rpg ( pathfinder)

Temple

Kingmaker

D&D Travel Music

Pathfinder Campaign

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Update 3/20/15 - Stretched out the ritardandos, added an extra measure before the Zelda Lullaby theme, fixed some instrument articulations, and readjusted sound levels

This is the last track in the album. I did this first before the ending track because I knew this would take much longer.

I thought long and hard on how to do a full arrangement of Ballad of the Wind Fish. In fact, I spent more time fiddling on the piano and writing notes than I did actually producing it in the software. There are a myriad of versions floating around online, and it would only be worth doing for me if I could bring in something new. Most “orchestrated” arrangements consist of a solo instrument playing soulfully while being accompanied by a piano or whatever instruments playing harmony. Then, you have the real live Symphony of the Goddesses version which while grand and epic, seems to have strayed too far from the spirit of the original. The interpretation I like the most appears in the Hyrule Symphony album, as part of the medley track. It was way too brief, and deserves a fuller arrangement.

My version is constructed as a narrative about the end of Link’s relationship with Marin. It describes what Link may possibly be thinking during the ending as the credits are rolling.

1. Link never got a chance to say goodbye to Marin, but with her utterly occupying his consciousness, he has to let her go. The main melody starts out softly.

2. It’s too painful Link to drum up memories of Marin. How could someone just moments ago he could see, hear, and feel, suddenly be gone? The next portion of the melody is filled with discord, as feelings of disbelief flood his mind.

3. Link is in denial and wants to believe Marin is still alive and breathing somewhere on Koholint Island. Here the music becomes flighty with the woodwinds climbing up and down the scale. Link is fleeing the truth, while the reality is trying to chase him down. Ironically, the song we associate with Marin is also the the Song of Awakening, used to make her disappear.

4. In frustration, Link directs his anger at the Wind Fish. Here, I used the Mabe Village melody in a minor key, anchored by the Boss Theme as the baseline. The five-note motif of the Zelda main theme, also Link’s theme, is also used to show that Link is almost turning bad. In his rage, he wishes that the nightmares returns to trap the Wind Fish into another deep sleep, so the island, the village, and Marin, can come back.

5. Link releases his tension. All his willpower cannot undo what he chose to do. In his despair, the Zelda Lullaby plays softly. Link remembers that the true most important person in his life is Zelda, and not Marin. I placed it directly after the brief Mabe Village phrase, and hopefully you can see how the opening phrases of both melodies are very similar. This suggests that Marin is actually based on memories of Zelda that were projected by Link’s subconscious while he was on the island.

6. The memory of Zelda has brought Link to his senses, so once again he can start to say farewell to Marin. The Ballad melody starts again and plays solemnly to the end. I spent a lot of time tweaking the strings to give it lots of crescendos and decrescendos. Link celebrates the experience he shared with Marin while also mourning her loss. His face is completely drenched in tears as he endures the whole process.

7. Finally, for the end, I reversed the opening three notes of the Ballad melody to use as a punctuation for this piece as well as the soundtrack in general. It’s the end of this story, but something new beckons beyond the horizon. The final note is played in a major chord to signify this.

And there you go. This demonstrates how meaningful the music can get when a true fan who is passionate about Zelda arranges the music. Passion and creativity always trumps technical skill! Hope you enjoyed the album!

Ballad of The Wind Fish ~Full Symphonic Version~ - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral

Jeremy Soule - First Light - Guild Wars Soundtrack

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

RIP Satoru Iwata. He was a great inspiration to me and 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.

Metroid Prime Orchestrated - Tallon Overworld

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

Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun

Original Theme by Nobuo Uematsu
Theme X by Hiroyuki Sawano

You can buy FFIV on DS, iOS, Android and Steam

Main Theme Of Final Fantasy IV (Overworld) - Orchestrated...Sawano Style

MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator
Includes both looped and non-looped versions.

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.

Original Song composed by toby fox

Undertale is available on Steam

Undertale Orchestrated - Heartache

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

This track is scored to the prologue story. It can be better appreciated on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssm3u8wx5eQ

Today is my birthday (originally uploaded on Feb 21), 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.

Prologue / Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda (NES) Orchestral Arrangement

Over the Shiverpeaks

Guild Wars Factions Theme

01   Apparition - Slow

Fulýn - Guild Wars Theme Extended

Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin,
Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal !

Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn,
To keep evil forever at bay !

L'Enfant-Dragon, L'Enfant-Dragon, sur l'honneur a juré
De tenir à jamais le mal écarté


Guild Wars Theme

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