♫HE'S A PIRATE (Pirates of the Caribbean) SNES Arrangement - NintendoComplete
333This is my arrangement of Hans Zimmer's "He's a Pirate," the theme from the 2003 Disney movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." I have arranged it for native playback on SNES hardware, and the audio was recorded directly from a launch-model SNES console.
((In STEREO where available))
I'm selling these fine leather jackets...
But yeah, Hans Zimmer is pretty much God-tier when it comes to super epic movie soundtracks, and this is one of my favorites of all his themes.
I had my doubts when I started on this whether or not the SNES could produce enough of a "full" sound with its 8 voices to do this one justice. I think that I pulled it off fairly well, but I'll let you judge for yourself.
It wasn't so easy trying to cram such a big-sounding song into an SNES - I spent forever deliberating over how to represent so many chords and which samples I wanted use, and so I ended up creating many of the instrument patches myself to get the results I wanted.
For as capable as the SPC-700 was, it's so bare-bones compared to the most basic samplers around even twenty years ago. It's quite a challenge to create something that sounds "good" when you're limited to the restrictions of the original hardware. Of course, those limitations are also what give rise to the SNES audio's unique aesthetic, and it's cool as hell to hear something that I wrote playing on one of my favorite childhood consoles. (I actually captured the audio for this video from the SNES console I got for Christmas in 1991. It still works like a champ, 29 years later!)
I can't take credit for the amazing strings sample though. That was pulled directly from Final Fantasy II.
For anyone truly curious, I got the idea to fill out the sound on those big "punch" moments with the heavy-duty orchestra stabs from listening to Barry Leitch's theme for the American Gladiators game on the Amiga. If by some complete coincidence you happen to read this, thanks Barry! I've learned a metric $%!+ tonne by listening to your compositions.
The game in the video is Cutthroat Island for the SNES. That's not Geena Davis, but since Pirates of the Caribbean didn't star Geena Davis, I figured that it wouldn't be a big deal. The pirate theme was appropriate enough on its own.
I hope you all enjoy the arrangement!
Since it was requested, here is a link to the .spc file that I made this video from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12fRLSVZHHk0b4IjkFj-nFywgKqxQ1194/view?usp=sharing
That file should play on any flashcart, emulator, or .SPC player you care to feed it into.
And if you liked this one and would like to check out my other arrangements, I have a playlist of them all right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3gSj_kh1fHueSujqQR8xQQ84DWIjrU4F
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NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!