Patreon Peeks 4: Highlights from "Sky and Sea" (Patreon)

Today, I wanted to share my favorite parts of arranging "Sky and Sea" from Super Mario Sunshine this month. It comes in the form of three audio files below! (If sharing them in a different format would work easier, please let me know in the comments below! I'm absolutely willing to accommodate.)

The first is "Cloud Shimmer," a synth I used in the first version, for the Sand Bird. This part of the arrangement was definitely truest to the original, and so it involved some instrument to handle all the triadic chords in the song, a very important role. I settled on this sound and tweaked it to include some filtered noise whose band-pass filter moves up and down, making it sound like howling wind when the chords get activated. It worked really nicely for conveying how high up the Sand Bird flies.

The next is "Lap Steel," the melodic instrument in the second version, the poison river lily pad ride. Quite a few comments liken this version to SpongeBob's soundtrack, because this lap steel guitar sound is very reminiscent. But, it's not a real guitar, I don't own one and would need a good deal more practice to play it that way. Instead, this is a clavinet sound put through an envelope sculptor, a good amplifier, and with generous pitch bending applied. Particularly when pitch bend is active, I think it does a pretty good job of conveying this rough yet easygoing ride.

The third is simply "Clarinets," the melodic instrument in the third version for the pachinko machine. Here I emphasized color and excitement with a salsa arrangement, and I used my clarinet (the only live recorded instrument in this whole track, the rest are virtual instruments) for a two-part harmony. I'm... okay at clarinet, I practice for the clarinet parts I need. But I've managed to get some good tremolo and jazzy pitch bending under my belt, which I believe worked not only in the midst of this ensemble, but also for sounding... teasing. It's the icing on the cake for a level as frustrating as the pachinko machine.

Also, thank you all for joining me through August for my first few steps on Patreon! I hope these behind-the-scenes looks have been fun and insightful. Look forward to a new music poll and more of these little articles come September!