[GBA] Mega Man Zero 4 - "Power Field" by Jake_Luigi

[Libera]

This isn't the first time the high note has been questioned. It was originally submitted as an F, but was changed after Libera's first round of feedback. The GBA is super cronchy. I slowed that bit down to like 0.44x speed (thank you YouTube update) and I'm pretty sure it's a high F.
Wait... yes and no.
It actually sounds like maybe the first high note (excluding the one that may not exist) is an F... but the other in the same measure is a G?? I will test this tomorrow for sure.
That might be what's happening there. I do hear something off.

Yeah... I'm not hearing that first eighth from the same guitar. Removed from the first four measures before the other guitar comes in. It kinda looks... off now though. Maybe that's just because I'm used to seeing all 12 eighths there, but let me know if I can keep those in.

So first thing, this line isn't the guitars, it sounds like strings to me.  I do still hear this on the first beat of bars 26, 28 etc. and it sounds pretty strange to me now with it removed.  I also still think the top notes of the strings are Gs, not Fs.  Are you sure you're not being thrown off by the guitars?  The guitars play a G on beat 1, an F on beat 2.5 and then another G on beat 4, which would fit with what you're saying.  You've already got that in the left hand, so I think it would be better to stick to the strings for the right hand, until the extra guitar stuff comes in for bar 30.

This one was a bit tricky, but I figured out what happened. I do hear both a Bb and a D, so that has been corrected (it took a few repeats on 0.25x to hear it, but it is there). However, I also found the reasoning I used in the initial submission. I used a remastered track to help with the ending (since there was less cronch, but that version is indeed slightly off in the 3/2 section, instead doing a Bb then alternating with a Bb D chord as the eighth eighth.
Switched, but it looks quite messy now. Thoughts?

Even if both the Bb and D are present, I think you should only include one of them.  It's weird texturally to suddenly switch to a dyad in all of these monophonic right hand phrases.  I would pick the D, personally.

For the extra guitars, the only way I can think to try and stop these voices getting muddled up is to try and put the extra guitar notes on top of the strings.  Maybe something like this?

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In the above I picked the D for beat 4.5 (ignore bar 29).

I went through Cacabish's 145 slide presentation, and I think the file is looking much better now in terms of formatting.

The margins are currently extremely wide.  Can you fix this?  I recommend 0.5 for the top, bottom and RH margins, with ~0.65 for the LH margin.  The character indication/tempo marking is really close to the staff, and the composer and arranger info are too close together.  The staff size is also rather large, ~0.71cm.  I recommend around 0.65cm.

I forget how much of this stuff was discussed in cacabish's presentation, but I think all of it should have been.  Let me know if you have any problems with any of it though.

[Jake_Luigi]

it sounds pretty strange to me now with it removed

Glad I wasn't the only one that thought so, re-added

I also still think the top notes of the strings are Gs

Okay, changed to Gs

Even if both the Bb and D are present, I think you should only include one of them.

Truuueeee, chose the D

For the extra guitars, the only way I can think to try and stop these voices getting muddled up is to try and put the extra guitar notes on top of the strings

Changed this section in the way you suggested. At first I thought the lower Gs sounded weird, but it's grown on me.

The margins are currently extremely wide.  Can you fix this?  I recommend 0.5 for the top, bottom and RH margins, with ~0.65 for the LH margin.  The character indication/tempo marking is really close to the staff, and the composer and arranger info are too close together.  The staff size is also rather large, ~0.71cm.  I recommend around 0.65cm.

I forget how much of this stuff was discussed in cacabish's presentation, but I think all of it should have been.

I delved into the code, but the lines in Cacabish's presentation didn't exist in this specific file (for what reason? I... don't know. It was in PowerField version C...). There is a section to change it manually in the top row of options, but the boxes are grayed out and won't allow me to input the margins you specified. Moved the composer upwards a little bit, but bricked a file when trying to move the character indication within the code (since I cannot do it within the file).

I'm going to ask Cacabish if he has any remedies for the margin error, but other than that and the character indication everything else should be in working order (besides the tie a musx user has to add at the very end).

Thanks again Libera!

[Jake_Luigi]

Hello, I wanted to open this post with an apology.
My uploads from last month did not go through, and as such, have been outdated since July. I am sorry for not noticing sooner.
Anyhow, I finally fixed up the margins and everything with the help of Cacabish (thanks again dude).
If anything requires fixing, please let me know.

Thanks again Libera :bread:

[Libera]

I'm sorry about the wait on this one; I was away last month.

I think this is looking and sounding much better and is pretty much done on my end.  The only thing I can see is that the systems are perhaps a little too spread out on the first page, especially when compared to how little white space is between the fourth system and the url/copyright.  Something like this would probably look more balanced:

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[Jake_Luigi]

No worries on the wait!
Kricketune spaced it out for me so nobody else would have to re-add the second ending tie (thanks Kricketune :bread:).
Should be good, but lmk if something went awry.
As always, thanks again.

[Libera]

Looks great.  I shall approve.  Good job for sticking with it!

[Zeila]

These are just some small little suggestions, nice work!

• m1/4/5/8 RH I think the first quarter notes should be staccato'd or written as eighth notes + eighth rests (not beat 4 in measures 4 or
• Are there no slurs on the grace notes because of the way they're played, or should they be added in?
• m18-24 how do you feel about adding accents on the power chords?
• m26+ in the original the dynamics are pretty static, but I think it would be nice to mix it up anyways and emphasize the buildup by putting mf at 26, f at 30, and ff at the very last note, with crescendos in between

[Jake_Luigi]

m1/4/5/8 RH I think the first quarter notes should be staccato'd or written as eighth notes + eighth rests (not beat 4 in measures 4 or

Oh that's a good catch. Used staccatos (but now that I've exported everything, I'm wondering if I shoulda done the eighth note + eighth rest...).

Are there no slurs on the grace notes because of the way they're played, or should they be added in?

They probably should be added in... so I... uh... added them in just now.

m18-24 how do you feel about adding accents on the power chords?

I think that is a splendid idea, adds power field

m26+ in the original the dynamics are pretty static, but I think it would be nice to mix it up anyways and emphasize the buildup by putting mf at 26, f at 30, and ff at the very last note, with crescendos in between

That sounds great. Only thing I'm wondering is that if it repeats, the player would be going from ff to f real heckin' fast. Added, but wondering if I should change that to mf to f throughout the last section.

Thank you for the added feedback Zeila, much appreciated :bread:

Oh, btw, sidenote, this time, the .mus DID accept the .musx changes unlike before. Not sure what changed...
Also fixed the staccato markings toward the end, they were sticking out of the note heads for some reason (and I don't know how four of us missed it lol)

[Static]

Looks like this is coming along nicely! The sheet looks pretty great

- You could add the upper guitar voice on beat 3.5 of m2/6 if you want:

- Staccato in m4/8 should be flipped (staccatos should always be on the notehead side unless there's multiple layers present)
- Break the beam in m14 LH and m20/24 RH to match the other spots in the sheet
- I hear the power chord in m9/13 restruck on beat 2, like this:

- The chord in m11/15 RH comes in on the downbeat of those measures, not on beat 4.5 of the previous measures. You can put this in a separate layer, then hide the half rest on beat 3:

- m10/11 beat 3.5 sound like they have a grace note before
- m17 RH should be beamed across. Adding grace notes to groups of four 8th notes in Finale breaks the beam for some reason.
- m18-24: Why no marcatos in the RH? It's part of the same guitar part as the LH
- m26-33: Instead of writing those long crescendos (some of which are intersecting stems), consider hiding them (and hiding the forte in the middle) and putting poco a poco cresc. right after the mezzoforte. This is useful for long stretches of slow, but constant crescendo-ing.
- m32 RH beats 5-6 (in terms of quarter notes): The melody here actually goes Eb-F-Db-Bb, only in this measure. You could keep the extra F's on the downbeats to match m30, or pick different notes to avoid repeated Fs, up to you.

Get everything that you can, and I'll help out with the rest

[Jake_Luigi]

You could add the upper guitar voice on beat 3.5 of m2/6 if you want:

While it's correct in the song, it sounds pretty jarring on playback (at least in Finale). If I can, I kinda want to keep it just Fs here.

Staccato in m4/8 should be flipped (staccatos should always be on the notehead side unless there's multiple layers present)
- Break the beam in m14 LH and m20/24 RH to match the other spots in the sheet
- I hear the power chord in m9/13 restruck on beat 2, like this:

With like 30 minutes of trial and error, I finally managed to get those darned beams correct lol

The chord in m11/15 RH comes in on the downbeat of those measures, not on beat 4.5 of the previous measures. You can put this in a separate layer, then hide the half rest on beat 3:

I'm unable to get the layers unfortunately, but I got the notes in the right spot so we just gotta flip the top note and layer the others.

m10/11 beat 3.5 sound like they have a grace note before

I'm honestly about to buy Finale at this point, because, yes, you guessed it, I cannot do grace notes
GRACE NOT- what the frick dude there's-
THERE'S NO GRACE NOTES IN THIS PROGRAM
...
but yes I agree that grace notes would be suitable here

m17 RH should be beamed across. Adding grace notes to groups of four 8th notes in Finale breaks the beam for some reason.
- m18-24: Why no marcatos in the RH? It's part of the same guitar part as the LH

lol finale and lol im dumb in that order, fixed both

m26-33: Instead of writing those long crescendos (some of which are intersecting stems), consider hiding them (and hiding the forte in the middle) and putting poco a poco cresc. right after the mezzoforte. This is useful for long stretches of slow, but constant crescendo-ing.
- m32 RH beats 5-6 (in terms of quarter notes): The melody here actually goes Eb-F-Db-Bb, only in this measure. You could keep the extra F's on the downbeats to match m30, or pick different notes to avoid repeated Fs, up to you.

Deleted the creschendos, but I am unable to put in the poco a poco cresc. I just kinda wrote in where I figured it went, so that'll have to be added by a full finale user
As for the last note, I swapped beat 5.5 (C) with an F

Thanks a bunch Static (and sorry for the wait)! Please let me know if there's anything else I'm missing besides the full finale stuffs.

[Static]

While it's correct in the song, it sounds pretty jarring on playback (at least in Finale). If I can, I kinda want to keep it just Fs here.

Yeah sure, it looks like you added them in anyway so I just removed 'em for ya.

With like 30 minutes of trial and error, I finally managed to get those darned beams correct lol

Highlight a note and press "/" to make/break beams, it actually works in NotePad too.

The only other change I'd make is changing the single 16th note grace notes to 8th notes instead. Typically, single grace notes are written as 8ths, two are written as 16ths, and 3+ are written as 32nds (though there are some exceptions). This change wouldn't make a difference to how the piece is read and performed. I also flipped the stems for the notes at the beginning of m4/8 RH - I realized that's what was causing the flipped staccato issue in the first place.

The other changes you made look good, so I uploaded a batch of new files with all of those additional changes and will now accept. Nice work!

[Zeta]

This submission has been accepted by Static.

~Zeta, your friendly NSM-Bot