*NO* Chrono Cross 'Exotic Enchantment'

[djpretzel]

Definitely unique. Our first Bollywood sub? - djp


Yo. So this is now the 4th OCR submission as well as 4th Chrono Cross remix I have done. I'm trying to keep things fresh and learn from criticism, so I obviously feel this is my best song to date. Heavily influenced beats by both my own culture (I'm Indian a la Darkesword and Digital Coma) and Mediterranean music - the latter being mixed into the outro.

And here comes my "ass kissing" (as Vig called it)/addressing the judges section:

Kong in Concert has just been released. Digital Coma, you rock. Gray Lightening - what can I say - wow - after listening to Idols of Hanuman, I decided to approach my song here with a more ethnic vibe (it originally used a basic drum set), because your songs are always so fresh and unique. Vigilante, as I am writing this I have put your song (no not Funky Monkey Love) on my "To sleep to" playlist, that song is just amazing - although I am nowhere near as good on the guitar, I hope to one day produce as emotionally filled music. Prot, as always, epic stuff out of you on the project, and yes ROTC still rocks as much as ever. Analoq, some really nice laid back vibe on your song, I wish I had your technical know-how, great job man.

Darkesword, good luck with your Kirby Project, Mother India smiles upon you and Binnie for all y'all's hard work.

And finally, The Wingless, despite not having worked on Kong in Concert nor initiating your very own remix project, you are still my hero.

* Contact Info
o Your ReMixer name: SirRus
o Your real name: Ravi Sharma
o Your email address: Ravi.U.Sharma-1@ou.edu

* ReMix Info
o Name of game(s) ReMixed: Chrono Cross
o Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Star Stealing Girl

"Exotic Enchantment" -

[Vig]

it sounds rich, there's lots of subtlety, there's lots of texture. just really pretty solid overall. plenty of variation and all that good stuff. great percussion and vocals.

lots of YES

[Israfel]

Very good work here. Great style and just a joy to listen to. Your use of vocals samples adds a wonderful atmosphere and is subtle enough to not overpower the mix or sound gimmicky. Excellent, understated percussion (love the tabla), very effective. I'm assuming that a great deal the sounds (namely the percussion, guitar and of course the vocals) used were performace samples, and some may consider that a lazy and easy way to compose. Personally, I feel that while the usage of performance samples limits the versatility of what you're able to do in a piece, it is nonetheless a perfectly valid method of composition.

Quite an uplifting piece, definitely a keeper in my book. However, I'm not sure if this has enough arrangement to qualify for the site. I've listened to the original many times, and it seems to me that large portions of the mix are entirely original. Now, to be honest, I rather want to pass this one, I feel it's a stylish and well-done mix, but I just can't find enough of the original theme here. And I've really tried to find it, replaying the mix and the original over and over; I really *wanted* to find it. Maybe it's simply a failing on my part, but while I could find parts of the mix that I could trace back to the source theme, the overwhelming majority seemed original as far as I was able to discern. Such a shame, I really enjoyed this one.

NO

[DarkeSword]

I don't hear Star Stealing Girl in here; just sampled vocals from Bollywood music. :(

As much as I love the homeland, I gotta say that I had a very hard time finding more than hints to the melodic line of SSG. The percussion and flute stuff is great, but I don't like how any of the voice samples were used. Maybe I'm biased because I've seen all of those movies? (Probably; so I'm not going to count that against you.)

It's a nice original piece inspired by SSG, but I really think it's way too liberal of an arrangement to be considered a ReMix. :(

Sorry Bhai-sahib. NO

[GrayLightning]

Thank you for the kind words Ravi, they will get you everywhere, :D but not in the panel. :(

You are making tremendous progress and this is your finest work yet. I agree with my compatriots that the mix feels like a mix with pasted percussion, vocal and performance phrases. More harmonic or melodic expansion would be so much more helpful in this regard rather than the reliance on performance samples. I also think another serious issue here is the mixing. All the volume and panning of every element is all over the map. As if you randomly assigned them anywhere. Work on creating more balance with volume and panning. Subtlety is key as some elements just completely drown out others.

Great concept piece though.

Borderline, NO. Keep at it, you're making great strides.

[Liontamer]

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar (http://www.tzone.org/%7Ellin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar) - 306 "The Star-Stealing Girl"
http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Xenogears_psf.rar (http://www.tzone.org/%7Ellin/psf/packs2/Xenogears_psf.rar) - 205 "Shevat ~ The Wind is Calling"

The reason I listed both themes up top was because, while you attempted to remix the first theme, the motifs inadvertently reminded me of the second. Like Israfel mentioned to me, a lot of Mitsuda's work from these games sounds similar, but I think it's a case where the attempted rearrangement has strayed too far from the source. I'm only hearing the vaguest of vague connections here with "Star-Stealing Girl".

I don't mean to be glib, Ravi, but I feel Gray gave the best feedback for production concerns, so I can only add a few more comments. You can hear where the voice sample abruptly cuts out at :16 if you're paying attention. I think all of the other voice samples had clean cutoffs though. For future reference, if you have the information at hand, you should also let us know where you obtained the samples.

I felt the structure was unorthodox (in regards to the scope of mixes at this site), but I still had some issues. Things sounded a little muddy, there was no high-end or sharpness present during any portion of the track, the cymbals are very weak, and (tying into the muddiness) there was poor overall separation of sounds, especially during your fuller sections (e.g. :40-:56, 1:43-2:00, 3:04-3:50).

Work a little on production, but reign in the rearrangement level so this doesn't become ineligible on those grounds. Point me and the others in the right direction if something is up, but I tried really hard to find Star-Stealing Girl here and ended up with more Shevat motifs than anything else. Don't get too liberal with the ideas and end up losing the melodic foundations of the original.

NO