I am utterly obsessed with this arrangement, like I keep coming back to it over and over again. Like it starts with that organ intro and it has you thinking that you’re just in for abandoned castle but with snes soundfont (which is totally fine) and then that sorta smooth intro over those jazzy chords and funky bassline immediately breaks you out of that illusion, giving you just enough time to adjust before starting to amp up. The main melody kicks in and you’re excited to hear this in this new style, and then a choice was made that gave me chills. At 0:42 a second lead joins in with harmony, leading into the section at 0:44 which is harmonized so beautifully. There’s real emotional weight there without feeling hopeless that just drives it forward! The transition section is well done, and then the key change occurs as normal. The harmony doesn’t catch you off guard this time, but to keep it fresh, this lovely countermelody is introduced at 1:22 that I’m sure I’ll find myself humming even while listening to the original Curse of Darkness version, it’s so wonderfully written. Then a more driving transition section that’s still well done. And of course, by this point at 1:45 you think you know what to expect when yet another huge twist is thrown. This smooth funky solo comes in and just steals the show. I personally find that adding solos in arrangements has a questionable success rate but it’s done so well here that removing it would actually be a detriment to the arrangement. The switch to electric guitar at 2:00 was also a treat! Then the part at 2:23 brings you back by being very close to the original, which I think is a really nice choice because I think it grounds the listener again. Another driving transition section which brings us to the “pre-loop”, and you used that to cap off the song with one final triumphant repeat of the main melody, this time with more harmony and adding harmony to the new countermelody as well! That ending was also just a nice threatening way to finishing everything off. All in all, this is a wonderful wonderful arrangement, and I think you should be very proud of it.
A whole music theory analysis is just beautiful, I appreciate this a lot. This has definitely been my favorite project and I doubt it will be beat for a long time.
One of my favorite castlevania Soundtracks, seen in different light with the SNES soundfonts? What a time to be alive. Thanks for this, I love it! Also the part at 1:44 with the original solo just blows my mind. It's so damn jazzy.
A lot more people are than usual! I’m glad cause this one definitely had been the project I worked on the longest. Usually I only spend like a week and then post whatever is finished. I have a huge backlog of stuff lmao
Man, the song really gets good around 3:10. But everything else sounds very legit, almost as if it was written by Konami composers themselves in the 90s. I don't know if you used an actual tracker with SPC700 capabilities or if you used a soundfont in FL Studio, by either way, I can tell a lot of hard work went into this to get it sounding just right. Props man, I hope this gains more traction.
I use Apple GarageBand with an extension that allows me to load .sf2 files and use them. Can’t really do much else right now, I don’t have a computer lmao
I’ll have to find some sort of way to make it available like a link or something, but I’ve been considering starting a Patreon to give an inside look into what all I’m working on too. I don’t think downloading would be a perk though cause anyone could just easily download it through a RU-vid to mp3 converter or something.
Everything else I wanted to say has already been said, so I wanted to ask if pitch bends are a possibility with how you create these. You may find them useful.
