally updated this arrangement to reflect the accompaniment change in the second half! I think it's in a lot better shape so thanks again for the help!

Code_Name_Geek

#21
Persona 3 - Aria of the Soul
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]
(Collaboration with Samusthedude)

This is a very special arrangement because it's my first collaborative arrangement! It was quite an experience getting this put together and neither of us could have done it alone, so a huge thanks to my good friend (and fellow Persona fan) Samusthedude, who has had as much of a hand in this project as I have. There are probably some issues because it was a challenging venture for both of us, but any feedback can be left in the submission topic. Hope you enjoy this arrangement of a classic Persona song!


Code_Name_Geek

RollerCoaster Tycooon - Title Theme
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

This sheet marks an important milestone for me: it's the first arrangement I've created from scratch in Finale instead of importing from a MuseScore XML! I had already partially transcribed this song for an orchestral arrangement I was doing a while back and I figured it was the perfect one to try from scratch since I had a lot of the notes already. Well, when I went to do it I found out that not only had I missed a lot of parts the first time, but some of the notes I had were flat-out wrong! So it ended up being a fair bit of work but it's good to see that my ear has improved since the last time I attempted this song.

RollerCoaster Tycoon was a staple of my childhood, not the least because my siblings and I spent an entire summer playing it when we had chicken pox and weren't allowed to play with the other kids on our street. This title theme is probably the most recognizable piece from the game, and it remains one of my favourite pieces of video game music to this day. There was a point where I nearly gave up including the French horn line in the third section, which would have been a shame as it's a great melody, but with a few compromises I was able to fit it in. I've tried to write out the articulations and dynamics from the original as meticulously as possible, and because of that I think this may be my most polished sheet yet. All the same, let me know if you see anything I missed!

I should mention that the note about skipping to m. 52 is because there is an extra section that is added to the theme if you have the expansion packs for the game. Skipping to m. 52 preserves the original loop while continuing on follows the extended version.


Latios212

Ahh I'm so glad to see someone do this! Roller Coaster Tycoon was also a huge part of my childhood. I had so much fun building parks and designing custom roller coasters! Unfortunately all my old files are gone... :(

Just a few thoughts as I take a quick look! (This has actually been on my to-do pile for a very long time and I've written out just a bit of it haha)
- I think the dotted 8th + 16th rhythm in m. 2/6 is just two eighth notes
- The B in m. 4 is natural (very important!)
- I imagined the first section working better with the RH layers swapped (i.e. the one you have on the bottom is what I think of as the main melody and would prefer on top). Would have to play around with it more to compare with what you have, though
- I really like how you wrote out the middle section :D
- The way you wrote out the third section is interesting! I hadn't thought about doing it like that. The large intervals look like they could be troublesome sometimes when trying to articulate the melody, but maybe it works really nice haha, I'll have to try it

Again, super happy you did this one :D
My arrangements and YouTube channel!

Quote from: Dudeman on February 22, 2016, 10:16:37 AM
who needs education when you can have WAIFUS!!!!!

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turtle

Code_Name_Geek

Thanks for taking a look at it! I went back to take a look at some of the things you suggested and here's what I changed.

- Fixed the B natural (oops!) but I'm still hearing the m. 2/6 rhythm you mentioned as dotted 8th + 16th. Maybe I'm wrong but it sounds a little too off-centre to be two eighth notes?
- For the first part, I totally agree that the main melody is the bottom layer but had written it like that to keep the melodies in the original octaves. I tried flipping the top voice down an octave to put it below the main melody and it actually worked really well, however, so I went ahead and did that. This let me add the first four bars of the second melody (now measures 9-12), which I had left out because it clashed too much with the main melody in the original octave but works alright down the octave.
- The third part was definitely a challenge, I thought about it a lot because I wasn't sure how to fit everything in! I thought I had play-tested it but when I went back there were definitely a couple of places where the intervals were unwieldy, so I made some edits there. I think I ended up with more complete chords this way anyways, rather than doubling one of the melody notes an octave down.
- Because I added four bars in the intro and took out the repeat, I couldn't get it to fit on three pages without it looking cramped. So I respaced so there wouldn't be only one stave on the fourth page, which gave everything a little more room.

Quote from: Latios212 on January 20, 2020, 07:51:31 PM- I really like how you wrote out the middle section :D
Thanks!! I'm glad you like it :D

Quote from: Latios212 on January 20, 2020, 07:51:31 PMAgain, super happy you did this one :D
As am I, it was a blast to do! Thanks again for all the feedback, it was really helpful :)

Latios212

You're very welcome! ^^ I'm a bit occupied with other things at the moment, but I'll be sure to come back and give this one another look later :D hoping to see this in submissions soon~
My arrangements and YouTube channel!

Quote from: Dudeman on February 22, 2016, 10:16:37 AM
who needs education when you can have WAIFUS!!!!!

Spoiler
[close]
turtle

Code_Name_Geek

#26
Persona 5 - Big Bang Burger March
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

Here's a short and sweet arrangement that I put together for the Food/Cooking update. It is the theme song of the in-game fast food restaurant, Big Bang Burger. I didn't notice until I started writing it out that it switches keys partway through, which is kind of neat. Enjoy!


Code_Name_Geek

#27
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility - Cooking
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

Another food-themed sheet, and another opportunity to sneak in a sheet from my favourite series. I've never actually played this entry, but the entire soundtrack is quite beautiful. This one is a fun little tune that plays when you're cooking recipes in the game. It's sometimes titled "Master Chef" in YouTube OSTs, but as I couldn't find any official source to back this up I went with the more descriptive title of "Cooking".

Finding the composer for this track gave me a bit of trouble (as is often the case for this series). The closest thing I could find was someone with the title "Sound Artist" as can be seen in the end credits, so I hope that's close enough. Not sure what role the people from "Delfi Sound Inc." who are listed directly after played, but "Sound Artist" seemed like the most important title so I went with that.


Code_Name_Geek

#28
Stardew Valley - Frozen Pizza and Eggs (Shane's Theme)
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

There are a lot of food-inspired titles in the Stardew Valley OST so it would be a shame if I didn't tackle at least one of them for this update. I find that this OST always presents an interesting arranging challenge due to the unique instrumentation, as well as the use of reverb and delay effects. This song is the theme for one of my favourite characters from the game and plays during one of his heart events. Hope you enjoy!


Code_Name_Geek

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life - Quiet Winter (Song of Silence)
[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]

A Wonderful Life is the only game in the entire Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series that doesn't have separate seasonal themes for each season. Instead you have a record player on your farm which you can use to play several unlockable records, most of which are arrangements of songs from past games. This song is one of the two records you start the game with, however, and is original to this game. It's official English title as stated in-game is "Quiet Winter", but it is also commonly known by the translated Japanese title, "Song of Silence".

This arrangement is in decent shape (it sounds like the song at least), but it still feels like there are some missing harmonies that I'm struggling to pick out. Also, there's some pretty confusing instances of voice crossing in the right hand that could maybe be cleaned up, but I'm not sure how to do that while keeping the original melodic contours intact. Any feedback on these points (or anything else you see) would be greatly appreciated!

A case could also be made for this song being in 6/8, but there were some instances in the melody that leaned very strongly towards 3/4 (the eighth note triplets for example) so that's what I went with. Though the bassline could easily be 6/8 in the second half, I'm hearing it as more of a syncopated pattern. In case like this where it's kind of ambiguous I prefer to go with 3/4 anyways because it's easier to represent typical 6/8 rhythms in 3/4 than vice versa.