DKC Atlas Forum

[PegasusMan]

Disclaimer: I did not come up with this idea. I give credit for this project (except for the actual arrangements) to Pigmask Colonel, who inspired this idea onto me.

Diddy's Symphony Quest Cover

Diddy's Swymphony Quest.jpg (40.42 KiB) Viewed 33300 times

Hello all! This is my first DKC-related project; hopefully not my last, DKC 2: Diddy's Symphony Quest!! I'm really excited to share my musical arrangements with you; all about DKC 2 too!

This idea originated from Pigmask Colonel; his post can be found at http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2175. If it weren't because of him, I probably wouldn't have this idea... thanks, Colonel!

Diddy's Symphony Quest will be made up of the main tracks of DKC 2; I won't include the short one's like "Funky the Main Monkey" (Funky's Flight's theme), Swanky's Swing (Swanky's Bonus Bonanza's theme), or School House Harmony (Wrinky's Save Point's theme). It'll be mostly level themes, if that narrows it down.

Would you like to listen to the Opening? I just posted it! It's right here: https://soundcloud.com/user-53546366/rareware-theme-dkc-2
I probably won't get to "K. Rool Returns" for a few weeks; school is starting to get heavy!

Thanks for reading! And stay tuned (quite literally, actually [ah, puns ])!

[PigmaskColonel]

It's neat to see that I've "inspired" someone... Feels!

Really, though, I'll be checking back often to see what pieces you have cooked up.

Also, if you'd like an above-average orchestral soundfont collection, check this out!

Spoiler!

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1200140

[PegasusMan]

Bringing this topic back to life so I can make an announcement:
I have been working on my project "Diddy's Symphony Quest" lately, and I've arranged two more pieces:

- https://soundcloud.com/user-53546366/k-rool-returns-dkc-2

- https://soundcloud.com/user-53546366/welcome-to-crocodile-isle-dsq

Feedback is always helpful; this is the first time I've posted my arrangements on public media anyways. Thanks for reading.

[PigmaskColonel]

Now, feedback:

In K. Rool Returns, I noticed that the woodwind section from 0:00 to 0:19 is occasionally playing incorrect notes, or doesn't match the melody. Perhaps you should try studying the original piece more thoroughly, or, if you used the sheet music, maybe it's incorrect? Also, sometimes the instrumentation can be slightly odd, particularly the pizzicato at 0:11 doing that brief build-up.

As for Welcome to Crocodile Isle, it sounds very nice. I love the violins in the background. Like I mentioned in my SoundCloud comment, try playing around with velocity. It could make some of your percussion sound better.

Overall, while K. Rool Returns could use a little polishing in my opinion, I'd say that this a great first step. I look forward to your next tracks, and hopefully my feedback helped.

[PegasusMan]

PigmaskColonel, I see what you mean. During 0:00 to 0:19, the sheet music is incorrect; I thought I heard something different there when I was arranging it.

Yes, the pizzicato section for the violins was a struggle for me to pull of, and hence the oddness of the sound; I believe I got the notes correct, but the rhythms, I'm almost positive, are incorrect.

For "Welcome to Crocodile Isle," you said on your reply about the "intensity of each snare hit." Intensity meaning... accented? Sorry if I'm misreading you... I am probably overlooking something very obvious in your reply, as I do a lot.

Thank you so much for being a critic about my pieces (as oddly as that sounds)! You've helped me a ton; I can only imagine how much I can help you back... your pieces sound spot on. Keep up the exceptional work!

I'll keep you notified on how I'm doing by posting a reply on this thread once I've completed revising the pieces. One more question: when I post the revised versions onto SoundCloud, do I make a whole new song, or edit from the un-revised version?
Thanks again for helping me out! I'll do my best to your already-awesome pieces!

[PigmaskColonel]

Regarding the "intensity", yes, I sort of mean accent. To make it very clear, I mean the sound volume of each snare hit (apologies for the confusion, I'm still learning my musical terms ). I hope that's clear enough.

Also, thank you! i lik feelng kewl m8 Seriously though, I really appreciate your feedback. Although our projects may not get much attention or feedback, I think helping each other out like this works great!

About SoundCloud... I'm not sure if you can edit the files you've already uploaded, so I'd just stick to uploading a new track. You also might want to have the original drafts on there, so you can see your progress.

One last thing I ought to mention: I believe you should get a reverb plugin. There are lots of free ones out there, so you have plenty of choices. I use Ambience, however I'm not even sure that's the best free one out there. If you have the money, you could also buy one. It's your choice, but I find that reverb can work wonders, and it's essential for good quality orchestral music.

[PegasusMan]

I'll play around with "Welcome to Crocodile Isle's" snare drum, and post a revision later today.

Yes; our projects do not get that much attention... but yours do! Look how many followers you have! Nice!

I'll just name the un-revised version the draft, and the new version which I'll upload shortly the normal version.

About reverb plugins; I am looking at some free ones right now. Currently, I am arranging my music and editing the sounds on Musescore, and then converting the Musescore file of my score into a .FLAC file, and finally posting it on SoundCloud (thanks, Kingizor!!).
For Ambience; do you still get to actually put in the notes by hand, like Musescore? All I am seeing of Ambience is someone's screen showing a ton of synthesizing material on it. Is it a sheet music-like software?
I will definitely consider downloading Ambience; your answers to my questions above may even strengthen that consideration . Thanks; I'll get my revisions up on SoundCloud as soon as possible!

[PigmaskColonel]

You see, Ambience is a VST. Assuming your software supports VST's, you can just apply it to your midi file in your music rendering software and then render it with Ambience. If you're looking for some rendering software, I'd recommend Synthfont. It's what I've been using to render all of my arrangements into MP3. Just select whatever VST effects you'd like to use, and boom! MP3, wav, you name it (there's also a free trial if you don't want to spend any money). If you need a little more explanation, there are tutorials that explain it more in-depth.

[ParkerLewis]

Just randomly passing by... And that was awesome !

Keep up the good work !!

[PigmaskColonel]

So, what's the current status of the project? You've been really quiet lately.

[PegasusMan]

Oh, sorry! I've been really busy with school and all... mostly because of finals. But now that they're over, I plan to start working on "Klomp's Romp;" I intend to use a VST like you said.

One last question that I have no idea how to solve by myself: a week or so ago, I downloaded Ambience to my PC. The instructions came up to install it, and I did all that stuff. Once I did that, a note came up from the creator that said something like "To begin using Ambience, go to _______ and click _______." I kinda forgot what the blanks where... they were just file locations on my computer anyways. So, that's where I'm basically having trouble. Did you have to do this to start using Ambience?

Right now, I'm looking at a VST called "Alchemy Player," and I'm really falling for this one. I'll try to get this one (it's free, yay) for now. Thanks so much for the advice; before this, I had no idea how to do these things! Thanks!

[PigmaskColonel]

Regarding the Ambience thing: I downloaded that so long ago, that I honestly don't remember... The program is pretty old though (2003 I think), so maybe your computer is too new? I dunno... Maybe you didn't download the right version? Here, try this link.

Also, if you're doing Klomp's Romp, this video could help if you want to do it partially by ear.