*NO* Fate/stay night 'Faker's Illusion'

[Liontamer]

Retsej
gth669h@mail.gatech.edu

Game: Fate/Stay Night
Pieces:"Emiya," "This Illusion, "Ever-Present Feelings"
For PC and PS2, composer Haga Keita.

I really wanted to hear a less synthy version of "Emiya," so I began to arrange the piece for orchestra. The other two songs turned up on their own and just fit right in the the overall piece, so I added them in as well. The overall effect was a piece with surprisingly smooth transitions and some original material thrown in to aid with the shifts.

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Fate/stay night Original Sound Track - (22) "Emiya", (01) "THIS ILLUSION (Fate ver.)" & (17) "Unfading Thoughts"

Opened up decently with an orchestral-style intro of "Emiya". The brass at :26 sounded OK, though a bit muddy. The melody arrived at :46, but took a back seat to the rest of the instrumentation. Same with the strings at :59, which didn't sound good at all. The strings managed to sound out a bit more at 1:15, but were otherwise buried. Not sure why the sound balance was like this.

After an awkward pregnant pause, it switched over at 2:03 into an awfully thin, mechanically sequenced piano. The brass and string sequencing was decent, but a lot more exposed, which didn't help at all. Decent take on "THIS ILLUSION", but just painfully exposed until 3:21.

Onto "Unfading Thoughts", the fuller textures from 3:21 until the end were better, but the piano handling the melody was still buried. The string sequencing at 3:51 sounded a lot more capable; good emotiveness behind it, and a strong idea for the close even though the track abruptly cut out at 4:22.

If you get the sound balance working, and refine the sequencing and effects on the more exposed parts, you'd be in a lot better shape. IMO, the arrangement was going in the right direction, now you have to get the execution up to par.

NO (resubmit)

[Palpable]

Good adaptation for orchestra. There's a good dynamic curve in the way things pick up, if similar to the original. I was thrown a little off by the intro, which took me until 1:36 to realize it wasn't eventually leading to a main melody. It's decent as background music, but I think I would have liked to see a strong lead part in there. Solid production in this section.

"This Illusion" was handled much better in terms of having a defined melody, but I didn't think the instruments meshed as well together or covered the spectrum as well as the first section. The piano especially felt too upfront and mechanical, and some of the strings were also mechanical. In "Unfading Thoughts", the piano melody was buried, again giving this a lack of direction.

I think this is going to need more work before it can pass. Try to get everything up to the level of production of the first section, maybe add a lead part there it you can work one, and try to improve the articulations of your instruments. It's a fine arrangement and I think if you can fix those issues, this would pass.

NO (resubmit)

[anosou]

Freakishly cool soundtrack, will have to check it out.

Starts off with the first source-tune "Emiya". The strings playing the chords has a bit of an awkward attack. The brass was OK, actually better than most subs we get. I agree with larry's concern about the melodic content getting buried in the orchestra-wall. Try to get the melody in front, don't pan it to the left either. Otherwise the arrangement here is decent and quite dramatic. I think the snare drum could use some work, it sounds very awkward playing that rhythm over and over again.

The pause and piano doesn't work at all. The piano is very mechanical and low-quality and this is enhanced further by leaving it all alone without reverb in the soundscape. You should look into how you process your samples or better yet get some new ones. Orchestral is a very demanding style to write in since you are trying to get the exact sound of real instruments. The writing was okay though, interesting enough take on the second source.

I echo larry's concern about the buried melody in the next part, bring out the melodies more man! These are the core of the sources. The track awkwardly cut off in the end.. don't do that :)

You're going in the right direction but you really need to polish this before we can pass it. Work on balance, processing of your samples and maybe add some unexpected writing or instruments to make it seem less droning. Take your time with this one, it'll defenitely pass if you fix the issues nicely.

NO(resubmit)