[NES] DuckTales - "Boss" by Nine Lives

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: DuckTales
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Title: Boss
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Nine Lives

[attachment deleted by admin]

[NineLives]

For reference:

[Static]

Some things I fixed for you/for you to think about:

• The key should be E minor.
• Adjust the spacing and measure distribution to make everything look more even.
• Measure numbers are missing.
• Some of the beaming (like in m3-4) is off; each beat should be beamed across.
• m6 beat 3.5 RH: The D# here would be more easily read/understood as a staccato 8th note rather than a 16th note.
• There are many spots where you technically should be using Bbs or Ebs rather than A#s or E#s (use the flat note for descending lines), but I personally think that in a sheet like this, where there are a lot of chromatic ascensions and descensions, it's easier to stick to just one accidental. So, just keep it as is.
• m8 RH: There are some missing harmonies here, but it's up to you whether you want to add them or not.

Here's the updated files so you can take a look before you edit the submission with them.

[NineLives]

Thanks very much for the fixes!

• m8 RH: There are some missing harmonies here, but it's up to you whether you want to add them or not.

As for this, I did harmonize the measure a bit. Thanks for pointing that out as well.

[mastersuperfan]

Since the descending line in m2 RH consists of discrete notes, I would write it all out instead of just using a glissando. The rhythm is, essentially, four consecutive sixteenth-note triplets, although I actually wonder if it might be better just to write it out as a single 12-tuplet. Your call as to the notation (or someone else could weigh in). If you haven't already been using, you can use Audiostretch to slow down the audio and pick out the individual notes.

The RH dyads in m3 and the beginning of m4 should be B and D, not G and B.

There are some harmonies you're missing in the second half of m4. (Audiostretch can help in picking them out.)

m5, RH beat 2.5: 16th notes should be E and G instead of D and E.

m5, RH beat 4: The bottom note in the dyads should be a B instead of a G.

The RH dyads in m7 should have E, not Fn, as the bottom note.

The RH dyads in m8 should have C, E, A, and C as their bottom notes, respectively (sixths and fifths, not thirds).

The RH dyads in the last measure should be E-G, D-F#, E-G, and F#-A, all basically a third higher than how you have them now.

You might want to consider putting staccatos on more of your RH eighth notes in the second half.

A courtesy natural on the first RH D in m5 would be appreciated.

Finale starts its 8va's way too far to the right above the first note, so extend the left end of the 8va's in m2 and m7 more to the left so that they fully cover the note. Also, change the right end of the m2 in 8va so that it isn't so far extended into m3; the 8va should only be extending as far as the barline (and it's affecting the playback in m3 too).

[NineLives]

Now, mastersuperfan, when you're talking about dyads, are the first notes of the duos you want changed on the top or the bottom?

[mastersuperfan]

Sorry about that—the first notes are on the bottom (they're thirds).

[NineLives]

There we are. All changes, as of now, have been taken care of.

[Libera]

Before I get into anything here, I've been meaning to mention this for a while but I'd massively prefer it if you could link youtube videos rather than ... slightly dodgy looking hyperlinks.  Also the link you've posted says 'remastered' in it, so are we going off of the the remastered version or the original NES soundtrack?  Personally I think we should be doing the original NES version and if not I think we need to indicate it somewhere.  I'll hold off on any particular note checking until I know what version I should be going off of.

Other than that I can say some things about the sheet itself:

-Both the left and right margins are really far out.  I'd move the left margin to something like ~0.68 and the right margin to 0.5 and that'll help stop the sheet looking so stretched horizontally.
-I'd remove the 8va in bar 2 because visually it's confusing I think to have a glissando from a note that's visually lower to a note that's visually higher be a glissando that goes down (if that makes sense.)
-I'd also change the bottom margin to 0.5 as well because the url is very high at the moment.

[NineLives]

Before I get into anything here, I've been meaning to mention this for a while but I'd massively prefer it if you could link youtube videos rather than ... slightly dodgy looking hyperlinks.  Also the link you've posted says 'remastered' in it, so are we going off of the the remastered version or the original NES soundtrack?  Personally I think we should be doing the original NES version and if not I think we need to indicate it somewhere.  I'll hold off on any particular note checking until I know what version I should be going off of.

I'll try to remember using YouTube links in the future. There's an 8 bit music option for DuckTales: Remastered which reuses the music from the NES game, so it'd still be the same song if I had the original audio for reference. As for the margins and other stuff, I'll get to fix that as soon as I can.

[NineLives]

I've run into a slight problem: While I was able to remove the 8va line, my Finale Notepad program does not seem to allow me the option to change the margins. It'd be most appreciated if I could get a bit of help changing that.

[LeviR.star]

This is what I went ahead and did:

- new template entirely, where the formatting is spaced out a little better than the one you were using
- re-distributed the measures, and set the page size to 95%
- changed the MIDI playback for that second measure so it's more accurate (there's now a hidden 3rd staff)
- here's what I would suggest: spice up your sheets with a few slurs/articulations! The sound programmer went out of their way to make the music sound a bit more polished this way, so we as arrangers should, too
- no one bothered to check the bottom notes of the dyads in m. 4, so I modified them accordingly
- the 8va should have stretched from m. 7 to m. 9, so I made that adjustment
- I know some of the YouTube sources say this song is called "Boss Theme", but there's no official one, so going by how we name sheets on this site, I'd go with the title of this sheet being changed to "Boss"

Here, use these files: DuckTales - Boss -- You're welcome to make any changes to these that you don't agree with.

[NineLives]

This is what I went ahead and did:

- new template entirely, where the formatting is spaced out a little better than the one you were using
- re-distributed the measures, and set the page size to 95%
- changed the MIDI playback for that second measure so it's more accurate (there's now a hidden 3rd staff)
- here's what I would suggest: spice up your sheets with a few slurs/articulations! The sound programmer went out of their way to make the music sound a bit more polished this way, so we as arrangers should, too
- no one bothered to check the bottom notes of the dyads in m. 4, so I modified them accordingly
- the 8va should have stretched from m. 7 to m. 9, so I made that adjustment
- I know some of the YouTube sources say this song is called "Boss Theme", but there's no official one, so going by how we name sheets on this site, I'd go with the title of this sheet being changed to "Boss"

Thank you so much for all the changes, LeviR. I'll try to keep in mind the stuff about the accidentals and slurs. There's nothing on the sheet I disagree with while listening to the source audio over again.

[Libera]

Thanks for the help here Levi and msf, everything looks good here as far as I'm concerned.

Approved.

[Maelstrom]

Looks great, honestly.