[Music] Final Fantasy And Other Stories

This is an arrangement album I made. The first of many I'm going to make I might add. Within are songs from Final Fantasy (of course) I-III (The originals for NES) and one from Crystal Chronicles. Also there are two arrangements from Chrono Cross, hence the "...And Other Stories". But it's two arrangements of the same song. Oh, and one from Tactics.

They are in MP3 format, with reverb added, and some are pretty good I think. But it's early FF music, which isn't as easy to arrange as later, so some of the other arrangements I do will be better than this. In fact, I'm about 40% done with the next one, and it's turning out better than this one already.

I'm still new to making songs into MP3 format, so some of them didn't turn out quite the way I wanted, so please take that into consideration. Also note that Sleep is not VGM, and was included accidently instead of another song, which I'll just include on the next album. But, it's still very good, and you should give it a listen; I'm very proud of that arrangement. And without further ado:

Tracklist:
1. Opening Theme (FFI)
2. Overworld Theme (FFI)
3. Battle (FFII)
4. Another World (Chrono Cross)
5. Matoya's Cave (FFI)
6. Departure (FFCC)
7. Time Still Remains (FFIII)
8. Chaos Temple (FFI)
9. Main Theme (FFII)
10. Airship (FFI)
11. Gurgu Volcano (FFI)
12. Eternal Wind (FFIII)
13. Boundlesss Ocean (FFIII)
14. Walking In Ivalice (FFT)
15. Another World (String Ensemble)
16. Sleep

You can download them individually here. Feedback is very welcome.

ALRIGHT here goes =P

1. Opening Theme (FFI)
Nice transcription of the theme; I like whatever intrument samples you're using for this. Nice when the piano comes in also with the chords =) Probly my fave when the solo piano gets going.

2. Overworld Theme (FFI)
Where's the treble =(. It sounds as if this is being recorded from a very old tape ='( But as for the composition it's pretty sweet. I only know this tune from the FF Volcal collections version and this is prety similar to the backing of that =). It ends kinda abruptly and unexpected though, maybe you coulda done a nice little closing peice to it =P

3. Battle (FFII)
If this was an orchestral performance I'd be jealous of the guy who manages to play that low trumpet for so long on one breath =P Nicely composed again

4. Another World (Chrono Cross)
Sweet solo piano work here. The violin goes nice with it also when it comes in ='D. The choir (I think) sounds very muffled though.

5. Matoya's Cave (FFI)
This one is very nice =)

6. Departure (FFCC)
Sweet when you go for the clarinet and the flute going against each other =) This one was one of my faves from the lot =D. I like your harmonies in this too =)

7. Time Still Remains (FFIII)
Nice harmonies again, even more so when you bring the strings in the end =D

8. Chaos Temple (FFI)
Is this meant to go quite a bit quieter and then suddenly come back? It sounds as if you accidently moved a volume knob or something then realised and put it back -_^;

9. Main Theme (FFII)
One of my faves from FF Vocal collection, glad you did this one. You stayed pretty faithful to the original. Also there's a little bit of clipping on your flute =\. Wasn't expecting that ending =P

10. Airship (FFI)
Heh groovy piano. A few clips near the end though. tut tut =P

11. Gurgu Volcano (FFI)
YES. One of the coolest tunes from FFI / IX. Your arrangement is sweet =D

12. Eternal Wind (FFIII)
That's a sweet guitar instrument you have there -_0. Did you put those fret noises in yourself? Hehe pizzicato at the bottom then the clarinet for the top. I like when near the end the other stuff comes in to finish it off =)

13. Boundlesss Ocean (FFIII)
Another sweet solo piano peice =D

14. Walking In Ivalice (FFT)
Only thing I can think of is if you'd brought something else in later to join them. It's still =D

15. Another World (String Ensemble)
Nice string quartet (maybe) re-arrangement of the earlier another world theme =). You have some nice individual string instruments.

16. Sleep
Carrying on with the strings into the next track. Doesn't let down =) Nice original composition, especially when you bring the piano into the mix.

OVERALL
I like your composing and arranging, but being honest I think your sound quality of your recordings needs a little seeing to =(. I can probably help you out on this one =D. Some of them sound as if they've been encoded at something like 80kbps and then re-encoded back up to high-bitrate mp3s again =\. Or you might be using some low quality instrument samples. Either way, these are sweet arangements =D

As an example, I just put together a little 20 second jingle then recorded it twice, once trying to make it sound like yours and then one normal.

Here is me trying to get it to sound like yours, I didn't get it right by a longshot but you get the idea.

Here's the normal recording of the jingle. I'll write out exactly how I do it sometime for you =)

Part of the problem is I have to record the songs twice to get reverb. I don't know why, but the recording won't pick up the recording unless it's played through windows media player, and so first I have to record the MIDI as MP3, or wmp won't play the song the way I want it to.

1. Opening Theme:

Thanks. The violin clips at the ending (for the strings anyway) on one note. I didn't notice until listening to it now though, so maybe it isn't really that noticeable.  :|

2. Overworld Theme
Looking back, I should have brought the flute up an octave. Oh well. Hm... for some reason, I remember writing an ending to it, but it's not on the recording. It's in the midi though... that's weird...

3. Battle
Hehe, I never noticed how long I had some of those instruments playing for. Oh well, no big deal I guess. Listening to this again, it sounds cluttered. That's not exactly the right word, but it's probably the rock organ, which you can't really hear in this recording anyway, unless you know exactly what to listen for. And I can't record very well, hehe.

4. Another World
It is a choir, and it is kinda muffled. For some reason, the sample is just really quiet. It's actually turned up all the way.  :O_o:

5. Matoya's Cave
Thanks.

6. Departure
I wish I had made this one a little shorter though. Oh well.

7. Time Still Remains
Thanks again.

8. Chaos Temple
Yeah, it's supposed to go quieter all of a sudden. There's a musical term for it, but I can't think of it right now, when there's a sudden change in dynamics. It isn't such a big change in the original recording, but in this one, it seems to be bigger.  

9. Main Theme
I'm glad you liked it, because I didn't think I did very good on this one. (um, that's french horns, not flutes. )I didn't notice the horn clipping, I must not have been paying attention while recording. Hehe, surprise ending.

10. Airship
Yeah, I recorded this four or five times, and out of all those times, this had the least clipping at the end. I'm not sure why it happened so much.  

11. Gurgu Volcano
Thanks, I just wish the recording was a bit better. And it could've used a gong...

12.  Eternal Wind
Nope, the fret noises come with the sample.  :^^:

13. Boundless Ocean
 

14. Walking In Ivalice
Blah, I guess maybe I should have. I kind of wanted just a piano and violin piece, but it did need something else. I knew that but I was being stubborn, and just telling myself "No, it sounds good the way it is." And maybe it does, but it is one of the weaker pieces here. And I didn't do much as far as the arrangement goes.

15. Another World (String Ensemble)
I actually arranged this off of a piano arrangement I made of this song. Then I took that and added the violin and choir to get the above arrangement, hehe.

16. Sleep
First, this is NOT an original composition. I just majorly arranged it. In the original version, it starts out about where the midpoint of my arrangement is, after the piano solo. And what I arranged it from was a choir piece, but I hear that there are orchestral arrangements out there, so I don't know. But it was originally a choir piece. So, no I didn't write it, just did a LOT of work to it.

And the piano is always there, it's just a little too quiet, I should have made it louder.

Thanks very much on the compliments, and yes, my recording needs help, lol. Both recordings are 320kbps, I'm not sure exactly what to do to get the quality any better though. I don't know anything about sound and recording. I just write the music.  :^^:  So, maybe you can help me out, and tell me how to do this sometime, maybe next time I'm on MSN.

Anymore comments anyone?

It's interesting. You didn't change it enough though. Who helped you with it? It's really good, no matter what people say. Do you go to a music university or somthing? Because that takes a lot of skill to do correctly like you have.

Nobody helped me on it. The only help I had was downloading MIDIs when I couldn't figure out the correct notation on my own.  :O_o:

I don't go to a music university, but the university I go to does a have a great music program nonetheless. Although I've only been taking gen ed classes so far. ><

Thanks for the compliments though, some are rather close to the originals, I just couldn't get into some of them that much, but meh, But then there were some that took quite a while (Another World,and Airship in particular). But, thanks for the feedback.  :^^:

So did you use a keyboard, with different sounds? Or did you play different parts, and then added them together with a sound program??

Writing MIDI files on a computer, then recording them with instrument samples. It's the same way I do it. Unless Halo actually does play a keyboard :O_o:

I'm not a very good piano/keyboard player... nope, I do it like Silverline said.

So cool!  It makes me want to arrange music.   :^^:   But I swear I'm tone deaf or something, because the MIDIs I've made are horrible. :whoa: