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Lucky for you all, I didn't have any plans for my birthday today, so it's time to bring out some new sheets!


516th

[ARCADE] Ghosts 'n Goblins - "Stage 1 & 2"

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"But I thought he already arranged this track..." This is true! Except that was the NES/Famicom version, and this is the arcade version. I feel it is distinct enough to warrant its own arrangement, what with how drastically different the NES port's music is from the original. I still prefer the NES music, though, as it's (for the most part) a lot less grating.

517th

[PC] Deltarune - "Thrash Machine"

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Thought I was done with my backlog? I thought so too, until I uncovered this recently. Check out the link to the topic for more information ^^

518th

[NES] Mega Man 2 - "Heat Man Stage" (Replacement)

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I wanted to include Air Man and Crash Man Stage replacements in this post as well, but decided to hold off on those until a later PA update. For now, I hope you enjoy this one!


Aaaaaand that's a wrap, folks. Would love to chat longer, but I'm not feeling up to it right now. See you next time!

I recently rediscovered this unreleased sheet from November 2018, a time during which I made several contributions towards the long-abandoned Unofficial Deltarune Arrangement Thread. After some confusion involving whether or not I could "claim" the track, I canceled my plans to post it to my PA thread, and let it collect dust for 5 1/2 years. But now that I see it's still not on the site, I figured it'd be a good idea to revive and submit this arrangement.

If you opened the original version of the sheet linked above, you probably noticed that I tried to account for as many voices as possible, meaning that nearly every note in the RH is in octaves. This is no longer the case in the new version, as I wanted there to be a sort of build-up into the B section. I also tried to keep the harmony lighter; there is some trade-off between hands at certain points, excluding m. 24 & 25 (BTW, anyone know how to get those cross-stave rolled chords to work in playback?). Bottom line is, I am fairly happy with the final product, but if some extra attention could be directed towards the LH/RH relationship in m. 18 - 29, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Continuing on with my Mega Man 2 replacements, we have "Quick Man Stage", theme of the most notorious stage in Mega Man history

You'll notice that I took a certain liberty from m. 9 through 16, and that involves replacing the original bass line with an inversion of the accompaniment pattern, rather than transcribing the bass line verbatim while omitting the accompaniment. This may come across as a controversial change, but with all due respect, I stand by it as this setup preserves the groove far better than the alternative. Aside from that, this is a pretty straight-forward arrangement.

Oh, and please change the sheet's title to "Quick Man Stage" Thanks!

- Sorry I typo'd, yeah I was referring to how low the left hand gets at the end of m. 24. I was thinking raising it by an octave starting with beat 2 would make it easier to move to the pattern in m. 25. You could omit beat 4.5 in the RH if you like although upon looking closer it doesn't really get in the way with the LH even if the LH is raised an octave. I'll leave it up to you to decide what you prefer!
- That one wasn't a typo, I think I hear the bass playing the same C as it does on beat 4.5 of m. 41. Though honestly it's really hard to tell without pitching it up an octave and even then I'm not 100% sure. If you think the F octave is right, I'm fine with that since it fits musically anyway.

- How about I do this: I'll bump the LH up the octave, and change RH's beat 4 to a quarter note, because due to the abundance of effects overlapping and the fadeout, it's anyone's guess as to what's going on in that beat. I also think it will make the transition into the next measure easier for that hand
- you're not wrong about it being really hard to tell, even with the octave shift. If you don't mind, I'll just go with F because it's the closest thing I can hear, and it fits musically like you said

Files are updated, thank you Latios!

- In m. 4 beat 3, I think I hear the bass restrike the Bb (if you agree, just restrike the lower one?)
- How about moving the staccatos on top of the small notes in m. 17/19?
- The low bass figure in m. 25 seems like it might be tricky to transfer into m. 25 from. If you lowered it to give the RH more space though, no problem I suppose
- m. 26/34 beat 3.5 LH sounds like F instead of G
- Conversely, I think m. 41 beat 3.5 LH sounds like a C instead?

- upon listening to it again, I hear it. Fixed
- yep, I can do that
- could you clarify, please? Do you mean the low bass notes in the second half of m. 24? I don't recall if I transcribed them that low intentionally or bumped them down to make room for the RH pattern, but if I were to change beat 4 of the RH to just a quarter note C, how would you like the LH written in that measure?
- yeah you're right, fixed it
- did you mean to say that m. 41 beat 3.5 LH sounds like a G instead of an F? Because I'm listening to it again and it still sounds like an F to me

Files are updated for now, let me know what you think.

You could move any single notes in m2 (a C), 4 (another C) and 6 (D and C) down an octave, so the L.H. can use the 3rd to 5th finger to play those notes. That is, if you don't mind them sounding lower. They're still less accentuated that way ^^

Alrighty, got that fixed then. Thank you for the feedback, Bloop!

-m4: Maybe instead of Cb you could use Bn here? It sounds like it's supposed to resolve back to a C
-m5: There's a little orchestra hit run going on that sounds like it's going Cb-Ab, Bb-G, Cb-Ab, Bb-G, Cb Ab Bb Cb. Including it with the chords I'd probably arrange it like this myself, but maybe see if you like something else instead or just wanna keep it as is:
You cannot view this attachment.
-m21: I think the high C is on beat 3.25 instead of on a second note of a triplet?

- I have no objections to that, changed it
- it sounds a little weird at first, but fairly close to the original, and I imagine that you arranged it this way to make performing it easier, so it works for me. Did you want the other similar patterns to do the same?
- I think you're right, fixed it

Files are updated; thank you Bloop!

This looks really decent, I don't have much to say!

I strive for the decent-est sheets around

-m2, 4 and 6: Did you leave some of the bass notes as single notes so they're more playable, or less accentuated? For the first one I think it's fine to leave them as octaves too, but for the second one maybe you could move the single notes down an octave, as that is a little bit easier to play for the L.H. (since you're able to use other fingers than the thumb)
-There's a bass drum hit in m12 and 16 on beat 1.5, which you could imitate in the L.H.
-m17 and 19: You could shrink the size of the 8th rest on beat 1 too if you want. The tie at the end of m16 should be flipped (it is flipped coming into m17 already), as well as the tie at the end of m18

- less accentuated. The first time around, I didn't even hear those notes because of the way the music is mixed, and thus decided I needed a way to indicate they're quieter than the notes surrounding them. So with that in mind, what should I change about them? And which notes in specific?
- good idea, how's that?
- I feel dumb for not noticing how big those 8th rests were in comparison. Thank you for pointing it out, ties are also fixed

Let me know what you think for the first point; files are updated in the meantime.

Also known as the "ending of every side quest" song lol

In all seriousness, this piece is really nice, thank you for arranging it, and for continuing on with Octopath Traveler.

- However, I do think that m. 19 is a bit much and would maybe suggest simplifying it somewhere around beats 2.5-4.
- I think the tempo in the intro is a bit slower, around q=140, with the jump to q=150 at bar 5
- I'm hearing the chords quite differently from how you have them in m. 5:

- got it, how does that look?
- oh you're right, I hadn't even noticed that. Fixed
- mmm, I had trouble deciphering those myself, might've been the overtones or something. Instead of stressing over transcribing different possible versions of those chords, I'll just go with what you have, I trust your ears better than my own for this

Files are fixed; thank you, Latios.

"synth bad, chiptune good" - Mega Man fans

This is the last numbered game in the main series to be represented on-site, and I choose this track not only out of nostalgia for the reveal trailer, but also because I just think it's a good song. A couple things about this one:

- I couldn't always hear the bass super easily, so I had to utilize some guesswork here and there. From m. 9 - 16, I devised my own bassline with alternating octaves in order to complement the percussion
- beat 4.5 of the last measure is supposed to tie back into the beginning via the repeat, but I had trouble implementing this so for now there's an audible re-strike
- unlike Mega Man 9 & 10, which had special titles for its stage themes like "Thunder Tornado" or "Solar Inferno", 11 doesn't have anything like that for its OST, so this will just be called "Fuse Man Stage". Since this is consistent with the first eight games' soundtracks, that's good enough for me

Some of the dyads between m. 16 and 19 are a bit tricky to play right now, but I'll leave it up to the updaters as to where they can be simplified for the performers' sake. Other than that, I feel pretty good about this sheet, so ask questions if you have any.

- It's alright to keep it as "Performer's note", but still make sure to put the box inside the margins instead of outside

-m5: C# could be Db too (as that makes sense in the F minor-ish context)
-m13: C# should be Db (b9 in C7b9)
-m14: F# should be Gb (b9 in F7b9)
-m22: C#'s (both hands) should be Db's too (resolving to the C in Fm once it repeats)

- in that case I'd like to move it down to the bottom of the second page where there is more room within the margins
- got all of these fixed, thank you for going back through

-Maybe you recould rewrite "Performer's Note" to "Performance Note" instead? It's what we use in the formatting guidelines at least. Also, the text box for the performance note is currently outside the margins
-m1: I hear a C instead of a Db in the 5th note of the second and fourth set of 32nds (the last note of the R.H. parts)
-m2 and 3: Maybe you could use 3/2 and 2/2 as time signatures, since you're counting the beats in half notes?
-Maybe as for key signature, I think Gm would make a little bit more sense? The piece doesn't really like to stay in Fm for too long, but there are some cadences in Gm that do seem to stay in key (Aø - Eb7 - D+ - D - Gm in m7-11, as well as the II-V-I back to Gm in m17-19). I don't think you'll have to respell much, it mostly will just get rid of some naturals but might add a few Ab's. The only respellings you could consider are the Db to C# in m8 (the Eb7 acts as an augmented 6th chord here, a chord type I had never heard before college), and the F#'s-Db's in m19 to Gb's and Eb's (as the descend towards F's and Dn's afterwards). This last one you could do even if you keep the key signature in Fm.
-I don't think the courtesy accidentals in the R.H. in m5 and 14 are necessarily needed: all the chromatic runs make it pretty easy to see which note you'll be ascending too, and the notes are in a new system, which resets the accidentals a bit more too.

- I'd like to keep it as-is, if that's ok with you
- ooh, that's a good catch, I shouldn't have assumed the arpeggios were the same on the way down
- hmm yeah, I thought it looked funky, this is a good fix
- so far, I like what I see with G minor as the key signature. Consider it done!
- got it, I don't know what happened to them in the key change but I think they vanished?

Now that the sheet is in a new key, could you please re-check the accidental spelling in the LH as well as the last four measures? I'm updating the files for now.

-m9: You could move the R.H. E on beat 2.5 down an octave (like in the original) and put it in the L.H.: the L.H. can easily get there, the R.H. part becomes a bit easier to play and it brings out the melody voice a bit more.
-m19-20: You could actually put the 16th note part of the L.H. in the R.H. instead, I personally find that a bit easier to play and you'll be able to have some space for the L.H. to take a break from the 16th workout. If you wanna keep it in the L.H. though, that's fine too ^^
-m21: The Bb-C 9th on beat 3.5 in the L.H. is quite hard to reach for me in this context. There isn't really a good way to work around that though, so maybe you could just put one of the two notes in parentheses (probably the Bb)?
-m34: It sounds like the L.H. part also plays the triplet + quarter note in beat 2-3, instead of just holding a half note.

- hey, great idea! I was so invested in the RH there I had forgotten to check what the LH is playing
- works for me; if the 16th pattern can be shared by the RH in m. 24, the same can be done here
- yeah, I can do that
- I listened to that part again, and while the triangle is sustained as I had previously observed, the Pulse 2 channel is on the same octave and uses the triplet figure, so I'll change what I have to match that

Thank you for the detailed notes, Bloop, the files are updated.