*NO* Final Fantasy 7 'Not All is Lost'

[djpretzel]

email sub file Final_Fantasy_7_Not_All_is_Lost.mp3


Its a first so please excuse me if its not super-awsome.

Remixer name: I go by "Black_Marauder"
email: Kylekoch012186@gmail.com
webby: none yet.



Hello...

My name is Kyle. I have been an avid listener of OC remix for 4 years now and have always loved what comes out of it. Listening
to all these great peoples work has made me want to start up my own mixes. So starting a year ago (Nov 2004), I picked up a key board,
a stepping program, and began at it. After many months of beating myself up and trying to make something, I finally succeeded in
placing one beat correctly after the other. Kinda feels like trying to learn how to walk. Anywho...

Final Fantasy 7 has been a great love of mine since the release of the game. I havnt played it in 2 years but its still the greatest
rpg imho. I got home late one nite and was extremely tired. I was about to go to bed when this annoying beat popped into my head.
I had to get it at least somewhat put together on the computer before I could go to sleep. Turns out its what led to the drums, which
I know arent all that great (what else do you want from a novice of only one year ^_^). After the beat turned out I then proceeded to add
some strings to it. I was going for a techno flare but couldnt make anything work so i stuck the long off beat sets. I was contemplating
on what to next with the song when my little sister walks and and says its sounds alot like the city of the ancients back beat and that when I
knew i was on the right track. I have a problem with taking "mind-prints" and turning them into "blue-prints", if you know what I mean, and thus
it makes composing very hard for me. So simplicity is all I can afford for now. After I got the first song done, I had no intention on making it
longer or adding any other bakbeats to it i then decided it would only be appropriate if there was a bit of aeris's theme in there as well and thats
when i contructed the 2nd piece. the beat is pretty much the same just laid out differently, and I used the same strings channel with different chords.

So now im sending what I got with no intentions on it being rated or voted on. I just want to share my startoff with everyone else and hope to inspire other
OC-R listeners to start something of their own as well. Im always open to constructive criticism (I NEED LOTS OF IT!!!) and look forward
to the next time i do something, and most surely it will be better.

Black_Marauder

P.S. If you can think of a better name for it please let me know... im open for suggestions.

[GrayLightning]

First of all file size is over 6 MB

ReMixes should be no larger than 6MB (6,291,456 bytes). No exceptions. More info: http://www.ocremix.org/about/?artid=4

Second, congrats on a fairly good mix for a first submission. I like the drum work, some sections remind me of some of Israfel's works. But the repeating toms that go on and on and on without variation gets old, especially for how long this mix is.

Second I think you should consider the length of the piece. It ends to move from new theme/arrangement/concept to another jumping from one to the other almost like a megamedley. For OCR purposes more cohesion and thought needs to go into this. I'd like to hear more instrumentation here. More instrumentation, change ups in instruments would help break up the monotony. Most of the time it's just the bells, strings and woodwind. I'd like you to consider evolving the concept instead of sticking with the same execution going on. Considering this is a 7 minute mix, it gets tiring.

Production and samples are decent. I think you can back off the reverb a bit though.

The effort and submission is one of the better first entries I've heard from a relative beginner. Keep working at it, you have potential. I recommend you post this in the Works in Progress/Completed forum of our site to share the mix with others.

As is though, this is a NO.

[Liontamer]

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 318 "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" & 319 "Aeris' Theme"

Yeah, this is definitely decent stuff for a first sub, but the track drones on and on. "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" just goes on forever without developing into anything. Then you just fade-out and don't even offer up a transition to the next theme.

After the fadeout and changeup at 3:02, it's some drums for the longest time until "Aeris' Theme" finally (finally, bro) comes in at 4:30. Yeah, not terrible, but all of your work will be much better when you incorporate the concepts of variation and moderation.

NO

[The Orichalcon]

It's probably a bad idea to leave "Nobuo Uematsu" in the tags under Author in a remix, you're meant to put your mixing name there.

This mix reminds me a lot of Sefiros' style of music. Playing the theme's from FF7 at weird intervals with strong drums carrying the timing of the mix. Overall this is a pretty cool sound you have going. You haven't switched up the piano very much through the start of the mix with the Edge of Despair melody, which would be a good idea. I was expecting the strings to start building up to a stronger sound as the mix progress as well. Bringing in other string instruments like a Cello can strengthen the overall sound of the mix.

I'm not liking the midmix fadeout, it's a better idea to just create a transition between themes. After the fade out, we get a 30 second drum solo, followed by drums and strings. I'm expecting some bagpipes to come in over a marching beat like this, they'd fit in well too. After the strings come in for a while, they back out for another drum solo, then Aeris' theme comes in with some woodwind playing the melody. This doesn't alternate much for the rest of the mix.

Overall, you need to alternate your sounds more. The drums in this keep a constant sound for the full 7 minutes, we don't break away from that, and that can be really tiring, especially with the reverb levels on this. You need to work more on bringing out the melodies more too. Strings, piano and a flute aren't enough, especially when they're just playing the same thing over and over rather than changing things up. You could easily squash this down into a 4 minute mix by scrapping the fadeouts and fadeins, getting rid of the drum solo's and working on some proper transitions. Just work on those melodies and you're right as rain. The quality of the mix was pretty good, nothing too loud, nothing too soft, which is a great start.

NO

[Vig]

not bad for a first mix. the drums need to be changed sometimes. and/or built on more. at this point, the only instrument that is actually playing different notes is the string section. and this is playing a different note only every 10 seconds or so. it's okay to have such a slow progression, but you really need to put something else on top of the strings, like perhaps a soloist. it doesnt need to be obtrusive, but it needs something going on to keep my interest.

also, the sections are really akward the way they are completely separated.

NO