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Kingdom Hearts - Treasured Memories

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

UPDATE: Download the sheet music and orchestral track here
https://www.patreon.com/posts/17545781

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

Original Song composed by toby fox
Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah Sun

Undertale is available on Steam

Undertale Piano Concerto - An Ending

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. Lol

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

Original Song composed by toby fox

Undertale is available on Steam

Undertale Orchestrated - MEGALOVANIA

This is one of my projects which I didn't feel meet up to my standards. I tried my best to rectify it but it just made things worse, so I abandoned it. That's why the ending sounds unfinished.

- The grandiose parts of the song became muddy and too dense, resulting in loads of cut-offs in the sound and so you can't hear the individual instruments. This ruins the 'epicness' which I was trying to express. However, too little instruments will fail to give that effect as well.

- The percussion wasn't good enough, a bit too stagnant and constant. There's little variation in it.

- I found that most of the dynamics I used were not suited to this song. The brass section was too light and the violins and percussion were overpowering them.

I think it's a shame, I thought it was going pretty well, but I think it's better to start over rather than try to fix something that's already fallen apart.



If you have other constructive feedback, please comment! It's the only way I can get better and create better music overall! :D

[Undertale] Heartache v1 (2016)

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. ► www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Original Song composed by toby fox
Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun

Undertale is available on Steam

Resurrected Memories

Undertale Orchestrated - Bergentrückung & ASGORE

ASGORE/Bergentrückung Orchestral Remix

This is my take on Hopes and Dreams.I hope you enjoy. ^-^

Hopes And Dreams Orchestrated

My rendition of Here Comes a Thought. I hope you enjoy. ^-^

Here Comes a Thought (Orchestrated)

(Thanks for your feedback RLG!)

The 'epic' parts were REALLY complicated, took me about 5 hours to perfect each section of it. The simple ones took me about an hour for each section till I found the sweet spot for them. 

There wasn't much... melody other than that tinkle with the piano just being repeated so I had to get creative (or lazy) so the ending of this is... interesting... You'll see ;)

Video will be uploaded soon!

Please do tell me what you think of it!

Battle Against a True Hero ORCHESTRAL REMIX (Full version)

It's done! Thank you so much for the people who supported me throughout the time I made this. You are awesome.

If you guys want an extended version, please say yes! I would be happy to do so. I know this is a bit short.

Art by http://hellknight10.deviantart.com/art/UNDERTALE-Royal-Spear-Undyne-575634334

Spear of Justice EPIC ORCHESTRA Cover

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. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarr...
Includes both looped and non-looped versions.

Original Song composed by toby fox
Arrangement by Jeremiah Sun

Undertale is available on Steam

Undertale Orchestrated - Battle Against a True Hero

This is the final installment of gemstones. I hope you enjoy. ^-^

Stronger Than You (Orchestrated)

WA-HEY, the video is exactly Pi long!

Art by SonicFanGirl2011

I got a few comments asking me to remake His Theme and Megalovania seperately... so :)

This one only took me a couple of hours because it was basically a loop, so I just re-arranged it with different instruments.

I envisioned this to be a 'HD' version of the song if the game ever got a remastered release.

Undertale - His Theme Orchestra HD Remake

TOOK ME 2 (and a half) WEEKS

All worth it tho

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Tran Luc