[Liontamer]

Remixer Name: Uboichi
Real Name: Uub Jacobson
User ID: 10339

Game arranged: Kingdom Hearts 2
Song arranged: Darkness of the Unknown
Composer: Yoko Shimomura
System: PS2

I haven't got a clue what gotten into me when I decided to arrange this piece for 2 pianos. Not because it's a crazy idea ('cause it isn't), but more because I started with this arrangement about 8 months ago. It's so long ago that I simply don't remember why I started it. When I first got close to finishing this piece my computer broke down. It was horrible, I couldn't make music on my PC anymore! So I saved some money every month for a few months so I could buy myself a brand new PC. But that saving took me so long that I didn't have my PC untill last week. So if anyone remembers this being on the WIP forum, this is why it took me so long to finish it.

[Palpable]

This takes the basic figures of the original and turns them into something much more intricate, using them in a variety of different ways. The interplay is excellent. My favorite moment is at 1:00, which has the pianos trying to outdo each other. When I hear it, I imagine a battle scene in a play, where swordfighters are taking turns dashing at each other. Suffice to say, the piano playing/arranging in this is great.

A little more separation of the pianos would have helped this a bit. I also think I'd prefer one of the pianos to be a little brighter for contrast but that's more a personal preference. Really, this is great work.

YES

[DarkeSword]

Ah, don't you just love Yoko Shimomura? ¦]

The tone overall is a little dark on the pianos, which I personally prefer, but like Vinnie said, a little more contrast between the dueling pianos would have helped, especially in terms of definition. Some of the articulations get lost.

Overall though, great piece. Very dynamic and epic. The pianos mesh very well. Nice job.

YES

[Liontamer]

Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack - (232) "Darkness of the Unknown"

The piano sounded thin and the sample felt exposed the whole time, but the overall sequencing was OK. IMO, the more slowly paced material ended up sounding stronger compared to when the pace quickened.

The arrangement was certainly good enough. Pretty genteel stuff, not quite in the style of Masashi Hamauzu, but definitely a similar feel.

I actually thought the production was pretty weak. I agreed with my brown colleagues that the pianos needed better separation, but thought it hurt the track more than they did. If this was given some EQ tweaking, the piece would sound twice as good. As is, the muddiness substantially obscured the dynamic curve evident in the composition, which was a shame.

I'd really like to see some touchups on this one so that it could sound its strongest before it goes up, but otherwise, solid work, Uub.

YES (conditional)

[CHz]

Pretty cool arrangement to a piano duet here. Nice development and some good interplay between the parts; it's six minutes long, but I never thought "why is this still going." Sequencing is good too.

Production is my main beef here, because I would really like the piano parts to be better defined. There's a bit of bleeding, and they have the same sample, so the sounds blend into each other a bit too much. Vinnie had a really good idea with making one of the pianos a bit brighter; you could go with another piano sample entirely, or just do something to give one of them a bit different character, so that they stand out against each other more. Or just move them a bit farther apart in the soundscape.

I think the production does bring this one down a bit too much, so I'm with Larry here. I won't yell if this passes as is, but I think it could be so much better with just a little bit more work.

YES conditional on fixing up the piano contrast

[Another Soundscape]

Ah, this was interesting. Shimomura's soundtrack is at times fantastic and at times not-so-fantastic. Luckily this is the former.

Interesting arrangement. Not very quirky or unexpected but pleasing nonetheless. Some dissonant harmonic content but nothing that didn't sound very intentional and served as a pinch in the butt for the listener.

The production however is another story. While the general tone of the samples isn't bad at all, the processing hurts it. It's very muddy and way 'back' in the mix. It feels like important high frequencies are missing. I don't know if it's partially the hall reverb but you need to at least EQ the pianos a bit differently (or use a different sample alltogether) to separate the pianos more. Just panning doesn't help if the pianos sound identical.

I, like Larry and 'Ili, feels this could use some production touch-ups before it achieves it's fullest potential. It's probably not more than a couple of hours work and it will be very much worth it. Fix it and this will be a fantastic addition to OCR.

YES(conditional on contrast + EQ touch-up)

[zircon]

I could have sworn I voted on this... weird. Even though it's pretty much already approved, I'll throw in an opinion anyway. The execution here is solid overall with some mechanical parts, but because of the powerful nature of the arrangement, it doesn't hurt the mix too much. I agree with all of the production comments - I would like to hear more separation of the pianos if at all possible. A little more volume, via a maximizer, would not hurt either.

The arrangement is nice overall. There was a lot of source material to work with but choosing to stick with that primary motif and build on it was a great idea.

I feel good enough about this to yes it with no conditions, but would be OK if it got sent back to the ReMixer for some additional work.

YES