*NO* Final Fantasy 10 'The Spira Cup'

[djpretzel]

This is a medley, and it helps to read the description quite a bit - djp

Hi pretzel!

Instead of just saying "here I am, please take this," I think this next
submission heeds some explanation.

Download it at:
The idea behind this one is a bit narrative. I won't write a story or
anything; hopefully, the music will do that enough. But the piece has
been remixed in three parts: two halves "of the game" and then post- game; the first "half" borrowed from the FFX track "Blitz off!" with
arhythmic drum patterns and "dotty" synths, and I wove in "Tidus' Theme"
rather prominently there, as well as hinted at "Wakka's Theme"; the
second "half" (after another, more brooding iteration of "Unwavering
Decision") breaks into the heavy-metal material from "Otherworld" and
continues to touch on Tidus' Theme, until the game comes to a close with
a suspenseful buildup meant to illustrate the game-winning shot (which
is obviously identified with the familiar FF victory fanfare); this
quickly fades to the third section, which is predominantly a loose remix
of Wakka's Theme, and then the section ends with a fanfare of Tidus, one
last time, and finis. I should note "Wakka's Theme" isn't really USED in
the game, but it is accessable by players as bonus (if you've plated
FFX, you need to buy all the music spheres to hear it).

So, there it is, just under the 6 meg cutoff; hope you enjoy it!

And, by the way, thanks for plugging the Fate of Io project; that really
was above and beyond. We're trying to get some of our people to check
out OCR as a meager attempt of appreciation.

Later!

- Dev

[Malcos]

Well the transitions weren't too bad, but this is kinds strange. One minute the mix sounds good, then bad, then really good again. I think it's that distorted guitar, I don't like the way it sounds. The brass however sounds very good to my ears. It ws really quite sparse on layers throughout.

Nah, this one just didn't do it for me.

NO

[Digital Coma]

What we've got here is a well-arranged mix with sub-par instruments. Almost all of the prominent samples sound dry and canned, even General MIDIish. The intro starts off with some interesting percussion, but unfortunately later on past the transitions devolves into dull drum loops. The guitars, especially when distorted, are of very low sonic quality, lacking any oomph or body and with too much sustain applied to them. The transitions are very stop and go. I can deal with that, but they're also rather bland, with at most three layers at a time, and some leads colliding on the same notes. Many samples are simply overplayed with little variation or proper panning, such as the hi-hats, chromatic percussion, and brass. Finally, the "victory fanfare" ending is unnecessarily prolonged.

I see potential here. Most of the sequencing is tight, and the medley is pleasingly arranged. I recommend an overhaul to your samples with some decent soundfonts and with more finely tuned DSP.

NO

[DarkCecil13]

The arrangement itself is subpar, but the sample quality just ends up killing the overall production. Enough said. Just doesn't pull it off.

NO

[m68030]

Well damn. I was really looking forward to this after reading the
description, but then right off the bat i hear the guitar and it just sounds
lame.

Wow. that's really disappointing. I wish the sample quality was so bad. :(
It would be really cool with good instrumentation.

NO

[djpretzel]

Yeah, weird - the other Dark Cloud mix from Dev was great, and of high calibre in terms of sound quality & samples. Go figure.