[ARCADE] Metro-Cross - "Main Theme" by LeviR.star

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Metro-Cross
Console: Arcade
Title: Main Theme
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: LeviR.star

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[LeviR.star]

Couldn't find a proper YouTube source for what I wanted, so let me run this all down. For an introduction, I've added the "Round Start" jingle, and an extra note in the third bar's RH to resolve the leading tone. The countdown sound effects are harmonized to the music, but are not actually in the track itself (curiously, they are in the Famicom version), so I'm not including them. The "Round Clear" jingle, in addition to being part of a separate track, is part of this song, but I still labeled it. I installed MAME onto my computer to verify that the song loops in-game, and while I can't provide my own footage, I can attest that it does, in fact, repeat after the "Round Clear" segment. This here link to KHInsider provides files of each track; numbers two through four are all you'll need. Feel free to ask me any questions, as I did a lot of experimenting here.

[Bloop]

-m1, 11, 19, 35: The first slur in the R.H. (and L.H. in m1) is on the wrong place, it should start on beat 1.5
-m12, 20, 36: I hear an additional F in the L.H. on beat 3.5
-m14: The chords in this bar are on played on beat 2 and 3.5 too, so maybe you could harmonize the melody in those places instead of 1.5 and 3?
-m22: The L.H. A on beat 3 already plays on beat 2.5
-m30: I hear the bass do the E-F#-G# run up as well, did you intentionally leave that out?

[LeviR.star]

-m1, 11, 19, 35: The first slur in the R.H. (and L.H. in m1) is on the wrong place, it should start on beat 1.5
-m12, 20, 36: I hear an additional F in the L.H. on beat 3.5
-m14: The chords in this bar are on played on beat 2 and 3.5 too, so maybe you could harmonize the melody in those places instead of 1.5 and 3?
-m22: The L.H. A on beat 3 already plays on beat 2.5
-m30: I hear the bass do the E-F#-G# run up as well, did you intentionally leave that out?

- oops, I must've copied + pasted that mistake over and over. Fixed
- do you hear the E in LH part for m. 11, 19, and 34? Because if I change it like this, every second measure will have thicker chords:

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... unless the first measure's LH part is missing a chord member (probably an A), then in that case they'll be the same thickness. Up to you

- there's no melody note on beat 2, so I'm not sure how you'd like me to harmonize it there
- could you please listen to my sheet's playback? In my opinion, the impact of beat 3 is greatly reduced when I leave the bass line unaltered, because in the original, there's more parts going on that two hands can cover at all times
- yes, I left it out intentionally so that the LH could play that minor 7th, but I can try shifting those chord members up to the RH. It does make the RH part significantly harder, though

Thank you for the feedback, Bloop. The files are updated, but I still want to work out some solutions on the feedback from you that I couldn't implement yet.

[Bloop]

- do you hear the E in LH part for m. 11, 19, and 34? Because if I change it like this, every second measure will have thicker chords:
... unless the first measure's LH part is missing a chord member (probably an A), then in that case they'll be the same thickness. Up to you

I'm not too bothered by having the second measure a little thicker, but you can definitely add an A in in the first measure too if you prefer that ^^

- there's no melody note on beat 2, so I'm not sure how you'd like me to harmonize it there

good point lol
You could add it in a second layer instead, or add the chord tones in the L.H. instead on beat 2 and 3.5

- could you please listen to my sheet's playback? In my opinion, the impact of beat 3 is greatly reduced when I leave the bass line unaltered, because in the original, there's more parts going on that two hands can cover at all times

I don't think it's really reduced if you tie over the bass note from beat 2.5 to the whole of beat 3, it still sounds pretty full then.

- yes, I left it out intentionally so that the LH could play that minor 7th, but I can try shifting those chord members up to the RH. It does make the RH part significantly harder, though

Actually I think you can still leave the chord tones you had before in the L.H., the run up is still very playable:
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You have the 5th, 4th and 3rd finger left to play the bass part, and the third finger can then slide up to the A from the G#.

[LeviR.star]

- I'm not too bothered by having the second measure a little thicker, but you can definitely add an A in in the first measure too if you prefer that ^^
- good point lol. You could add it in a second layer instead, or add the chord tones in the L.H. instead on beat 2 and 3.5
- I don't think it's really reduced if you tie over the bass note from beat 2.5 to the whole of beat 3, it still sounds pretty full then.
- Actually I think you can still leave the chord tones you had before in the L.H., the run up is still very playable:
You cannot view this attachment.
You have the 5th, 4th and 3rd finger left to play the bass part, and the third finger can then slide up to the A from the G#.

Feedback responses (w/ image attachments)

- if what you're saying is that this is accurate and playable, then it's what I'll go with:

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- I feel that the bass line is fine as it is, and that adding an extra layer will overcomplicate the texture. I can harmonize beat 3.5 just fine, but instead of beat 2, I think I'll use 1.5 for the first chord strike as a compromise:

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- can I tie the LH over with an eighth note like this?

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- that's a great idea. Here's how it looks now (I played around with the rests):

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[close]

[Bloop]

Yep, all looks good to me! For m22, you could also tie the L.H. over to a quarter note, since the bass goes on for a little bit longer than the other voices in the original, but an 8th works just as well too. I'll approve!
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[Libera]

The arrangement itself looks fine to me.

In the videos I found, and in the youtube video you posted, the round clear section is much longer, and I couldn't find any videos where the game actually lets you play for long enough for the piece to naturally get to bar 38+ (it seems you run out of time too quickly).  Do you mean that if you somehow manage to survive long enough without winning, it plays the first two bars of round clear as written and then repeats back to bar 3?

[LeviR.star]

Do you mean that if you somehow manage to survive long enough without winning, it plays the first two bars of round clear as written and then repeats back to bar 3?

That's right. The way this game works is that you can stop the timer momentarily by stomping on certain soda cans, and when I played this on MAME, I stomped on enough cans to hear the song loop, and used that as a reference for my arrangement. There is an additional loop that plays at the end of the round while the game tallies up your score (which I assume is what you were hearing), but it doesn't play during the main theme so I chose not to include it.

[Libera]

That makes sense to me.  I'll accept.

[Zeta]

This submission has been accepted by Libera.

~Zeta, your friendly NSM-Bot