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[FireArrow]

Althought this stuff is pretty basic, NSM really needs more arranging guides like this.

[Sebastian]

I totally agree^ I hope to do some more in the future.

[mrclay]

IX. Make certain that your arrangement is playable to the human body, not a Finale robot.

Last night I went through the classic Metroid Brinstar theme and found numerous mistakes so I put a bunch of effort into getting all 3 voices properly transcribed (https://musescore.com/user/15303996/scores/3382306). The issue is some of these corrections put the voices just too spread out to play.

Is there a place on the site to host accurate, but unplayable transcriptions? I like the challenge of arranging, but are there best practices to follow? E.g. if a middle voice goes too low is is better to cut out, transpose it up, or simplify the bass to keep it?

I also have to do download Finale and learn yet another piece of software, but it can be done.

[Maelstrom]

Is there a place on the site to host accurate, but unplayable transcriptions? I like the challenge of arranging, but are there best practices to follow?

Musescore

If anything gets on the site, it needs to be humanly playable, and hopefully not require a graduate degree to be able to play. That said, there are some older pieces by a few certain arrangers which may be even beyond that skill level, because we have not always had these standards. I probably didn't explain anything here you wanted to know, but, eh. Could you be more specific?

[Latios212]

Last night I went through the classic Metroid Brinstar theme and found numerous mistakes so I put a bunch of effort into getting all 3 voices properly transcribed (https://musescore.com/user/15303996/scores/3382306).

The one on site? Yeah, some of the older sheets may not be quite so good... Quality assurance has really only become a thing in the past few years. You're welcome to submit a replacement for it (probably an edit replacement) once you get Finale software up and running.

Is there a place on the site to host accurate, but unplayable transcriptions?

Personal Arrangement Threads is best if you plan on converting these transcriptions into piano sheets!

I like the challenge of arranging, but are there best practices to follow? E.g. if a middle voice goes too low is is better to cut out, transpose it up, or simplify the bass to keep it?

That's the fun of arranging! While in many cases one route may be particularly direct or obvious (see: exact transcription), the way you deal with more complex songs and sections is up to you. There's no one-size-fits-all answer to that; it's up to you to experiment with different ways of writing it out for piano. Browsing sheets on site (high-quality ones, of course) while listening to the originals is quite helpful and exposes you to all kinds of arranging methods - everyone has their own style.