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Where to begin with this one... Pokemon Diamond/Pearl hold a special place in my heart so I feel like it's fitting that they're the subject of the most complex project I've taken on to date.
From an objective standpoint, the 4th gen games were a significant step up from their predecessors. Technically, they saw a number of benefits thanks to the DS's hardware. 2 screens? Now battles are more immersive since the UI is confined to the touch screen. Wireless communication? Now we don't have to connect a janky cable in order to battle. Wifi? _You're telling me I can trade with people all over the world?_ Coming from 3rd gen, it can't be overstated how massive a deal these improvements were.
More relevantly, 4th gen saw a massive step up in the music department thanks to the DS's beefed up audio system: the developers now had 16 channels of audio at their disposal compared to just 6 on the GBA, and you better believe they took full advantage of it. Gone were days of simplifying arrangements to fit the confines of the hardware - now the composers had the freedom to go hog wild with the instrumentation, and on some tracks it really shows, with layers upon layers of musical texture woven into the arrangements.
For a cover artist, that presents a big challenge; compared with previous generations, a typical track could easily take on average twice as long to arrange, record, and mix, if staying true to the original instrumentation. Anyone that's familiar with my channel knows that that's precisely what my covers are known for, so that accounts, in part, for what took this project so long compared to the Ruby/Sapphire medley.
Personally, the gen 4 games were probably the ones that I sunk the most time into out of any other generation; between the underground mines, GTS, and vast post-game content, there was always something to work towards. They were also one of the last that I played to completion before "growing out" of Pokemon in general. Perhaps that's among the reasons that I felt driven to really give this project everything I had to make it the best that I possibly could. In a strange way, this seems like a kind of closure to that period of my life.
The lengths I went to pull off some aspects of this project were borderline madness that had me questioning if it was really worth it. Among them: learning new instruments, renting a grand piano, practicing weeks on end to pull of short, but extremely challenging lines, tinkering with obsolete software to get video playing on the DS - really detail-oriented stuff, of which a lot wasn't 100% necessary, but really ties the project together IMO. I also went out of my way to find the best guest performers that I could to do justice to the variety of instrumentation found in the soundtrack and to hopefully realize the vision of what the composers had in mind when they wrote the music.
Regardless of how bumpy the development of this project was, the final product is something I'm proud to have worked on, and I hope you enjoy it too.
*Track list:*
1. Twinleaf Town: 0:00
2. Route 201: 1:12
3. Sandgem Town: 1:57
4. Pokemon Center: 2:40
5. Route 206: 2:52
6. Route 203: 3:28
7. Team Galactic Building: 4:25
8. Team Galactic Encounter: 5:07
9. Team Galactic Battle: 5:18
10. Gym Leader Battle: 6:36
11. Gym Leader Defeated: 8:46
12. Eterna City: 9:15
13. Solaceon Town: 10:37
14. Route 209: 11:27
15. Route 205: 12:44
16. Route 210: 13:27
17. Dialga/Palkia Battle: 15:13
18. Cynthia: 16:23
19. Champion Cynthia Battle: 16:54
20. Champion Defeated: 19:30
21. Credits (Twinleaf Town): 20:35
*Original Music by:*
Junichi Masuda
Go Ichinose
Hitomi Sato
*Arranged and Produced by:*
Dr. Pez
*Performed by:*
Dr. Pez: Guitar, Bass, Keys, Accordion, Percussion (incl. drums programming)
Songe: www.youtube.com/SongeLeReveur - Bass
Doug Perry: www.youtube.com/DrumUltimA - Marimba, Steel drums, Glockenspiel
Brooke Ferd: www.youtube.com/Medllix - Oboe, Bass Clarinet
Mklachu: www.youtube.com/mklachu - Otamatone, Violin
Laura Intravia: www.youtube.com/FluteLink - Flute, Recorder
Insaneintherainmusic: www.youtube.com/insaneintherainmusic - Saxophone, Clarinet, Melodica, Upright bass, Flugelhorn
Marc Papeghin: www.youtube.com/Marcpapeghin - French horn, Trumpet, Trombone
RichaadEB: www.youtube.com/RichaadEB - Guitar
Sim Er Wen: www.youtube.com/@erwenstudio453 - Erhu
Petra Veselá: www.youtube.com/petravesela - Piano, Vocals
*Film Crew:*
Elizabeth Revvo
Petra Vesela
Dr. Pez
