DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Orchestrated - NOWS YOUR CHANCE TO BE A The Second Narrator Music 2022-02-05 | for a version without voices - youtu.be/FyYLAYG7jbYThanks to my friend "onemorebrick" for providing the vocals. Follow his lego channel! - youtube.com/c/anotherbrickThe music for the first encounter of Spamton is really slick, with this catchy motif, much like Megalovania in Undertale. Outside of the rap vocals, there a two main A + B phrases. Like many of his tracks, toby fox's style is to repeat them ad infinitum while messing with the underlying rhythm, and sprinkling flourishes and other fun stuff here and there. So in my orchestrated version, I thought it'd be a challenge to see if I could preserve the phrases intact and use them in differing contexts. The phrases show up as background rhythm, or the main melody, or even just as a counter melody. Whereas the first half follows the flow of the original track, after the vocal rap, I change up the baseline so there's a more of a music progression. Our first encounter is more lighthearted, but the arrangement hints at a darker reunion somewhere down the line (if you choose to go that route!) and Spamton's desperation comes into further light.The section at 1:40 was the first idea that popped in my head. It's like I could go to a band and just start off playing this, and all the other musicians could easily jam along, and improv to their heart's delight. The B phrase is really familiar sounding and I believe variations of it have shown up in lots of places. Playing this theme with orchestral instruments was tricky because immediately sounded a lot more messy and muddled compared to the punchy original. I didn't want my orchestra to pile it on or it'd end up really similar to what I did for Megalovania. I used a larger ratio of solo patches to try to mitigate that, and used only a drumset for percussion, and the occasional cajon for flavoring. Also, I was coaching my friend on how to replicate the vocal of the original track, but he kept coming off as aggressive rather than silly, so I just rolled with it. LOLDeltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!#Deltarune #Spamton #BigShot
06 - Boss Theme ~FFXVI Eikon style | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2023-07-29 | Alongside the palace theme, I kept humming ideas for orchestrating the Boss Theme since the start. I found myself mistaking it for the battle track Stand Your Ground from Final Fantasy XV. It's only off by one note, and the phrase alternates up and down a key. I ended up mostly recreating it verbatim to use as a launch pad. The idea here is to have the first loop represent the bosses from the first two palaces, and the 2nd loop for 3rd and 4th palaces.In addition to FFXV, I took inspiration from a lot of Square Enix's properties, because they really know how to hype you up for a boss. The track Traveler's Road from Legend of Mana consists of a thundering and relentless beat, yet it leaves from some emotional phrasing that I just really like. Yasunori Nishiki's many boss themes for the Octopath Traveler games are culminations of the boss's theme built up over time across multiple music tracks, and I love the constant callbacks he makes. Since the Title Theme of Zelda II has phrases that get reused elsewhere, I thought I could extend that to this track and also do a callback to the Title theme.Finally, Masayoshi Soken's music for the Eikon fights in Final Fantasy XVI are pretty much worth the price of admission alone. They make a great case for music in modern games should still be able to take center stage and not be regulated to the background underneath the voice acting and audio. Compare that to Dark Souls, which Zelda II shares many connections to. Even though the music there is also epic during the boss fights, there's no real hook to them to make them memorable. Besides, Link himself is iconic, so it's only fair to add that much more emotionality into the music.I had planned for the track to consist of just the opening rhythm from the original, which would lead straight into the phrase at 1:22, and then it'll be over. However, as I was experimenting with instrumentation and constantly being sublimely influenced by Octopath and FFXVI, I kept stretching out the track to accommodate every idea I wanted. I made a point to keep the rhythm persistent throughout the entire track. I wanted the track to mirror a player's first time experience fighting these bosses. In Zelda II, you are stuck in a single screen, and the bosses immediately comes at you, forcing you to react. There's nowhere to escape and you'd probably lose all three lives and get sent back to the beginning of the palace to make your way back, all the while thinking of how to attack its weak point and dodge its attack pattern. Link is at his most acrobatic and speed compared to all the traditional Zeldas, and I really wanted to push the music to epic Final Fantasy levels to reflect that.I think it's just hilarious that I extended the track out to 10x its original version (40x compared to the FDS version as it lacks the alternating keys haha), and I still consider this a generally "faithful" arrangement. This will afford me the freedom to switch genres for the 2nd Boss Theme!Support me at patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Akito Nakatsuka#ZeldaII #FFXVI #Souls
05 - Palace Theme ~baroque version | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2023-07-04 | Since the beginning ages ago when I was thinking about how to arrange Zelda II's music, the tracks I was looking forward to the most were the Palace Theme and the Boss Theme. I've been mentally humming and beat-boxing so many ideas, and I'm excited to be finally here. I have enough ideas to do an arrangement for each of the six palaces, but I decided to limit myself to only two.For the longest time, I expected my first version of the track would be somber and sinister, similar to the dungeon theme in the first Zelda. I honed in on the fact that the "dungeons" in the game are actually palaces, I imagined rays of light from windows that cast long shadows, hallways that twist and turn into dead ends, secret passages that open up. Think the castle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I don't believe the game really explains any of the lore behind why there are these palaces, and it intrigued me to try to explore the lore beyond just being a creepy place. Recently, I also played the old Castlevania games for the first time, and I was surprised that Castlevania II shares a lot of similarities with Zelda II, and even predates it.I started designing this track to only have strings. The only similar type of music I made was the Jidoor arrangement from Final Fantasy VI. Back then I used only solo string instruments, and I soon discovered that all the ideas I want to incorporate required 10x the complexity. Many phrases played by a single instrument are actually constructed by 3-4 separate string libraries. I listened to baroque classical music for weeks on end. While the palace theme melody does sound classical-ish, having it fit with baroque sensibilities proved to be a significant challenge. My initial observation with baroque is music is that while it can sound fast and complex, you can break a piece down to a simple motif and harmony, and all the ornamentations I hear are just the transitions between each chord. Any instrument can go crazy all they want, as long as they fit into a perfect mathematical progression and symmetry that is very pleasing to hear.However, the melody for the palace theme doesn't allow me to completely follow baroque guidelines. It generally has a brisk rhythm, but each phrase is punctuated by this syncopated 5-note beat that throws everything off. The best I can do is just make it sound baroque-ish. To work through this, I changed the instrumentation in the accompaniment so the track progressions builds toward a purpose. On the plus side, I realized that the motion and breaks of the theme fit perfectly with the player's general flow as he navigates the palace. As you can see in the footage, Link basically runs through the hallways at full sprint, stopping only to engage enemies that he can't jump over or kill with a downward thrust. I always thought the back and forth sword fighting exchange with the knights was the coolest part of this game, and I'm still hoping that Nintendo brings this energy back in a future Zelda game.Overall I am pretty pleased with how sophisticated and classy this track I ended up sounding. I ended up adding the woodwinds and brass back to help amplify the emotionality of the piece. With this more "accurate" version out of the way, I am free to go completely unhinged in the SECOND version.Support me at patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Akito Nakatsuka#ZeldaII #Calm #Orchestra
04 - Town Theme | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2023-06-02 | I wanted this track to be really chill, as it's the only gentle piece within the whole soundtrack. The opening bars in my version are pulled from the FDS title theme. The melody in the 4 bars is overlaid over the same US counterpart that sounds similar to the Town theme. Now I've succeeded in porting over every unique characteristic from the Japanese version! By separating them and placing them in sequence, I feel the melody feels complete. The original town theme by itself always sounded to me like it started off already halfway through, but the Japanese FDS melody lets me build up to it organically.The progression of this track highlights my general experience going through each of the first 7 towns in the game. The towns really help in portraying a lush and populated world. I imagine after the years of living in hiding from Ganon in the first game, it's encouraging to see all these settlements pop up and thrive. Everyone has Link to thank for being able to live normally, and some are eager to help, others a bit standoffish, and others are straight up spies of Ganon, which is why my track makes a brief dark turn in the middle. It's interesting that each town is almost like a one stop shop for Link to replenish health and magic, learn a new spell, and sword abilities, and also provides deeper lore among the surrounding areas. It's some pretty heavy lifting the game does through the towns.For inspiration I took a lot of influence from not other Zelda town themes, but rather the Heroes of Might and Magic series. A lot of town themes in the various games have a really relaxing idyllic tone while still providing great character. I made an effort to utilize brass instruments in the forefront while still keeping the track cozy and relaxing. The strings section was particularly challenging, as I was pulling from 5 different libraries just to get the articulations I wanted.Support me at patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Akito Nakatsuka#ZeldaII #Calm #Orchestra
DELTARUNE Chapter 1 Orchestrated - Checker Dance (K. Round fight) The Second Narrator Music 2023-02-28 | DELTARUNE Playlist - youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ58HYTDzLvLalIrG4A4qqVTsqtnPzU7UThis is like the "filler track" that I added to expand out the Deltarune orchestration album. The K. Round checker guy makes brief appearances in EP 1 & 2, and I hope the next time we see him, he becomes even more powerful and silly. Perhaps in chapter 3, toby fox increases the intensity of the track, and I imagined my orchestration as an arrangement of that version.The style of the track I imagined as somewhere in between Vs Suzie and Chaos King, and I kept the instrumentation roughly the same. My prompt for here was that I wanted each orchestra section to feel like they're all going in different directions, not really working together. Sometimes one section is playing the accent beats, while the other plays the super fast fill motif, and while one tries to sound serious and epic, the other is concerned with goofing off.The funniest part is at the end, I had the idea of the strings trying to take more focus back and stumbled on a cool ending tag. It has major influences from Xenoblade II's Crossing Swords, and the general feel of an Octopath Traveler battle track. (OMG I can't believe how amazing the Octopath Traveler II soundtrack is!). From all the chaos and mess, the sections come together and play out a banger and leave.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album. This is 14/20MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!#Deltarune #Orchestrated #undertale
DELTARUNE Chapter 1 Orchestrated - Lantern (Seams Shop) ~sad emotional version~ The Second Narrator Music 2023-02-01 | DELTARUNE Playlist - youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ58HYTDzLvLalIrG4A4qqVTsqtnPzU7UIn my planning of this orchestration, I felt that a traditional transition would sound too similar to the original track, especially if I used the same drums. Seam has this pretty chill indifferent attitude to the player, but the melody here is pretty fleshed out. It hints at some rich backstory, and you see them again in Chapter 2. I imagine if you ever made a spin-off with Seam as the main character, you'd see the character theme that while originally a throwaway motif, get spun out and developed even more, and that idea is what I decided to go with.In my arrangements and compositions, I've usually been afraid of having pure slow songs, partly because I find it difficult to use long sustained notes without it coming off as flat, and it's really easy to expose the artificial sound of virtual samples. Here I forced myself to embrace the slowness and really work at layering and fine-tuning each instrument's expression. I used more Distant Worlds arrangements for inspiration, particularly the Dark World arrangement from Final Fantasy VI.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album. This is 13/20MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!#Deltarune #Orchestrated #undertale
03 - Battle Theme | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2022-11-23 | So during the middle of arranging, I got hit with a piercing migraine and it affected the entire trajectory of this track. I kept working through constant pain, and the music got angrier as I reflected my suffering through grit teeth and clenched fists! I originally expected the arrangement to be short and sweet, but I kept adding new sections, and it'll sound obvious how many "false endings" there are in this track.The narrative arc of the battle music track was really interesting to dissect. To me there are 3 sections. The A section melody can be described as a series of interval jumps that float back down the scale, culminating in a drop to the bottom. Interestingly, the snare percussion has this beat (da—dada—dadada da—dada—dadada) that doesn't quite sync up with the syncopated melody and only intersect every 2 bars. It's not until the B section that the melody rhythm changes to match the percussion. Here, the melody tries to climb back up but seems to hit many detour key changes, until finally in the C phrase cadence it rises up confidently to a resolute determination and loops back.I remember Koji Kondo described creating the Mario theme by composing the music to match the player's actions in the opening of Level 1-1, and I feel like the composer Akito Nakatsuka did the same thing here. The random battles drop you in the middle of the map and you have to make your way to either side to exist back to the map. The player will first feel disoriented and has to take in the setting and the enemy setup. The ensuing fight picks up in intensity, and whether you can defeat the enemy without getting hit, escaping them, or just taking damage and limping away, the battle ends and the tension fades away. So while my orchestration as a whole doesn't mirror the original melodic flow, I still maintain the mood changes in my overall structure.0:13This section pretty much qualifies as a complete cover of the original track. I could just loop this portion and it would fit pretty well into the game. The dulcimer instrument substitute really well for the 8-bit melody, and in many parts I even make it softer than the strings and brass's weapon attacks and can still be identified easily.0:42The favorite thing for me to do as I played the melody back, is that if I split the A section melody with each alternating phrase, phrases 1 and 3 sound more dominant, while 2 and 4 are more like an echo. So If I emphasize 1 and 3 with the Brass section, while adding a little more phrasing, the melody becomes this really grand heroic fanfare. This is where Link and the player charge head-on into danger. Coming off of Zelda I, Link has become an experienced warrior and is a force to be reckoned with.1:53For those unaware, the melody here is taken from the Japanese FDS release. It's very similar to the boss theme, and I like to imagine that maybe feedback for the game after release determined the music was too intense and depressing for battles in the overworld that at times can be a simple stroll. I thought it would be cool to utilize it here as my "B section" to supplement the game's increasingly punishing difficulty. And then on a whim I capped it off with the "game over" sound too. Haha. It's here that I started incorporating the more cinematic drums and bass drum to describe the enemies that contrast the more proper timpani/snare percussion heroism of Link.2:33So after two thirds of the track being mostly recognizable, here in the optimistic C section I went a little bit off on my own. Thinking back on the Death Mountain track I arranged from Zelda I, the departure was two severe and apart from me briefly including the original track, it might as well have been an original composition. So here, I made sure that throughout the entire track I always need to include some element from the original track. The track rhythm is preserved here, and I reuse the A section melody pretty much everywhere, and in many forms. In the final build to the climax at 3:45, I inverted the A section melody as a statement that Link is resolving the danger that he entered. I also subconsciously added a little flair here that came from the flute in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and decided not to take it out.At the start, the thing standing out for me was the melody's rhythm being identical to one phrase of the battle theme in Final Fantasy VII (that heroic scale climb), to the point that I was originally going to include it and turn the piece into a mashup. But the influence I did take from Final Fantasy VII is learning how the composers adapted the battle track and iterated on it for the Remake. You could take each section in my arrangement and spin them out into individual battle tracks that fit the desired setting in a theoretical Zelda II Remake. Please make it happen!Support me at patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Akito Nakatsuka#ZeldaII #EpicVersion #Orchestra
DELTARUNE Chapter 1 Orchestrated - Gallery The Second Narrator Music 2022-09-30 | DELTARUNE Playlist - youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ58HYTDzLvLalIrG4A4qqVTsqtnPzU7UI've had this track arranged for a long time, but never got around to uploading it. Since it was so short, I thought I'd wait till I have another longer track to upload and put this up to go with it, but I totally forgot about it and it got lost to the ether. Anyway, I wanted this intro to the chaos king fight, so it would build suspense to the main track.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!#Deltarune #Orchestrated #epicversion
DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Orchestrated - NOWS YOUR CHANCE TO BE A (no voices) The Second Narrator Music 2022-09-30 | with voices version - youtu.be/H06pknCIyHIOkay a lot of people wanted a version without voices. Now you can sing along to this "karaoke" version. Enjoy!
DELTARUNE Chapter 1 Jazz Orchestra - Lancers Theme The Second Narrator Music 2022-09-27 | DELTARUNE Playlist - youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ58HYTDzLvLalIrG4A4qqVTsqtnPzU7UHere's me doing an impression of jazz music haha. My only real exposure to playing jazz was during high school band, and I barely remember stuff about bass lines, minor 7 chords, syncopation, swing rhythm. I got this sweet SWAM saxophone sample library to try to integrate into an orchestra. Can't believe I'm only now using saxes. I went an listened to a big playlist of jazz music to kinda get the general feel of it. I'm sure not everything I did in this arrangement follows jazz convention correctly, but oh well.The original track has this bouncing beat that I wanted to preserve, cuz it perfectly encapsulates Lancer's playful mischievous nature. Toby fox's use of jazz is perfect, because while I was playing around with filling out the sound, I wanted to add a bunch of changes to the structure and texture that would make it really unpredictable to the listener.The funny thing is that I assume most jazz musicians are great at improv and can just fly off with their solos and articulations while being in harmony with all the other players. Being a jazz outsider, I had to instead meticulously sketch phrases and ideas out on my piano, and then translate them over to whatever instruments I thought sounded best. Some of the chords and flourishes I ended up using were a result of just brute force banging on the keyboard, trying out random notes and timing until I felt like I heard something nice. Finally, getting the overall mix to sound like it's in a cozy underground club posed another challenge. Most of my libraries were recorded/designed for large hall space. Even though I took out almost all the reverb, some instruments still sound like they're really far away, like the trumpets and trombones. Just pretend that the jazz stage is too small, so a bunch of players had to sit backstage. I got a newfound appreciation for jazz music. There's elements about it that I can see myself continuing to use in future tracks.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!#Deltarune #Orchestrated #Jazz
02 - Overworld | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2022-09-09 | Yet another Zelda overworld track. When I played the game for the first time, I felt like this track in particular felt a lot like an 8-bit version of a minstrel singing about Link's epic adventure. The melody is very overbearing, with no places to rest and no break in the rhythm. Even when it gets broken up when you enter a battle, the music just doubles back to the beginning and blasts the fanfare in your face again. I also remember the intro portion got me so pumped, expecting for the main Zelda theme to kick in, but the actual melody comes in and I felt so cheated.When I approached this track, I wanted to fix all the grievances I had with it, but interesting enough, I abandoned my intentions and ended up keeping all those annoying elements intact, even amplifying it in many places. While I made great effort in the prologue track to set a darker tone for my overall Zelda II arrangement style, the overworld track in the game is far too happy and optimistic for me to cloud it in any way. I tried so many ways to change it, but it would just render the piece unrecognizable, even while playing the exact same notes. I had to reconcile my feelings and accept that while the story context may be dark, Link is just so determined that he utterly blocks out any fear and dread and focuses on his mission.In the prologue I took some inspiration from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' soundtrack. Here, I channeled the spirit of the earlier The Adventures of Robin Hood film from 1938, with a small dose of Zorro thrown in. I believe the first time I watched it was around the same time I played Zelda II. It's got a lot of the same rhythm motif with the snares, and the skipping energy of the melody, and I wouldn't be surprised if the composer referenced it himself. It's a stark contrast to the main melody from the first game, and at the time when a lot of Zelda conventions haven't been established yet, my guess is the Overworld theme in each game put a unique stamp on its tone. My original plan was to emulate my arrangement of the first game's overworld by adding a lot of different moods to the piece, but decided against that. The player always moves Link through the overworld at the same speed, and I assume the majority of the time wants to avoid the enemy spawns as much as possible. So instead of slowing the piece down, I just extended out the melody using the same beats and rhythm in the track.The opening solo cello in the melody is actually a blend of 3 different cello sample libraries. I found this one sample that would play every note aggressively, and it sounded to me very similar to the 8-bit "theremin"-like sound of the melody, especially when it plays the high notes!Now while the melody played out in the original 8-bit, I noticed the note rests don't really break up the theme when you're only dealing with 4 simultaneous sounds, but in a fuller orchestra, when all the instruments rest at the same time, it sounds pretty jarring and really changes the feel of the track. As a solution, while the rests happen in the melody I had different instrument families always "doing something else" in the background. As an example, right before the melody jumps into the high "da-da-da daaaaaa, da-da-da daaaaaa," I have the woodwinds lead in first with an arpeggio. From this I subconsciously started to do this all over the track. The brass would regularly fanfare in out of nowhere and all the time, and different instruments would snatch the melody away, and this ended up being the main signature of my arrangement. I'm glad I learned this technique here.Fun fact, but these first two Zelda II tracks are actually the tracks in the game I was LEAST looking forward to arranging, and is a big reason why it took so long to make them up to a level that now I really like them. This entire time, I've been humming/tapping out ideas for all the later tracks, and I am beyond excited to finally get to commit my ideas to the music.Support me at patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Akito NakatsukaYou can play Zelda II on the Nintendo Switch Online NES app#ZeldaII #EpicVersion #Orchestra
DELTARUNE Chapter 1 Orchestrated - Beginning The Second Narrator Music 2022-06-17 | This was supposed to be one of those simple filler tracks that I add to round out the Deltarune arrangement album. As usual, I got too caught up and stuck with the arrangement that it took forever. In the first loop of the arrangement, I kept roughly the same instrumentation and really went for that marching band vibe. Ordinarily I would have just stopped there, but I felt that made the arrangement pointless over the original track.The trigger for the second loop that inspired me is the intro portion for Final Fantasy V's main theme. I just love how the hi-hat taps in and the arpeggio chords play from the harp. It really got me excited to go on the journey, and I thought it was pretty appropriate for Deltarune's beginning. I pretty much aped the opening completely here and just kept building off it. With some discipline, I'm gonna force myself to spend less time on future tracks.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!
Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster Orchestrated - Cyans Theme The Second Narrator Music 2022-03-01 | (Warning: video contains character spoiler)I'm back revisiting this sacred soundtrack, and celebrate the release of Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster! I personally think there are some really great standout orchestrations coming from the various FF re-releases (FFIII's Eternal Wind OMG), but a lot of other tracks have been a bit inconsistent. Knowing what to generally expect, I've been very worried how VI's redone tracks would turn out. Anyway, this is the first time I'm arranging a track and putting it out at the same time to go head-to-head against Square-Enix's own remastered version.My first experience with FFVI was hanging out at a friend's house and watching him play the entirety Cyan's side story. It was unlike anything I've seen before. The visuals rarely show any UI, the main character is dealing with lots of adult themes, and every music track being played was so beautiful. I love all the character themes in the game, but Cyan is definitely my absolute favorite. I've been playing out ideas in my head for the last 6 years, and there's too much stuff I wanted to do to fit in a single track. I spent the last three months on and off just tossing in and throwing out all my ideas.I refrained from listening to the new Cyan's Theme until I finished mine. Both of our versions share a bit of similarities, mainly the use of the Chinese Flute for the melody, the Gu Zheng for the rhythm. Other than the flute flourishes, the remastered track is a straight translation of the original track with the instruments replaced with newer samples, and a softer gentler interpretation. A bit disappointing, because for me, I respect the original track so much I spent an ungodly amount of time trying to get the main flute, bells, strings, and drums to sound as close to the original in terms of its majestic tone and articulation. But who knows. The arranger did get to consult Nobuo Uematsu himself so for all I know the pixel remaster track is the definitive version that Uematsu-san always wanted to make. I am still holding out hope for a true "HD-2D" remake of the game and fully orchestrated "octopath" quality soundtrack.I would describe Cyan's Theme as a very vertical track. Imagine the Chinese landscapes with the tall mountain peaks jutting out over the mist and fog. That's how I feel the track is composed, with the flute soaring high above the rough strings and the intense pounding war drums. It's both cinematic and lyrical.Although Cyan and the Kingdom of Doma is of Asian influence, the visual design of the castle looked more like a hybrid renaissance/japanese/chinese. In fact, I think the original flute sample in the SNES original sounds closer to an Irish Low Whistle. Not only that, the track itself contains both styles. The first half with the flute mostly follows the Asian pentatonic scale, and the second half's fanfare sounds more western. So even though I included Chinese instruments, I still wanted to preserve some traditional "medieval" feel in the music. I ended up using both the eastern and western counterpart instruments together and simultaneously! (Harp and Guzheng, Dadi and Irish Whistle, Timpani and Taiko). The articulations were really difficult to pull off, especially the strings playing "Chinese style." I basically squeezed the orchestra library to its limit doing something it wasn't intended to do.There are a couple of things I wanted to convey in my arrangement: 1) Follow Cyan's narrative arc from his first appearance to the end of his side story. 2) Celebrate the Kingdom of Doma's past greatness, and preserving hope that Cyan keeps the legacy alive. The way the video's been edited pretty much matches up with what I was actually thinking while I was coming up with the arrangement. It's all so very romantic, with lots of highs and lows, constant alternating between the gentle and the intense.Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginal song composed by Nobuo UematsuYou can buy Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster on iOS and Steam#PixelRemaster #FFVI #FF6
DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Orchestrated - Berdly & Smart Race Boss Battle The Second Narrator Music 2021-10-12 | Berdly's theme and its variation in his boss fight are an interesting contrast. Toby fox has the first note used as a pick-up to the 1st beat, while in the fight it is the down beat. It's a little disorienting to the listener being shifted slightly. If we consider the theme to be more in line with Berdly's personality, then the battle theme can be interpreted to be Berdly acting not completely in character, as he is manipulated by Queen. Queen's theme is very classical/baroque sounding, with a hint of carnival, and I thought it would be cool to have the Smart Race portion of the track start more action/cinematic, but slowly transition toward more classical style music.The Berdly portion of the track is coincidentally waltz style again. Perfect, since I just arranged Empty Town, and I think I got the instruments to sound even more natural and expressive. That being said, I only spent 5% of total work time on Berdly, because Smart Race is crazy…I usually slow the orchestra down when the original is a chiptune, because it's usually too fast, but in this case I wanted to challenge myself to make the orchestra play just as fast. I settled at a blistering 145 mph (I mean bpm lol), just slightly down from the original's 150bpm. And I still have instruments play 1/16 notes. It's absolute madness! I knew this was possible to pull off after hearing the boss music in Final Fantasy VII: Remake translated to orchestra with increased speed! As the first fight with Berdly takes place on bumper cars on a track, I had F-Zero GX in my mind the entire time arranging this.Even at this fast pace, I wanted to bring out the "classical/romantic" sound as I previously mentioned really show Queen's manipulation. I didn't really notice that her theme actually plays in the intro. I just thought it was just some flourish until I listened closely with my headphones. My unique approach here is that I arranged the orchestra section first without any percussion, like I was simply creating Mendelssohn-sounding music, but then later dropped in the percussion layer. Hope you enjoyed this technique because I am proud of how much nuance I put in the "performance." Different parts don't just play in harmonic chords, they have their own counterpoint melodies. I also probably did the most amount of "air conducting" to the music, just standing at my desk and waving my arms to feel each section come and go with the right emotion.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!Check out my friend's lego channel - another brick. LOLyoutube.com/channel/UC6vmpEKPfnBv0kqed-_5rPw#Deltarune #Orchestrated #Battle
DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Orchestrated - Faint Courage (Game Over) EPIC OMG VERSION The Second Narrator Music 2021-09-25 | So, I am still figuring out how to best arrange the main tracks from Deltarune Chapter 2. Since the majority of setting is the Cyber City, I gotta evaluate if I should incorporate some synth with the orchestra or not. In the meantime, here's an orchestration of a track that has some distance from the cyber synth sound. The general flow and structure is very similar to An Ending from Undertale. You have this repeating motif played softly that gets more and more agitated, but when the lush harmony kicks in, it overwhelms the listener with emotions and warmth. Because of this it was easy enough for me to arrange this track in the same way…OR DID I??????? My immediate observation from playing Chapter 2 was that it had a real sense of momentum. I was always moving forward, dodging cars, riding giant teacups, crashing into obstacles at high speed. Ralsei, Susie and also Noelle are so nice and encouraging to Kris, they liven up the mood so much. The game over screen shouldn't break my momentum, but instead propel me to get back quickly on my feet! And that's why, listening to the game over track, I thought to myself that an EPIC VERSION would still fit the spirit of the track. I generally don't like epic-fying a track for no reason, so if you guys notice me doing it more often for the "clicks" CALL ME OUT ON IT. It'll get stale fast.I'm still practicing with Hollywood Orchestra OPUS Edition, while adding all that good Hans Zimmer drums and percussion. I still can't get the woodwinds to express as much as I'd like, but the overall balancing of instruments is a bit easier. In the first softer loop, I worked hard to avoid having the harmony hold long notes underneath the melody the way I did in An Ending. You'll also notice that I changed the baseline a lot compared to the original. Most of the track consists of the same three-note motif down the scale, so I pulled out all the stops to prevent it from sounding too repetitive.For the epic percussive part, this time I limited myself to only a handful of drums that I used, because I wanted to break the habit of just piling it on. Listening back to my previous Undertale/Deltarune boss music, I cringe at how messy and aggressive all the drums sound. I remember reading an interview with Hans Zimmer where he said when playing drums, never hit it too hard, because the "slap" you get on the high register can clash with the overall sound. Thanks for the advice, Hans! I made sure to really just tap the notes on the keyboard, and with some general EQ and reverb tweaking, tried my best to make each instruments distinguishable while still filling out the space.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!Check out my friend's lego channel - another brick. LOLyoutube.com/channel/UC6vmpEKPfnBv0kqed-_5rPw#Deltarune #Orchestrated #Epic
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Empty Town The Second Narrator Music 2021-09-18 | Happy Deltarune Chapter 2 day!!! It's a pure coincidence that I had this track finished today. Once you see this video, I'll be loading up chapter 2 for the first time and see how the new music is!Does this track sound a lot different than my entire library of music? That's because I'm using a completely new sample library: EastWest Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition. I still love all the Cinesamples and 8Dio stuff I've been using, which is much easier to get that rich, luscious feel right out of the box. However a lot of times I want to be much more specific with the kind of articulation I want out of the instruments, so I used this track to practice on EWHO. Each instrument's base level is a lot flatter, and requires a lot more parameters to adjust to get it to sound how I want, but I can see the potential. I created a new project template that has a whopping 275 tracks!!! 40GB of RAM used if I activate every sample lol. Even the reverb I'm using is completely different, and I'm hoping as I improve, my music sounds more and more like a live performance.My approach to this track is a pre-cursor to another track I want to take the same approach to that I will arrange soon. See if you can guess what it is (one of the Final Fantasies). I didn't read too much into the context of the town before Ralsei's castle, and just wanted to make a track that romanticizes the town from a time when it was thriving, full of activity and celebration. While you walk through the deserted street and hear this music, you get a tinge of sadness, melancholy, and want to reminisce about the happy days.I made 2 iterations of this track before I settled on what you hear. The first version was a straightforward soft waltz orchestra, where I listened to a ton of waltz examples from Strauss and Tchaikovsky. That probably would have been a more "faithful" arrangement, but I liked the idea of telling a story with the music. Also, I count this as a "do-over" of my The Legend arrangement. Hopefully you'll find this arrangement more dynamic and interesting. It's admittedly a little overboard, as you can pretty much leave the area in 30 seconds and never hear the music again. HAHA.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!Check out my friend's lego channel - another brick. LOLyoutube.com/channel/UC6vmpEKPfnBv0kqed-_5rPw#Deltarune #Orchestrated #Epic
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Rude Buster The Second Narrator Music 2021-07-30 | Hello, I was always iffy about arranging this track because the melody sounded too fast for an orchestra. My basic self from earlier usually just hands off fast melodies to the violins or some kind of keys instruments and they would just carry the whole thing. That felt wrong for this particular orchestration and wouldn't add much from the original. So my biggest challenge in this arrangement was to preserve the melody in its original form, while being able to hand it off to nearly all the instrument families of the orchestra. It wouldn't be too ridiculous sounding for any section, including brass to have a burst of speed and dexterity right?In this last year, my master class professor has basically been the Final Fantasy VII Remake soundtrack. The team of composers have arranged 10+ versions of the iconic battle theme, tweaked into many different styles to suit the different locations and contexts of the battles that take place. I kept this in mind and imagined in the full Deltarune game, perhaps there would be many variations of the battle theme. I wasn't going to do 10+ versions of this, so I only explored each of my ideas for a couple measures, then moved on to the next idea. The final track may sound decently cohesive, but the way I utilize the instruments changes from section to section. For example, in one section I may want the piano to support with the syncopated rhythm, and in other places I want it to play like it's baroque period Bach, and have other instruments follow suit or even fight it off.My orchestral libraries have been able to handle roughly 80% of all articulations, but doing the fast melody while still leaving room for expression really challenged me here. I've always been lazy with the woodwind and brass side, so here I forced myself to utilize samples from 2-3 other libraries for brass and woodwinds, to make them discernable at such high mph, making more use of solo instruments for clarity. I settled at 133 bpm speed for the song (vs 140 in the original track) that I felt is a realistic speed for an orchestra to play that doesn't sound like it's tripping over itself.The inherent silliness of the arrangement adds to the comedy of the battles that at many times feel more like slapstick hijinks, or even tender character moments. I wanted the instruments to feel like they're goofing off, with none of the intensity of the boss battle tracks I've previously done.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!Check out my friend's lego channel - another brick. LOLyoutube.com/channel/UC6vmpEKPfnBv0kqed-_5rPw#Deltarune #Orchestrated #Epic
01 - Prologue & Title Theme | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2021-06-01 | Thanks everyone for patiently waiting. 3 years 9 months is how long I've been stuck on this track. I would always quit and do some other track, and this one always kept nagging on me until I finally gave myself an ultimatum to finish this up or none at all. I spent nearly every day of the pandemic working on it. Zelda II is such a different beast compared to the rest of the series, which is why I am an apologist for it. I really like how populated the world is, and funny enough it's still the game furthest along in the timeline. I treated it as if it was everyone's favorite in the series. This may be my only track where you see a perfect mesh of story, visuals, and music working in perfect sync. I prefer the American version of the title theme much more to the Japanese FC version. The instrumentation is softer, and the tone is sinister and unpredictable, shifting between minor and major keys, never wanting to commit to a certain narrative. While the soundtrack doesn’t have catchy themes like other Zeldas, the music is incredibly lyrical. This opening title left such a huge impression on me with how unique it was. Many people say this was Souls before the Souls genre existed and I agree. The side scrolling perspective increases the scale of the environment and enemies, giving them an aggression against Link I never felt in the other Zeldas until Ocarina of Time. To match the tone of my interpretation, midway through my writer's block, I felt one thing holding me back was that the original story in the manual doesn't add enough to the darkness and oppression shown in the game itself. This is because the introduction of a new different Zelda who's been asleep for hundreds of years does not create any urgency to the player. I don't understand why I have to wake her up to save Hyrule from ruin. I also find myself constantly asking where did the current Zelda go, and why isn't she helping me. So I ended up writing up a new prologue that replaces the sleeping Zelda with the same princess from the first game. My rewrite follows a more natural progression from the previous game where we get everyone else's reaction. How does the population react to Hyrule's turn of fortune, how would neighboring kingdoms deal with a new superpower kingdom, and how does this tie in with Ganon's monsters trying to hunt Link down?Which brings me to the construction of the arrangement. It’s two loops of the original theme (with the phrases doubled up) and one third arc that takes all the articulation of the track and jumbles them together. However, the tone of the track is divided into two halfs of equal length. The first half follows Princess Zelda as she deals with everyone’s nonsense. One big influence here was Danny Elfman’s score for Alice and Wonderland. I liked the use of the female choir just humming along in the background. Following this, the music bursts out in grand fashion, and we then follow Link’s journey instead. The lush strings that follow are inspired from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ opening overture. I thought this mirroring was interesting, as it shows how Zelda is wise but prone to pressure, while Link is brave and heroic but too silent to voice any objection. In addition, you pile on the people’s rejection of Link, and you might have a good idea what Link is thinking about during the entire game. I know in the original game he’s not treated this way, but I thought it would be interesting to have Link’s treatment be identical to how the game itself is treated by the fandom. For the third arc that is set to gameplay footage, I wanted the music to sound like Link’s internal frustration, where he wants to just cry out in anguish over everything that’s occurred, but too introverted to display it publicly.I’ve been trying to be more dynamic with my instrument usage and I’ve done some new things here. I’ll have some instruments start off a melody that would be taken over by another instrument family, with various other instruments chiming in the harmony and pulling away. Whether through the slow or faster parts, I wanted the track to feel like it was constantly moving with purpose, as if the orchestra players were unconcerned with being showy and were dead focused on all telling this emotional story. There is heavy usage of dissonant sounding major 7th, 9th chords. From the opening cascading ostinatos played with the harp, that I then bring back in full force with the strings at the end, you can almost see the tears in the violin player’s eyes. It’s a stark contrast to the prologue I did for the first Zelda, where I was too busy trying to pull in callbacks to other Zeldas that each section sounded too piecemeal in how it was put together.Support me at patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah SunArtwork at 5:16 is a redraw of the panel in page 5 of the manual Original Theme by Akito Nakatsuka You can play Zelda II on the Nintendo Switch Online NES app#ZeldaII
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Main Theme Orchestrated The Second Narrator Music 2020-03-20 | I hope everyone stays safe during the outbreak and can survive the lockdown and loss of work for some. This is the first AC game I've ever played. The Nintendo Direct had me pretty excited for all the things you can do, and hopefully I can hangout with friends here while the shelter-in-place order is in effect.I had previously bought some orchestral libraries that I am still trying to figure out (8Dio Century Strings, Century Brass, Intimate Woodwinds). I used this track to kind of experiment with them. I like that the piece itself has these sections where the melody starts up, and just when it's about to develop, gets cut off and jumps to a new phrase. In the game I interpret this as being shown an island where I get to do a ton of stuff. One minute I'm gathering stuff, when Tom Nook jumps in and shows me I can craft things. I go craft, and Tom tells me to go fishing. A wealth of possibilities. So in the track, each phrase lets me try out new things with the libraries. This kind of chill music brings up memories of the smaller tracks in Link's Awakening I arranged. I didn't want to change too much from the original, so I kept most of the instruments, including the important trumpet solo, and just tried to see what I could do around it. There's a lot of Kiki's Delivery Service influence in this!Thank you, Animal Crossing for the practice. Hopefully with this stuff figured out, my future epic tracks can sound even better!Arrangement and by Jeremiah Sun Animal Crossing New Horizons is composed by Yasuaki Iwata, Yumi Takahashi, Shinobu Nagata, Sayako Doi, Masato OhashiYou can buy this game for the Nintendo Switch#AnimalCrossing #NewHorizons #Orchestrated #Remix
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Scarlet Forest The Second Narrator Music 2019-12-09 | Apologies for the long wait. I worked on this track for the entire eight months since last my last update and it was stuck in some serious writers block. First, I am not a big fan of the original track. The harsh strings setting the rhythm in the original, the revolving round, and the reuse of the main theme just made everything feel too repetitive. I decided to just not bother with the last section. Second, I decided not to use any gimmicky instruments, and just stick with the traditional orchestra setup. No piano either. By dealing with a softer, at times slower piece, I needed to spend exponentially more time getting each note nuance to sound right, as they would be under much more scrutiny to a listener. I basically took away the usual tricks I use to mask the imperfections of my orchestral samples, and this was such a headache to deal with. On black friday I went online and bought a ridiculous amount of new orchestral libraries that I anticipate will make my life easier in the future (they are not featured in this track). My two big reference tracks to draw from for this were the Distant Worlds orchestration of Final Fantasy VI Phantom Forest, and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Phantom Forest in particular I feel does such a good job of evoking the mood of a mysterious forest, and if you close your eyes, you can kind of picture when each instrument flies in and leaves, are like all the lush vegetation stretching to infinity and animals running around everywhere. Pizzicato strings sound much better for the rhythm, and can be pulled back more to give space for the rest of the instruments. The nutcracker shared a similar instrumentation, and I especially like how groups of instruments would just swell in and then leave. Everywhere is just teeming with life. If you were to explore a dense forest on your own, you can look choose where to turn your head, where to approach, where to focus your attention on, see something completely unique. So to imitate that, which toby fox has also accomplished with the round, is you can in the same way focus your ears on listening to a particular instrument, and they are playing their own melody or motif. I try at times to have either a counter-melody, or just basic riffs and chord progressions that if you were to isolate, could sound good on their own. A lot of times I've mixed them all the way down, to the point where you might not really hear it clearly at all, but the knowledge that they're there is satisfying to me. I guess another big change I should talk about is the overall melancholic and sorrowful tone in my version that's way more pronounced. The sad strings and bright flutes were basically the two things in toby fox's original that I did enjoy, and just speaking musically, I just didn't like that it got more cheerful when it transitioned to the main theme at the end. To fit the scarlet forest better, he probably should have made the strings a bit more happier and mischievous, but he didn't and so I took them and ran with it in the opposite direction. I altered the notation a bit in my version, expanded the middle, and wrote a new ending that just makes you want to cry. It's great!Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album. MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarrator Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun Original Theme by toby fox DELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch#Deltarune #ScarletForest #Orchestrated
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Vs. Susie The Second Narrator Music 2019-03-27 | So I shared my plan on the community page detailing the rest of the Deltarune tracks I planned to orchestrate, and a lot of people noticed Vs. Susie was not one of them and loudly voiced their desire for me to arrange it. I was thinking, ok I'll probably save it for last, but thought it would be cooler to surprise drop this track first!The reason I did not consider this one was because the track has an intense heavy metal, and translating it to an orchestra would change the feel of it. I started out adding the electric guitar and designing the orchestra around it, but that didn't sound right either. Then, I thought, maybe I should approach it like I did with Megalovania and just go big with the Hans Zimmer-ish percussion, but I didn't want to retread similar ground. This was tough as I didn't want this track to sound like an afterthought.While experimenting with the percussion, I came upon a winning combination: Cajon + Drumkit. I used this in Field of Hopes and Dreams with the drums as more of a support, but here I tried to utilize both equally. At my church, the hall we use for worship is not good for drums, so we have people use cajon for a better mix. It works well enough, and as I listen to people play and experiment with it, I feel like, even if we eventually incorporate drums into the band, the cajon could still be utilized to enhance the mid-high range frequencies. So here, the undercurrent of the fast and aggressive cajon is meant to symbolize Susie's rage. While it's a bit hard to hear specifically, I spent quite a bit of time writing out different rhythms and transitions for the development of each portion of the track.If the percussion and the repeating ostinato represents Susie's exterior demeanor, then the soulful cello, high strings, and trumpet characterize Susie's inner thoughts. I thought it would be cool to really draw out the emotion and justapose it with the angry motif, as if these instruments think they're playing a different song. Until the ending, I kept the beats and harmonies intact, and a big challenge was to try and have the strings play long notes that soar above the general discord in the song. We can see throughout the game that while she's kind of a loner, she has a desire for friends, but she has trouble voicing her feelings and generally doesn't like to display much sentimentality. She also flip flops from hero to villain and back because she is trying to find her identity to excel as. It'll be interesting how toby fox will flesh out her character in the future.Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Field of Hopes and Dreams The Second Narrator Music 2019-02-21 | Man, this was one tough track to produce. I spent more time on this than all the other deltarune tracks combined! Not that this piece was particularly difficult conceptually, but it uses a musical style I am unfamiliar with, and getting it to sound good enough forced me to finally learn how to mix better.YouTube user "I'm Very Angry it's not Butter!!" (yes that whole phrase is the username) suggested I try to incorporate a bit of Irish Jig into the piece, which I thought about and decided it would be a good fit. I did a bit of research on the instruments used, and listened to a lot of Irish/Scottish folk music, as well as similar sounding music, like Rend Collective, Hiroyuki Sawano's soundtrack for Seven Deadly Sins, and Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers soundtrack. I learned that Jig music is normally 6/8 time, while Scottish Reels use the 4/4 common time, which fits Field of Hopes and Dreams' time signature. While I incorporate some trademark elements of Irish Jig and Scottish Reel, I hesitate to designate my music as that style, as I am all over the place with my arrangement.Breaking down the original track, there are three distinct parts: the establishing beat, the main deltarune theme, and the bridge solo. The rhythm is easily my favorite part of the track, and hearing the percussion come in while playing deltarune for the first time was just sublime - a much stronger first impression than Undertale's opening. And naturally, this is the area I played around with the most, as the repeating rhythm and motifs could be extended as long as I want, unlike the melody of the second and third parts. It is here where I added the fiddle violin. The solo violin I was using was not designed for fast fiddle playing, and I had to tweak the legato articulation to get it sounding close, and my violin playing friend did not have enough time to practice this piece. Next time I'll plan ahead! I created a simple phrase and tried my hardest to jam it everywhere in the track. When you hear it, it's your cue to drop everything and dance! However, with that said, my favorite part of the arrangement is still the middle main theme portion. It's just really catchy!The setup for the Irish Jig / Scottish Reel sound is as follows. In addition to the fiddle violin, I used the mandolin, accordion, tambourines, Bodhran drums (Irish frame drums), accoustic guitar, cajon, and Kick drums. When mixing the percussion, I supplemented the Cajon/Kick drum beats with a regular drumset. I designed the space of the instruments by placing the Jig/Reel instruments in the front of the stage, with the orchestra behind them. I believe the final sound is much more balanced than the previous THE WORLD REVOLVING track. Because I want to preserve the awesome beat of the track, I finally went to learn and practice how to mix percussion correctly. A common complaint with my arrangements is that everything sounds a bit flat, and a big reason for that is that the drums are never punchy enough. And so here I am utilizing all the techniques I learned: Parallel EQ'ing, Parallel Compression, Saturation, Triggering. I still haven't fully mastered the technique, but I am improving!Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - THE WORLD REVOLVING The Second Narrator Music 2018-12-01 | My process arranging this track was a bit different. I spent most of my time experimenting with different instrument combinations and phrasings to get a feel of how I would ultimately tackle it. There's a bit of an identity crisis in my version, where you can tell I was flip flopping on whether to go for epic or silly. I thought both approaches worked well, and in service of circus/carnival music, just go for broke and pile it on!For my research, I listened to circus/carnival music, as well as related game music (Nier:Automata, Final Fantasy VI Kefka and Opera Battle) and noted what I thought were defining characteristics. For percussion, there's the original beat the toby fox used with the kick and snare played really fast. There's also the trademark timpani and cymbal crashes that make everything really lively. For the melodic instruments, there's a ton of brass. I couldn't find any reason to put strings in (except for the violin solo), and pretty much took them out entirely. In addition, the instruments that really give carnival music its "sound" is the mini organ as well as the magnificent accordion. What an awesome versatile instrument it is. I can use it for harmonic chords, and also as a solo instrument with fast articulation, and can play 1/32 notes just fine. Speaking of speed, the only reason I had to slow it down slightly from the original speed is to accommodate the short notes of my VSTs so it wouldn't sound too muddy. Now to explain my approach. The original track starts with a couple bars of the ostinato and transitions to a chord. I feel that it happens to quickly and needs a bit of a buildup. I stretched out the ostinatos for a few more bars to make it serve as a better intro, but still wasn't satisfied with the result. Eventually I decided to add a new melodic phrase to the A section. I am very proud of the result. It’s layered perfectly on top of the original ostinato and the connecting melody. Especially in the second go around with the solo violin, it’s a bit reminiscent of “Kingdom Trial” from Chrono Trigger. I replaced the beat with the circus timpani/cymbal combo. Darn...you might be disappointed that it has a different feel from the drumset. But guess what, in the repeat, I bring it back! Aww yeah! And it comes after a great buildup with all the happy go lucky instruments having their fill.For the B and C section, I went with as many instrument/beat combo changes however I see fit. I imagine each of Jevil’s attacks is like a different performer at a circus. Less the super impressive stunt performers like trapeze or balanced plates, but more the center ring of the stage where there’s just so much going on. Tigers jumping through fire rings, elephants running amok, clowns on unicycles, you name it. In Jevil’s own words, it’s chaos, and he can do anything! The music morphs from one texture to another without letting up. Interestingly, I didn’t want to use too much percussion toys, or it would distract from the actual music. I gave the brass a couple of counter melodies to play against the main melody, threatening to crash through to center stage and bring the whole tent down.Also, drunken trumpetsMP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Song composed by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch
DELTARUNE Piano and Orchestra - Friendship The Second Narrator Music 2018-11-22 | Get the piano score free at patreon.com/posts/22855853Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Everyone please remember to show appreciation to friends, family, and even your enemies, because they built your character. For now, let's talk about Friendship. I always get the urge to just churn out a ton of piano covers for easy views, but I think about the possibility of missing out on an elaborate arrangement like this one, and convince myself not to.I went full Studio Ghibli on this one, and took a lot of inspiration from Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. The phrasing at 3:55 is the first thing that came to my head, and I totally got that from the Spirited Away theme. In addition, the my instrumentation pulls a lot from the symphonic arrangement of Princess Mononoke. Just so I don't leave out any other familiar influences, other pieces I might have subconsciously took ideas from include Love Grows from Final Fantasy VIII Piano Collections, In my Life from Les Miserables, and some Chinese Christian hymns!In contrast to my previous piano arrangement An Ending, I decided to have the orchestra play a more active role. Friends come in all shapes and sizes, and having a variety of instruments surrounding the piano like people making themselves known seems very fitting. The melody here appears almost everywhere in the game, and to me the world in Deltarune is a generally peaceful place that's just unfortunately ruled by a BAD GUY. It's a relief at the end when all the subjects come to save you from the king after he takes advantage of your mercy. Slower and softer songs are still a challenge to me, and I can't just cover everything up by having the piano take center stage like I did in An Ending. I find that I have to always keep changing it up with the orchestra, and avoid using the same harmonies or rhythms. To enhance expressiveness of the music, I spent a lot of time agonizing over the ritardandos in the piece, which in a virtual setting is impossible to get just right. You would have seen me air-conducting the music like a maniac, trying to see what exact bpm I need to slow it down to. The tempo chart in my DAW looks like a seismograph!I made the piano parts much easier to play compared to An Ending, so you're all welcome for that. I didn't feel it was right to make it too show offish, because you shouldn't be overshadowing your friends. For some portions I gave the melody to the orchestra and just have the piano playing a supporting role.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Song composed by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Chaos King The Second Narrator Music 2018-11-13 | This was the first piece I wanted to arrange, along with Field of Hopes and Dreams (I haven't figured out how to approach that one yet!). What's really exciting here is that I got to build further on techniques and instrumentation I developed from pretty much all my previous Undertale arrangements. Plus I spent a considerable amount of time balancing every instrument, EQ'ing every track to get it sounding good.My takeaway from the original track and the context of the boss fight is a mix of shock, terror, and some mischief. You know while ascending the palace that the king is not going to grant you access to the fountain, but what surprises you is his disapproval of his son. Not only does he show such disdain, he even relishes in his villainy. This creates a strong motivation to the player to abandon the pacifist method and go all genocide on him.Hopefully you can tell from listening to my arrangement that I had so much fun with the percussion. After doing the I Am Setsuna track, No Turning Back, I had an itch to make another track with percussion that is intense but still quick on its toes. Nearly all of toby fox's original rhythm is preserved, and I merely layered on top of that.For others wondering how to orchestrate music, think of it as remastering a game. You don't just copy the same notes and substitute orchestral instruments. That's like slapping on some high-res textures and calling it a day. Does anyone enjoy playing the Final Fantasy games ported to mobile with the smoothed out graphics? You have to remodel everything from scratch with more detail. So for percussion, a trick I use is to subdivide the original rhythm, and then cut it up and distribute it among a bunch of instruments. Give the big booming drums the down beat, and the higher frequency instruments the syncopated and faster 16th note beats. Here are all the percussion patches I used in this song.Spitfire HZ01 Percussion - Boobams, Paper DjunsSpitfire HZ02 - Sony Stage DrumsSoundiron Clacks - Bamboo PoleCinesamples CinePerc - Taikos, Concert Toms, Tambourines, Tubular Bells, Crash Cymbals, Ensemble Claps + SnapsQL Stormdrum - Ambient Largeness, Lord of Toms Ensemble, Clacks (Taiko), Spring DrumsI used to only use the stage mic versions of the patches because I naively thought that was the best when trying to recreate the sound of a full orchestra. Here, I experimented a lot with close mic versions, and I discovered that with the right control I can really get the punchy sound of the drums out without having to raise the volume out. This extended to the melodic instruments too, and allowed me to give the cello the same percussive rhythm.I repeated the first half of the song because it's my favorite part. I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to explore without repeating the entire track. I didn't want to rush into the more intense variation right away because it deserves a build up. If you listen closely, the percussion rhythm in the first run-through is inverted before being restored at the repeat at 1:35. Another first for me in this track is pairing up instruments from different families. I used to keep the woodwinds, strings, and brass separate in their motifs, but here I had them all make friends and do parts solos together, so you'll hear match-ups like Harpischord/Horns, Piccolo/Trumpet, String/Percussion, Brass/Choir. Hope you guys enjoy this!MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Song composed by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch
DELTARUNE Orchestrated - The Legend The Second Narrator Music 2018-11-04 | I hope toby fox can finish this game. Playing through chapter 01, I feel like the presentation and pacing is much stronger than Undertale's. The soundtrack so far is catchy and memorable just like the original.The Legend sequence in the opening lends itself to much gravitas. For the arrangement, I focused only on filling out the soundscape more. If there was one criticism I have of toby fox's music style, it's that he can repeat phrases a lot without any variation. This is understandable, as his soundtrack is still very extensive, plus he makes the entire rest of the game too. To make each repetition of the theme flow better, I altered the last measure in each playthrough to transition better to the next phrase.I didn't use any fancy instruments beyond the normal orchestral set. For the final section, I interpreted it as a quartet, and added the double bass and viola with their own parts to fill out the sound. All in all, the final product has a primarily medieval/classical tone to it. This was a bit challenging to do, as slower music is not my strong suit. I have to really work on the articulations and texturing for long notes so they don't sound too flat with the virtual samples.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginal Song composed by toby foxDELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch
Undertale Orchestrated - Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap The Second Narrator Music 2018-05-31 | I was originally planning to do just a 1:1 arrangement of the track, but after I finished the fanfare, I challenged myself to see how far I could stretch it out. These random quirky moments is what makes toby fox and genius and Undertale so beloved. I imagine there's an incredible backstory behind the bird. It spent its whole life trying to find a greater purpose beyond the survival instinct. It flew around all the lands, and as chance would have it, saw someone standing at the edge of the coast, wanting to get across to the other side. The opposite coast was just far enough that jumping across was impossible. That person would have to waste a full 5 minutes to take the long way around. The bird landed and called out, "Perhaps I can carry you across!" The bird grasped the person by the shoulders and flapped its wings furiously. It could not do it, as the person was too heavy.Dejected, the bird flew away, thinking itself useless. Sans just happened to walk by and saw the bird perched above, crying. "What is the matter?" he asked? "I wanted to help, but I am too small and weak to be of any use," the bird sobbed. "Nonsense!" Sans responded. "Setbacks are simply meant to make us try harder. Don't give up just on the first try!" His words filled the bird with DETERMINATION. It decided to start small and improve from there. First the bird carried a small pebble across the gap. Then, it went to look for a larger rock and carried that across. With perseverance, the bird found that it could carry larger and larger objects, until finally it developed enough strength to move mountains.Now the bird regularly ferries people back and forth across the gap, saving thousands upon thousands of travel hours. The bird was happy that it could serve in its little way.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorOriginal Song composed by toby foxArrangement by Jeremiah SunUndertale is available on Steam and PS4
I am Setsuna Orchestrated - No Turning Back (Battle Theme) The Second Narrator Music 2018-05-16 | MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarrator"I am Setsuna" is a game that tries so hard to be the next Chrono Trigger, which is why I am surprised why the soundtrack is piano only. I am going to guess that the soundtrack being all piano was more a budget decision than an artistic choice. The art direction and lore contain a lot of Japanese influence, so having a western pianoforte instrument at times sounded a bit out of place. Nevertheless the soundtrack itself is very beautiful and the piano evokes so much sorrow and a quiet hope that the world in I am Setsuna will find peace.The battle music, more than the other tracks, felt like it was itself a piano cover of the mythical true full instrumental soundtrack that we never got to hear. To the composer's credit, the piano handled the rhythm, the melody, and all the flourishes you expect would come from a flute, or a harp, or whatever, and I could almost hear it from just the piano. Pretty impressive. So this is my attempt to restore the full version of the song. To make it hardcore traditional Japanese, I used an ensemble of Taiko drums and the Shamisen. And boy, was this so much fun.While I tried to translate everything from the original track, the one thing I totally redid was the rhythm. Using about 5-6 Taiko drums of varying sizes, I came up with a ton of different rhythmic loops. I don't like how lots of JRPG battle music have the same beat that just keeps on repeating. You start to tune it out. I wanted to constantly change it up, so the listener is always on his/her toes enjoying the unpredictable nature of the percussion, reflecting the tension in a battle.I originally chose to add the Shamisen just so the piece would have that traditional Japanese flavor, but while playing around with the sample library I liked the sound so much I upgraded it to be the star attraction of the song. I listened to a ton of shamisen performances, including the Yoshida Brothers, for reference. There's so much nuance to the way a pro player slaps and plucks and slides the strings that I can only do a pale imitation on my cheap library. I like how you can use the shamisen as either percussion or melodic. Almost makes me want to go learn to play the real thing.For those that know about Beat Saber, once the official level editor comes out, I am totally going to create a custom level for this track!Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginal Track composed by Tomoki MiyoshiYou can buy this game for PS4, Steam, or Nintendo Switch
Chrono Trigger Orchestrated - Main Theme The Second Narrator Music 2018-04-28 | MP3/FLAC for supporting Patrons - patreon.com/thesecondnarratorYeah, this came out of nowhere. I thought I'd take a break from my writer's block with Zelda and knock out some other tracks. First, a shoutout to Blake Robinson for his Chrono Trigger Symphony albums. His Chrono Trigger arrangements years ago were what inspired me to take a stab at doing the same thing. You guys should check it out.I don't need to explain how legendary the Chrono Trigger soundtrack is. Growing up, I used to listen to it on infinite repeat. I felt like I shouldn't tamper too much with the track like I often do. No need to double the length of the track with my own ideas (although I still did extend it slightly at the end. I cheated!). My approach is basically to envision an orchestra where every musician is a fan of the game, and all want a chance to claim the spotlight and show off their passion. Very few games from this era have had music like this in the title screen that can seize a passerby's attention and bombard them with the possibility of a grand adventure that is both epic and intimate with emotions. It's one step above typical trailer music.The first task is to recreate the same feel of the original track, and nothing is more distinct than the reed instrument that plays the melody. I don't know what sample they used on the SNES MIDI chip, but I did some digging in around, and I found an instrument called the Chirimia, or Shawm that sounded similar, and I EQ'ed it as best I could to push it even closer.The other stuff I think defines the "feel" of the track is the rhythm. The snare drum and timpani beats that provides the driving undercurrent really defines the energy of the music. I still keep them there, but also distribute it to other low end instruments like the brass, and cello/doublebass. If you listen closely, you'll notice, I change it up a little in each section to break up its potential repetitiveness.And finally, I added a ton of choir voices all over the place to really up the epicness of the track. Having a choir chant in the background, I feel is my way of showing reverence to classic and immortalizing it in some great hall of fame where it'll be cherished for many more years to come.Chrono Trigger OrchestratedArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme composed by Yasunori MitsudaYou can buy this game on iOS, Android and Steam
An Ending Piano Concerto - Undertale | SHEET MUSIC OUT The Second Narrator Music 2018-03-14 | Download the sheet music and orchestral track herepatreon.com/posts/17545781An Ending Piano Concerto - Score is distributed for free under the creative common license.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0Arranged by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Toby Fox
Zelda Breath of the Wild Orchestration - Guardian Battle (10k celebration!) The Second Narrator Music 2017-05-13 | Thank you for 10K subscribers! This track is free to download!goo.gl/kqZLEYLet's get this out of the way first. Breath of the Wild is a great game, possibly the best Zelda game ever made. The world is expansive and allows so much freedom, self-discovery, and experimentation. However, I felt that Nintendo really dropped the ball on the story and music. The Switch Presentation Trailer Nintendo showed gave me such hope for the epic music that would assault my ears, but sadly we were all misled.To me the soundtrack is only half-complete. The tracks are all atmospheric, and fit the setting really well, but ineffective in describing the context. The whole world has been plunged into darkness. Ganon's calamity infects the landscape, and yet all the inhabitants feel like they're at peace with it. Link has woken up from a hundred year slumber, and the world barely reacts to his return. What I had hoped to see was Ganon reacting to Link's presence. As Link defeats each divine beast, there should be a great escalating response from the opposing forces. But the world stays pretty much the same. The sense of adventure I felt in the beginning of the game sort of faded away. Instead the world felt more like just a playground for Link to play in until he decides to go save Zelda.The music for the enemies on the world map all have this playful silliness to it, which I felt was in contradiction to the context. Hence, this arrangement I made for the guardian battle, I consider more of a REVISION. I referenced the tone of the trailer music heavily in trying to come up with my version. For the percussion, I used a lot of wood and metal knick knack sounds to preserve the idea that the player is free to be creative with his/her strategies in fighting the guardians. When encountering these for the first time, most players probably fail and die quickly. The thrill you get from defeating these for the first time is very exhilarating, and I wanted the music to convey that. I borrowed the main theme of the game and injected it into the track to give it more emotion. Even though the end result is a lot more heavy highs and lows, I feel I still was able to keep the lightness of track intact.Since in my Undertale videos, there have been many comments on the "suckiness" of my gameplay, I put in a lot of effort to make the gameplay here look cool. LOL I rehearsed how I would fight the guardian, and recorded numerous run-throughs of the fight. I made sure to move in the same consistent manner so I could edit the footage to look like it was a multi-camera setup. Very cinematic, don't you think? And I tried to make the actions correspond to the musical changes in the track!Arrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Manaka KataokaYou can buy this game for Wii U and Nintendo Switch
06 - Death Mountain / The Final Battle - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2017-02-25 | Get ready for a roller coaster ride. This is not just an orchestration of the final dungeon, but also the final battle against Ganon, as well as a reflection of a possible extension to the story if it was ever retold. Even if you don't read my thoughts that went into this orchestration, I'm sure you can piece together some kind of narrative if you listen to the piece without any context.Link's journey to reclaim the Triforce and defeat Ganon has been mostly solitary. The subsequent games like to explain that the struggle between good and evil is predestined and bound to repeat throughout history. I kinda wish they would move away from that tired trope, because it minimizes Link's supposed heroism if he is simply being a chosen one. In this iteration, I like to imagine that Ganon becomes complacent, and there is no prophecy foretelling of a man in a green tunic that will come to challenge him. Perhaps during his reign he has heard reports from various underlings of a warrior roaming the lands and defeating any that get in his way, but it does not concern him much.Then suddenly, while seated on his thrown, a soldier bursts in, shouting that the magic barrier erected around the fortress has been shattered. But that is impossible, unless...someone possesses the Triforce of Wisdom! Quickly, he has his hoard in the fortress mobilize and hunt down the fabled intruder. However, Ganon is constantly being told that his best soldiers have fallen under this man's sword. His advancement through the fortress is resolute, and soon he will enter the throne room. Now, he he begins to worry. He has been caught off guard. One scene going through my mind was in the anime One Punch Man where Saitama storms the alien ship, and roaming through the halls, killing everyone without breaking a sweat. It's hilarious.But the music is told through Link's perspective. The opening is moody and atmospheric, but only briefly as he is quickly approached by wave upon wave of Ganon's hoard. The majority of the track is brass heavy, similar sounding to the orcs in Lord of the Rings, and their threat to overrun the land with death and decay.When Link finally confronts Ganon, I transition into a faster paced rhythm. There are no pointless monologues from the villain before the fight. It's already clear what both sides want, and no compromise will be had. Having recently played through Final Fantasy XV (the only good thing I can say about it is it has cool battle music) and the demo for Nier: Automata (can't wait for that game), and of course after making lots of Undertale battle orchestrations, I wanted to try my hand at Zelda battle music that really gets your blood pumping, music that's so exciting you don't even care if the fight is too hard. You just want to run around and look cool doing it. I really hope that Breath of the Wild will have music like this during the dramatic large moments in the game.Perhaps in this battle, though Link is valiant and puts up a good fight, he is handily defeated. But all hope is not loss. From the adjourning chamber, Zelda reaches out with the last ounce of her power, encouraging this young man she's never heard of to stand back up. Link hears her voice and wills every ounce of his strength to back up. He will keep fighting until death. At this moment, in a typical cliche movie moment, Link is imbued with new power. To everyone, as well as Ganon's shock, the third Triforce, the Triforce of Courage, has manifested within Link. Not because he is some chosen one, but simply because he is the one that acts on faith. Perhaps the lesson here is that any Hylian willing to stand up to evil with firm resolve would be granted strength from the Triforce of Courage. The goddesses allowed evil to persist in the lands because they wanted, looked forward, to seeing their creations display virtues that were pleasing to them. The Triforce is there only to amplify what is already in their body and heart. I feel like story-wise this would be more relatable to the player than the "prophesied hero" angle. Here is where I bring the main theme of Zelda back in full force. I'm already sick of trying to come up with countless variations of the theme, but I liked the way this turned out. As fans will notice, I've peppered motifs from later Zelda games, to better integrate the original game in the series' lore. Also, for a heads up, as this track was already the climax of the album, the final ending track I have left to do will be simpler, without any grand embellishments.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarr...The Legend of Zelda Orchestral ArrangementArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginally composed by Koji KondoYou can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop
Undertale Orchestrated - Battle Against a True Hero The Second Narrator Music 2017-02-02 | Conceptualizing this piece was actually pretty straightforward. I spent lots of weeks just playing the track in my head, imagining how it would sound in grand fashion. I found myself subconsciously tapping out different kinds of rhythm ideas to replace the drum pattern of the original. After it was a couple sessions of hammering out my percussion ideas inside Studio One. This track uses about 20 percussion instruments total. If this was played by a real orchestra, they'd probably have to perform this in a warehouse!This track is split into the obvious three acts. In the the original track, the motif in each act was repeated quite a few times before moving on to the next part. I wanted to avoid having my version have any noticeable repetition, so I layered counter-melodies on top of the original, and extended them out with some transformations. This along with the instrumentation allowed the "story" of the music to really come out. This is how I would interpret it in the context of the battle.The first act is jumping straight into the battle. I treat Undyne as the "True Hero, as she draws on her DETERMINATION for newfound strength, in order to battle you, the murderous player. The opening starts out focused on intensity. Both of the player and Undyne are jumping around, trading blows, with little time to think. As the battle progresses, we reach the second act, the escalation of the battle. The original tune here has a more distinct melody. It is also the same tune used in the pacifist/neutral run to encourage the player not to give up. Ironically here in the genocide run it now applies to your opponent, who is the one fighting for good. I imagine for the player character to go on a rampage, she must be dead inside and void of compassion. Therefore, the emotion here all comes from Undyne as she fights bravely.Obviously the battle does not go in Undyne's favor, and as she slowly succumbs to more attacks, we see the desperation in her eyes. Perhaps both the player and Undyne remember in some alternate universe where they shared some good memories together. They were actually besties, and went on adventures together. What happened to that reality? Instead here they are fighting to the death. Kinda tragic, I would think. I thought it would be fitting to have the strings soar above the original rhythmic melody, as if Undyne was crying out from the depths of her soul. But alas her end has come. At the very least, her sacrifice served a purpose in helping the others of her kind escape you, the evil player.Overall, I drew heavily on Hiroyuki Sawano and Hans Zimmer's style, most notably Zimmer's Mombasa track from Inception. I made a couple callbacks to my previous Undertale tracks, including the one motif I added in "An Ending." This is the last boss/battle music I'll arrange from Undertale. From now on, any future arrangements I'll do will be the more soothing and serene tracks. That'll balance out my entire musical reinterpretation from Undertale.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorIncludes both looped and non-looped versions.Original Song composed by toby foxArrangement by Jeremiah SunUndertale is available on Steam
05 - Game Over - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2016-12-07 | When I was contemplating arranging the NES Zelda soundtrack, this was the first track to come to mind. I imagined another piece of music that was extended far beyond practicality in the context it appears in. This is a bit like many of Nobuo Uematsu's compositions in a Final Fantasy game, where the player can’t help but want to stay in the title screen, or a certain area, just to listen to the music in its entirety. As I played the simple melody in my head, I found myself removing notes, further simplifying the melody so that it became slower, more lyrical and romantic, and I was excited at the prospect of arranging this. I played around with it on the piano and got a clearer picture of what the "game over" screen could be portraying. Perhaps each time Link dies his spirit is sent to some otherwordly plane or a house of healing where he rejuvenates before returning to Hyrule.The quantum journey starts out painful. I use low tremolo strings that undercut the melody played by the glockenspiel. Link has just died and his soul is wandering through the void. He slowly starts to gain consciousness of what is happening to him, as his death is not the end. Eventually the creepy strings fade away, and the tone becomes more peaceful and comforting. A soft guitar now sets the tone as Link enjoys a brief rest. As the chosen one, he is aided by all the powers of good. He is not allowed to die so easily and end the hope of Hyrule. The events leading to his early demise play through his head. He ponders the mistakes he made, perhaps he questions his purpose. How could the chosen one fail in his mission? As demoralizing as the situation seems, the constant he can rely on is that he can always “continue.” Thankfully, the game has no perma-death. He can persevere through it all. As the track concludes, I tag the Zelda main cue back in. Link must pick his sword back up and return to his quest.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorThe Legend of Zelda Orchestral ArrangementArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginally composed by Koji KondoYou can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop
04 - Triforce Fanfare - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2016-12-07 | In keeping consistency with the grander tone of my arrangements for the NES Zelda, I slowed down the fanfare considerably to add weight to the excitement of obtaining a triforce piece. I also added a bit of the "Creation Music" heard in Ocarina of Time to tie the triforce to the power of the goddesses. The three pickup notes to the fanfare are exactly the same as the Star Wars theme, and with a full orchestration, now sounds nearly identical to it! Can’t really avoid that.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorThe Legend of Zelda Orchestral ArrangementArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginally composed by Koji KondoYou can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop
Undertale Orchestrated - Bergentrückung & ASGORE The Second Narrator Music 2016-11-07 | I finally managed to arrange my most frequent request. This one was really tough for me to figure out. I a version that I did that sounded pretty awful, so I had to scrap everything and restart from zero. One reason this took me a long time to figure out was because I was unable to understand the flow of the track. The track builds up to a climax early on and then kind of drifts a bit before ending. Luckily, I found a sound that I liked and went with it.The opening of the fight scene has Asgore treating the player with compassion, offering the player multiple opportunities to step away, because he is reluctant to do battle. We can see the pain from his past experiences that caused him to take the path that he chose. The music reflects this by being less a "boss theme." It is somber, yet resolute.The big showcase of my orchestration is the thunderous percussion. The majority of my time was spent picking out the various drums I wanted to use, and then coming up with an assortment of rhythms and loops to use in the track. In the original track, the drum beat never changes, and the melodic phrases repeat a lot. As those familiar with my style, I never want to repeat a phrase in identical fashion. The result is what I would call a chaotic but beautiful mess. I don't even know what kind of style my arrangement should be labeled as. There's some Eastern Asian influence, a bit of medieval folklore, and some "Hams Zimmer" and "Hiroyuki Sawano," sensibilities. There is a lot of energy and excitement in my version, which may spoil you from enjoying the original track!MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorIncludes both looped and non-looped versions.Original Song composed by toby foxUndertale is available on Steam
03 - The Dungeons - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2016-09-30 | I've done the dungeon theme already in Link's Awakening, so for this one, I had to think really hard how to differentiate my second attempt. I decided to make it sound the least Zelda-like as possible. When I think of my time playing the original Zelda, the dungeons were definitely the most difficult. The droning background arpeggios really added to the tension I would feel, and the repetitive tiled screens really gave me claustrophobia.To contrast the energetic and hopeful tone of the overworld theme. I went for doom and gloom in the dungeons. The dungeons that lay host to the most dangerous ancient beasts must have given Link second thoughts. There was a reason why Zelda chose to hide the Triforce pieces in these ruins filled with long forgotten lore. Every enemy in every screen call out for Link's death, as he does not belong there.I spent the majority of my efforts on an original tune that would slowly build up to the original melody. With the arpeggios underscoring the entire piece, you can imagine Link starting out stepping forward cautiously, mindful of his surroundings. He searches every room, opens every door, in order to brave through all the obstacles in the maze. With each progress made, Link becomes more sure of himself, more determined, but at the same time the monsters and undead creatures become more terrifying and dangerous. I wanted the entire piece to sound melancholy, because Link knew Zelda was here before him, but was now in captivity.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorThe Legend of Zelda Orchestral ArrangementArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginally composed by Koji KondoYou can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop
Final Fantasy VI Orchestrated - The Magic House (Jidoor Town) The Second Narrator Music 2016-08-03 | MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorFinal Fantasy VI is my favorite FF game, with my favorite soundtrack of all time. Nobuo Uematsu's genius is on full display here. I am extremely cautious about approaching any of the songs from this game, as I respect the music too much to tarnish it with my crazy ideas. I first encountered this game as a kid at my friend's house. He had just entered the town of Jidoor and was visiting the auction house as well as Owzer's House. Up till now my perception of games was that it was just running around and fighting/shooting stuff. For a game to have the player do random stuff like bid on a relic, enter a person's dream, or sing at an opera...it opened my eyes to see games as works of art.The Jidoor town theme is very classy. I can imagine this track serving as background music for fancy parties. This is straight up baroque/renaissance era music, with a little bit of Mozart's Rondo alla turca thrown in. My only experience comes from Bach's Two-Part Inventions and Well-Tempered Clavier. Since the instrument palette at the time had less dynamics, composers had to rely on other techniques to make their music stand out. You have melodies that travel up and down, woven among multiple instruments, ostinatos and arpeggios everywhere keep the rhythm of the piece going, and also that trademark harpsichord sound. While analyzing this piece, I came to the conclusion that early 8bit music shares a lot of similarities. With less range to work with, composers likewise had to do tons of tricks with the couple tones they had to make their tunes catchy. Pretty cool.In my reverence of this piece, I arranged it without deviating from the original structure. The big challenge for this piece was that since it involved a simple chamber orchestra setup, each individual instrument was a lot more noticeable and I had to tweak every single note so the articulation would stand up to closer scrutiny. If I close my eyes, I can picture all the musicians huddled in a corner, playing away while the auction took place.As for the third act of the piece, I wanted to build off the piece with a new second melody that sat right on top of the original. If Nobuo Uematsu had access to better hardware, he would probably have been able to incorporate more of the Baroque music techniques that you can hear in this section. Altogether, this was a pretty fun track to do, and a good break between all the loud, epic, emotional tracks I've been arranging.Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginal song composed by Nobuo UematsuYou can buy this game for iOS, Android and Steam
02 - Overworld Suite - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2016-06-17 | With the tone set from my Title Screen track, the natural progression was to make the Overworld Suite much more lively and intense. If this game were ever truly remade, Nintendo would probably have more music tracks for each locale, so a track like mine wouldn't really fit. Instead, think of this as more of a theoretical medley of those individual tracks. I designed the entire piece to encompass the entirety of Link's quest. You have the opening theme, which is optimistic and energetic. As the player settles into the rhythm of adventuring, the theme repeats again with more resolution, the trumpets in fanfare. I added the Zelda's Lullaby theme once again as a way to remind the player that Link remains focused on the main quest. The calmer mood here suggests it might also work as a town theme. Following this, the main melody returns again. Link has enjoyed success in defeating all the monsters. He is a lot more confident and stronger, ready to face harder challenges. Ganon's forces become more desperate, and he sends his best minions to confront Link. Hard brass instruments and a weak flute floating suggests all this is too overwhelming for Link. Oh no, will Link prevail over them? The music leaps ahead triumphantly, proclaiming Link will indeed emerge victorious. This hopefully encourages the player to keep trying.I tried my best to look past the adorable sprites and the repetitiveness of the original music to figure out the true spirit of the game. There's something to admire in the simplicity of this Zelda game compared to all subsequent ones. No complicated lore about sages, goddesses, purity of heart/soul. All those things actually serve to make Link a duller protagonist in comparison to everyone else. Here you can use your imagination to guess whatever you want about the context. You have all the Hylian residents hiding in holes and caves, and Link the only one outside slashing hordes upon hordes of monsters. Perhaps most people scoffed at his resolve in saving Zelda and the kingdom, but as time went on, they took notice, and they started to whisper among themselves about a young savior doing what the best soldiers in Hyrule could not do. Hope began to fill their hearts, and they cheered from the sidelines, secretly helping Link whenever they can. (All the shop items should have been free. Those greedy merchants!) That kind of emotion is what I am trying to convey in this piece.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorThe Legend of Zelda Orchestral ArrangementArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginally composed by Koji KondoYou can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop
Undertale Orchestrated - MEGALOVANIA The Second Narrator Music 2016-04-29 | People have been constantly requesting more Undertale tracks, and I aim to please. The tracks most requested are all the boss fight songs, and since they are all very heavy metal/synth/rock style, I needed some time to figure out how to arrange. While doing a direct translation of the instruments worked alright for Heartache, I didn't feel the same approach would be as effective for MEGALOVANIA.Apparently MEGALOVANIA is a combination of megalomania and Transylvania, and not a mix of Mega Man and Castlevania, as I originally guessed. Digging further, I saw that the piece was used as the boss fight in toby fox's Earthbound hack. Since Sans was never this brutal throughout the game, and he gave you many chances to turn back, I concluded that this theme is actually the protagonist's boss theme. Being that this music occurs during the Genocide run of the game, the music serves to highlight the intensity and evilness of the player gone mad with power.Most of my time spent on this track was amassing the big percussion sounds to construct the epic "Hans Zimmer" cinematic feeling. I didn't want to use a simple drum kit like I did in Heartache because the original rhythm it would have sounded extremely repetitive in an orchestral context. So using a generous helping of Taikos, Epic Toms, Timpanis, Surdos, I came up with all sorts of rhythms to use as the foundation to give life to the piece. I took the catchy melodic riff and adapted it for percussion, with all sorts of variations. The end result does not fit into any specific genre. The middle solo section even has an unintended Asian feel to it.I imagine this piece is something a high school band/symphony would play at a school concert. After performing the usual classical pieces, they close out with this piece for fun times. People are seen wheeling out the big drums and an assortment of ethnic instruments. The attendees clap along and some get up to dance. LolMP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorOriginal Song composed by toby foxUndertale is available on Steam
Final Fantasy VII Orchestrated - Tifas Theme The Second Narrator Music 2016-03-30 | MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorThis arrangement was an idea that's been gestating in my head for awhile. Being that Tifa is just as popular, if not more so than Aerith, it is disappointing to see that her theme is given much less love from Square-Enix and everyone else online. Admittedly, Aerith's theme is much more dynamic and emotional, and her story arc is much more significant to the game, which I understand. A shame that causes it to overshadow how good Tifa's theme music also is. It was certainly good enough for Nobuo Uematsu to reuse a phrase for Final Fantasy VIII's Eyes on Me. Here's my attempt to spread some love in Tifa's direction.The melody exudes calm serenity, representative of Tifa's caring and compassion for Cloud and others. It is for the most part a five-note motif that repeats itself with numerous transpositions and variations. To me this is like Tifa wordlessly expressing her pining for Cloud, wanting to share her feelings, which she is unable to due to her shy personality. If FFVII were ever adapted to a musical (haha), I could totally imagining Tifa break out into song, Les Miz-style, about her state of mind. In my arrangement, I felt that I could keep it just as serene, without really trying to make it epic or anything. I spent most of my time obsessing over the articulations of each individual instrument, most notably the solo flute. Even though I used a full orchestral palette, I wanted to maintain an intimate sound. Lots of crescendos and decrescendos, no note would sustain long at constant volume. I imagined the conductor, as well as the musicians, would constantly hold their breath, keeping the audience in suspense, as they took their time crafting this emotional aural performance for us to enjoy. I listened to a ton of Square's Distant Worlds recordings for reference. One thing I learned from orchestral recordings was that instruments not currently in the foreground would be mixed to an extremely low volume or entirely out of existence. This keeps the piece from becoming muddy, which is a problem I still struggle with in my arrangements.Lastly I added a climactic bridge to punctuate the piece, because though Tifa is shy, she is incredibly strong willed and determined. It’s interesting how Square gave Tifa and Aerith physical designs that contrast with their personalities. On the surface level, Tifa may look like just eye candy because she just stands around looking pretty and talks less, but once you spend more time with her from Disc 2 onwards, you see a lot more depth in her character than before. My favorite part of the song is the augmented fifth chord in the 2nd bar, and playing it out with grandeur is heaven to my ears.For those curious, the portrait of Tifa is a detailed paint-over I made of a screenshot capture from Advent Children. It took almost as long as the music itself, as I am extremely out of practice.Arrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Track by Nobuo UematsuYou can buy FFVII on Steam and PSN
01 - Prologue / Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement The Second Narrator Music 2016-02-21 | Today is my birthday, as well as Zelda's 30th anniversary, so naturally we share the same destiny. Link's Awakening was my stepping stone towards orchestrating the true main theme in grand fashion. There was no way I could have done this a year ago, and I needed all the practice from arranging other games. Having a whole year to think about how to arrange this was extremely helpful. In addition to this track, I will arrange the rest of the soundtrack, as well as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.What I like about the very first Zelda is how its tone is straight up good vs evil, without any gimmicks. While the story is super barebones, it has a Lord of the Rings vibe to it (obviously), so I thought I would follow in the same fashion. And just like how LOTR starts with a prologue explaining the events leading up to the main story, I decided to do the same. I assume if Nintendo ever remade this game, they would probably do the same thing, matching up to the same format as their more recent installments. Here is my "retelling" of the iconic story. In fact, I wrote the script out first, and then scored the music to fit the text. Please excuse the crudity of the sketches. I only just finished the music yesterday, which gave me only a day to make the video so that I could post it online in time.Anyways, my biggest gripe with Zelda games is that the characters are too one note. Sure they are archetypes, but there's almost no characterization to Link, Zelda, and Ganon. The good guys are good simple because, and the bad guys are bad simply because. Hard to relate to them. I wanted to add real tension to the good guys' actions. That's why here you see the king displaying weak faith, Zelda making a much harder commitment to good than you previously imagined, and Ganon have a more simpler motivation (like gollum's corruption from Lord of the Rings again). I feel this adds a bit more weight to the story, without really changing the core. I also ommitted any mention of Link so that it really feels more like Zelda's legend. My favorite part of adding the prologue is that it makes the listener wait and guess when the iconic main theme is gonna appear!Ok now to music choices. The thematic structure of the prologue is a musical palindrome. It goes like this: Triforce Theme---Ganon's Theme---Ganon's Dungeon---Zelda's Lulliby---Ganon's Dungeon---Ganon's Theme---Triforce Theme. I pulled iconic melodies from other Zelda games because I also assume Nintendo probably wouldn't mind retconning a bunch of stuff so the old game better fits the series. There are also a ton of other musical references from the Zelda games that I crammed as much as I could. See if you can identify all of them.While arranging this piece, I made the mistake of listening to Nintendo's 25th anniversary recording of the Main Theme, and it just blows this track out of the water. I think it's the gold standard of the main theme. So I decided to find inspiration outside the game. I borrowed the instrumentation from Navigator's Glory - Final Fantasy XIV. I like that anvil instrument that plays on the beat. Feels like it could describe Link gearing up in preparation for adventure. The use of all the instruments in the orchestra is great there. You really have to tweak every single note to make it sound right. There is still so much I can do to improve this track, so I am calling this a first draft. It will be improved by the time I finish the album.The Legend of Zelda Orchestral ArrangementArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginally composed by Koji KondoYou can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop
Undertale Piano Concerto - An Ending The Second Narrator Music 2016-02-08 | UPDATE: Download the sheet music and orchestral track herepatreon.com/posts/17545781If enough people want sheet music, I might be compelled to make them. Anyway for my next Undertale track, I chose to arrange one of the more emotional pieces in the game. Even though I am a pianist, I am very cautious about using the piano in orchestrations because it can sound very cliche. The majority of piano arrangements I hear are simply the right hand playing the melody and the left hand doing either chords or arpeggios of the chords. Satisfying enough for the layman, but drives me crazy listening to them, and I'm guilty of doing that too. It takes a lot of work to make an arrangement that's dynamic and fun to play.The original track consists of a piano playing solo, and then joined by instrumentals for the second half. The latter half is extremely repetitive: I counted a total of eight repititions of the same phrase. To make it more interesting, I decided to go with three playthroughs of the melody, with the orchestral portion considerably shortened.First playthrough - I kept the solo piano part mostly unchained note-wise. In my performance, I added lots more dynamics and sustains to really bring out the soul of the melody. The orchestra part is also pretty straightforward.Second playthrough - Here's where I really dissect the piece to better understand how the music fits in the game. The chords and harmonies used in the solo portion closely resembles impressionism era music from composers like Debussy. The way the melody seems to drift away and change its mind helps to enforce the idea of the protagonist's loneliness. Makes sense as this is the same melody used in the beginning of the game. The melody in the orchestral portion is more conventional, and the way it just comes in suddenly (just like in the original track) is a great way to stir the emotions of the listener. The encouragement from all the side characters is punctuated by the warm strings playing in harmony.Third playthrough - I originally planned for an even longer and crazier solo piano cadenza, but it was sounding a bit too much of a departure from the original track. The way I have the piano get more fast and intense, is like how the protagonist responds to her prior defeat to flowey and subsequent encouragement from everyone else. Because she was a pacifist in her journey, she can rest assured her ultimate battle will not be fought alone. All these articulations I used are heavily derived from stuff by Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorOriginal Song composed by toby foxArrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunUndertale is available on Steam
Undertale Orchestrated - Heartache The Second Narrator Music 2016-01-15 | After recently playing through Undertale (full pacifist run), I knew I had to orchestrate one of the tracks. It is amazing how toby fox was able to design, code, write, draw, and compose pretty much all of the game. And what's even more impressive is that toby fox's soundtrack is catchy, memorable, and puts lots of AAA composers to shame. Like seriously, I can barely recall any tune from any recent game off the top of my head except for Undertale. All composers should learn the lesson that melody trumps over any musical technical proficiency.The Heartache track was the first moment in the game that convinced me I was in for something special. After being pampered by the motherly Toriel, the protagonist breaks her heart by insisting on leaving the ruins to return home. During this battle, the protagonist is essentially awakened, and is forced to stand up and fight for her survival. This mood of excitement tinged with an air of sadness is captured perfectly in the music.In my arrangement, I kept the original version pretty intact, but with the instruments replaced with orchestral counterparts. The original track is already very fleshed out, with a catchy tune, varying rhythms, and an awesome bass line. The 6/8 time that toby fox uses is hard to describe, as it sometimes sounds like 3/4 and other times like 2/4, but it works pretty well. One thing that's hard to preserve is the snappiness and clearness you get from 8-bit sounds. It's really easy for an orchestra version to sound very muddy, as you can see from all those other orchestrated arrangements floating out there. I did my best playing lots of staccato and substituting group samples with solo instruments so that everything can still sound as clear as possible. I really wanted to preserve that bass line for its energy, so I listened to the original track at half speed and EQ'ed out all the other frequencies in order to copy it note for note. Then I brought it to the forefront of the track, having cellos, violas, violins, and flute all have a go at it. I was glad I had time to get used to using drumkits in my previous FFIV track. Here I used them in combination with timpanis to get that modern and classical hybrid sound.In addition, as I usually like to do, I added a 3rd arc to the music, as I felt that together, the track would cover the entire arc of the protagonist's battle with Toriel. I used the theme that appears previously in Toriel's home as a kind of reminder of her compassion, and also the potential peaceful life that the protagonist chooses to reject. This injection of emotion is something that toby fox uses too in the end of the game with a similar melody, so I thought doing it here would be a good fit, almost like a "preview" of the entire story's arc. The end result sounds pretty fitting in both the "genocide" and "pacifist" version of the fight, both of which I've included in this video.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorIncludes both looped and non-looped versions.Original Song composed by toby foxUndertale is available on Steam
Warcraft II Menu & III Blackrock and Roll Orchestration The Second Narrator Music 2015-12-29 | And now for something from an American game. I've always felt that in the warcraft games (not sure about WoW as I haven't played that), the in-game graphics and the beautiful CG cinematics clash in tone. One is light-hearted and at times silly, while the other is dark and ominous. However, I felt the Warcraft II menu music to me captures the spirit of both the CG and the gameplay visuals perfectly. They should use this theme in every game.The menu music overall sounds like it is an intro to something greater. This is perfect for the title screen, where the player is eager to jump into the gameplay. To develop the theme further, though, I used the Blackrock and Roll music from Warcraft III to flesh the piece out. I always thought the two would mesh well together with the latter's heroic melody supported by the former's battle rhythm. If the menu music describes the humans preparing for war, then Blackrock and Roll is them marching out into battle. I kept the arrangement relatively similar, and I added the bass drum to sell the savage ferocity of fighting the barbaric orcs. Finally, to round out the piece, I extended the melody with a more emotional motif, painting humanity's last stand against impending doom. I used a generous helping of horns and vocals to augment the majesty of the human race. Heroes will rise, and souls will be corrupted.Arranged by Jeremiah SunMP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorWarcraft II Menu composed by Glenn StaffordWarcraft III Blackrock and Roll composed by Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree & Russell Brower
Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV (Overworld) Orchestrated The Second Narrator Music 2015-12-04 | In celebration of the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X, here is a Final Fantasy piece that is arranged in the style of the Xenoblade soundtrack, specifically Theme X. Hiroyuki Sawano is my new favorite composer, and I've been listening to Theme X pretty much everyday. His style simply transcends genres, as he is able to combine orchestra, rock, and EDM together in manic fashion, and the way the track keeps on building in grandeur is impressive.My reasoning for doing this arrangement is that it magnifies the drama and epic scope of the game. Since the original and its remake use a more chibi art style, it may appear more lighthearted than the more modern Final Fantasies. While playing through the overworld song in my head, I realized that the melody fit pretty well with the instrumentation and rhythms that Sawano used in Theme X. What followed was months of figuring out how to recreate the instrument palette for my arrangement. Unfortunately I don't have any EDM knowledge, so I don't have that, and my experience with drums is still limited. However, I peppered in a some medieval instruments to preserve just a little of the original's celtic sound.The overworld theme consists of only two sections, in contrast to the Verse/Chorus/Bridge format of Theme X. I kept the original melody intact in the beginning, but when expanding on it, in order to fit Theme X's musical progression, I took the memorable parts of the melody (like the 4-note arpeggio, opener) and used them in many unique ways. I also added a bit of my own original melody based on the same rhythm.Whether I was able to recreate the same level of excitement I feel every time I listen to Theme X is up to you. This was very educational for me. I've been doing too many epic tracks, so expect to hear some more light-hearted pieces in the future.MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorArrangement by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme by Nobuo UematsuTheme X by Hiroyuki SawanoYou can buy FFIV on DS, iOS, Android and Steam
Final Fantasy VII Orchestrated - Fight On! (Boss Theme) The Second Narrator Music 2015-08-07 | MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorIncluding the looped .ogg version you can use in the PC Steam versionI wasn't originally planning to arrange this, but on a whim I imagined who I would do it, and it sounded really good in my head, so here it is. The original track was a rock piece, and as there are already many great covers for it online, I went in a different direction and tried to make it cinematic and exciting. I analyzed a lot of FF orchestrations that Arnie Roth produced for the Distant Worlds concert, which are all great. I admire his ability to translate the music to a full orchestral palette that's different from the original track in terms of instrumentation, but still feels like it captures the same spirit.For the opening rift originally played by an electric guitar, I instead used a solo cello playing with the hardest articulation possible for that scratchy frenzy sound. I also utilized a bunch of different drums together, giving it that intense energetic mood very reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean/Mad Max. Interestingly, brass instruments don't feature much in the song, which seems counter-intuitive as most action music nowadays all feature heavy doses of strings, brass, and percussion. Instead I use a bunch of woodwinds and the Celeste for the melody. This keeps the piece light and playful amidst the whole epicness of the track.Arrangement and buster sword art by Jeremiah SunOriginal Track by Nobuo UematsuYou can buy FFVII on Steam and PSN
Terranigma Orchestrated - Prayer (Elles Theme) The Second Narrator Music 2015-08-03 | MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorWarning: Spoilers. I've edited the clips out of order and out of context to minimize the spoiling of the story, but here's the warning nevertheless.Terranigma is one of the most emotional games I've ever played, something rare during the 16-bit era of video games. This is a very obscure RPG title that was never released in the US. It is the spiritual successor to Illusion of Gaia, and shares similar themes. This arrangement is focused just on the character of Elle. More than just a love interest that gives the protagonist motivation, Elle's character gets woven throughout the storyline in many interesting ways. What I like about the game is how so much is communicated just through the imagery, the music, and the heavy hidden implications of events. When you slowly realize the truth behind your quest, you can't help but feel empathy for everyone involved.I kept the original tune and wrapped around it using two other pieces of music from the soundtrack. This would technically make it a medley, but I refrain from using that term because the structure is different. Elle's theme is repeated at the end with a full orchestral pallete. I used a lot of sweeping strings to increase the emotional mood of the piece.Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah SunOriginal ComposerMiyoko Kobayashi
Metroid Prime Orchestrated - Tallon Overworld - Iwata Edition The Second Narrator Music 2015-07-13 | Early MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► patreon.com/thesecondnarratorRIP Satoru Iwata. He was a great inspiration to me and was one of my role models.The instance this theme plays when Samus lands on the planet really establishes the grand exploration the player is about to embark on. While the track is for the Tallon region, the theme is also used in the beginning of the NES Metroid and Super Metroid. As a result I interpret this as also a characterization of Samus Aran. Arrangement-wise, this is the first Sci-Fi music I've attempted, so it was also a learning experience for me.The original track also includes some great atmospheric sounds fused into the music, which I did not try to emulate, so therefore ignored. As part of my challenge, I wanted to use only traditional orchestral instruments and play them normally to see if I could pull off the sci-fi mood. This is in part inspired by John Williams' purely orchestral Star Wars score, and Hans Zimmer's Inception/Interstellar. In an interview for Inception, Hans stated he wanted to use real instruments with minimal processing. Instead, he instructed the strings section to try to play the music in a "synthesized" way. What I did was keep the articulation of my instruments as flat as possible. I kept the original Tallon Overworld track's use of long harmonic chords, but to keep it from sounding boring and hollow, I faded in many other instruments in and out to add more texture. These include the horns, tremolo strings, clarinet, vocals, and the organ (Which sounds like more Interstellar copying, but the original track also has organs, so I'm good!).All of this adds up to a piece that celebrates Samus' resourcefulness, adventurous spirit, and graceful movements.
Secret of Mana Orchestrated - Fear of the Heavens The Second Narrator Music 2015-07-06 | MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► www.patreon.com/thesecondnarratorFirst I would like to say the original track is already perfect. Hiroki Kikuta composed such a beautiful theme filled with wonder and awe, making the most of the SNES sound chip. The orchestration is is my desire to hear the tune with upgraded instruments. The intent was for the track (and the video) to sound like how you've always remembered it, not how it actually was.My interpretation of the song is that it is the great Calling that the mana tree gives to the boy. The melody is the desperate plea for the boy to save the earth from ruin. The melody is the message spoken first as a soft whisper. Hiroki uses the piano way better than Yoko Shimomura does in her subsequent Mana series soundtracks. For the record, I admire and enjoy a lot of Shimomura's music, but seriously she uses the piano in everything, so much so that all her music sounds like they could be from the same game. As a pianist, I've realized that the piano is a cheap and easy way to get a good enough sound, either playing in the upper registers to sound mystical and delicate, or with loud chords to quickly get an epic and emotional response. Using it uniquely takes skill, and Hiroki is a master at work here. I kept my arrangement straightforward and faithful as best as I could..The second half of the music is that great rising swell, seemingly as if all life in the forest gathered around the mana tree to add their voices into the Calling. These four bars, which I doubled in my orchestration, took me the most time to figure out. I probably spent about 70-80% of my time working on this portion. I wanted to have many different groups of instruments playing harmonies and melodies independent of each other, illustrating all manner of life that the forest is filled with. In addition to what was used in the original track, I added fast strings, vocals, and even brass instruments to really flesh out the swell and build up to a thunderous and majestic climax.Even with all the remake craze for FFVII, hopefully Square Enix would also consider remaking this game. It is a testament how special this title is, when even after having so much content cut out due to time constraints, this is still remembered so fondly.Arrangement and video animation by Jeremiah SunOriginal Theme composed by Hiroki KikudaBackground artwork by Hiro IsonoSecret of Mana is available for iOS and Wii Virtual Console
