Welcome to the musical world of EarthSound.
First of all, I would like to say that the name of this album has nothing to do with one Rock Candy music (which is in the 3rd album, I think). I thought of this name a long time ago, and decided to stick with it anyway.
Ok, here we go!
Arrangements by viniciuskps
Logo design by I am the Will
Tracklist (DEMO):
01 – Title Screen
02 – Otherworldly Foe
03 – Onett Theme
04 – Home Sweet Home
05 – Paula’s Theme (Monotoli Building Version)
06 – Dead-End Chaos Theatre
07 – Snow Wood Boarding House
08 – The Floating Kingdom of Dalaam
09 – WELCOME to Mother 3 World
10 – Pink Shell (Mother 3)
11 – Corridors of Time (Chrono Trigger)
12 – Schala’s Theme (Chrono Trigger)
Some of EarthSound’s history:
Before playing EarthBound for the first time last year, I was just a little skilled in midi recreation and sometimes would stop to work on some midis… Most of them would fail, since I didn’t have much grasp of the measures of the songs until then.
After I played EarthBound, I couldn’t stop thinking how this game could be awesome in 3D if much effort was put on it, but I was no 3D modeler nor programmer (And I’m still not very good on these.) After thinking a lot about the matter, I decided to start with the part I knew the most and create some midis and then use my keyboard’s midi drive to render these midis and record them to the computer. But I discovered that this method is not the best one out there for this kind of remastering, the output quality was not really good since I didn’t have any kind of pre-equalizer.
By that time I didn’t know how bad the quality was and I thought my songs were great. A few weeks after arranging some music, I researched about Chrono Resurrection (it was a similar kind of project) and downloaded their trailer. It was incredible indeed! I was even more amazed when I discovered that the songs were not played by an entire orchestra, but sequenced using the computer. This really made me want to improve drastically my music and made me pass several months searching for ways to make it better as well as playing around with the midi sequencer to find ways to change volume and dynamics to bring the most realism possible to my songs.
If there is someone who inspired me the most, it is Mathew Valente. His work on Chrono Resurrection is amazing, and I think the way he makes the music sound better while keeping the feel of the original is really awesome.
EarthSound was officially started in 20th April 2008 with its first song being the theme of Dalaam.
‘Making Of’:
Here I’ll comment about the songs that are available for download in this topic. I’ll describe how I worked on them, and also the particularities of each one.
→ Title Screen
This one was pretty straight-forward, but there was something about the measure that wasn’t right. So I decided to go a bit off the measure to make it sound exactly like the game’s music. The percussion was played real-time by me using a keyboard, so it’s not exactly the same. I used the MIDI OUT from the keyboard and rendered using samples in the computer.
→ Otherworldy Foe
This music is really weird and took quite a lot of work to come up well. It has lots of volume variations and strange noises. The sound in the beggining was taken from the original music and rendered with better samples, as well as lots of other sounds. I used some kind of chorus together with the main organ which gives the sensation of being in another planet. The analogic drums were kind of difficult to sequence, as it is a bit out of compass in some transitions and it needed lots of volume variations to sound more like a person playing synthetic drums.
→ Onett Theme
This one was the first EB music I’ve done, and it was even before thinking about EB3D or EarthSound. I only really finished it with good samples and realism recently. The most difficult thing in this music was bringing the Onett “swing” to it with LOTS of volume changing and dynamics in the synthetic drums. The main sounds were also difficult to make, since it required real good samples that resembled the originals. The bass changes its strength frequently to bring lots of realism, as well as all the brass used in this music. Everything was done to achieve the most realism possible. Oh, there’s also the sound that is like a ‘scratch’. The sample used for this scratch was made by I am the Will by mixing the original sound with himself beatboxing. In the end this sample came out really awesome!
→ Home Sweet Home
This one wasn’t so difficult to sequence. The difficult part of this music was in “environmentizing” it. I took a lot of time trying to figure out how I could give it the sensation of being in your comfortable home, where you can eat your favorite food and rest peacefully under the protection of your mother. To give this sensation of peace, I used a low strings in the background and reduced the reverb to make it sound like a small and comfortable home. The orchestra in the end makes it sound like a film score, adding an effect of “3D” in it.
→ Paula’s Theme
I’ve recently planned to use 2 versions of this song in the game, as it only plays 3 times in the original game. One has less reverb and smaller instruments to fit the ambient of the cabin in which Paula is caged, and also her home. The other version (which is available for download in this topic) is for when she is rescued in Monotoli’s building. This version features orchestra sounds with a reverb that fits Monotoli’s big mayor room. It also sounds like film score.
→ Dead-End Chaos Theatre
This one was also not difficult to sequence, but difficult to give realism. For this song, I used the highest quality guitar samples I had and made the most dynamics possible (You can even hear the fret noise sometimes, and no, it was not made using Real Guitar, I put the fret noises myself whenever I thought it was necessary.) There’s also lots of reverb in this music, to make it sound like you really ARE in Chaos Theater.
→ Snow Wood Boarding House
Giving the environment of cold weather in this one was essential, so I used a very Christmas-y jingle bell and put in some reverb. I still don’t consider this one to be ready, sometimes the pan flute volume becomes too high without necessity, and I didn’t calculate the reverb very well yet. But sequencing this music was fun, as I feel cold just by hearing it.
→ The Floating Kingdom of Dalaam
Ah, the floating kingdom of Dalaam. This music is one of the best works I’ve ever done! And one of longest too… I actually could calculate 1 month of pure work on it. I started it in April/2008 and finished it officially in October/2008. There are LOTS and LOTS of gong samples in this music, the bigger gongs were placed strategically in the parts where they would fit better, and the smaller ones were placed according to the original music. It features a full orchestra playing the theme of Dalaam, still with the peculiar sounds that made the original music great. The main instrument was achieved by mixing accordion samples with bagpipe and bassoon, and was partially played by me using the keyboard. The percussion was sequenced with the most dynamic possible to sound like a real person playing, and so were the gongs and jingle bells. I’m very proud of how this one turned out! If you have interest in downloading any of my music, I would suggest starting by this one.
Bonus Tracks Comments:
→ WELCOME to Mother 3 World
This music was difficult to sequence and needed lots of volume changing and dynamics, mainly in the drums. I still think it doesn’t have the full realism I wanted it to have. The guitar is not real and was sequenced with dynamics too. It’s difficult to bring reality to a fake distorted guitar, the real original sound of a distorted guitar would be much better, but I don’t have a guitar so I did what I could… Well, I used a normal distorted guitar sample and added an Overdrive effect to it with the help of my soundcard. I actually liked the brass very much in this music. And I also like the ending, it wasn’t so easy to figure out how to make the sine wave sound like the original Mother 3 one.
→ Pink Shell (Mother 3)
This one was more of a lesson on piano realism, which didn’t come out badly after all! All the piano was sequenced and was given lots and lots of dynamics. I even used a logic in which the pianist would be right-handed, and the notes coming from his right hand had more strength. I tried to make the music with the same mysterious feel that exists in Mother 3 while adding my small changes.
→ Corridors of Time (Chrono Trigger)
I would consider this music a 0.8 version. Some samples are still not very well worked (for example, the tambourine in the chorus part). The chorus was made with volume changing to sound a bit more real and with some really good samples. I’m thinking of creating a better sitar sample just for this music, as this one doesn’t really do a good work for this music very well. I added a low shaker together with the percussion because I thought the percussion was kind of empty in my arrangement.
→ Schala’s Theme (Chrono Trigger)
I think this is also one of my best works! I had to sequence this beautiful piece of music from CT, my life wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t do this. This is probably one of the most beautiful songs from CT, you can say that Schala is a good person just by hearing it… So I had to bring all of these feelings to the music again while still adding my touch on it. The oboe doesn’t follow exactly the original music’s pitch bend, but I think it was better for the sample I used. The harp that introduces the percussion was also a nice idea, as it boosts the entrance to the main part. I put a lot of feeling in the strings for this song.
You can grab the songs right here:
Attachments:
-
- 01_-_Title_Screen_v3.mp3
- 02_-_Otherworldly_Foe_v4.mp3
- 03_-_Onett_Theme_v4.1.mp3
- 04_-_Home_Sweet_Home_v4.mp3
- 05_-_Paula_s_Theme__Monotoli_Building_Version__v5.1.mp3
- 06_-_Dead-End_Chaos_Theatre_v4.mp3
- 07_-_Snow_Wood_Boarding_House_v3.mp3
- 08_-_The_Floating_Kingdom_of_Dalaam_v6.mp3
- 09_-_WELCOME_to_Mother_3_World_v2.mp3
- 10_-_Pink_Shell_v1.mp3
- 11_-_Corridors_of_Time_v0.8.mp3
- 12_-_Schala_s_Theme_v2.5.mp3
), but still trying to work on the project once in a while. Still, thanks, everyone!
