OCR01450 - Chrono Trigger 'Subterranean Opus'

[djpretzel]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[OmegaDonut]

An Underground Sewer mix? Finally!

EDIT: That is a very cool bit of percussion you have in there, zircon.

[PlastikBag]

I've been following the WIP of this since the first time you posted it. It was awesome then, and now I'm left pretty much speechless. This is friggin awesome, an instant favorite. Good work.

[The Xyco]

Any day that a zircon mix is posted is a happy day for The Xyco.

The atmosphere is great here, the percussion and strings really bring out the mood of the source tune. Five months of work shows itself. Of all the ReMixes and tracks I've heard from zircon, this one sounds significantly more crispy and clear.

zircon continues to flex his musical muscle, spitting out awesomeness after awesomeness. Keep it, I always love to hear more.

[DJ Skratch 'n' Sniff]

Now, I've never been a huge zircon fan buuuut, I'm willing to make an exception now. The song's flowing, the song's cool but, jiminey christmas, once the Hidden Turth part kicks in, I think my slippers literally shot off my feet!

Masterfully superb.

[PLBenjaminZ]

keke, I remember when you sent me this a long time ago :D so it's finished now huh? I never got around to finishing mine :oops: I'm currently taking mixing and mastering classes at my school; maybe I'll get around to redoing mine in the near future (but darn! you beat me to making the first undergound sewer remix on ocr! :cry:)

...anyways, great stuff! I really like the bells n' stuff at 3:02 and the mood and atmospheric changes throughout the whole song, the middleish part reminds me of sonic for some reason haha :roll:

[Psychotic Ninja]

Wow...This is freaking awesome, I never knew the underground sewer theme for Chrono Trigger could sound this cool.

Nice job, Zircon.

[Flare4War]

I'll try to keep my nose clean.

Anytime I see a Zircon arrangment posted I get excited.
When All Hope Has Faded and Calamitous Judgment are two of my all time favorite mixes. This one is great as well. It's definitely Zircon style, very diverse; and always interesting. An excellent addition to his small but powerful stash of Chrono mixes. I especially loved the piano work at the end around the 3:40 mark.

Great work. Keep'em comin' :P

[Doulifée]

Another Zircon mix.

One thing i like with him is his ability to keep tle listener entertained throught the whole song. this mix is half epic half humorous in his mood -griibit!-
and the use of the truce hidden half the way is a good idea to boost the mix and continue the travel around the sewer

A nice work as usuall.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Wow. This is spectacular, even by zircon's unusually high standards.

2:36 = pwnage.

[Bummerdude]

I must be very slow today, I just looked at this remix and thoight that djpretzel had submitted an another Chrono Symphonic remix, but then I realized that zircon wasn't on that project, so this must be something else. Then it hit me like a rain of frying pans. Your remix of the sewer theme had finally been finished!!!! 8O 8O 8O 8O
I had followed much of the work with this piece, now I would at last hear the full version of it.

The first part of it was similiar sounding like your Calamitous Judgement, nice strings and arpeggios, followed by some more bells and other stuff. the hip piano that then took the lead softed up the ground so that the synth and beats would land softly. There can't really be a zircon remix without techno. :D

This whas now the moment of truth, how would the rest of the remix sound? When it came to 3:00, my jaw just fell onto my table and my eyes were wide open. I mean, IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME! I mean, the synths, the arrangement of the melody, the diffeent use of instruments along the ending melodies, bells, strings, I was simply filled with awe.

150% of 100%. Fenomenal remix, this is simply a must download.

[Dectilon]

Well well well :)

You've really milked this tune on all it had, and absolutely to no excess! The pieces from the trial fit in nicely too. Better than Calamitous Judgement in my opinion.

[Stalwart Jester]

o.o...

Wow.

You've just taken one of my least-favorite themes from CT ((Sewers Theme)) and changed it into...well. Something I'm lovin' right now. Like Dectilon said, you've really milked the tune for what it's really worth.

I guess this shows me that there ARE such things as diamonds in the rough, aye? :lol:

[xamgis]

Excellent job! I am really enjoying this mix. I don't really have anything else to say other than that.

[PriZm]

Wow. This is spectacular, even by zircon's unusually high standards.

2:36 = pwnage.

Ditto.
What can I say that I haven't said in the WIP forum. Kickass and admirable job, bro.

[Hynnin]

Perfect, simply perfect! It's the soul of the game! You can feel what the song brings to us, all the emotion!
Darn it worth every second that you spent on it!
One of the best, that's for sure..

[MisterBiggler]

Wow. This sounds v. good, with great production quality. It has a really cool sounds around 1:35, almost like samba or something. Hearing that progress into that fast-paced dance music was awesome. Damn good over all feel to it.

Another Zircon mix.

One thing i like with him is his ability to keep tle listener entertained throught the whole song. this mix is half epic half humorous in his mood -griibit!-
and the use of the truce hidden half the way is a good idea to boost the mix and continue the travel around the sewer

A nice work as usuall.
I am certainly entertained by this one. It's like one of those songs in a game that changes depending on where you are in a certain stage -- altering the tempo, or instruments, but keeping the same theme. The variability in this tune is what I think I love the most; before I realize it, the song is changing, and I gotta keep up, as if it's taking me on a tour. Five months of work culminated into something fantastic here; this is a great track.

[Shhteve]

Whenever I "remixed" this in my mind, it would always turn out to sound very much like this does. It's very awesome, and progresses to be very catchy. The element of mystery remains intact, if not tighter than in the original. The element of badass is higher than ever. :D

[TheRedBob]

You took what would have been amazing just as a standard electronic mix, you take and add orchestral, EXCELLENT dynamic changes, and some great transitions. Truly fantastic. I, for one, am a fan of the tempo change. It's sudden, but I think works well.

Keep it up.

[Crazyonr1]

Zicon, after finishing his Calamitous Judgment mix, proceded to slap himself in the face, and set the bar ever higher

And he succeded with a vengence

[Drack]

I agree. Zircon raises the bar once again.


Bravo!

[DragonFlame]

Wow I was certainly impressed transition and everything was just straight up sexy. :D

Im still going through it right now and loving every secound and I must say that he did a very excelent job, five monthes work well spent.

[Fusilliban]

It was great when it was posted as a WIP, except for the part where it was only half a song.

It's significantly more than half a song now.

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

(Somehow, adding more song makes all the gripes about the square wave disappear. Or did you notch it down a little?)

[Martin Penwald]

So, what do we have here...oh, just another CT ReMix.

That was what I was thinking when I saw it first. But then I actually listened to it.

It starts very nice, reminding me a little of the Adams Family or the Vampire castle in Grandia 1.
So I was ready for a nice good-mood ReMix, when the change at 1:24 came. It became darker, harder, but I could still hear some instruments from the first part. Then, at 1:55, it almost became industrial. And just as I thought I'm in for some heavy stuff...
...the sudden speed change at 2:35 came. O.M.G. I'm a sucker for fast music, and this definitely got me completely by surprise. I was blown away.
In the end, from 3:32 on, it returns to the beginning, therefore making a nice circle and bringing the mix to a good end.

Great work. Really, really good stuff.

[Falcovsleon20]

Is it just me or does the first half of this tune almost seem like it would make a good theme song for your standard anime villain?

Definately loving it though.

[SamuraiFoochs #Reload]

Zircon, this is awesome. I liked it from stage 1 and have been tracking it since, and the original was good too. But the final product? Full on eargasm, my friend. Keep this quality stuff comin'.

[DDRage]

Absolutely fantastic, I followed your progress in the WIP forums and the final product is better than I had expected!! Incredible!! I won't say the tempo change at 2:35 didn't take me by surprise, but it really adds to the song.

Excellent job!!!

[Argle]

Really enjoyable stuff. This is your best orchestral-esque work so far, I think. Liked all the layers of percussion.

All around excellent... I'm very jealous of your skills and drive.

[damathacus]

This is our first underground sewer mix. Our we missing any other CT songs?

Anyway, this is rather nice. Good job.

[Nigel Simmons]

WhooHoo! Bravo! The orchestra samples could use a little bit more release and variation (for repeating notes), but other than that, it's pretty damn good.

[zircon]

I don't think it's possible currently to get any more variation out of repeated notes.. at least for the marcatos and pizzicatos. Not only am I using alternating velocities, but the singular velocity layers have round-robin up and down bow strokes as well as automatic randomization of formant - 3 different possible 'hits' per note, thanks to Kontakt 2. I thought I did a pretty good job in that regard :) Of course, the legato/sustain stuff is much harder.

[Mythezza]

Well, I finally made an account on this fora just for this track. I've meant to many times, and now I'll actually start posting back on the music I really enjoy.


But it's this track that finally got me to register. Zircon is probably a favorite remixer of mine, and Chrono Trigger has what is arguably the greatest soundtrack of any game, of all time. And I love this remix. Anything I say will just be repeating what someone else has said, but holy cats! The Hidden Truth part? -Excellent.- Maybe I'm just biased because The Hidden Truth is possibly my favorite track off the sountrack, but...

Augh, I'm just rambling! I love it, love it, in my top ten favorites, after one listen!

[Unmei]

The work shows. At the moment, this is probably my favorite of your mixes, zircon. The shift into the Hidden Truth is great in my opinion. I really do like this better than the original (duh!). That little "punchy" feel the whole piece has to it really adds something special, like at 1:35. Nice job!

[Nobbynob Littlun]

The first third is perfect. The rest is merely good.

[ktriton]

Can anyone say "Danny Elfman"?

This is awesome work. Superb arrangement!

[pu_freak]

Can anyone say "Danny Elfman"?
Exactly, especially the piece before the beat kicks in. Now these are the songs that make you want to remix yourself...

[tk]

This is one of the best remixes I have heard in a while, it's pretty astounding and the crispness is amazing. It's really impressive how all of the different sounds meld together seemlessly, and the various sections slide in between each other perfectly.

An excellent job.

[Alex Vriairu]

Just got done downloading the song and I must say...You are a genious... I've ALWAYS loved your work even when I used to see you on IRC, unfortinuely I've had quite a few comp crashes since we last spoke and have lost every single track you sent me...which is a tradgety as you are truely a master at what you choose to do. It is good to see your still going strong and I hope we can meet up again some day, I look forward to hearing and seeing more of your work.

[meccaneer]

Damnit, zircon. You just make me jealous.

If I had to be picky and critical, which, this song doesn't need: that transition at 2.40 is too quick. And I only say that because of my jealousy. :P

[ocremixfan]

zircon... you did it again! You are great! Another mix that really surprised me! So many different sounds mixed together in such terrific way! Great job!

Unfortunately, this time I don't liked a bit of the music: that the little 'Hidden Truth' piece... seems just not necessary. The music could go nicely without it!

[Bobwillis]

This is a great mix, so please don't let this rub you the wrong way. The section from 2:40 - 3:00 is awful (but not on it's own merit, it's actually rather good on it's own). It seems as if it was thrown in mistakenly from another mix, most probably because the transition is nonexistent. I'll agree that it leads into the section after 3:00 fairly well as the two sections play off each other well, but it's just really out of place.

[zircon]

Yeah, while I was working on everything past 2:40, I figured that some people would have a beef with that section. The fact is that I really had no ideas once I had gotten to 2:40; literally, none. I was stuck for at least a month. The best thing I could think of was a tempo change (which isn't all THAT sudden given that a lot of romantic-era pieces change tempos from measure to measure rather abruptly). I had some ideas that I wanted to implement that could only be done at a higher tempo (everything 3:00-3:30) but there was no logical way to get there that I could find, and believe me, I did try a lot of things.

In the end, I'd say there was probably a better way of going about the transition, but at my current level of musical ability, I was unable to think of one. But I don't think the result was all that bad. I was struggling with whether or not I would give up the mix entirely when I was working on it - after about 10 listens to that part though, I figured it wasn't worth sacrificing the whole mix over, and decided to keep it in.

[Flare4War]

Lucky for us you did. This mix is excellent.

[razrparasyte]

i dunno how to quote people, but BobWillis is on crack, that's like my favorite part of the song

[Nintendo-GuRu]

Zircon, you did an effing great job on this song. I absolutely loved the effects you used (along with the perfect mix/mastering). Ugh, wonderful song.

(I swear I got a boner at 2:37, beautiful transition).

[kingcomrade1]

This is one of my favorites on the whole site. The only problem I have with it is that the high pitched synth and spastic percussion in the last section don't mesh well with the rest of the song and are a little annoying, but I love everything else about it, especially the first two minutes where the new arragement complements the original melody perfectly. It really brought back some memories of one of my favorite CT tracks and inspired me to play it again.

[HoboKa]

I've had this remix for a looong time, and it hasn't gotten old yet. I just haven't gotten around to reviewing it 'till now and i say that its 10/10 easilly. I like the randomness about it and the different styles used throughout. Grats.

[DragonFireKai]

You know, I had this playing in the background, not paying attention, and I thought it was a tango. There's a section that's pure tango. Then it moved on, and I was dissapointed. Not in the song mind you, the song's fantastic, but I really got my hopes up.

[siven7]

Zircon, brilliant...

I really love all of the style changes and fusion of musical eras that all seem to cascade upon each other - it's like a royal rumble between Mitsuda and J.S. Bach, the Danny Elfman comes in with a chair from under the rink, and then MixMaster Mike and Joseph Haydn run down the ramp and pummel everyone...

... Amazing production, great mix, brilliant interpretation, too many good things to say!

[Jaybell]

I think this is my favorite zircon remix thus far (although A Nightmare Before Kefka and Monstrous Turtles! come close. Oh and some of the VoTL stuff, too.)

The blend of orchestra and electronica is seamless. SEAMLESS I say! I can't really explain why this mix is my favorite; it just kinda IS. The transition into the trial theme coulda been a bit smoother, but that is about all I can say wrong about this mix.

This mix never seems to get old no matter how many times I listen to it. I do not know why, but WHATEVER, if it means I get to listen to this mix more, then OKAY.

[Particleman]

I like it. Reminds me of the Sailor Moon soundtrack for some reason, though.

[Nicholestien]

this is just fantastic, the reverb is perfect for the source tune. :]

[OA]

Pretty crazy that this was posted a few days after I joined the site and decided to try this remixing thing for myself. :o

There are a few minor nitpicks I have with this track, mainly some of the string articulations and that tempo transition, but for every nitpick I have, there are countless things that are excellent. I loved the beats and the harpsichord passages, especially when they get extra-ornamented with trills and mordents; I love that kind of thing. Synths were tastefully mixed in, though I wish the lead synth had a little more vibrato and swagger to it.

Everything about this mix says quality to me though, i'd say this was 5 months well spent. :-)

[Marmiduke]

One of the best things a piece of music can do is surprise you by pulling the wool from over your eyes and revealing its true direction. This is a textbook example of that.
At first listen, I just assumed this was another Elfman-esque exercise for Zircon. Impeccably made, but still, no surprises. And then it began to metamorphosise in ways that made a lot of musical sense; off the wall percussion began to move the orchestra rhythm along, synths began to be introduced and soon powered the entire piece, until eventually it had broken free into something much different. It's quite poetic, if you really want to overanalyse it.
Everything sounds pitch perfect sound-wise, and I'm actually a big supporter of how the mix transitions into its second source tune. The whole mix within a mix concept is the biggest selling point, and to try and betray that whole notion that they are somehow connected in a medley-type relationship would ruin everything it could have been. How it is now is a fantastic surprise.
In my humble opinion, you could probably peg this one near the top of the bunch when it comes to orchestral-electro hybrids. And that's even more impressive when you consider that the other contenders for the top spot are also zircon mixes. Truly a sign of a master of his genre.

[WesternZypher]

Love how this segues from orchestral to mad beatz. One of my "you think video game music is lame? Listen to this!" mixes. :smile: