38. Elder Princess Shroob Battle (M&L: Partners in Time Orchestrated HD ReMIX)

THERE SHE IS! Finally, the actual, real final boss of this game for real and there are surely no more battles after this because is this is the FINAL one! I'm sure this is the track most of you have been waiting for since the beginning of this project, and I really hope I did it enough justice! I spent a lot of time tweaking everything to really make sure it was as perfect as I could get it. Composition-wise, this piece is actually relatively simple; it doesn't change too much overall. But on the other hand, this piece is much more dynamic than most of the other tracks in the game! There are a lot of different dynamic swells between the timpani, cymbals, brass, and choir. I really spent a bunch of time fine-tuning everything in that regard! Also, it was really nice to sit back in the realm of the epic orchestra again, as much of this project has been really synth heavy. This is probably the fullest choir arrangement out of all the tracks! The choir sound that was used in-game has a really interesting sound that is slightly unlike the timbre of an actual choir. Of course, I wanted to include the nice choir samples here, so I chose to add just a little bit of that odd timbre through the vowels that each individual part sings. First off, the choir is split into five sections, which I guess would be formally labeled as "SATBB." The sopranos, tenors, and bass 2s are all singing on a more typical "oh" sound, but the altos and bass 1s are instead singing on an "ooh" vowel. I felt this blend of vowels most closely recreated the original choir sample. The metallic high part likely intended to be a glockenspiel was also an interesting one to recreate. Just like the Bowser's Castle track from this game, the glockenspiel actually reaches way above the range of a typical glockenspiel. And maybe this is too technical, but the lower range of the glockenspiel sample in-game uses an entirely different sound/sample, which sounds like something quite unlike the traditional glockenspiel as well. I talked about this low end issue in E. Gadd's theme from this game as well. So all in all, I had to split this part up between four separate instruments to most closely replicate the original game's sound. The same glockenspiel-sounding synth from Bowser's Castle for the highest notes, an actual glockenspiel for the mid-highs, a celesta for the mid-lows, and the same gangsa pemadé from E. Gadd's Theme for the lowest notes. If you listen closely, you might be able to tell the difference between all four parts! As for the brass section, that was a more straightforward horns 1 & 2 part, but I strengthened the low end more with an additional trombone and cimbasso to really make the low notes pop! It is kind of poetic that in the game, this battle represents the culmination of the entire journey really well, and that for me, putting together this track kind of felt like a culmination of all the different techniques I had been building over the course of this project! Again, I really hope you all enjoy this track as much as I did making it. There's still more coming soon, so as always, stay tuned! ======= Have some links! Fellow remixer also doing wonderful Partners in Time remixes: ‪@Toastworth‬ My band: https://overpowered.band/ || ‪@overpoweredband‬ Discord server:   / discord   ======= Original composition by Yoko Shimomura =======