The Arranger-Focused Projects Initiative

[Sebastian]

Something cool I like to do and enjoy doing is work on fun projects (typically, encompassing a specific soundtrack or even a collage of random sheets from random games) with an arranger. This helps me help an arranger grow by checking their sheets one-on-one and giving them live feedback. Previous incarnations have proven to be very beneficial to the arranger. For example, Donkey Kong 64 - WaluigiTime64.

The breakdown of this initiative is as follows: The arranger gradually arranged the sheets, I (the moderating Updater) look over the sheet(s) live via chat or screenshare (if the arranger wishes) as the arranger arranges them, and the arranger learns and grows through this process.

Once the project is finished, there is a possibility of these sheets being put on the site.
As a side note, I'm hoping to have this happen with every project, but try not to get your hopes up. The fact that the sheets from a specified project will all be checked by one Updater (myself) already will increase the chances of them getting on site, unlike other arrangement projects in the past where all the sheets were dumped with major revisions needed.

If you would be interested in doing this, see instructions below, post, and then we can take subsequent steps from there.

Q&A:

Projects haven't seemed to work well in the past. They would go long, not much Updater/arranger interaction, etc. Why is this any different?
In the past, arrangement projects typically went like this: Arranger dumps sheets, Updater(s) check them, they get fixed by the Updaters and eventually accepted. There is little interaction between Updater and arranger about changes being made, Updaters lose interest because of the giant backlog of sheets and the changes being solely reliant on the Updater, and the length of the projects.

First of all, this endeavor isn't rooted in getting sheets on the site, but rather in the growth of the arranger. The primary function of this is to grow the arranger. How? Every sheet will be reviewed with the arranger's involvement and/or via live feedback. Explanations will be given for comments made on the sheet in hopes that the arranger will not make the same mistakes again and that it will help grow his arranging and engraving skills.

Secondly, these projects will be significantly shorter and more attainable than previous projects done. I have set a limit to 40 sheets (at most) for each project.

Finally, there will be not be inactivity on my end since I'm the one starting it and seeing it through.


Will these sheets be updated to the site?
Maybe, but no guarantees. However, your chances will be increased. Here are two things that increase your chances of getting them on the site (outside of doing high-quality arranging): 1. One Updater will have already checked, fixed, and approved all of them.  2. Because of this, only one other Updater has to check them before being accepted.
My two biggest pieces of advice for those really wanting to get theirs updated to the site are these: 1. Do the best high-quality arranging you possibly can and stay on top of your project time-wise (this should be a given) and 2. Seek out a second Updater to perform a second check.   

Want to do your own?

If you would like to do a project of your own, here's what to do:
1. Find a soundtrack or collage of sheets you would like to do. If you want to do a specific OST, the maximum amount per project is 40. If you want to do a backlog of your personal arrangements or random songs from random games, the maximum amount per project is 15.
If you want to do a soundtrack with more then 40, we can either cut it down to specific tracks you want to do the most, or we can split the project into multiple projects. Also, for clarification, you don't have to pick a soundtrack. If you have a bunch of high-quality sheets that have been sitting in your thread, bring 'em on by. Also, I can amend the rules in certain cases. For example, if you have 15 super long arrangements, I may limit you to 5 or 10 at most. Also, if you have a lot of super short songs or fanfares, I can increase the max, as well. I'm willing to work with whatever you bring me.

2. Post below giving the specifications of your desired project. NOTE: Only three projects can go at the same time. Yes, I know there are currently four, but since I made the rules after I took those on, I've adjusted the amount of projects allowed at the same time for this time only. You can still post below even if there are three projects going. You'll be next in line when a project finishes, if that's the case.

3. Stay on top of your project! If projects seem to be going inactive due to the arranger, I will terminate it. Don't worry though. I will give plenty of warnings before that. You won't be surprised if your project is terminated.

Current Projects:

Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, & 3, & Knuckles - Yug_Guy
Progress: N/A at the moment. I'll get caught up on this soon...

Castlevania - The Adventure (GB) - LeviR.Star
Progress: Arranged: 9 out of 9 - Approved: 6 out of 9.

Paper Mario: Color Splash - ThatHiddenCharacter
Progress: Arranged: - Approved:

Spoiler

Wii U Loading Screen
Main Theme
Port Prisma
Prisma Cardware
Prisma Museum
Prisma Postal Toad
Ruddy Road
Prisma Café
Circle Up, Shy Guys!
Cherry Lake
Indigo Underground
Bloo Bay Beach
Onstage at Oceanfest
On Blissful Beach
Daffodil Peak
The Ranger's Cabin
The Crimson Tower
ME WILL ROCK ME
Prism Samba
Sunglow Ridge
Château Chanterelle
Unremarkable Forest
Mondo Woods
The Happy Professor
Marmalade Valley
Li'l Princess, Big Bark
Kiwano Temple
The Golden Coliseum
Iggy Battle
Prisma Prance Trance
Dark Bloo Inn
Poisonous Plum Park
Plum Park
Get the Boat Back
A Forest So Sacred
Snifit or Whiffit Theme
Your Answers, Please!
Look Sharp!
Fort Cobalt
Battle with Ludwig
Prism Waltz
Fortune Island
Rumble with Wendy
Prismatic Rhapsody
Hole in the Sand
Snifit Hideout
Toad Trainworks
Crane Game
Tangerino Grill
Kitchen Stadium
Sunset Express
Larry's Runaway Train
This Here's Paint Country
Redpepper Volcano
Redpepper Spa
Mossrock Theater
Emerald Circus
Lemmy's Grand Finale
Paint the Dance Floor
ROYal Rumble
Black Bowser's Castle
Bowser Battle
Blackout
Farewell
Peace Once More

[close]

Super Mario Sunshine - E. Gadd Industries
Progress: Arranged: 10 out of ?? - Approved: 0 out of ??.

[Sebastian]

Topic now unlocked.

Here is the first announcement I'd like to make:

I would like to encourage the project arrangers here and everyone else to review submissions as best you can. Since submissions are more important than this endeavor, I will default to checking those before I check these. If submissions doesn't look too backed up and has some activity, I'll have more time for these.

A lot of mistakes that I find in subs (all sheets really) can easily be avoided. Most mistakes I find are very repetitive and easily able to be avoided. If I could get some of you to look through subs (most specifically subs that haven't been posted in yet) while using this as a checklist, that would go a very long way toward helping me get to these sheets and, ultimately, yourself. I greatly encourage all arrangers to help out with sheet checking. You don't realize how big of a help that could be. It would speed everything up greatly and ultimately get more of our arrangers' sheets on the site much quicker.

[PlayfulPiano]

Whenever the next Project slot is available, I would like to do the Celeste OST, excluding B-Sides.
There should be a total of 21 tracks, but two of them have already been approved on the site, so it would go down to 19.
In turn, here are the tracks that I would like to work on for arrangements in a project:
https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-original-soundtrack
1. Prologue 01:07
2. First Steps 03:38 (Could be alternatively the Piano-Only rendition here: https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/track/first-steps-piano-only)
3. Awake 02:28 (Simple Theme)
4. Postcard from Celeste Mountain 01:32
5. Checking In 07:04
6. Spirit of Hospitality 01:44
7. Scattered and Lost 05:53
8. Golden 08:28 (Started on it)
9. Anxiety 01:53   
10. Quiet and Falling 07:27 (Have done a rough draft already)
11. In the Mirror 09:37
12. Madeline and Theo 03:08 (Started on it)
13. Starjump 02:12 (Started on it)
14. Reflection 05:54
15. Confronting Myself 04:09
16. Little Goth 02:58 (Simple Theme)
17. Reach for the Summit 11:08 (Started on it, would need a lot of work, might require a duet)
18. Heart of the Mountain 06:22 (Started on it)
19. My Dearest Friends 02:13

Hopefully this is the right way to make the request.
-PlayfulPiano

[Libera]

I'd be interested in doing one of these (especially since it'll help me stay motivated to not procrastinate).  I'd probably want to do the Shadows of Valentia OST, but its pretty massive (88 songs if I'm not mistaken) so I'll need to pick some subset of this.  I don't know if you have an opinion on how to pick that subset, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking:

1. Where the Wind Rustles 2:03
2. The Ark of Dawn 3:25
3. Undiscovered Horizons 4:13
4. A Song for Bygone Days 3:22
5. March to Deliverence 3:52
6. With Mila's Divine Protection 3:16
7. What Lies at the End 5:45
8. The Sacrifice and the Saint 5:37
9. Lord of a Dead Empire 5:01
10. Praise this Despair! 4:55
11. Twilight of the Gods 8:08
12. The Fallen Knight 2:16
13. Pride and Arrogance 1:40
14. The Scions' Dance in Purgatory 2:35
15. Monstrosity 2:23 [This is originally from Fire Emblem: Awakening but it's in the game so...]
16. Truth 3:27
17. In a Silver Garden with You 3:30
18. Afterglow 0:26
19. The Afterglow Fades 3:39
20. The Course of Gods and Men 6:17
21. The Voice That Calls You 3:11
22. The Heritors of Arcadia 4:15.

(Nearly all of these tracks loop just under halfway though).

[Sebastian]

Feedback:


Evil Devil - LeviR.star:
An interesting song here.
- I would put a dotted line (shows voice crossing) here so this doesn't look like it was sporadically placed.

- Personally, I think M. 6, in general, is a mess. I would remove those 16ths. They're unpianistic in my opinion and serve little purpose. Also, the Ab seems unnecessary.

- The layout is a bit of a mess. The page is currently at 95%. I would put it down to 90 or 85, use the staff tool and click the top box (so it highlights all the stop staves), spacing them that way, and then moving the copyright down a bit. This will also solve the problem of the mp dynamics looking like they're a part of the top staff instead of wondering which they're a part of. As for the dynamic markings, I would recommend putting them in the middle of the grand staff, but I understand this is your preference.
- When playing through this song and coming to M. 8, the 16ths confused me because it looked like there was an E# and then a subsequent F (natural) when in fact it's an F# sharped somewhere previously in the same measure. To purge any ambiguity, I'd put a parenthesized courtesy accidental on the F# on beat 4.
- The second dotted half in M. 11, 13, & 14 (and any other measure like it) change to like M. 6 in my screenshot (eighth tied to quarter).

I think that's all I have for this one, but make the changes and I'll double check. The notes sound good.

[Sebastian]

Feedback:

Revenge - LeviR.star:
- Once again, I'd zoom it out to 85%, space the systems, move the copyright down, etc.
- In M. 2 & 4, go ahead and turn the tied quarters into a half note (also anywhere else that returns).

Notes sound good. Thanks for picking 8-bit songs. 

[LeviR.star]

Feedback:

Evil Devil - LeviR.star:
An interesting song here.
- I would put a dotted line (shows voice crossing) here so this doesn't look like it was sporadically placed.

- Personally, I think M. 6, in general, is a mess. I would remove those 16ths. They're unpianistic in my opinion and serve little purpose. Also, the Ab seems unnecessary.

- The layout is a bit of a mess. The page is currently at 95%. I would put it down to 90 or 85, use the staff tool and click the top box (so it highlights all the stop staves), spacing them that way, and then moving the copyright down a bit. This will also solve the problem of the mp dynamics looking like they're a part of the top staff instead of wondering which they're a part of. As for the dynamic markings, I would recommend putting them in the middle of the grand staff, but I understand this is your preference.
- When playing through this song and coming to M. 8, the 16ths confused me because it looked like there was an E# and then a subsequent F (natural) when in fact it's an F# sharped somewhere previously in the same measure. To purge any ambiguity, I'd put a parenthesized courtesy accidental on the F# on beat 4.
- The second dotted half in M. 11, 13, & 14 (and any other measure like it) change to like M. 6 in my screenshot (eighth tied to quarter).

I think that's all I have for this one, but make the changes and I'll double check. The notes sound good.

Updated Evil Devil. How do the 6/4 measures look? (along with the rest of the sheet, of course, including 2nd layer rests)

Feedback:

Revenge - LeviR.star:
- Once again, I'd zoom it out to 85%, space the systems, move the copyright down, etc.
- In M. 2 & 4, go ahead and turn the tied quarters into a half note (also anywhere else that returns).

Rhythms fixed. Shrunk the sheet to 90%, and adjusted the systems accordingly.

"Theme from The Legend of Dracula / Reprise" looks pretty good.

Great. So that means the little narrative I wrote in towards the end can stay?

Notes sound good. Thanks for picking 8-bit songs. 

Hey, that's why they call me I call myself the "Game Boi Arranger".

[Sebastian]

Great. So that means the little narrative I wrote in towards the end can stay?

That's fine with me.

[Sebastian]

Feedback:

Staff Roll - E. Gadd
- Center align the second-page title.
- The second page is at 95% and the first at 100%. Go ahead and correct that (I'd recommend making page one 95%).
- The glissandos in M. 28-35 are a bit impractical...
- The beaming is rather interesting in M. 17 & 27.
- What is the line's purpose in M. 39 & 40?
- I thought I noticed a couple wrong notes in the LH. Revisiting the LH would be a good idea, especially now that the glissandos will be taken out.


Would you mind revisiting a bunch of your SMS sheets for formatting errors? For some reason, a lot of them have a lot of formatting errors that aren't apparent in the PDF but in the musx/mus only.


Indigo Underground
- The second last note of M. 2 is a G.
- I would reorganize M. 6 (also there are some notes wrong). See image below.
- Once again, the beaming should be fixed in M. 1-6.

Spoiler

[close]

- Wrong beaming (M. 7, 10, etc.)
- M. 29: Those should be triplets, not 16th notes.
- I would recommend more dynamic contrast.
- Wrong notes in M. 27 & 31.
- I would use an 8vb in M. 32/33.
- I would use a multi-measure rest for M. 22-25.
- I would change to 2/2 and make the bpm marking half note = 79, but keep some of the beaming the same. I only recommend 2/2 because of the percussion in the original.
- I would change the beaming at certain spots to match the difference in dynamics/sections.
- You left out a voice in M. 29 RH that could be easily added.
- Bs should be Cbs in 19-20.
- Right-align the composer/arranger.


I believe that the lack of contrast and style is a big issue with this sheet.
Here is a file with all the above changes and some creativity decisions:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/57b1lump1huxhdo/Indigo%20Underground.musx?dl=1

Thoughts?
(I'm still gonna have to double check accidentals and maybe see if slurs/articulations need added/edited)


Also:
Questions/announcements/comments for people:

@THC: I know you told me about finding official sources for the titles, but what about composers?

@Libera and Playful:

Levi is soon done with his project, then I'll get you hooked up with the DB folder and ready to go. I would highly recommend getting as many of those sheets arranged as possible asap. The more you have done before your project is even started, the better. Also, see below:

@everyone:
This is still valid

Topic now unlocked.

Here is the first announcement I'd like to make:

I would like to encourage the project arrangers here and everyone else to review submissions as best you can. Since submissions are more important than this endeavor, I will default to checking those before I check these. If submissions doesn't look too backed up and has some activity, I'll have more time for these.

A lot of mistakes that I find in subs (all sheets really) can easily be avoided. Most mistakes I find are very repetitive and easily able to be avoided. If I could get some of you to look through subs (most specifically subs that haven't been posted in yet) while using this as a checklist, that would go a very long way toward helping me get to these sheets and, ultimately, yourself. I greatly encourage all arrangers to help out with sheet checking. You don't realize how big of a help that could be. It would speed everything up greatly and ultimately get more of our arrangers' sheets on the site much quicker.

[Sebastian]

Horray!!

Our first update! Congrats to Levi.

I'd like to announce a few things:

First,

From now on, updates containing sheets from this initiative will be conducted in two ways:

1. Small updates. To avoid big project updates, drawn-out sheet reviewing, and lack of motivation, we will be hosting updates that include approximately 8-15 sheets. These will be a collage of arrangements from the above projects. Levi's is probably the only update that will be solely one person's sheets. Once again, this will minimize lack of motivation on both arranger and updater fronts (mostly myself and you guys) and this will get your sheets on the site. No reason for your sheets to be buried in a thread when they're good to go, am I right?

2. Inclusion in sub updates. Sheets that are approved from various projects here will be eligible to be included in a normal submissions update (obviously they'll need a second Updater approval before acceptance). I don't know if any of you remember the Live Feedback era. Long ago Olimar used to have live feedback sessions on Tinychat. If he approved of an arrangement on there, he would include it in the next update. Once again, no use having good sheets sit around, am I right? We'll be doing something similar here.

As time goes, I am transforming this initiative into an augmentation to the submissions that is more casual than our formal submissions board and focuses on personal projects with the sheets being reviewed by yours truly. As the sheets are approved, another Updater will review a few of the approve ones and either added to a submission update or collaged into an "Arranger project update." 


Second and final announcement:

To help the Updaters, I would like to ask those with Finale 2014 to help with submissions if possible. You would be a big help to the Updaters if you helped people with Finale Notepad by getting their sheets' formatting up to par. This would give the Updaters time to focus on getting more sheets accepted and having more frequent updates.

This is always applicable  :

Here is the first announcement I'd like to make:

I would like to encourage the project arrangers here and everyone else to review submissions as best you can. Since submissions are more important than this endeavor, I will default to checking those before I check these. If submissions doesn't look too backed up and has some activity, I'll have more time for these.

A lot of mistakes that I find in subs (all sheets really) can easily be avoided. Most mistakes I find are very repetitive and easily able to be avoided. If I could get some of you to look through subs (most specifically subs that haven't been posted in yet) while using this as a checklist, that would go a very long way toward helping me get to these sheets and, ultimately, yourself. I greatly encourage all arrangers to help out with sheet checking. You don't realize how big of a help that could be. It would speed everything up greatly and ultimately get more of our arrangers' sheets on the site much quicker.

[Trasdegi]

I'll also sign up for a slot in the waiting line, with a Pokemon ranger project. I know this exceeds track limit, but I hope to submit enough before it starts. If I can't, then I'll remove tracks.

1. Title Screen
1b. Title Screen Extended
2. Introduction
3. Fall City Harbor
4. Tension
5. First Capture
6. Lyra Forest
7. Wild Pokémon Battle
8. Capture Complete (Bridge)
9. Saving
10. Encounter! Go Rock Squad
11. Wild Boss Pokémon Battle
12. Fall City
13. Capture Challenge
14. Olive Jungle
15. Go Rock Squad Grunt Weak Battle
16. Go Rock Squad Grunt Strong Battle
17. Go Rock Quads Tiffany/Clyde/Garret Battle
18. Jungle Relic (Unerupted)
19. Jungle Relic (Erupted)
20. Dusk Factory
21. Panula Cave
22. Wintown
23. Sekra Range
24. Go Rock Squad Hideout
25. Go Rock Quads Billy Battle
26. Fiore Temple
27. Fiore Temple Peak
27b. Go Rock Squad Hideout Basement
28. Raikou and Suicune Battle
29. Ranger Net
30. Capture Arena
31. Capture Arena Introduction
32. Groudon/Kyogre/Rayquaza/Deoxys Capture
33. Browser Complete
34. Manaphy Egg
35. Result
36. Drowzee Man
37. Ending Story
38. Ending
39. Character
40. Field
41. Game Over
42. Jungle Town
43. Fanfares

[Sebastian]

Once again, it's been a while. Finally getting back from my hiatus.

I'd like to make an announcement concerning this initiative. I am going to be closing this initiative down. In light of recent events and personal thought, I'd like to focus on submissions and arrangers rather than projects. I apologize if I've disappointed anyone. I will touch-base with each of the arrangers personally that have an open project. This was a good idea, but I feel it's a little stale and cumbersome. Once again, I'd like to focus on other submission and arranger updates rather than projects.

Please message me if you have any questions or concerns.