[SNES] Demon's Crest - "Palace of Decadence" by Atcero

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Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Demon's Crest
Console: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Title: Palace of Decadence
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Atcero

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[Atcero]

Organs, Choral Music, and eighths, oh my.

[Khunjund]

Hello! I'd never heard of this game before. (º﹃º )
I'm not an updater, but here are few things I believe you could touch up for now:

• I'm pretty sure those sections in 6/8 should be written in 3/4. The rhythm is constantly in straight quarters, and there are no rhythmic or melodic accents that would indicate a composite metre.
• I would also write those opening measures in 3/4, with a fermata on the long notes. I appreciate the effort to write the precise lengths, but sometimes it's messier than it's worth (also those notes are held down for four beats anyway, not five).
  Moreover, while it's perfectly acceptable to switch voices around, I think you should find one voice you want to be the upper part and stick to it, perhaps something like this:
  
  By the way, those upper voices don't suddenly appear on the long chords; they're present from the start.
• I would write the 2/4 measures as 4/4. I don't feel any incentive, rhythmic or otherwise, to have this in 2/2, and I believe it would be just a little cleaner that way.
  Additionally, I'd just like to point out that the left-hand chords aren't as low in the original, and there's a third voice filling out the harmony a little more:
  
• Similarly, the harmony in measures 20–27 is a bit more fleshed out in the original; if you don't want to add any notes to the left hand to keep it from getting muddy, consider adding them to the right.
• The B natural in measure 23 should be written C flat.
• Measure 26 the A flat in the bass should be a C.
• The final note in measure 27 should maybe have a fermata or something.
• I feel like it should be fairly trivial to make this into one page. Try tinkering with system height (0.75 cm tends to work wonders) and margins, etc., instead of just resizing the whole sheet.

[Atcero]

I'll check out all of that, thank you! In terms of the formatting, I only have notepad so that I'll have to leave up to the peeps with full finale. As for the game, it's a fun platformer and recommend playing it lol

[Atcero]

So I changed everything you suggested and what was wrong except for what is now measure 3 as I hear the G being the top note for the first two and the harmonies changing below stronger. Thank you for your help!

[Libera]

Hey, thanks for being patient.  This very moment, as you read this... I have already checked the sheet.

-The layout is pretty wacky at the moment and I'm not sure how much is intentional vs. import errors.  Let's forget about the margins and stuff for the time being and focus on the overall distribution.  I can see two options:

One page option

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Two page option

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The one page option is pretty compact and is probably a little too cluttered for reading easily, but it fits on one page.  The two page option is much more readable but is on... you guessed it, two pages.  There are probably other options as well but these are the two I came up with.  (You'll notice some differences in the actual arrangement when looking at those pictures because I was messing around with stuff before I mocked up the layouts.)

You can probably guess the next feedback points based on what's in the above images, although not all of them are there.

-In bars 1-4 the left hand isn't entirely correct (at least as far as I can hear anyway and organ is always a pain).  It sounds like there should be some extra stuff in bar 1 and also fifth harmonies in bars 2 and 4.  Also the F in bar 3 could also probably be an octave.
-I think it might make more sense for the Bb C An line in bar 3 to be the one on top.  That way it matches the pattern in bar 1 and also that part is above the Gb Gb F anyway.  It also just makes more sense as a melody line to me.
-Bars 2 and 4 should have fermatas.
-For bars 5-7 I think it'd be more natural to stick with one hand playing the quavers and the other playing the crotchet chords, rather than both taking a mixture of both.  You can see what I'm thinking in the above pictures.
-In bars 8-9, a low voice is present but it's very quiet compared to other parts.  I'd recommend to focus more on the middle register harmony in that section before the lower line comes in more fully at bar 10.  (You can see a sort of a half-way house approach in my above picture, but this isn't the 'definitive' one or anything, I was just messing around.)
-There's more going on in bars 10-13 but I think what you've written is OK if you didn't want to make it too complicated to play there.  That said if you just hadn't noticed then maybe try seeing if you can include any of it (probably in the right hand) and see how it turns out.
-There's a doubled mf dynamic in bar 14.  I'm not sure if that was accidental or was meant to be a different dynamic.
-There's some extra bass movement in bar 17 (you can see what I mean in my pictures).
-The way that the bass jumps up a octave for the final bar isn't particularly satisfactory.  Did you try putting it in it's correct octave and omitting the higher voice there?  The Dn is being doubled in the right hand anyway so it's not like the harmony would miss out on it.
-Missing repeat at the end.

[Atcero]

Thank you, I'm working on all of that except I do disagree with the Measure 3 and if its fine I'd like another opinion. To me the Gn stands out when I listen to the original song and hear the chords shifting under it more than the background organ going up.

[Atcero]

Ok it's all updated (except for m. 3 for now) except I did not follow your stuff exactly on m. 5-7 (not super different from yours but it captures more of the choral style they were going for I believe but if it's still too much I can obvi change that), and same with m. 8-9 which I followed the middle voices while style of rising then lowering.

[Libera]

-Did you read the stuff about the layout?
-What about the doubled dynamic at 14?
-5-7, 8-9 look fine to me.
-Bars 20-21 should look like this (if you want to be consistent anyway, which I suggest you should be):

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Thank you, I'm working on all of that except I do disagree with the Measure 3 and if its fine I'd like another opinion. To me the Gn stands out when I listen to the original song and hear the chords shifting under it more than the background organ going up.

Sure I can ask someone else to have a look, but yeah it really doesn't make sense to me written like this.

[Atcero]

Weird, I had it as F for the dynamic and it changed back. As for the layout Im on notepad. I can't even insert a measure half the time sadly without it screwing up the layout so badly I have to re-import from musescore.

[Atcero]

Got it all fixed up with the measure 20-21 and forte stuff, as for the layout if you're asking me to pick on I would personally say the 1 page, I don't think this is a song that warrants two pages even if the one page is a little more squished.

[Libera]

Ok I've put up a new version with the formatting changes.  I should also say that I moved the Ab on beat 3 of bar 1 up an octave (in the left hand), because it's definitely an Eb on bottom there.  If you really disagree I can get someone else to check that one as well.

Hopefully will find someone else to check bar 3, but otherwise I'm done here.

[Atcero]

Nope that sounds fine to me for the left hand. Thank you!

[Atcero]

I talked with Static and Radiak in the discord and they agreed with you, so I changed it to the chords for measure three that Wavedash and you suggested. I don't believe there was anything else that needed to be changed.

[Latios212]

Regarding measure 3 - I also agree with how it's written now. Given it's the organ the actual octaves of the notes are a bit fuzzy, but you currently have the sustained Gb > F written in the left hand so I think that's fine.

This sheet looks great thanks to everyone's contributions! Only comment I have left is that the left hand notes in m. 2, 4, and 21 are missing fermatas to match the right hand. I can edit those in for you if you want.