Arrangement Contest No. 6 in G# Phrygian "Bossification"

[mikey]

Fierce's are always my favorite

[FierceDeity]

Daw, thanks guys :3

edit: lol just saw some of my notes still present in the PDF. Text, y u no visible when I look in finale

[Bloop]

I can't edit the poll time I think ;_; But a lot of votes are already made, I don't think we'd miss many more.

[fingerz]

...What happened to Maestro? I was looking forward to Yoshi's Story... 

[MaestroUGC]

I never did it.

Rather, I didn't dedicate enough time to adequately plan it out before spending 3 days writing the orchestration.

[mikey]

He wanted to give the other contestants a sporting chance.  Even without his submission it will probably still be a close one

[JDMEK5]

I'm honestly between FierceDeity and Bespinben here. They're just too different for me to choose just one. XD

But Bespinben, I have to ask you, how did you get your MUS to sound like your MP3?

[Bespinben]

My approach in making my arrangement was to make it sound as if it were an "unused track" for the game, hence the loop. My ideas are usually pretty straightforward though. I have a few ideas, and I embellish on that as far as my brain lets me; Fierce, on the other hand, certainly ousts me in the creativity department. I could never aspire for 29 pages of original material, especially for such a large ensemble -- I tip my hat to you for that. That said, because it's through-composed and so long, it has the air more of what you'd hear in an epic film score rather than a VG boss fight... but maybe that's exactly what Fierce was going for. I'm comparing apples and oranges here.

But Bespinben, I have to ask you, how did you get your MUS to sound like your MP3?

The only way to really get a really good audio mastering of your song is work outside of Finale. Even with Garritan instruments, you can't do everything you'd like. So, when I was done with the arrangement itself, I imported the MIDI into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). There's a few options out there, but I use FL Studio because it's ideal for sample-based music. My goal isn't to change much from my original MUS arrangement, but just to overlay the MIDI data with more pleasing instruments. There are some slight "invisible" tweaks from the MUS though. If you listen really carefully, the violin in the MP3 recording has some "spacey overtones" which is because I reinforced that instrument with a music box. Also, some things like cymbal rolls are just atrocious in Finale, so although I notated one in my sheet, the true realization of that could only happen in FL Studio. The critical element in this though is having a good sound library beforehand, which is why I collaborated with another Youtuber (TheGuitahHeroe) to see if he could implement some of his sounds in (like his rad synths and percussion).

[FierceDeity]

My approach in making my arrangement was to make it sound as if it were an "unused track" for the game, hence the loop. My ideas are usually pretty straightforward though. I have a few ideas, and I embellish on that as far as my brain lets me; Fierce, on the other hand, certainly ousts me in the creativity department. I could never aspire for 29 pages of original material, especially for such a large ensemble -- I tip my hat to you for that. That said, because it's through-composed and so long, it has the air more of what you'd hear in an epic film score rather than a VG boss fight... but maybe that's exactly what Fierce was going for.

Thanks for the hat tip
In a sense, it is what I was going for; granted, some game scores are similarly cinematic, haha. For the form, I was actually more or less inspired by certain tracks from the Fire Emblem soundtracks, which are often through-composed and highly varied for a longer time than average before repeating. But then again, I did still come to this with more of a mindset of a "single-listening" piece, especially toward the end. For some reason, since I was used to the previous competitions being more tiered toward that mindset, it hadn't actually occurred to me to write this as if it were in the game. So I might actually want to revisit this at some point, as while I've written actual boss themes before, I've always found it much easier to work with Koji Kondo's themes than my own, haha.

DAW stuff

I ought to try FL studio sometime. I'm actually only just now starting to get more familiar with DAWs, currently learning a lot more about pro tools. How would you compare FL to logic? Because logic is the one I'm always told is best for working with MIDI and samples. Well, that and cubase. (also what sound libraries were used in this :3)

[JDMEK5]

I'm actually only just now starting to get more familiar with DAWs, currently learning a lot more about pro tools.

This. This is me as well.

[FireArrow]

I won't have time to give a good analysis till Saturday, don't bother waiting for me if all the other judges are done.

[fingerz]

I've just finished judging myself, so no problem there I'd assume.

Great work, fellas! They're all VERY different and I love them all in very different ways too! I've added decently detailed descriptions about each criteria for all of you, so be sure to have a look once Bloop posts the results. Also, if you'd like any further discussion about it or want to ask me anything, just shoot me a message.

Gawsh, I'll have to do this more regularly! It's SO much fun!!

[Bloop]

I didn't realize how little free time I had last week ;_; I had to work 4 evenings and the other days were fully planned.
I'll have some time tomorrow to judge and try to finish this off.

This must be the worst organized contest so far ;_;

[FireArrow]

It's NSM, everything is horribly organized. I don't feel I have the time to make a good in depth judging so I'm gonna step out. If it matters though:

Bespinben: This is perfect! (Teach me how to do all that audio editing stuff ;-;)
Them: I really appreciated the fugal section. Mad props.

[Bespinben]

Did... did all four bosses in tandem oust the mighty Bloop?