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. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun
Original Theme by toby fox

DELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!

Deltarune Orchestrated

DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Empty Town

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. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun
Original Theme by toby fox

DELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!

Deltarune Chapter 2 Orchestrated

DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Orchestrated - Berdly & Smart Race

Thanks to my friend "onemorebrick" for providing the vocals. Follow his lego channel! - https://www.youtube.com/c/anotherbrick

The 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. LOL

Deltarune Orchestrated will be available on iTunes/Spotify upon completion of the album.

MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun
Original Theme by toby fox

DELTARUNE Chapter 1&2 is currently free to download on PC and the Nintendo Switch!

DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Orchestrated - NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A

Track by Osirois Music on Youtube

Channel Link --> https://www.youtube.com/c/OsiroisMusic/videos
Video Link -->

I thought this should be uploaded here, but if there are any complaints ill take this down

I might make a seperate account for these.

The thumbnail is temporary

Osirois Music

Darkness Falls (Orchestra)

Deltarune - Darkness Falls (Orchestra Cover by Osirois Music)

https://tinyurl.com/23sejwyp
original by shogo sakai

[V10] Mother 3 - I Am Porky + Porky's Porkies (fakebit arr.) [450 follower special!]

Thumbnail made by Me (in MS Paint)
Original composed by Jun Ishikawa

Woah, a Non DR/Hiraeth upload, when was the last time that happened?

According to https://wikirby.com/wiki/0²_Battle, "Jun Ishikawa chose to base 0²'s battle theme on symphonic rock and progressive rock, genres which he felt were underrepresented in video games." I have heard my style being called symphonic rock before, so I wanted to do a reimagining of this theme if the game's audio hadn't been limited by its hardware.

I fucking love Kirby, btw. Peace.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - 02 Battle (Zero Two Fight Theme) [Arrangement]

► Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/45Thh01bYz4UDmEFjU4tvT
► Support me on Patreon! https://patreon.com/nyxtheshield
► My Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/nyxandjakei

Deltarune - Dark Sanctuary [Orchestral Remix by NyxTheShield]

Was supposed to play when Madjick used his orb attack. It caused bugs with the music and Toby Fox just got rid of it.

Toby Fox - UNDERTALE Soundtrack - Unused: Star

Not in the game's files. Was originally used for Alphys' lab, but was replaced with Alphys because it sounded too much like a lab song from another game.

Toby Fox - UNDERTALE Soundtrack - Unused: Alphys' Lab

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 Djuns
Spitfire HZ02 - Sony Stage Drums
Soundiron Clacks - Bamboo Pole
Cinesamples CinePerc - Taikos, Concert Toms, Tambourines, Tubular Bells, Crash Cymbals, Ensemble Claps + Snaps
QL Stormdrum - Ambient Largeness, Lord of Toms Ensemble, Clacks (Taiko), Spring Drums

I 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. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun

Original Song composed by toby fox
DELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download

DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Chaos King

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 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 trumpets

MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun

Original Song composed by toby fox
DELTARUNE Chapter 01 is currently free to download

DELTARUNE Orchestrated - THE WORLD REVOLVING

I am a developer as well as a self-taught composer. My style is creating narratives in music through the use of strong melodies and unique instrumentation.

Primary DAW used: Presonus Studio One

DELTARUNE Orchestrated - Empty Town

The Second Narrator