Music from DOS Lemmings, on piano :)

[607]

Hey!
You might've seen the first one of these before: it's been on YouTube since late August.
Today, I uploaded another cover, though: Rainbow Islands! So unless you're subscribed to me, you probably haven't seen that one yet.

Anyway: I thought I should share these here some time, as there's a designated area for it.
Pachelbel's Canon: https://youtu.be/L8Uqw95lr6M
Rainbow Islands: https://youtu.be/YUIztyTuoC0

[Proxima]

Cool, I look forward to listening to these.

However, can we please stop referring to "Lemming 1" as "Pachelbel's Canon"? This is the actual Pachelbel's Canon -- it's not the same at all, it just has a somewhat similar chord sequence.

[607]

However, can we please stop referring to "Lemming 1" as "Pachelbel's Canon"? This is the actual Pachelbel's Canon -- it's not the same at all, it just has a somewhat similar chord sequence.

No, I've accepted 'Pachelbel's Canon' as the title for the track, until we get any other real name (so not "Lemming 1") from Wright. Also, the chord sequence isn't 'somewhat similar', it's identical. Edit: I just played around on my keyboard, and it turns out (as far as I can tell) that the ending is actually indeed slightly different. It was only changed slightly, though, so it's more than likely that Wright started with that exact chord sequence.

[Simon]

Nice!

Rainbow Islands has always sounded like a piano piece to me. So relieving to see it. You might have considered to play the middle voice whenever the melody voice pauses, but I assume that jump of the right hand too wide and fast to be practical. Needs 3-4 hands.

-- Simon

[Ron_Stard]

Did you write the arrangements on a partiture, or just play on the fly?

[607]

Nice!

Rainbow Islands has always sounded like a piano piece to me. So relieving to see it. You might have considered to play the middle voice whenever the melody voice pauses, but I assume that jump of the right hand too wide and fast to be practical. Needs 3-4 hands.

-- Simon

Thanks!
I haven't actually practically tried to do it like that, but it did indeed not seem practical. When converting to piano, sometimes, sacrifices have to be made, especially if the arranger and player isn't as experienced as some.

Did you write the arrangements on a partiture, or just play on the fly?

Pachelbel's Canon hasn't been written down at all, I did that by ear and then practiced it.
Rainbow Islands, I transcribed by ear and wrote into GarageBand for iOS, if I recall correctly. This way, I could clearly see the tones for both hands visually, and also play the melody at slower speeds. (I dislike Apple, but music products on their systems are often really good)

[Nepster]

Pachelbel's Canon hasn't been written down at all, I did that by ear and then practiced it.
Rainbow Islands, I transcribed by ear [...]

I don't think you need to do that manually. WinLems has the music as midi files, which can be transcribed automatically. Unfortunately I don't know any free software that can do that (though I haven't really searched). But if you cannot find anything yourself, PM me and I will probably manage to get you the music sheets.

[ccexplore]

I don't think you need to do that manually. WinLems has the music as midi files, which can be transcribed automatically.

I still have an ancient trial version of Noteworthy Composer that can open MIDIs, and it uses a musical staff interface (as opposed to a more tracker-like one) so it is basically a form of automatic transcription.  Of course, you will end up probably having to rearrange the transcription anyway for 2-hand piano, but it would certainly save some time over manual transcription.  I'm not at the computer that has it right now but could potentially update the thread later to attach it here.  Google may also get you there although being so ancient, I'm not sure whether it'll find that particular software.

[Ron_Stard]

With Midi Sheet Music you can save partitures to PDF:

http://midisheetmusic.sourceforge.net/index.html

[607]

Don't worry, I've got enough means to create sheet music out of midi's. Anyway, if I were to do it that way, I think I would rather do it from the Amiga version, and not from the Windows version.
There are definitely soundtracks for which I start from MIDI: for Rainbow Road and Snow Land from Mario Kart Super Circuit, for example, two themes I arranged recently, I started from the midis.
However, learning by ear is often more fun to me and an area I always like to improve in, and as Lemmings music isn't usually too difficult to follow, I'd much rather do it by ear.

[Nepster]

Anyway, if I were to do it that way, I think I would rather do it from the Amiga version, and not from the Windows version.

The big advantage of the Windows version is, that it already has MIDI music files. For the Amiga music I only have .it files.
But if you have fun learning them by ear, then by all means do it this way.