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First arrangement

Started by Dware, April 17, 2019, 07:36:30 AM

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Dware

Hello everyone,

I'm working on my first full-fledged piano-arrangement, which at I wish to submit at some point, and I am interested in getting some feedback on what I have right now. I have some issues with getting everything to work in Finale notepad 2012, since I made the original score in Noteflight.
The piece I'm working on is "Lion King Caineghis" from the Fire Emblem Path or Radiance game.

This is what I have right now: MIDI, .mus and PDF.

I couldn't manage to add measure numbers, remove the Pno bits, hide rests or add a 8vb part, but maybe that is not possible in the free version of Finale. Also I didnt figure out how to add the '[' to specify certain parts to be played with the other hand.

For the musical aspect, in the middle part (where the bass is not played in octaves) I am having some trouble figuring out all the voices, so there might be some missing or wrong. Sometimes parts of voices were knowingly left out for playability. There still are multiple voices, but everything should be playable, albeit difficult sometimes. The bass in octaves are supposed to be played an octave lower, but I left it like this for now to make it more readable.

Anyways, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about it.

Cheers!

P.S. I'm also working on 'a Messenger' from the same game, and have made an instrumental version of 'Hey, Cid!' from FF IV, which I might make into a piano version as well.

Maelstrom

Just tried playing it through on piano and it sounds pretty great. There's a few notation issues here and there, but those can mostly be attributed to the limitations of finale notepad. My one suggestion was going to be to lower the LH an octave, but it seems that was your intention. On a quick listen to the original, I'm hearing a LH harmony instead of octaves, it after trying to play that it just sounds muddy. I'm not sure when/if I'll have time to look harder at this, but it's pretty solid at first glance.

Dware

Thanks for the response!

Quote from: Maelstrom on April 17, 2019, 07:57:13 AMOn a quick listen to the original, I'm hearing a LH harmony instead of octaves, it after trying to play that it just sounds muddy.

I completely missed the LH harmony, so thanks for pointing it out. I will try if I can figure it out, even though it might not get into the transcription because of the muddy sound. Part of the reason I'm starting to transcribe is to practice my ear.

Also, do you maybe have tips to figure out what is going on in crowded sections (parts were are alot of instruments are playing)? Especially for the middle register. I have tried slowing it down, changing the pitch and EQing down some registers. Maybe I just need better ears/more practice.

Latios212

Hi, welcome to NinSheetMusic! Great first arrangement, and it's rare to see someone try to tackle something from the Tellius games :o

Quote from: Dware on April 17, 2019, 07:36:30 AMI couldn't manage to add measure numbers, remove the Pno bits, hide rests or add a 8vb part, but maybe that is not possible in the free version of Finale. Also I didnt figure out how to add the '[' to specify certain parts to be played with the other hand.
Ask away here! It's pretty simple for someone to clean those up for you, so don't worry about it too much yet. help topic

Quote from: Dware on April 17, 2019, 10:57:30 AMAlso, do you maybe have tips to figure out what is going on in crowded sections (parts were are alot of instruments are playing)? Especially for the middle register. I have tried slowing it down, changing the pitch and EQing down some registers. Maybe I just need better ears/more practice.
There are a bunch of different audio tools you can use to assist with transcribing - I personally use AudioStretch and find it really helpful for for all purposes, though other people may suggest other things. That said, this soundtrack in particular tends to be quite densely orchestrated and difficult to piece apart... definitely just lots of practice transcribing things will help you improve at it.

Quote from: Maelstrom on April 17, 2019, 07:57:13 AMMy one suggestion was going to be to lower the LH an octave, but it seems that was your intention. On a quick listen to the original, I'm hearing a LH harmony instead of octaves, it after trying to play that it just sounds muddy. I'm not sure when/if I'll have time to look harder at this, but it's pretty solid at first glance.
Quote from: Dware on April 17, 2019, 10:57:30 AMI completely missed the LH harmony, so thanks for pointing it out. I will try if I can figure it out, even though it might not get into the transcription because of the muddy sound. Part of the reason I'm starting to transcribe is to practice my ear.
I agree with Maelstrom here that you could definitely do some work to adjust the left hand (at least in the first part which I looked at just now) to make it sound heavier than it currently does (and also keep it from overlapping with the right hand). There's a few specific things I can suggest, but it'd be good for you to try this out on a piano and see what feels and sounds right to you. The good thing is that the harmony in the beginning is fairly straightforward (Am, C, D, F, etc.) so it's easy to figure out what pitches you can experiment with. If you need help or want suggestions, don't hesitate to ask!
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Dware

Thanks for the suggestions.
It seems that in audiostretch the sounds are less affected by stretching and pitchshifting than what I used previously.

Quote from: Latios212 on April 17, 2019, 04:52:34 PMI agree with Maelstrom here that you could definitely do some work to adjust the left hand (at least in the first part which I looked at just now) to make it sound heavier than it currently does (and also keep it from overlapping with the right hand). There's a few specific things I can suggest, but it'd be good for you to try this out on a piano and see what feels and sounds right to you. The good thing is that the harmony in the beginning is fairly straightforward (Am, C, D, F, etc.) so it's easy to figure out what pitches you can experiment with. If you need help or want suggestions, don't hesitate to ask!

I haven't had much time to work on it, but I tried to figure out the harmony in the left hand. I hear octaves for the most part and maybe fifths. I've made a second version, with a changed left hand and with some mistakes taken out. I have mostly power chorded my way through it. The only real difference that I heard (or at least thought I heard), the shift from F# to F in the bass section in bars 3-4, I have added, and occasionally I have opted for the third in stead of the fifth. Mostly the changes have been what I can think of, and not what I have heard. So if you can hear something that doesn't sound right or that is different and better in the original, I would be happy to add or alter it.

The overlapping of left and right hand is because the left hand is supposed to be an octave lower, but I can't add the 8vb. I've left it like this to keep it readable.

.mus
PDF