Chrono Trigger Arrangement Project

[Roboashura]

I'm working on rearranging the Chrono Trigger soundtrack as if it were to be played by a band. To do this, I listen to the song in parts, and put in the notes as I hear them. I do this for all parts. Anyway, here are ten(!) of them.

Track 1 - A Premonition: http://www.sendspace.com/file/m5214r

Track 2 - Chrono Trigger: http://www.sendspace.com/file/vchrod

Track 3 - Morning Sunlight: http://www.sendspace.com/file/sppbdo

Track 4 - Peaceful Days: http://www.sendspace.com/file/47qhmj

Track 5 - Memories of Green: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2psu19

Track 6 - Guardia Millenial Fair: http://www.sendspace.com/file/26lgc4

Track 7 - Gato's Theme: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ypn3ad

Track 8 - A Strange Happening: http://www.sendspace.com/file/4azm2o

Track 9 - Wind Scene: http://www.sendspace.com/file/jm5ja2

Track 10 - Good Night: http://www.sendspace.com/file/rpfots

Give me helpful feedback, please.

[Luminaire85]

Welcome, Roboashura. I have a few constructive criticisms for you:

1) There are a lot of wrong notes. If you are determined to reconstruct the songs by ear, more power to you. Ear training is a useful skill to have. However, there are ways to get the melodies and the chord progressions for most of the CT soundtrack, including the CT Piano Book and downloading others' MIDI files.

2) More parts. Everything is too hollow right now. Think about harmonizing and adding more countermelodies, background chords, bass lines, and some percussion. You have a whole band available, and you should make full use of it! Furthermore I would encourage you to experiment, embellish and expand, rather than just arrange. This will make your compositions more fun to work on and more fun to listen to.

3) Use better quality instruments. It sounds like you are just recording MIDI output using the default patch set. If you have the RAM for it, soundfonts will make your arrangements sound quite a bit better. There are many free soundfonts available that are already MIDI-compatible, though the better ones tend to use >128 MB of RAM.

I don't want to sound like I'm discouraging you, because you've got a decent start here. And if you were already planning to do these things, then great.

If you don't mind me asking, what program(s) are you using?

[Roboashura]

Welcome, Roboashura. I have a few constructive criticisms for you:

1) There are a lot of wrong notes. If you are determined to reconstruct the songs by ear, more power to you. Ear training is a useful skill to have. However, there are ways to get the melodies and the chord progressions for most of the CT soundtrack, including the CT Piano Book and downloading others' MIDI files.

Okay. It'd be nice if you'd tell me where these are.

2) More parts. Everything is too hollow right now. Think about harmonizing and adding more countermelodies, background chords, bass lines, and some percussion. You have a whole band available, and you should make full use of it! Furthermore I would encourage you to experiment, embellish and expand, rather than just arrange. This will make your compositions more fun to work on and more fun to listen to.

Problem is I can't exactly add on to many of them, as I can only record one minute.

3) Use better quality instruments. It sounds like you are just recording MIDI output using the default patch set. If you have the RAM for it, soundfonts will make your arrangements sound quite a bit better. There are many free soundfonts available that are already MIDI-compatible, though the better ones tend to use >128 MB of RAM.
Sadly, I can't, as Finale Notepad can't be edited like that.

I don't want to sound like I'm discouraging you, because you've got a decent start here. And if you were already planning to do these things, then great.

If you don't mind me asking, what program(s) are you using?
Again, Finale Notepad.

[Luminaire85]

Ouch. I didn't know you were using Finale Notepad. I feel your pain.

Personally I would seek out a new program if possible. Unfortunately most are at least shareware but some are relatively affordable. If you don't want to spend any money...well there's ways to do that too but I can't help you there.

Both the CT Piano Book and CT MIDI files can be easily found by a simple Google search.

Using soundfonts is something you can possibly do outside of Finale Notepad. Timidity is the free soundfont player I use, and there is a Windows port available. The soundfonts themselves can be found scattered around the web. One possible resource is sf2midi (registration required, but it's free), and there are others.

You could also use Audacity to splice together multiple WAVs or MP3s so you can get around the one-minute limit.

I hope this is a little more helpful.

[Roboashura]

Yeah, it is. Thanks. What would REALLY be nice, though, is a free MP3 recorder that can record for longer. I'd be able to make the songs better, more like remixes than rearrangements. Also, the whole thing about "Not enough parts"...I'm using 8. A Piccolo, Flute, Trumpet, Clarinet, Baritone, Tuba, Sax, and Violin. Some may be hard to ear because they're at similar note levels. This is because I'm too lazy to rewrite every part; I just copy them. Now, is there a way to move the notes down without having to do them one by one?

[ClayAKAMe]

Could you send me those through E-mail. Because I have Parental Controls on this computer and I know it's stupid but i can get to the site but can't download the songs. PhatClay5@wmconnect.com. I'm sorry if I'm wasting your time n this but i want to hear them and maybe help out with your project.

[Roboashura]

Sure.

[ClayAKAMe]

If you sent it I haven't gotten it yet.

[Roboashura]

Maybe it didn't go through. I'll try again/