Conceptions & Considerations
The first six songs I did for Light Dash were carefully calculated in various ways. They each have a purpose either for the future bands/selections or for the project’s marketing. I was excited when it came time to do Emerald Town because this, along with Eggman Plots, shows that I’m not “only” targeting the popular songs but bringing creativity to songs that don’t get much attention. This towny theme for example.
As a town/location theme, my Fantasy RPG instincts kept telling me to ease off the hard/punk rock tone I’ve been aiming for with Light Dash for this track. Similarly, I knew these instincts would’ve quickly taken the “Sonic” out of the music. Hence, the bulk of this remix was me trying to walk that balance between not being too heavy and a towny theme.
As with most of the songs in the soundtrack, there is a lot of static repetition in the piece, so I explored ways of differentiating sections while staying in line with Light Dash’s musical identity. Most of the decisions came from playing around with composition frameworks.
Creative Decisions
To achieve the balance I was after, I made a few tone tweaks to Shell, Picks, and Les. I decided to have Shell play a little lighter on his drum and focus on more hi-hat/cymbals than cymbals. I also omitted any use of double beating from Shell. Everything he’s playing can be played on a basic drum kit.
For Picks, it’s very subtle, but I turned down the Gain and both guitars and Presence/Highs on his Rhythm guitars. For the Rhythms specifically, I only raised this area when the Organ was playing to fill out that space (similar to what I did for Chapter’s End and Chao Ruins). For Les, which is more audible, Emerald Town marks the first song utilizing the Rotary speed. There are a few places where the slow setting is used.
The two biggest highlights here were me omitting the airy synth as the melody and the fanfare theme at the end. For the synth, that decision came from trying to create a composition that matched Light Dash’s style. I decided to have Picks and Les “switch off” the melody, then use the last section to have them play together while a synth play the various counter melodies towards the end.
Having them play in unison sounded “more of the same” to me. So instead, I swapped the roles where a synth would play the main melody while Picks and Les take turns playing the counter melodies heard from the original. As I wrote it, I realized this direction was more faithful to the original, which I drifted away from as time passed.
For the fanfare theme at the end, that was entirely on a whim! I just so happened to remember the theme while working on Les’ part and realized that it could fit beautifully in the track. The opening of the piece runs up, but the fanfare theme falls downward in contrast. The two pieces use similar instrumentation and motifs as well.
Unlike the other songs, the base tempo for this song is the same as the original. I say “base tempo” because of Shell (read Light Dash’s Band Profile to learn more). Usually, I speed up most songs’ tempo to add more excitement or energy to the soundtrack.
Speaking of, I usually make up Drum parts for Shell as most of the beats in the original don’t translate too well to the rock drums I use for Shell in a way I like. That said, I liked the feel of the original beat in the second section. I made two variations of it for both sections. Both of these variant switch between each other as well. I also experimented with unison bending, a trick I recently learned more about for programming Picks’ in anticipation for Battle On The Death Egg.
I replaced the countermelody in the second section because I simply didn’t like it there. Rather, I thought omitting those melodies would help the rhythms and bass pop out more in that section and not sound so buried. For the GameBoy’s sound quality and sample manipulation used in the original, I see why it was written the way it was though.
Struggles
There is a natural clash in harmony/harmonics before the second section in the original. If you know theory, the chord from the original suggests holding an F Major chord, but the melody hangs on an F# note, the worst clash for the chord. It was too early in the song to start changing the melody too much, so I decided to adjust chord progressions. I had a hard time finding a replacement that didn’t dip into my usual fantasy RPG writing style.
Another issue was soloing towards the end when the lead synth took the melody. To get a direct translation from the original, the countermelodies were either too thin or didn’t translate well to Les’ Organ; which I really wanted to tie the composition together well. Even after this, mixing the 3 parts together was just as tricky with the gliding leaps in the synth leads.
Overall, I’m very happy with how it came out, and I hope you like it as well. Thanks for reading! Consider supporting me through Discord, YouTube, or Patreon membership to unlock full access to the Meta Blog!
