OCR01533 - *YES* Final Fantasy 6 'Allfactory'

[Liontamer]

Contact Info:

Mixer Name: E Bison
Real Name: Eliot Britton
E-mail: eliot@tentoomany.com
web: www.tentoomany.com

Track Info:
Game: Final Fantasy 6
Song: Devil's Lab
Remix Name: Allfactory
Link:
About the track:

My last submission (4 years ago) was all about clocks. This one is all about machines.

Over the last few years I have recorded a lot of industrial equipment for use in sound art projects. I've been working on a Max/MSP project that combines Vectory synthesis, FM and granular synthesis. I wanted to make a synth that sounds like a malfunctioning machine. So I did. What better way test it out than a Devil's Lab glitch track?

The majority of the material used is derived from factory noises and radio static. I wated the track to sound like the product of a bunch of factory robots.

Things to listen for:
1. All the machines power down, recharge and power back up during the breakdown.
2. Kefka quote
3. A few FF6 OST magitech sounds tucked in there for good measure.

------------------------------------------------------

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Devil's Lab" (ff6-214.spc)

Very fucking cool. "Devil's Lab" is one of my favorite original VGM tunes, just because of the energy. McVaffe's "DevilSLAB" (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00250/) and especially Khalal's "Devil's Lab (Acid Mix)" (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00239/) are the two mixes that got this theme stuck in my head when I first sat down and listened to every OC ReMix in three days back in mid 2002.

Great to see E-Bison back after a huge layoff from the community here. He's been keeping busy with some catchy stuff with Ten Too Many.

Eliot really digs into this one with some nice SFX choices as instruments, a more deliberate tempo than the original, and some creatively understated arrangement of the Devil's Lab melody. This was a fairly conservative, but hugely personalized and unique arrangement. Dynamically, he also pulled this off well in light of his stated goal to keep this at one tempo throughout.

I liked the fact that this was part of a similar motif to "Time Management", with machines rather than clocks like you mentioned. Nice stuff, and professional arrange album quality. Got nothing much left to say.

This is chock full of mechanized spices. Grab some WD-40 to get some of the squeaks out, and enjoy.

YES

[The Orichalcon]

Good buildup for an electronic-industrial hybrid mix. The bass is maybe just a little too muffled for my liking. I would've liked something a little crisper in the treble to really come through and grind in with the percussion.

I'm all for using industrial sounds to get a good creative percussion going, but one noise in particular (hitting on the 3rd beat in sections through the mix) is dominating and destroying the very clear atmosphere set up around the mix. It's a small issue, and it's a creative choice so I won't put fault there.

My major issue is with the arrangement. There's not really a lot going on to create a solid piece. Some parts are really awesome when they come together, but they fall apart quickly into what sounds like random gibberish to me over the generic sound of the source.

I think this could've been much better, some of the percussion toned down, most of the background given a more dominating role. But for what the remixer's set out to do it'll work for some and not for others. The production is ok, the rearrangement aspect is fine, so this is a pass from me.

YES

[zircon]

Man, the source tune for this is one of my favorites. You took it in an interesting direction melodically speaking; lots of changes to pitches and rhythms. Definitely not a cover by any stretch of the imagination. ;) Impressive sound design too. As a fellow synthesist I can really appreciate all the stuff that was going on here. I think some of the melodic & harmonic elements might have been overshadowed by the ambience and effects at times. Also, the percussion tended to be a little plodding. Doing some double or even triple tempo fills would have really made it more interesting. Additionally I thought the perc was overly repetitive. You could have done a lot more with all the sfx being used to make it more engaging by the second half.

Arrangement-wise... nice Kefka quotes there. I caught 'em all. :) The arrangement in the first 3/4 probably could have been more interesting, like TO pointed out. But towards the end you start doing some more fun stuff to fill things out. That percussion pattern is really killing me and making this lose out on its full potential, but that's not really a good reason to NO it.

YES

[JJT]

Man, I remember this song. Always used to fill me with a sense of foreboding, i.e. I hated this section of the game. You actually made me enjoy this theme, so props on that. The percussion is definitely weird, but it works for me. I guess I don't have anything else to add.

Nice work.

YES