[MOB] NieR Re[in]carnation - "Homesick" by Libera

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Drakengard/NieR
Game: NieR Re[in]carnation
Console: Mobile
Title: Homesick
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Libera

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Libera]

The way I have presented this doesn't really match the official upload below, but it follows the OST's presentation (as far as I know).  Due to the nature of how this track (and many of the others for this game) are used, there isn't really a canonical way of presenting it.  Happy to answer more questions about it if needed.

[Maelstrom]

Feedback is out of order, like the OST recording
m50-51 RH - I don't hear the same rise up to the G here in the chords, more of a fall back to Eb, making it a simple Adim->AbM triad progression

That's it. It doesn't look like the recording you provided seems to have the 3rd section, though. I don't doubt it exists in-game, though. It's very much Keiichi Okabe's style.

[Libera]

m50-51 RH - I don't hear the same rise up to the G here in the chords, more of a fall back to Eb, making it a simple Adim->AbM triad progression

I've put the G back underneath, although I didn't add a C since I don't hear one.

It doesn't look like the recording you provided seems to have the 3rd section, though. I don't doubt it exists in-game, though. It's very much Keiichi Okabe's style.

Yes, I can assure you it's in the game.  It really is just the piano layer played on it's own, but you might not know how to voice that last chord without writing this in, so I kept it.  I also liked the OST decision to have the piece slowly fade away.

Thanks for checking!

[Maelstrom]

you're welcome
approved

[Static]

- This is kind of nitpicky, but it might be a good idea to more clearly indicate where phrases start and end. Like at the end of m4, there's a clear lift in the original recording that isn't present in the arrangement, and in m12 the 2nd layer chord sounds like it ends with the melody, just for some examples. If you want to keep it as is, that's OK too since it looks a lot cleaner and most of this stuff is implied from the music anyway.
- m21: Fermata should be in both staves
- Weird how the upload doesn't really match with the OST version, but if the way you structured it makes sense to you then it looks good to me. If the different layers fade in/out depending on in-game actions, maybe you could label those in some way (like in a Pikmin sheet), but idk anything about the game.

[Maelstrom]

Keiichi Okabe does some weird stuff with OST releases. Especially in NieR automata, he'd compose a number of different versions of a track and the game would dynamically switch between them depending on what was going on. Not just 2, like fire emblem, but sometimes 5-6. The official OST would have them in a seemingly random order and occasionally not include all the variations from the game itself. I know I did some rearranging with my Amusement Park sheet a while back.
The worst part about all this is there's no label that can be given to each section, because it's not a 1:1 for actions most of the time.

[Libera]

- This is kind of nitpicky, but it might be a good idea to more clearly indicate where phrases start and end. Like at the end of m4, there's a clear lift in the original recording that isn't present in the arrangement, and in m12 the 2nd layer chord sounds like it ends with the melody, just for some examples. If you want to keep it as is, that's OK too since it looks a lot cleaner and most of this stuff is implied from the music anyway.

I think really here I'm going for simplicity in presentation.  The phrases are all 4/8 bars long which is pretty standard and as you said is implied by the music anyway, so I don't think it's too bad.  The other thing is that since we're on piano most of the noise has already faded out at the ends of bars 4/12 etc. and writing in rests would suggest a sudden cut-off which feels kind of wrong to me based on the original.  I guess it's one of these problems where strings sustain at the same volume whereas piano doesn't.

- m21: Fermata should be in both staves

Fixed, nice catch.

- Weird how the upload doesn't really match with the OST version, but if the way you structured it makes sense to you then it looks good to me. If the different layers fade in/out depending on in-game actions, maybe you could label those in some way (like in a Pikmin sheet), but idk anything about the game.

Keiichi Okabe does some weird stuff with OST releases. Especially in NieR automata, he'd compose a number of different versions of a track and the game would dynamically switch between them depending on what was going on. Not just 2, like fire emblem, but sometimes 5-6. The official OST would have them in a seemingly random order and occasionally not include all the variations from the game itself. I know I did some rearranging with my Amusement Park sheet a while back.
The worst part about all this is there's no label that can be given to each section, because it's not a 1:1 for actions most of the time.

I think the upload was just a teaser release of the music before the game came out, so I can see why it doesn't fit 1-to-1 with the OST.  As to the different variations, really there isn't any way to distinguish them since they're not tied to in-game events; either they vary dynamically or different variations are used to fit the mood of the scene.  Here, the OST presentation seems pretty sane (having the parts fade out slowly) so I went with that.  The only variation not present in the sheet from the game is the one that only contains the glockenspiel (?) playing the melody, but you can read that off of the sheet easily enough by just following the written-in melody and I don't think it's worth adding a page for.

Thanks for checking!

[Static]

Both of those things make sense to me. I also agree with not adding that last section/variation. One last thing (I could've sworn it was fine in the last revision though), but the tempo marking should line up with the left side of the time signature. Just a tiny detail, but that's the default position for tempo markings on measures with time signatures.

[Libera]

Removed the colon from the game title.

Changed the name of the sheet to 'Homesick'.  Despite me disliking this title, my CD arrived and the official translation is unfortunately this.

One last thing (I could've sworn it was fine in the last revision though), but the tempo marking should line up with the left side of the time signature. Just a tiny detail, but that's the default position for tempo markings on measures with time signatures.

Since I was making edits anyway I changed this but honestly I don't think this is very important.

[Static]

Regarding the tempo thing, I feel like I saw Ben post something about it in a sub thread from years ago (a Behind Bars screenshot I think). It is a really minor issue though, so I wouldn't worry about it for future sheets. Accepted

[Zeta]

This submission has been accepted by Static.

~Zeta, your friendly NSM-Bot