*NO* Tales of Phantasia 'Simplified Design'

[Liontamer]

Submitted by KyleJCrb on behalf of the Summoning of Spirits album - LT

PriZm - "Simplified Design"
Source: Take Up the Cross

LT Edit: PS1 Version Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c52f0_VzCfk

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=top - "Take Up the Cross" (top-132.spc)

Nothing wrong with the arrangement. Very much a more conservative/expansive approach, but effective in giving the source tune a unique flavor, IMO.

Weak points:
1:48-1:58 - Both dissonance & rigid sequencing of the piano
2:56-3:04 - rigid sequencing of the bowed strings

<KyleJCrb> It's intentional.
<Liontamer> ok...but why?
<KyleJCrb> Because...I don't know. Haha
<KyleJCrb> But he says he did it intentionally in the original WIP thread. I guess because he could?
<Liontamer> I mean, it just sounds dumb, because there's no other dissonance in the track

I'm sticking by that. Intentional or not, it sounds like a pointless occurrence, and it's not helped by the piano sounding extremely fake. Brass stab at 2:47 sounded a little out of place, but not a big deal. The sequencing of the bowed strings from 2:56-3:04 sounded even worse than the piano.

I've got no issue if this passes, because most points of the track sound strong and well put together. There's a lot of great power here, and Pascal generally knows what he's doing. He's at Ubisoft for a good reason.

However, the brief points that sound bad just made this sound so beginnerish for no good reason, and took me out of the song. I'd love to pass this; it'll probably pass and I'm cool with that. But I'm just can't get behind moments of needlessly sloppy execution that create large quality disparities in a track. Can't do it.

NO (borderline)

[Palpable]

Arrangement is conservative in how it handles the melody, but there's a fair number of detours, soloing, and other things that deviate. It's not an arrangement that really wows me, but it's solid. For the most part, I was feeling the production too. The meat of the song: the guitar, drums, and bass sound good.

But man are there some weak points to this mix, and Larry called two of them. The detuned piano definitely didn't work for me, and the articulation of those strings also stuck out. I'd also add 2:47-2:57; the horn blast and cowbell felt very out-of-place. Often I'm a fan of unusual moments in songs like that, but this one rubbed me the wrong way and broke the mood. Maybe if it had been developed longer than 10 seconds, it could have been worked into the arrangement more.

Of these three moments, only the strings qualify as a production issue rather than a stylistic choice, and on that basis, I'll hesitantly say YES. Each of these moments passes quickly, and the majority of this song is solid work. Good luck to you - songs have been NOed before for having a few weak moments.

YES (borderline)

[anosou]

Good backing parts and variation keep the otherwise conservative arrangement interesting. Production is good but the backing guitars and bass come on a little strong, cool guitar sound. The out-of-place piano is not to my liking, meant as a cool effect but in my opinion dirupts the feel of the track. Had no problem with the brass and cowbell-part. I'm going to have to ask you to smooth out the awkward string attacks though since that can't really be passed off as a stylistic choice. The ending also cuts off abruptly, fix that. After thinking this through and looking at all the other votes I still think this is a tough call. The track IS rocking btu you just have one too many issues to fix up before this can be passed so I have to go

NO(resubmit)

[DarkeSword]

Sounds really empty. You've got these really thin, anemic choirs in the background. They're not really helping the soundscape. The dissonance in the piano sounds pretty bad.

Falling brass stab sounds way out of place, and you tried to change it up with some strings and harp; unfortunately strings sound really mechanical; weak attack, abrupt release. :( The attempt at sonic textural variation is too little, too late.

And a cutoff ending. Really? :(

NO

[big giant circles]

I'm with DS and Larry. This is not a terrible song by any means or stretch. But it definitely gave me some "wtf?" moments. The guitars in and of themselves lack flesh for the most part. Hit up sixto or something and ask for advice on how to fatten 'em up a bit. You don't have to sacrifice the grit and grunge and dirt, but they do sound pretty hollow, and I think it's mostly the mixing.

The piano was especially wtf. I realize that was supposed to be intentional, but I echo Larry's question... "why?"

I did really enjoy the guitar work at 2:27. The brass gliss thereafter was totally out of place, though. Around 3:13 I finally really enjoyed the soundscape, and that to me was the highlight of the mix. It started going downhill around 3:27, and it sounded like there were some slight timing issues between the guitar chugs and the drums.

Ending it much too abrupt. Drums get covered up throughout mainly by the rhythm guitars--I'd work on that.

At any rate, I don't think I had any gripes with the arrangement itself--just the choice of instruments and effects at certain places. Hope this info helps. You're a pretty dang skilled guitarist, your production mainly just needs some work.

NO

[OA]

I'm torn on this one as well- there are some really cool moments, the arrangement is true to the source but is distinctly your own, and for the most part I was feeling this, but that piano really killed the mood for me. I'd love to hear the story behind that decision.

I dig the shred section, and I actually LOLed IRL at the brass stab- it's a really cheeky end to some pretty technical playing, and i think something that lighthearted is just fine. What's not fine is that string articulation though, and something like that shouldn't be a huge hassle to fix.
I'm cool with the guitar tone, it's definitely gritty and angry, but it suits the track. I think the reason the drums sound like they are being drowned out isn't the guitar sound as much as it is the weak drum sound. Kick has almost no beater, and the snare is wimpy. They sound ok, but they don't really cut through.

I'm not sure how old this track is, because of the Tales project timeline, so you may not feel like updating some of these issues, but I do think they need to be fixed before i'm comfortable passing this.

no, please resub