Samuraid's Music

[Samuraid]

At the behest of Pyritie and Elenai, I'm starting this music thread. Most of the works posted here originated a number of years ago; however, I shall strive to post more recently completed music here as often as possible.

Just a note: Unless otherwise stated, I have written and arranged the following songs. Please do not claim them as your own nor use them without permission. Feel free to enjoy listening to them as often as you like though.

Also, I do appreciate constructive criticism. I'm less likely to change the older songs, especially since they have rested unchanged for so long, but the more recent ones certain may see some changes depending on what people say. Don't feel obligated to make suggestions though.

Any spam or flaming will get deleted.

Without further ado, enjoy the music.

EDIT May 2015: I've released both Suteki Variation and To Zanarkand piano covers under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Use them however you want!

 

[Samuraid]

Suteki Variation
This recording is a solo piano interpretation of the song Suteki Da Ne from Final Fantasy 10, written by Nobuo Uematsu but arranged by me.
Instruments: Live piano
Date: Spring 2005

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/SutekiVariation.mp3

Known issues

1:22 - damper pedal noise
1:31 - car driving by

EDIT: Updated May 2015: I've released this song under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Use it however you want!

 

[Elenai]

The piano theme is superbly remixed. Excellent work.

 

[Linaze]

Simply put, it is great and beautiful, you've done it this time Samuraid.

 

[Pyritie]

Awesome.

 

[Asomath]

HORRIBLE!
*FLAME* *FLAME* *FLAME* *FLAME* *FLAME*

Naw, seriously, that was amazing.

~Asomath

 

[Samuraid]

Summer Breeze
This song originated from a bit of the usual Samuraid improvization. As I played around, this song started to take shape. I ended up recording the MIDI for this in a continuous take, played free-form with very little editing from the original form. Although this sounds like a guitar, I actually played this on a keyboard using a soundfont rendered on a SoundBlaster Audigy 2.
Instruments: Guitar (synthesized)
Date: 2005

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/SummerBreeze.mp3

 

[brad.dude03]

Love that Summer Breeze. Feels jazzy and improv, I like it.

 

[SkeletonKings]

Samuraid, good stuff. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you.

 

[Samuraid]

Now, time for some older stuff.

Kiseki no Umi
"Sea of Miracles", the theme from Record of Lodoss War (TV size edition).
I absolutely love this song (and the anime is interesting too) so I attempted to transcribe the general idea of it to MIDI one afternoon.
Author: Yoko Kanno, sequenced for MIDI by me
Date: 2002
Instruments: MP3 version rendered on a Soundblaster Live using a custom soundfont

MIDI: http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/lodoss01.mid
MP3: http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/Lodoss_Intro_Orchestra_Remix.mp3

 

[Elenai]

Lovely work, I especially liked the little whistle at the end. While I miss the vocal's of the original song, I must say I am impressed once more by your remix skills.

Edit: Oh very nice indeed! My elvish ears picked up the slightly hidden hint of choir in the midst of the melody. "laladadada" is how I perceived it, very very nice.

 

[Samuraid]

More older stuff, yay!

Mountains (for lack of a better title)
I don't recall the details behind this piece, save the fact that it gathered some inspiration from Time's Scar from the Chrono Cross soundtrack. I like how the end turned out, although I probably ran out of ideas as the song simply ends in a FF7-esqe fashion.
Date: 2002?
Instruments: Soundblaster Live with a few custom soundfonts

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/mountains.mp3

 

[Pyritie]

I tried out your previous one on Audiosurf yesterday. It gave some... interesting results. I'll try out this one today and see if I can get a video for you.

 

[SkeletonKings]

I demand that you never consider your music talent as just something on the side. Use it to motivate you and whatever project/product you plan on working with. Or else! >D

 

[Elenai]

I am impressed, I like the way the wind instruments play, and how they blend rather harmoniously with the guitaresque instrument. I am also quite pleased with the bells at the end.

It does indeed remind me of some similar FF7 music tracks, I am not entirely sure which ones as I have not played the game in a long time, but I am quite impressed at how you were able to naturally come to this style.

As I have said before:

Your ability to bend sound, and the bending of light and emotions from the meandering weaving of your music is nothing short of Noldorin, NAY! Telerian, in terms of skill and prowess.

 

[X.e.r.e.X]

These are all really epic and they sound so damn good
This kind of music always beats any kind of band for me.

 

[Pyritie]

 

[Samuraid]

Thank you all so much for the encouraging words.

And thanks for the audiosurf videos, Py. That game looks cool and kinda trippy.

 

[Pyritie]

It's very trippy.

 

[Elenai]

Meh, not loony enough from my experience (not enough loops and twists, then again the music I used was different)

 

[Pyritie]

If you try it on elite + ironmode + camera twist it can get very crazy indeed.

 

[Silk060]

Love it. (simple and direct)

What else can I say about it?

 

[Gilles]

Seems I'm the only one confused. What are you doing exactly? Remixing songs with your own twist? Are you using computer programs to make the sounds, or a keyboard?

 

[Samuraid]

Some are remixed. Some are original compositions. Some are live piano. Some are synthesized/MIDI.
At minimum, all of them are arranged and played/performed by me.

I hoped the descriptions provided enough information, although it seems maybe they didn't.

 

[CYD]

Very good compositions. You can hear it is played with live piano, the notes and dynamic are fluids and "human".

I could just say that the production sounds a very little ... "artificial", you can feel that it's done by computer. But this is a personal point of view, some might not be disturbed by that.

If think the most difficult part of creating musical tracks is making sound like a "real" orchestra, with dynamic, variations, this little "random" thing that sounds very pleasant and natural to the ear.

Anyway, a big bravo !

 

[Samuraid]

Very good compositions. You can hear it is played with live piano, the notes and dynamic are fluids and "human".

I could just say that the production sounds a very little ... "artificial", you can feel that it's done by computer. But this is a personal point of view, some might not be disturbed by that.

If think the most difficult part of creating musical tracks is making sound like a "real" orchestra, with dynamic, variations, this little "random" thing that sounds very pleasant and natural to the ear.

Anyway, a big bravo !

Thank you very much for the kind words.

I completely agree about the synthesized things: they lack the natural expression and nuances that live instruments have. I do have some newer software to try, however, that will hopefully reproduce orchestral music more accurately. We'll have to see how well it works.

 

[CYD]

Which software ?

 

[Samuraid]

A few Gigastudio libraries mostly. Based on what people are doing with them now, I'm sure it will perform far better than the software I have used in the past for synthesizing music.

 

[Gilles]

I envy you. Music is one area I've never tapped into, but plan on doing so eventually.

 

[CYD]

That's not so complicated in the end. I personnaly think that Reason is a good software to begin with.

 

[Hero_Lief]

Reason is pretty nice, I must admit. I mean, it's not the best of the best, but it's worth the cost.

Anyways, awesome music, Samuraid. Any way I could possibly get a download for them? I want to put them on my iPhone on loop and just have my room speakers make it epic. o-o

 

[Samuraid]

Anyways, awesome music, Samuraid. Any way I could possibly get a download for them? I want to put them on my iPhone on loop and just have my room speakers make it epic. o-o

Thanks.

You can probably right-click on anything and save the link/file as an MP3. Otherwise, if that doesn't work, send me a PM and I can get you a zip file or something along those lines.

 

[Hero_Lief]

Yeah, send me a .zip via PM. You can't direct download it from the site unless you have Quicktime PRO. Which I have to pay for. Which I don't like doing. So, just PM it.

 

[Pyritie]

Yeah, send me a .zip via PM. You can't direct download it from the site unless you have Quicktime PRO. Which I have to pay for. Which I don't like doing. So, just PM it.

Which is why you right-click > save as on the link to the mp3, not the mp3 quicktime thingy itself.

 

[~VanMavus]

Suteki Variation
This recording is a solo piano interpretation of the song Suteki Da Ne from Final Fantasy 10, written by Nobuo Uematsu but arranged by me.
Instruments: Live piano
Date: Spring 2005

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/SutekiVariation.mp3

Known issues

1:22 - damper pedal noise
1:31 - car driving by

Woot, 2000 play count . I love your Suteki,

 

[Xemnas]

Summer Breeze
This song originated from a bit of the usual Samuraid improvization. As I played around, this song started to take shape. I ended up recording the MIDI for this in a continuous take, played free-form with very little editing from the original form. Although this sounds like a guitar, I actually played this on a keyboard using a soundfont rendered on a SoundBlaster Audigy 2.
Instruments: Guitar (synthesized)
Date: 2005

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/SummerBreeze.mp3

Mate i love this song...i hear it almost 8h/24h...I even showed it to my friends and they loved it too Looking forward to more!

 

[Samuraid]

Mate i love this song...i hear it almost 8h/24h...I even showed it to my friends and they loved it too Looking forward to more!

Thanks very much.

 

[Retribution]

Very good job on this , i couldn't enjoyed more.

 

[Dragonite The 1337]

I love Summer Breeze :3 I agree with brade.dude03, it's so jazzeh!

 

[deepstrasz]

Hey, your works are great . I want to hear more .

 

[ZippeR]

When i thought of Joe Hisaishi the "Mountains" popped up near 3 times. A very catchy motive.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Summer Breeze
This song originated from a bit of the usual Samuraid improvization. As I played around, this song started to take shape. I ended up recording the MIDI for this in a continuous take, played free-form with very little editing from the original form. Although this sounds like a guitar, I actually played this on a keyboard using a soundfont rendered on a SoundBlaster Audigy 2.
Instruments: Guitar (synthesized)
Date: 2005

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/SummerBreeze.mp3

This is amazing. Well done, it's really atmospheric and melancholic.

 

[deepstrasz]

We are always going to need more.

 

[Samuraid]

@Pharaoh_ and @ZippeR: Thanks so much!

@deepstrasz: I have a lot more in the works! Life has just taken a few different turns over the past few years, and I haven't had a studio/computer available to do music production.

As soon as I have some studio space available, I hope to produce a lot more music. Also, I'm hoping to start a youtube channel for music that has some live piano/instrument performances as well as original compositions and remixes.

 

[deepstrasz]

I'll be waiting patiently. I hope originality will be your main course.

 

[Ralle]

Suteki Variation is my favorite. I used it as my alarm clock for months and loved waking up to it. I still love that song. Usually things get ruined when used as alarm clocks.
Post more piano!

 

[General_Anon]

That song is awesome. I wouldn't see it being ruined by use of an alarm, considering it wouldn't scare the hell out of you

 

[Ralle]

Well the thing is. It was never ruined. I would lay and listen to it and when it was done I would get up.

 

[ZippeR]

Nice to see you here again, Samuraid! Will look forward to creating a youtube channel and new music.

 

[Samuraid]

Hey Hive! It has been a long time! Hope you've all been well.

Long story short, life has been really busy over the past few years. However! I'm building a recording studio in my house to record more music.

In the mean time, here's another piano recording captured around the same time as Suteki Variation in 2006.

To Zanarkand
This recording is a solo piano interpretation of the song To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy 10, written by Nobuo Uematsu but arranged by me.
Instruments: Live piano
Date: Spring 2005

http://hub.ariendor.net/misc/ToZanarkand.mp3

The recording quality isn't the best, but hopefully it's still enjoyable.

I've released this song under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Use it however you want!