Pokémon Diamond & Pearl - Route 216

Happy imminent Holidays everyone! Today's track is a perfect pairing for the beauty of winter and the frantic energy of the holidays. Songs with stark volume shifts like this one can be a nightmare to mix. Here's the breakdown:

0:00 - Immediately I wanted to lean into the more ambient qualities of this first section: I added a subtle pad and replaced some of the echoed percussion with some drowned-out tambourines and sleigh bells. To me a lot of classical holiday music can be characterized by chorale-style brass arrangements, so the beginning's piano chords are mirrored by a collection of horns, Euphonium, trombones and Tuba. Super warm tones! 

In contrast, the solo strings here are kinda stilted and "frozen" - not a lot of reverb or release. What was the E. Piano in the original has been replaced by some digital bells and a softer square-like pluck.

0:23 - Another holiday-nostalgic instrument to me is the soprano saxophone, replacing the oboe-ish melody in the original. I feel like the sop. sax's warmth compliments the rest of the instrumentation well. The square pluck has graduated into doing some arpeggiations in the background, maybe a super subtle way to lead us toward more volume/movement later on.

0:42 - Gonna be honest, moving from the chill winter vibe to this energetic swing-y part was a nightmare to work on. :p

You want to have the fullness of volume the song requires, but you don't want it to be so instant that it scares people. Not saying I fully succeeded here, but I'm at least happy with the result. 

0:43 - It wouldn't be a GBA/DS-era Pokémon song without some super out of range tubular bells! I liked adding some little solos in the tenor sax and Rhodes piano to fill in some of the broader chords. 

0:54 - I really love the sound of the alto sax/tenor sax playing in unison here. 

1:04 - An evergreen part of making melody lines stand out in dense arrangements is layering. Solo strings, bells, synths, or guitars - some sort of way to make weaker ensemble instruments cut through all that noise. 

1:18 - Since this feels like the most climactic section, I broke the flute off from the main melody line to do some wacky runs and whatnot. It just adds a bit more motion!

1:24 - This is probably my favorite section. The way the rhythm feels a bit blockier made me want to lean into the sort of 90's/Sonic vibe of this part. Instead of a lead organ, I went for a retro, brassy lead synth. 

That about wraps it up! As always if there are any questions about this piece, let me know in the comments! I hope you all have a wonderful winter! Snowdin Town will have a post in the very near future too! :)