Undertale Orchestrated - Heartache

After recently playing through Undertale (full pacifist run), I knew I had to orchestrate one of the tracks. It is amazing how toby fox was able to design, code, write, draw, and compose pretty much all of the game. And what's even more impressive is that toby fox's soundtrack is catchy, memorable, and puts lots of AAA composers to shame. Like seriously, I can barely recall any tune from any recent game off the top of my head except for Undertale. All composers should learn the lesson that melody trumps over any musical technical proficiency.

The Heartache track was the first moment in the game that convinced me I was in for something special. After being pampered by the motherly Toriel, the protagonist breaks her heart by insisting on leaving the ruins to return home. During this battle, the protagonist is essentially awakened, and is forced to stand up and fight for her survival. This mood of excitement tinged with an air of sadness is captured perfectly in the music.

In my arrangement, I kept the original version pretty intact, but with the instruments replaced with orchestral counterparts. The original track is already very fleshed out, with a catchy tune, varying rhythms, and an awesome bass line. The 6/8 time that toby fox uses is hard to describe, as it sometimes sounds like 3/4 and other times like 2/4, but it works pretty well. One thing that's hard to preserve is the snappiness and clearness you get from 8-bit sounds. It's really easy for an orchestra version to sound very muddy, as you can see from all those other orchestrated arrangements floating out there. I did my best playing lots of staccato and substituting group samples with solo instruments so that everything can still sound as clear as possible. I really wanted to preserve that bass line for its energy, so I listened to the original track at half speed and EQ'ed out all the other frequencies in order to copy it note for note. Then I brought it to the forefront of the track, having cellos, violas, violins, and flute all have a go at it. I was glad I had time to get used to using drumkits in my previous FFIV track. Here I used them in combination with timpanis to get that modern and classical hybrid sound.

In addition, as I usually like to do, I added a 3rd arc to the music, as I felt that together, the track would cover the entire arc of the protagonist's battle with Toriel. I used the theme that appears previously in Toriel's home as a kind of reminder of her compassion, and also the potential peaceful life that the protagonist chooses to reject. This injection of emotion is something that toby fox uses too in the end of the game with a similar melody, so I thought doing it here would be a good fit, almost like a "preview" of the entire story's arc. The end result sounds pretty fitting in both the "genocide" and "pacifist" version of the fight, both of which I've included in this video.

MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ►   / thesecondnarrator  
Includes both looped and non-looped versions.

Original Song composed by toby fox

Undertale is available on Steam