djpretzel Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 Some beautiful stuff going on here... paneling for medleyitis concerns but honestly, the transitions seems pretty solid for the most part. 3'11" strikes me as a VERY strange modulation, though. -djp -- Your ReMixer name Jer Roque Your real name Jer Roque Your website: http://www.jeremiahroque.com Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile 31938 Name of game(s) arranged Chrono Trigger Name of arrangement A Journey Through Time Name of individual song(s) arranged To Far Away Times, Chrono Trigger, To Good Friends Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: This is my favorite song from Chrono Trigger, and I learned how to play it on piano over 15 years ago, when I was in high school. I used to play very heated battles of 8-player Tetrinet, and listening to this song would help calm my emotions and help me focus on the game. Also, my bandmate in Arc Impulse, Andrew Estrada and I met in high school, both with a love for Chrono Trigger's music. He and I would improvise duets with this piece all the time. When I heard about Chronicles of Time, I wanted to record an arrangement of this song, but Ivan Hakstok had already done a ballad-style arrangement for the album, and I didn't think it made a lot of sense to have two versions of the same song on the same album that may evoke similar feelings. (As a result, I arranged a much more upbeat one for Arc impulse to cover.) So, when I found out that Pixel Mixers (/r/VGCovers) was doing their Chrono Trigger / Cross Tribute Album "Clockwork" (https://www.reddit.com/r/VGCovers/comments/4iqck9/chrono_trigger_cross_album_clockwork_released/), I thought it was the perfect opportunity to record the arrangement of the song that I've been playing for half my life by this point. Interestingly, I have never been too fond of the second half of "To Far Away Times"... So, I decided to put in my all-time favorite, super-overused 16 bars of video game music ever, the second section of the Chrono Trigger Main Theme. Something about that section just really pumps me up. I really don't know what to say about the track, except that I'm happy I was able to finally record a version of To Far Away Times that I'm happy enough with to release to the public. Production Notes: Recorded in three hours over two days, 88-key weighted Yamaha P60 to MIDI, and played back using Native Instruments' The Grandeur VST. Did some EQ, slapped some Valhalla Room Verb on it, EQ'd that reverb and stuck a multiband compressor on it. Put on a limiter afterwards. Not a whole lot really, because I recorded it like a day or two before the deadline. No MIDI editing, no quantizing... just recording takes until they worked. REAPER and my pimped out 13" MacBook Pro (Early 2011) are my best friends. I have always been hesitant to submit to OCR because of the high production standard, and I've spent a lot of my time learning how to do everything that pretty much isn't audio production (playing in a band, practicing piano, arranging music, sequencing, being a computer programmer...) instead. Also, you guys already have two solo piano arrangements of this song, so I don't know if I'm really contributing anything worthwhile, but I figured I've give it a shot anyway. I'd like to thank Dwelling of Duels for all their feedback across the various mixes that I've submitted over the past year, being a persistent anti-guitar submitter (I'm a rebel at heart) as it's helped me improve my mixing skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 This is a tough call, on my part. I do like this, as the arrangement works well as a ballade of sorts. I hear the medley-itis concern that was mentioned, but I think the overall style glosses over that a little bit, for the most part. 3:14 IS a pretty poor transition, though - slowing down then changing the texture and theme is a pretty jarring transition. There are a few performance issues in this that I feel would need to be addressed before I could pass it, though. It seems like the performance is going for a more soulful feel with the slowdowns and pauses that are sprinkled throughout, but it makes the performance as a whole feel disjointed and amateur, instead, like you needed to remember or read what comes next. A little hesitation to accent important moments can add some humanity and soul to the performance, but there's too much of a good thing here. Moments like the opening feel drawn out with little reason, and moments like the 0:59 cadence lose their impact when the technique is overused. The performance is relatively simple, but I don't consider that a bad thing, per se - we don't HAVE to have a Shnabubula or Rachmaninoff performance for every piano arrangement on here (yes, I did compare Shnab to Rachmaninoff). I think it's a charming arrangement, partly due to its simplicity. Overall, the timings seem like they could be tighter in the performance than they are, even outside of the purposeful slow downs. The pedal work could use some clean-up, too (a few sections, like 1:08 has quite a bit of bleeding into conflicting phrases). It's very pleasant, but I think a lot of little things add up. Tighten up your rhythms in the performance, clean up your pedal usage, use perhaps a little less slowdown so that the moments you DO use it have more impact, and transition better at 3:14 so the change in themes doesn't sound so jarring. I think the core of what you have could work, as I do enjoy it quite a bit. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 I can't argue with any of Gario's points, but the performance issues didn't bother me as much as they did him. There were maybe a few too many hesitations and a few odd pedal choices (the long sustain at 1:08 bothered me less than the short sustains at 1:48), but I didn't think they were that impactful. Granted, I don't play piano myself, but as a layperson, I can't find much at fault with this. That note at 3:12 leading into the transition was a pretty severe moment, and I certainly wouldn't mind a revision just for that. But that's my only significant concern, and I don't think it's enough to send this back. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Yeah, for me this comes down to the transition at 3:11, it feels pretty awkward with the jarring chord lagging into a fairly different mood and feel. That being said I think that one transition isn't enough to bring down a good, simple, and fun arrangement of these tracks. I will also now that I agree a bit with Gario about the rubato yardage being a little too much at times, but overall i didn't find it to be a deadbeat here. Good luck on the rest of the vote! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 The piece isn't poor, but the piano sample lacks realism and body, which made the higher notes in particular sound very flat with blocky timing. The arrangement -- while having performance flourishes that personalized it and moved in the right direction -- didn't sound like it had much interpretation beyond adapting it to piano, IMO. That doesn't necessarily mean doing dramatically different things with the themes, but this could use more melodic interpretation and/or more changes with the tempo, rhythms, and use of grace notes, since this was so melodically straightforward. The transition at 3:12 was sudden, but it was a purposeful shift and it's over before you can linger on it; not a big deal for me, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least worth pointing out. This was well in the right direction, the production in particular needs an additional level of polish. When you have a one-instrument piece, the sound quality should be on point. The arrangement needs further personalization to help it stand apart more distinctly from the source tunes, at least to me, but just focusing on making this performance sound more like a real piano could be enough to put it over the top. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Oof...I am not crazy about that transition to Good Friends. I mean it's sound but it's so abrupt. I think Gario nailed it with his critique on your timing; there's a lot of parts of this piece that sound like you're hesitating rather than emoting. Larry too is right in that it's a fairly straightforward arrangement. I think there's more you could do here rhythmically and harmonically. Some things to think about. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Tough call. The performance is good, but it does sound a bit blocky and choppy, and the pauses don't sound natural, and that may be due to the sample, as others have pointed out. It is very hard to hide flaws in a single-instrument mix. I feel quite borderline about this, but ultimately I think it falls just short. Perhaps look into changing the sample? That transition at 3:12 is very awkward, but with the piano sample sounding more natural, that won't bother me all that much. I agree with Gario about the pedal bleed, but if he hadn't mentioned it I would not have noticed it. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Yikes, this is a tough one. I wasn't as bothered by the transition at 3:12, though it is jarring. What I find odd is the rigidness and quality of the instrument, given that you're using The Grandeur which is a decent enough instrument by itself, but here it didn't seem to have much depth to it, though that may be more due to the performance than the instrument itself as I have heard very good sounding performances done with it. Somehow it also felt very mechanical specially in the higher octaves, which is weird given that this is a recorded performance and not sequenced. I don't think the reverb settings were ideal either, I think going for a warmer tone would've given the instrument a bit more body and subtlety. I thought the arrangement was ok albeit a bit conservative, didn't feel like you took many risks here. I feel like if you had gone the extra mile with the arrangement, and the performance didn't have the timing/ overuse of hesitation issues that have been pointed by my fellow judges (and I that I agree with), I could've let this one through despite the non-ideal production. So sadly, this is aNO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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