*NO* Final Fantasy 6 'Lonliness on the Field'

[Liontamer]

ReMixer Name: Here in the Rain
Real Name: Dustin Albright
E-Mail Address: oceanxkc@gmail.com
Website: http://www.myspace.com/hereintherain
userid: 21091 (I think?)

Game ReMixed: Final Fantasy 6
Song Title: Terra
Additional info: Composer: Nobuo Uematsu; System: SNES; Company: Squaresoft, 1994
MP3 Link URL:
Comments: Alongside composing my own prog instrumental works, there is a lot of inspiration I find from listening to different Acoustic, and Piano Arrangements from different OST's from games I adore. I've thought of the idea of doing an entire album arrangement for a particular game, or just pick and choose from the entire FF series - but arrange and perform it around the same fashion of other music I write. There haven't been a plethora of Prog/Rock style arrangements for a lot of these games that have soundtracks I enjoy listening to, so I figured I will take my first stab at doing one and see how well it is received, depending on that, chances are that more arrangements will be done in the future, and eventually an entire CD, as mentioned before. I started with "Terra" from Final Fantasy 6 because the music in it was composed in a way that would translate well for the style I'm doing, not to mention the composition itself is spectacular and is a long time personal favorite.

Thanks to the OC/OC ReMix team for the many years of providing a community for folks to submit great arrangements of even greater VG songs.

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Tina" (ff6-201.spc)

The drum tone has no meat on it to match the intensity of the guitars; dunno why the drums sound so soft. Hell, gentle. They're also extremely plodding and repetitive, not helped by the fact that they're so audible. The fills, few and far between, were cool though.

The production's not bad. There's a nice slimey, grungy feel to the whole thing, yet you can still pick apart the individual instruments amongst the full texture.

The arrangement of the melody is adapted to the genre, starting at :51, but wasn't very interpretive to start. There's still a lot of time left to build things up. 1:19 brought back the limp-wristed drums again; definitely a weak spot in terms of moving the track along.

Moves over into a cover of the second half of the source from 2:12-2:47, but again, not much interpretation. Back to the first half of the theme, there was some creative freestyling combined with the straightforward melody. Points for the freestyle, but the melody could use interpretation and development as well.

Back to the second half of the source at 4:08, but then some freestyling was on top of THAT. Aight, so the formula seems essentially clear: Part 1 cover, part 2 cover, part 1 cover + solo on top, part 2 cover + solo on top.

And that's a fine tribute, but it doesn't do much to take ownership of the theme and put a decidedly creative, interpretive spin on it, which is what the standards call for. If and when you go more along that route, please submit something in the future. You sound like you have an overall good handle on putting your material together, and it would work well with more a interpretive arrangement just as well as it would a cover.

NO

[Vig]

I was going to write off larry's comments about the drums (without exception he says the drums have no meat, regardless of how the drums actually sound), but This time he's actually right. Even for a metal track, in which drums are very frequently overshadowed by the guitars, they are awfully soft.

The track isn't poorly concieved, but the arrangement is actually dumbed-down from the original. The chord progression is simplified, and there's generally less going on harmonically. This isn't necessarily a suprise coming from a metal remix, but questionable harmonic decisions are made in terms of how the chord progression is rewritten.

The lead guitar doesnt cut through ver well. Make it louder.

NO

[DarkeSword]

This is an extremely straightforward genre-adaptation, and that statement alone speaks volumes, so I'm going to keep the rest of my comments brief.

There's little in the way of fills in the percussion. I expected more here. The percussion is also very repetitive. I was hoping for perhaps a double-time section where the pace would pick up a bit, but it was just your standard, plodding rock beat.

The backing track is limited to sustained chords and a repeating "1+a 2+a 3+a 4+a" rhythm. Come on, you can do MUCH more than that. How about some countermelodies, or having everything lock together to make a powerful, harmonically rich statement?

You need to bring more of yourself into the piece. One improv solo near the end, however nice it does sound, doesn't cut it. There needs to be much more in terms of exploration of the melody. Think about how the melody can fit over different harmonies, and how you can change the rhythm of the melody. Terra's Theme is very simple, rhythmically; there's a lot you can do to fill in those empty spaces.

Keep at it.

NO

[big giant circles]

Dammit, Shariq, update the title threads. <3

Again, since I'm here, I'll pretty much confirm what my comrades have said. Beef up the drums in the mix. Pretty cool metal take on arguably one of the most famous VGM themes of all time. After reading all three replies, there's really nothing left for me to say.

NO