Looking for more feedback on my piano Star Wars anthologies.

[MusicForThePiano]

So my username is basically my youtube channel, where I put some of my real work. 

 

I have not networked that much over the past few years due to a difficult job that requires me to travel for specific purposes only, but I plan to reach out to more people.

 

I have recreated all three of John Williams original scores on the piano for the trilogy, and I have also done three more projects of interest, all done over in piano:

 

Star Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzpDNKrWsZE&t

 

The Empire Strikes Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxria9L-2BI&t

 

Return Of The Jedi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnvwRAU_z5I

 

Shadows Of The Empire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3mQX-HD5JM

 

Knights Of The Old Republic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gv_-iAZZIQ&t

 

Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3grDwHatYxo&t

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTU-AfZqvLiCl0lgKlyk4w/videos

 

Let me know what you think. Complaints, criticisms, suggestions, I'm open to anything. Most of all these projects are for die-hard fans like myself, and for those who also wish to learn how to play or mess around with all the melodies.

[Noodle]

I'm no professional musician, this is just my opinion. 

 

They're well done covers, but there are some pieces, like Kreia's fall in your Kotor II video, that sound way too fast for a piano piece. It seems that the timing is identical to the original score, but it does feel much more abrupt since it lacks the elements of an traditional orchestra.

 

Also, are you recording this on a real piano? I don't have my headphones right now, but sometimes the sound is too digital for my taste. 

 

Still, those are great piano anthologies and it's amazing how much you've done.

[Circa]

Was about to ask what Noodle did. Did you just use MIDI or a keyboard for them? Would be great if you could record on a grand. What's your recording process and equipment, out of curiosity?

 

As far as the pieces themselves, I think they're great. I love piano renditions of stuff. Nice work.

[MusicForThePiano]

Thanks, yes I recorded on a standard 88-key digital upright, with full weight and sensitivity of the keys, it has USB plugins that I connect to my hard drive and record with several programs, for in-line. 

 

For Kreia's fall, it's the same time as the song, if you compare them side by side. The transitions sometimes are done faster because they're nearly impossible to do slowly without sounding different.

 

It's like this for many songs. I recommend you listen to pieces that have never been done before on the piano, like "Lair of the Rancor" and "Sarlacc Battle / Pit of Carkoon" as well as all the Bespin action themes, those were some of my favorite to play, and man were they not easy. I did thousands of takes until I got the music sounding like the original pieces.

[Circa]

What programs/plugins?

[Xycaleth]

Still half way through listening but you've done a great job of it so far

 

I have some comments though: whether it's the recording or the playing is hard to tell, but I think you should bring out the melody more. A lot of times it's drowned out by the accompaniment and it's hard to follow exactly what's happening. I've found sometimes when doing my own recordings (I've made some piano recordings myself in the past) that the levels need to be adjusted to make it sound right. Which one of these is hard to tell but try experimenting.

 

Second comment is you tend to rush parts of the music, or at least it sounds rushed. So... less rushing

 

Other than that, like I've said, great job!

[Boothand]

Hoooly mantracker. No one seems to put enough emphasis on how incredible this is. Did you actually play this with your hands, or did you make corrections to automated midi transcriptions? Was really cool to hear the part at 57:20 in your first link, as an example. I agree though that the melody sometimes could benefit from more emphasis. The transcription is brilliant (I've done a lot of transcription too and call tell!).

[MusicForThePiano]

Everything was played and recorded. Each song 'cue' was recorded separately, and all put together post-recording. I have exported the songs into midi form but it takes a lot to clean up a midi from an inline audio recording.

 

For the parts that seem rushed, I want you to compare that part with the original Williams piece side by side and see if one goes on longer than the other, as far as I know there may be just two of mine that was played faster than his.

 

Thanks for the feedback so far, I just want to share this with as many SW fans and other musicians as possible. The emphasis for musicians and technical people is on the transcription itself.

 

I had so much fun playing these too, especially composing my own music inspired by Williams and McNeely for the filler scenes that were left without music. Interestingly enough, this only happened in ANH and for some brief scenes in ROTJ, TESB originally had every second covered with music. SOTE I had to put a bunch of filler music to capture the scenes not covered in score by McNeely. As for the 2 KOTOR's, Sleheyron was never finished and I don't like music designed for one place being used repetitiously in another when there is always room for creation of something new.

[the_raven]

It's nice, but in some places it sounds like an 80-90's game soundtrack, in others it feels like there's way too many notes (or melisms, or whatever), and sometimes it sounds like the tonality and/ or timing are wrong (though I'm no musician). But I can dig it, it kinda reminded me of expressionism in music (or something along those lines)