OCR01304 - *YES* Final Fantasy 6 'Battle on a New Continent'

[djpretzel]

Hey there !

Name : Christian Pacaud
Email : cpacaud@saintstudios.com
Website: http://www.soundclick.com/christianpacaud

Game: Final Fantasy 6 (again)
Songs Remixed: New Continent / The Fierce Battle / Catastrophe / Dancing Mad

Comments from VGMix :
I've been working hard on this arrangement for the past month now. This is quite different than my first remix, a solo piano arrangement of Celes' Theme, also from FF6. Quite simply, it's just another facet of my musical interests, which is the heavy metal / progressive side... So, for those looking for screaming guitars and double bass, you've found the right remix !

I can't remember exactly how I came about starting to work on this. I just remember liking very much the themes from the flying continent part of FF6 and somehow I heard them recently and thought "New Continent" was screaming for a metal remix, and here it is. Actually, this is a melting pot of a number of themes from that part. I'll do a small breakdown for those too lazy to lookup for the references in the song.

0:00 to 1:04 - Obviously this is "New Continent", almost note for note.
1:04 to 1:47 - This is an extrapolation of the second, more syncopated half of "New Continent".
1:47 to 1:57 - The guitar riff and hits are inspired from the end of "New Continent".

1:57 to 2:16 - Now here it gets interesting... The guitar riff is inspired from the first half of "New Continent" and the lead is a somewhat transformed version of the first bars of the melody from "Catastrophe".
2:16 to 2:26 - This is taken from "Catastrophe"... This is one of the main musical themes from the game. The harmonization is slightly different though.

2:26 to 2:37 - Ha. This is completely out of context, taken from "Dancing Mad", but I thought it fitted so well that I put it anyway.
2:37 to 3:04 - This one might've been hard to hear. The guitar riff is actually the first few notes from "The Fierce Battle"'s melody (at 0:27 to be exact). Note that the guitar solo kicks major butt ! :P
3:04 to 3:14 - The solo's backing is inspired from the second half of "New Continent", or actually, from the 1:04 to 1:47 part, which is inspired from it :P This is getting complicated, sorry !

And most of the material from after the solo are repeated sections from earlier in the remix, with some new stuff added, especially at the end for a last nod to "Catastrophe". If you actually listened to the song up to here, congrats for being able to stand my horrible amateur guitar playing ! ;)

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So, thanks to everyone who gave me precious feedback, positive or negative ! Maybe I didn't follow all of your suggestions, but every single one of them helped me. Also, sorry for everyone who posted feedback on the WIP, I had to delete it because the description wasn't up to date anymore.

Oh,

AND BIG BIG THANKS TO MARC-ANDRÉ GINGRAS FOR THE INCREDIBLE GUITAR SOLO (you'll know which one I'm talking about) !!! I'm sure it'll be the only thing people will remember from this song ! :P

VISIT HIS WEBSITE AT http://www.magproject.com

[Liontamer]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "New Continent" (ff6-301.spc), "Catastrophe" (ff6-302.spc), Dancing Mad (part 2) [ff6-s-06.spc] & "The Fierce Battle" (ff6-303.spc)

Looked forward to this one. I played it back on VGF40 (http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.8821) and kept it knowing it'd hit the panel sooner rather than later. Thanks a lot for the time breakdowns, Chris. You lengthy & medley submitters oughta take note of stuff like this when you submit.

Good variation on the distortion that intros "New Continent" itself to harken back to the original. Cool stuff with the offbeat modulating synth underneath the lead guitar from :21-:58. Things segued into some more freeform arrangement work done over the skeleton of the source from 1:03-1:57, and I liked the fact that you brought that kind of section in fairly early on, especially for a 5:14 rock remix track where keeping the arrangement too conservative could easily get stale.

The vibe remained good from 2:16-2:36 (yep, nice Dancing Mad reference thrown in), before going into some more liberal, almost shred-style work from 2:37-3:14. I was itching for a change in the drums (a little too basic and beatkeeping for my tastes) before some more creative stuff finally showed up at 3:04 for the next ten seconds to close that section strongly.

Moving ahead a bit, I liked the sound of the guitar (almost a shrill wailing) handling the chorus from 3:57-4:29. The last bit of guitar work from 4:41-5:11 initially was awkward, but it didn't sound out of place to me upon further listens. The last couple of seconds and the quick fadeout reminded me of zyko's sound, which is always a plus in my book!

Props to Christian for a very well-done arrangement, featuring some nice brief references to other FF6 tracks, as well as Marc-André for some good solo work that the rock enthusiasts will be feeling. Not to say Christian's own guitar skills are shabby, because they're certainly not; they were definitely a highlight on their own here. The constant tradeoffs between conservative and liberal arrangement, along with the quick usage of additional themes was a perfect formula if you will. This'll definitely become a favorite around here.

YES

[zircon]

The intro threw me off, but as the mix on, things become a little more controlled. Production is pretty strong here overall, with generally good mixing (high end is a little lacking, but that's because of the compression - maybe try VBR next time). I'm especially impressed with how all of the parts don't clutter or muddy up eachother, which is something that happens very often with this kind of mix. Major props to Christian on that one! The guitar playing, while not perfect, certainly doesn't take away from the mix - I don't hear any major rhythmic problems or flubs. So, in terms of overall execution, I'd say this is more than passable.

However, I think that the structure and concept are a on the weak side. I would have liked to see more sections like 4:50; varied playing styles and harmony, rather than a relatively unchanging set of timbres. The level of rearrangement and reinterpretation is great, of course, but there really don't seem to be many changes to the fundamental sound (besides the beginning and end). I realize some of that is because of the genre of the mix, but I really think a little more polish on the arrangement and structure would go a long way.

Very close, but for now NO. Please resubmit!!

[Malcos]

Production is excellent here. I'm not an expert on heavy metal, but it does sound good to me and the attitude really comes off from the guitar playing. Because I'm not that familiar with the genre I can't be more contructive really, so it would be nice to get a lot of votes on this one. Overall I'm gonna give this a definite

YES

[zyko]

this is phenomenal work.

i have a problem with the guitar tone but aside from that this is grade A arrangement. the tone is not really bad but it doesn't have as much edge to it as i'd have liked to hear. i don't agree with zircon's criticism of the structure, i think this is structured very well... new ideas are thrown at you quite often but what keeps it seemingly unchanging is its consistent tone and like zircon said, a relatively unchanging set of timbres
i also think the instrumentation is sparse throughout - just two guitars going at once at any given point. that's a stylistic choice and not something that deters from the piece, just thought i'd point it out.

BUT the guitar work is awesome. its very free (except for the guest solo which is a mechanical tour de force in how to play) and i absolutely love your style. its clear to me why i do; this is very vai-ish and i take very heavy influence from vai. this entire track reaks of him. your leads are specifically reminiscent of his work on alien love secrets... the guest solo is practically from a vai song - it quotes very heavily but its badass all the same.
your guitar writing is what impresses me. its one thing to be an "amateur player" but its completely unrelated to how well you can write for the instrument because that overrides the shakiness you have on some notes or phrases. you wrote some well-developed riffs and phrasings on your leads.

if this is your amateur playing, then hit us with your not so amateurish playing and blow our minds up.

just wanted to point out that as i type this YES, i've listened to this over 20 times in a row.

[GrayLightning]

I can see where zircon is coming from. I have to say from a personal standpoint, I'm not particularly fond of this mix. The arrangement is good, but not as good as Christian's other mixes. It seemed to drag on a bit, in part to the source material which was never that great in my opinion either. I agree with zircon's assesment on the flaws, but on the other hand I think this is personal preference on my part. As a judge one (I) must be able to set aside personal tastes and judge a mix objectively.

Objectively for me, though the concept wasn't my cup of tea; this was an above the bar arrangement, with great performance, and superb production, mixing and mastering. So, YES.