*NO* Faxanadu 'In the Shadow of the Evil One' *RESUB*

[djpretzel]

Hello DJP and Judges,

My Remixer Name: ghbarratt
My Real Name: Glen H. Barratt
My email address: ghbarratt@hotmail.com
My Website: www.ghbarratt.com
My userid:

Name of game Remixed: Faxanadu
Name of individual song Remixed: Dartmoor
Name of the Original Composer: Jun Chiki Chikuma
Game has already been added to the site.
Original soundtrack has already been added to the site.
I have a recording of the original NES track here:

My remix is located here:

Its been a while but I believe I put the time to good use. I had a fairly active thread in the "Works (In-Progress & Completed): OC Remixes." Here is a link to it: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=58790&sid=06d4782cb59e9793152c1d4b4508cee9

I have taken the advice I have received from you when this work was first judged (on May 12 2005) very seriously. I have also received a lot of inspiration and motivation from the forum members. The link to the original judging: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=57848&sid=3e83266ba0333dd3b4780ac1826065e8

I think it would be wise to remind or inform you that this song comes from the last (out of dungeon) area. A mysterious cave-like place with red rock walls, once a city of the dwarves but taken over by loads of hideous creatures and, of course, the infamous "Evil One." The song features some sound effects that "tell a story" in a way and that would be appreciated by most who are familiar with the game.

I did my research and found out that Jun Chiki Chikuma was the original composer for Faxanadu.

At this point I think it is safe to claim that I have listened to this song more than any other song in my life. I like it, but I have found that, everyone's opinion about it is quite different. (I started getting conflicting advice in the wip thread.) Most like it, some do not. One important note to mention for listening is that if your headphones or sound system tend to dull mid-tones and accentuate the high and low, then you might miss a lot. On all the headphones I have tested listening to this - its sounded good, but I tried it out on a crappy speaker system I own and was so upset with the quality of the sound that I decided to throw that system out.

Having a song on ocremix.org is a very serious goal of mine. ... It would be such an honor.

I really hope you enjoy it.
Glen

[Sam Ascher-Weiss]

There's a lot to love here. All of the tempo changes are super-neato! Despite the quality of the some of the sounds [like the organ and the choir] the choice of instruments and their application is unique and maybe even..... fascinating... to me. Things are jumbled a lot of the times with the melody getting lost while it's tossed back and forth between instruments, which is actually something that personally I love.

From the outset of any song, I'm ready for anything usually but you can't make that assumption about your listener. With something like this, you need a minute or two to pull people in.... make it clear that the crowdedness and peculiar sound combinations are intentional by starting the track with a minute and a half or so of VERY FOCUSED material and every once and a while returning to that feel. That way I can rest assured that the wacked out action is a CHOICE and not a WEAKNESS.

Basically you have to be a real salesman when working in this style. This track is mostly medicine and it needs more sugar to help it go down. How could you do this maybe? LET'S SEE:

:arrow: At 0:26 when the melody first enters, keep it in one instrument and limit the accompaniment parts to simple chords to back it up along with a bassline that acts in tandem with the drums. .

:arrow: Once you've done that, you can then do your version of the melody with the instruments playing hot potato as they are now, HOWEVER, first remove the drums temporarily and have the layers introduce themselves one by one instead of all together.

:arrow: You can have that business build until you feel like going into the part of the source that you first use at 1:00, at that point BACK TO FOCUS! That part of the melody has it's own built in focus because of it's seperated nature [note note note note note MOVING CHORDS note note note note note MOVING CHORDS] so just highlight that.

Hopefully you get the jist of what I'm saying. You need to hold people's hands a little more, that's all. You've chosen my favorite style to work in and it's a very difficult balancing act though you're damn close to making it work. Just remember, you have to seduce your audience before you try to bring them into your world. For myself, I like the track just the way it is now and so I'll be listening to it quite a bit.

n[i]0 (Very Borderline/Resubmit)

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/faxanadu.zip - Track 10

Kinda weird, the plucked string in the first 3 seconds seemed like a mistake. The samples are still very GMish and thin-sounding. The choir still sounds very unnatural in its usage. Not sure why all of the sounds are so thin. The soundfield is at least a lot less barren. On the other hand, it now sounds pretty cluttered and it doesn't sound like much panning or EQing was used to separate the sounds out.

The arrangement just wasn't retaining my interest, especially for being 4:47-long. There were a lot of expansive ideas added at least, but again, everything sound MIDIish and cluttered, so all of the additions didn't really help this out in the end. Some of the non-verbatim sections (e.g. 3:27-4:15) didn't really sound creative or extensively thought-out.

Just sounds like you need a lot more experience under your belt. Keep working on more music and using the ReMixing & WIP forums, but consider this a finished project and move on.

NO

[Harmony]

Not a bad improvement. I don’t have the original to compare against but from what I recall, in this latest version the clipping is gone, the choir is subdued, the arrangement is more creative and the soundfield is less sparse.

We still have the low sample quality though and I think that this is what’s most hurting this piece. There’s no low end to this mix as the bass and kick remain minor players where they are desperately needed to fill the sound out. I don’t know what you do with the bass at points like 2:13, 2:27, 2:37, etc. but the bass should have that same richness in the longer more melodic sections. There are a lot of neat percussion ideas here however the kick and toms sound bone dry giving them zero depth. Try adding a bit of reverb, possibly a chorus or distortion effect and pumping up the lower frequencies to give them a more expansive, less GM sound.

I love the SFX peppered throughout, especially the water intro and scream around the 1:00 mark. Overall however this piece feels overly cluttered and unfocused. Try a few of Shna’s compositional suggestions, work on thickening up your sounds while maintaining clarity and this piece will be even more enjoyable than it already is. Keep working at it.

NO

[zyko]

i'm extremely familiar with this soundtrack

right off that bat, i can tell you that your sounds destroy this. i'm not a stickler for sample quality, etc but this is awful. especially since your arrangement has merit... its goofy as hell

it has this ominous feeling to it (the Evil One has guided you well) and i love how you slow it down to a more grinding pace but seriously, your sounds ruin the credibility of the mood. i feel as though i'm playing a videogame, still.

my problem is that your arrangement is fantastic from a storytelling perspective and i don't believe faxanadu can be interpreted in any other way. this is a game that was meant to be told as a story so naturally its music shouldn't be interpreted as "songs" but as musical stories

you definetly have the right idea. i want to YES this because i love your technique and style. it reminds me a lot of the process i went through with Sketch of a Potentially Contrived Memory... i'm reliving the faxanadu story vicariously through your piece... but there is too much lacking in the lower register of the mix, there just seems to be too much clutter with too GM of tones.

please fix this. please find a way to make your instruments sound more dynamic and realistic. i implore you.

NO