OCR01453 - Chrono Trigger 'Black Wind Rising'

[djpretzel]

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

[Txai]

Square wave. This is amazing.

[Antelucan]

I happened to listen to this mix before it had been posted here, and I distinctly remember how much it blew me away. It's simply THAT amazing.

[damathacus]

Is that a Sweet Dreams homage I hear from about three and a half minutes on?

[Bummerdude]

Feels like I'm traveling through the history of music, there's hardly no music type that isn't in there. Maybe jazz or blues, but that would make it lose its hardcore. The serious strings never really let go, only around the middle it lose its gripe of it and instead lets the beats and synths of the arts of electronica take over the scene. And then at 3:00, dude, the acoustic guitar and electric bass is frigging sweet!

This is something for everyone. At least some parts of it. Way to go Star! :nicework:

[Rellik]

The first time I listened to this, I didn't really enjoy the orchestral parts at all - second time I think they're pretty great, though!

Just wanted to mention that I really enjoyed this. Great synthwork especially.

Gotta love 2:18 and that whole section - that's my favorite part. If for nothing else, I recommend everyone to listen to this mix for the purpose of hearing this section. The crazy-pitched blips and insidiously catchy rhythm ... just so good :D it's the kind of groove that just doesn't come along often.

The other superlative I want to commend Star for is the arrangement of the source-tune - it's more subtle than I personally normally prefer, but the way the elements are presented and woven in is extremely clever, if seemingly too sparse.

[Ninja-san]

Love how it started out and change in sound. The only problem i have is the way it ended

[Zaid]

Wow..just WOW star salzman...I've always been a huge fan of songs that mix genre's, and i'd have to say i just become a bigger fan of yours. You are truly innovative at what you do....may I kiss your feet? please?

[Jimstander Drago]

Epic, awesome, and totally worth a download.

[Lomion]

Very effective blending of genres. Nice job, Mr Salz!

[ILLiterate]

Not only is the remix full of awesome, but when I listen to it and the final battle of Army of Darkness is going through on my TV in the background it's even more awesome. GG

[[blunai]]

This remix definitely retains the vigor found in the original! It effectively combines orchestral and chiptune sounds to make a fascinating atmosphere and equally sinister sounding track. Perfect for a Magus' theme remix!

[Petara]

Hooray for all the CT love lately! Perhaps there will be a day when I get sick and tired of hearing another new CT remix, but as for right now, I'd love to hear more and more. Especially hip orchestral arrangments like this. It's exactly what I'd expect from Star. An all around interesting and delightful arrangment worthy of your attention.

[watkinzez]

Not surprised that this jumped the queue. Definitely an intelligent remix that homages the original's atmosphere, while taking it off in new directions. Pity the rock section didn't take control of the mix's direction more, but that's a matter of personal taste. Great work.

[Robotaki]

Wow, this is a very varied song. I liked the orchestral sections in the beginning. Which string samples were used for the short attacks near the beginning of the song? They're very good. Were they VSL? Well, nevertheless, they really maintained the tension in the original song. Awesome stuff.

[SPIKENOX07]

Wow. The whole song is great. The first part of the song sounds like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. I give this song a 9 out of 10.

[Rellik]

Which string samples were used for the short attacks near the beginning of the song? They're very good. Were they VSL?

Sounds like Miroslav to me, but then again, every orchestra sounds like Miroslav to me right about now, since Miroslav is all I have and I play it for hours on end :P

But seriously, my guess would be Miroslav. Maybe Star will pop in and shed some light on the subject.

EDIT: I am informed that my guess was pretty bad :P

[zircon]

I think Reason for the strings, QLSO for other stuff.

[DCAlexis]

The best remix. Ever.

[RoeTaKa]

I love the whole vibe after 2:18, just slick and well done. The synth work is tasty man, and the stabs on the orchestra are very fitting. Excellent, you're a star alrighty.

[Flare4War]

The synth jamfests that come in to play at around 1:30 and 3:30 are incredible. The entire mix is excellent but those are my favorite parts.

[MaGi_TekK]

Ridiculousness. This song is so superb that adjectives must quiver and quake at the thought of having to make an attempt at describing the Zakossity of this work. Yes, Zakossity, a new word that means something better than anything preceding it ever, the only word that can adequately attest to this piece's mastery of the remixing art.

[Sinewav]

I just about cried when that organ-sounding thing came in... Kind of a Hammond B3 sound ya know?

This song is amazing... I really am speechless. I can't think of words to describe how cool and well put together this is. Battle with Magus is one of my favorite vg tunes too, so I suppose that helps a bit.

10/10. Easily.

[Heyjohnny]

THIS IS GREAT! This is a great song!
I mean, I usually find a song that I like, and then it has that one part that bugs me, or I listen to it too much. Not this one. I got this song within a half hour of it being posted, and just listening to it every time I think about it has been what caused me to prolong my opinions.

You perfectly captured the feeling of the song in your remix. You feel the intense and sinister ways of Magus in the orchestrations, and you can almost feel the hatred he holds. The song accuately depicts the battle and is so well composed that the fact that you have Rock, Techno, Classic Symphonic style, and what I can only describe as 'dark' brass, doesn't harm it at all. In fact every ingredient is perfect to the T and when you segued the acoustic guitar in the background of the 'whatever it is' organ, I wanted winamp to tell me that the song had a few more hours left. The synths and the incredible drums are put together with great experience and unmistakable skill.



:puppyeyes: **tears**
Thank You Star Salzman

[Miletus]

My first hearing of this was incredibly well timed. I'd minimized World of Warcraft in Onyxia's Lair (big boss, epic fight etc) waiting for someone to turn up, and came across the mix. As I pressed play I went back into the game just as we begun to charge in, and it basically fit the fight perfectly. It just so happens it was the smoothest onyxia fight the guild ever did - science surely states that this is because I was listening to this at the time.

Good song.

[Broken]

Star ROXORS my BOXORS!! And makes awesome mixes to boot. This one covers too many musical styles to count,
but the cool thing is they're all done well. I particularly enjoy the orchestral opening. The build-up and tension is almost tangible.
Then things cool off he segues into the rest of this schizo-mix.
There was maybe one synth that seemed kind of uninteresting, and that's about all I can dislike about this.
Star continues an amazing track record for different, yet satisfying OCRemixes. Keep up the good work!

[POS Industries]

I'm torn on this one, because I feel that it's an extremely well done piece of music. On the other hand, it's something that vaguely resembles but is in no way similar to Magus' theme. However, I'm starting to think that the theme is apparently just a terribly difficult song to remix, because all of the Magus remixes have this issue in my opinion.

Overall, I still feel that this is a very good piece of original music, which is probably something more to brag about anyway.

[Nobbynob Littlun]

The strings, especially that lead violin or whatever it's supposed to be, really bothers me, as it has in previous Salzman songs. Other than that, I like it! The vocals and heavy drums in the beginning remind me of World of Warcraft, and of course the soundtrack to the Conan movies!

Speaking of which, playing this song during Onyxia makes me laugh in ridicule. But hey, there's no shortage of game videos set to music way out of context!

[Miletus]

Speaking of which, playing this song during Onyxia makes me laugh in ridicule. But hey, there's no shortage of game videos set to music way out of context!

I don't get it. Ony is a big fight and so is Magus. Both are RPGs. The fact I heard this song as we went against Ony is coincidental, and I wasn't making a video of it. I laugh in ridicule at your context snobbery, kind sir!

[Marine]

This is song is simply awesome.

It reminds me of another song Star did a long time ago. Light at the End of the Tunnel Syndrome, I believe it was.

[DarkFrog]

Thank you for this excellent addition!

An epic introduction at 0:50. Goosebumps!

The section around 1:30 reminds me quite a bit of Pillar of Salt (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01225/). Awesome!

I also am just amazed at the section starting at 3:35. It brings back fond memories of the Scream Tracker songs that used to dance in my headphones. :razz:

Heh, and even an ending that reminds me of Gitaroo Man! Great work!

-Austin Spafford

[anclunn]

I would have liked the guitar to come to the forefront at some point to give the electronic sound of the latter half more variety, but otherwise a very good mix. Going on my playlist.

[Amayirot Akago]

Listening to it right now. Fantastic! Another great Magus remix (definitely my fav Chrono Trigger song too).

[StClair]

Dude, please, just... pick ONE or TWO styles and stick with them, rather than completely changing every 20 seconds. There were at least three motifs in here that would have made really good remixes by themselves, if they'd been allowed to develop throughout the entire thing.

This song gave me whiplash. It felt like you were trying to show off all the tricks in your bag, at the cost of a coherent and satisfying performance.

[Nigel Simmons]

Dude, I don't hear a change in style every 20 seconds. I don't know about you, but the changes are nice, and adds some variation. I don't think this mix is perfect (I'm really, really picky when it comes to the realness of orchestral sampling, and the techniques used to make it sound authentic. I think in some respects he could have done better there).

But don't go dissing the variation. That's what it's all about.

[Hector]

Brilliant opening, but the piece gets far too into techno as it progresses. I would have much preferred if it stuck to the same array of instruments present in the first two minutes.

[StClair]

I like the orchestral and the techno, but (IMO) he should pick one and stick with it.

Simmons: For me, 2:18 - when the mix disintegrated into squealing noise - was when I finally threw up my hands and decided the composer had abandoned melody and consistency for the sake of showing off his range. I don't find a dish which randomly changes its taste with every bite to be palatable.

[Sporknight]

I'm a real big fan of most of Star's work, and what you guys need to understand is that that's really his style, to vary and blend techno, orchestral, etc. elements into his mixes. Now, at first, the way he bounced around kinda turned me off, especially when it went to about 80% electronica, but I learned to like it. I really enjoy the nice, "crunchy" guitars growling under the main theme, and I was a little upset when I didn't get more of that, but this mix has really grown on me. Magus's theme has been mixed a good deal lately, and it shouldnt be too hard to find a concentrated mix of it with just one style, anyways.

A few more comments on the mix itself, though: The beginning, especially before the 1:00 marker, sounds a lot like something from The Matrix (especially with the chorus), but it works for me. I also really enjoy the bit of synth around 3:30 that goes off and does its own thing - a little bit of deviation from the source theme is nice, and this handles it well. The acoustic guitar busting outa nowhere at 3:01 is also very nicely handled. This mix seems to jump around a lot more than Star's other works, but I really enjoy the overall impression it leaves, though the ending feels kinda abrupt - I'm no music major, but maybe bringing it back to what was going on in the very beginning woulda been a good way to bring the song to conclusion.

I think, overall I like the way my girlfriend (who is also an OCR listener) put it: A lot of mixes go places, and then keep coming back to the same place. This mix just goes places, and keeps going. I give it a solid :nicework: , and a permanent home on my playlist (and stuck in my head, in a good way).

[StarBLaSt]

This is admittedly one of my crazier remixes; it was influenced heavily (oddly enough) by Yes and other 70's progressive rock. The genre-blending is indeed my favorite stuff to do with remixes, but couple that with stuff like 13/8 time signatures and you get a lot of pandemonium. This mix definitely wasnt designed to be a crowd pleaser... OR a "show off" piece as some have suggested. It's designed to be a departure from classic, highly-structured no-dissonance style remixes. Basically, I wanted to prove that you can still do crazy outlandish stuff musically without sacrificing quality. Anyway, thanks for the kind words!

[Ventrex]

Wonderful. New Star stuff. Nothing much to add, except that this is one of the best mixes you've done yet, and ranks pretty high for me (though Pillar of Salt still tends to send me into a crazy trance state of awe, utterly oblivious to the outside world).

You've done right by my ears when I can't really offer a single intelligent comment. :wink:

Just good to see new material from Star of all people on a sleepless night that demands music. Deliriously delicious stuff as always.

[A-RoN]

I must say Duel of Fates is a great piece of music which made me enjoy this one alot.

Good job.

9/10

[Dunther]

awesome work! :D

[Psychotic Ninja]

I really love this remix and I must say it's one of my favorites from Star Salzman.

Great job.

[ArchaicTimeFrog]

I don't even know why I like this song so much. Most of it is not really my thing, and I almost quit listening after the first few seconds. I'm not really into the orchistral thing, mostly. I guess it's the middle/ending that really hooks me. All I know is that right now I'm listening to the song for the third time in a row, and when it's finished, I'll probably replay it again.

[Zeklan]

Wow.
Very cool.
I have to say that Star, (as a Mixer) just keeps going up in my book.
"Pillar of Salt" is now one of my Top 5.

[SirRus]

you are good. real good.

[I_Love_OC_ReMixes]

very stylish tune. Love it! Keep up the work yo!! :D

[DJ Skratch 'n' Sniff]

I'm always up for a Salzman mix and this is no exception. The song changes so often it's almost hard to keep track of what's happening, but it's not a bunch of mish mash at all; it just simply keeps the tune as exciting as possible.

When the main melody comes in at 2:02 and 4:16 I get the urge to thrash about manically. Which is a good thing, by the way.

[apoc]

Definitely a style I've never heard before. There were parts of it that I thought were off-the-charts awesome and then there were parts that left me pretty confused as to what you were trying to accomplish. I like the idea of mixing the orchestral with the techno, but I think it could have been done a little better in some areas - for example, I think this may have worked a bit better for me if the electronic sounds were not so high pitched...the contrast was a bit too much to handle sometimes.

This is definitely a work of art though and has earned my respect and admiration. Keep up the good work!

[playingtokrush]

A typical boner-popping tune from Salzman. Good stuff. My pants are a mess.

[tjtoocool]

Now I remember why I look forward to new Salzman remixes. Can't wait for the next one. Hurry up and get started on it Star! :D

[Turraken]

I love the first bit, sounds like the Ringwraith music from the LOTR soundtrack.

The techno's pretty cool too, but I prefer the orchestral..

9/10

[Boogie Pop Nightmare]

I must say, as an avid fan of Star's works ((I first heard of him when I listened to his Pilar of Salt, Xenogears remix)) I have yet to be dissapointed thus far by anything he has created. By the way, I have two friends who loved your Rainy Day Remix of Toto's Africa, Star. :3

I honestly completely zoned out listening to this song, it took me about four or five seconds to realize the song was over and I needed to hit 'play' again. It was definately a song worthy of Star, and I plan on listening to it many more times. Thank you so much for you hard work keeping us otaku's entertained Star. *bows*

[undinesfire]

Wow!

[Rechact]

Amazing. My favorite Chrono Trigger piece.

[Razanar]

Definitely my favorite Chrono Trigger piece on this website. It moves through multiple genres, keeping it from getting boring ever. Seeing as how the magus theme song was my favorite, this just brings it to a new level.

[ProjectSpam]

Really, the only CT ReMix that successfully captures Magus's badass-ness. The various styles come together in a coherent and stylistically pleasant manner, losing nothing in my opinion from the transitions.

Side note, 1:35-2:00 (and then the similar part later in the song) reminds me of Trenthian's work.

Great ReMix!

[ShrikeArghast]

Part of the problem with a lot of Magus remixes is that they lose a lot of the underlying 'heavy on the brass licks' sound of the original.

This one doesn't.

That alone is enough to set it apart. My only real complaint is the slow pacing of the song, which - I think - somewhat detracts from the rushing, desperate movement of the original.

Top notch otherwise, and clearly the best of the Magus remixes by leaps and bounds. Everything from 3:00 on is just gold.

[gregfrost]

With this one, I really appreciate the attention given to the transitions--each section seems to grow out of the one before it, while at the same time changing the rules of the game. It's the kind of music that doesn't fit in a box, which makes it very powerful and interesting. The same could be said of Magus, I think. Except for the part about him being music. I'm not that kind of fangirl.

Now that we have traveled the landscape of broad platitudes, I'd like to throw in one specific comment. I appreciate the scrupulously detailed samples for the orchestra instruments. They're not as convincing as the ones in Jared Hudson's insane experiment ("The Frontier") from a while back, but they're better than average. I think they will be sufficient until that day when I get off my lazy ass and make a billion dollars in the stock market, for the sole purpose of hiring my own orchestra and lending it to hopeful ReMixers.

[DrNeedlove]

The intro's strings are a great touch. :37 the tempo change reminded me of a Matrix song. The voices in the backgroung work well with the Magus feel. 1:10 the guitar and bass are perfect. They mix well with the strings. 1:34, not sure what the sound you used there but the mix of new with an old 8-bitesque sound rock!!! Magus's theme flows throughout this piece. The solo at 2:02 gave me goosebumps. Amazing! At 2:22 was not know where you were going untill the strings came back in, worked well. One of the best mixes on the site hands down. Continue to rock the OCR world and I can only expect the best.

[ph0sphorousgobu]

Bah, he does it again! Star Salzman rocks my socks off. This is a pretty hard core piece. Orchestra part is good, the rock/percussion parts lend nicely to the overall feel of the piece, and the vocals drive it all home.

I still think I like "Pillar of Salt" better, but these are both top-notch remixes. Lovely work!

[DragonFireKai]

Star Salzman put together one of the most impressive mixes on this site in "Pillar of Salt" That said, this is almost as good, it defies conventional genres in so many ways, and really conveys the darkness of the Battle with Magus.

[Harpsikord]

:mrgreen: Love it when the drums finally get into it at 3:33 with that amazing little melodic riff going on over it. Having listened to a lot of what this site has to offer, this piece ends up near the top for creativity and craftsmanship. Excellent job, Star Salzman, whoever you are!

[WesternZypher]

Listening to this makes me grin like a fool. I think I'm distracting other people in class.

[Catharsis]

I haven't posted in a while, but I had to get on to say this is great. I'm not sure how I never noticed this one before.

[WillRock]

There are too many chrono trigger mixes on ocremix :tomatoface:

That said, if I liked them all as much as this, I would be a VERY happy person.

In other words... this mix kicks some serious ass :D

[OA]

Pretty good stuff, I like Star Salz. Great synth writing. :-)

[DusK]

I love the feel of this entire mix. It really feels like so much wrapped into one piece. I actually considered using this piece for a Halo montage a few years back when I was still playing HPC competitively. I can't really say that for any remix on the site; This piece really has a cinematic feel that grips you and doesn't let up.