Submissions General Questions, Comments, etc

[Jack]

Hello,
     I'm working this tune here -

Around 0:36, there are some tenths.  I, personally, can reach them, but some may struggle.  I'm really not sure how to arrange this, as the left hand is busy with a baseline.

Any ideas?
 - Jack

[Dudeman]

You could feasibly turn the tenths into thirds, methinks

[Code_Name_Geek]

What is the standard practice when arranging music from a game that has the same soundtrack as an earlier game in the series? Should it be submitted as the original game or as the version you based it on?

For instance, I'm arranging the Summer theme from Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for GBA which can be found below:

But though Friends of Mineral Town isn't an exact port of Harvest Moon: Back To Nature for the PS1, it is set in the same town and uses mostly the same soundtrack! Here is the equivalent song from the original:

As you can see, the song itself is nearly unchanged though the instrumentation has been adapted for the GBA's sound chip, and I don't think they're different enough to warrant separate arrangements.

I also wonder whether most people are aware that these two differently titled games have the same soundtrack but altered for different systems, which could cause confusion if they're looking for a sheet from one of those games. (And let's not get into the confusingly titled Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl, which is the PSP port of Back To Nature...)

[Dudeman]

The general rule is that the piece is credited to the original game it's from. If the differences between two versions are significant enough or if obscurity is a big factor, exceptions can be made. In this case, I personally think the differences made by the GBA's compressed sound quality (I was able to notice a missing instrument in the first 10 seconds) are enough that if you were specifically arranging the PSX version, the arrangement might turn out differently, in which case I'd say this arrangement should be submitted under the GBA title. But other opinions are welcomed!

[Code_Name_Geek]

The general rule is that the piece is credited to the original game it's from. If the differences between two versions are significant enough or if obscurity is a big factor, exceptions can be made. In this case, I personally think the differences made by the GBA's compressed sound quality (I was able to notice a missing instrument in the first 10 seconds) are enough that if you were specifically arranging the PSX version, the arrangement might turn out differently, in which case I'd say this arrangement should be submitted under the GBA title. But other opinions are welcomed!

Actually on a closer listen you might be right, there's also some note length differences that could be reflected in an arrangement. Thanks!

Obviously in this case I would list the original composer, but should I credit the composer/sound designer from the GBA version as well? I'm assuming they are the one who re-arranged and adapted it for the GBA.

[Jack]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here's an idea -

Lots of people would love to play the plethora of music on this site but are blocked off by the difficulty of some straight transcriptions.  What if people could submit "easy" versions of songs on the site?  I think that would increase the appeal of the site immensely.

[Draco456]

I need help from someone.

I currently can't afford Finale at this time even as a college student, so I use MuseScore. The problem is, MuseScore can't export to .mus, which is required for submitting sheet music. I tried exporting to .musicxml and importing it into Finale Notepad so I can convert it to .mus, but only the first page showed up on the screen, even though I exported the whole thing.

Can someone use their version of Finale to convert my .musicxml file to .mus, export to PDF and MIDI, and send me all three? I really can't think of any other option.

Also, how do I even add the .musicxml file to this post?

Please reply ASAP.

[Latios212]

You can ask here for Finale help: https://www.ninsheetmusic.org/forum/index.php?topic=685.msg10072#msg10072

For link sharing, you can host your file on a file sharing site like Dropbox or Google Drive and link from there.

[GoobiGamer]

I'm arranging a piece and NotePad is being difficult with the format. I need to vertically space the measures differently so the notes don't cover up all the text boxes I'm not supposed to move, but I can't figure out how to fix it for the life of me. Can NotePad even do it?

[Latios212]

Probably not. Feel free to ask for help with formatting here: https://www.ninsheetmusic.org/forum/index.php?topic=685.0

[FinalLevel856]

I'm an amateur composer, and I'd like to arrange for this site, but I don't want to spend a bunch of money on Finale to do it.  Am I allowed to submit an arrangement through .MID? I mainly compose through Noteflight, so odd notation shouldn't be an issue.
 Thanks!

[Code_Name_Geek]

I'm an amateur composer, and I'd like to arrange for this site, but I don't want to spend a bunch of money on Finale to do it.  Am I allowed to submit an arrangement through .MID? I mainly compose through Noteflight, so odd notation shouldn't be an issue.
 Thanks!

In order to submit a sheet you will need at least a .mus, a PDF, and a .mid file. However, there are a few ways to get a .mus without the full version of Finale if you don't want to spend that much.

Option 1: Finale NotePad is a free version of Finale that allows you to create .mus files (though it's now Windows-only). It's functionalities are limited, however, so either you can ask someone with the full version of Finale to make more complicated formatting edits (we have an entire thread dedicated to this), or another notation program which leads me to...

Option 2: You can use another notation program to create an .XML file (the universal music notation format) and ask someone else to input it into Finale to do the final edits (or do those yourself in NotePad). I'm not sure if Noteflight lets you export .XML files, but MuseScore is a free fully featured notation program that will let you get pretty close to the required formatting before exporting the .XML file. (If you're an amateur composer I would highly recommend MuseScore anyways, it's quite user-friendly and has a lot of community support, all while doing a significant amount of what professional notation programs like Finale can do.)

There are quite a few people around who manage to create arrangements without Finale, so you should be able to get around that through some combination of the options above. There are lots of people here who would be willing to help so feel free to ask if you need it.

[FinalLevel856]

I'm afraid that option 1 is out of the question for me, seeing on how I compose on my school chromebook. But I checked, and Noteflight does support export to MusicXML files.  I don't know a good way to test the quality of it, seeing as most programs are blocked, but it can't be as bad as importing XML, seeing as that doesn't even work.  Now all that's left is to figure out what to arrange...  Thank you so much!

[Code_Name_Geek]

I'm afraid that option 1 is out of the question for me, seeing on how I compose on my school chromebook. But I checked, and Noteflight does support export to MusicXML files.  I don't know a good way to test the quality of it, seeing as most programs are blocked, but it can't be as bad as importing XML, seeing as that doesn't even work.  Now all that's left is to figure out what to arrange...  Thank you so much!

Sorry yes, MusicXML is what I meant, it's a certain type of XML file. If there is an option to export an uncompressed MusicXML I think that works slightly better, but either will work. If you check out the official NSM formatting guidelines and follow them as closely as possible with Noteflight (you might not be able to get all the fonts and stuff but do what you can), it will make the conversion to Finale easier. Good luck with your arrangements!

[Benjamin]

There are some piano arrangements of game's full OSTs that I find that would be great for submissions. What are your thoughts? It would seem as a good convenience for some; having the full track to play or choose from.

SMB series:
https://musescore.com/user/152120/sets/1958566

Deltarune and Undertale
https://musescore.com/user/29625/scores/5340898
https://musescore.com/user/29625/scores/2075346

Touhou series:
https://musescore.com/user/29625/scores/5877294
https://musescore.com/user/29625/scores/5132512
https://musescore.com/user/29625/scores/4870106

On that I note, that might be a project that we can someday start on. Compiling a game's ost into a complete set.