*NO* Valkyrie Profile 'Blind Eternity'

Song Title: Blind Eternity

Game: Valkyrie Profile

Artist: Koelsch1

Year: 2004

This one was written for a contest called New Blood, which callenged artists to remix from a selection of games that had little or no coverage. This is my first attempt at any type of orchestral arrangement

We kinda got some pretty high standards for orchestral songs on this site.

This song is very well thought out, but lacking in the areas of sound quality.

I very much like how it was sequenced. Shows mastery of the genre.

GRAH, pretty torn on this remix. Its the sample quality that brings it down, but otherwise its totally

YES worthy

Good for your first attempt at orchestral style. Like Protricity said, the standard is high. There are some points in the mix where the samples sound a bit iffy, but I think this is still a

YES

Though I'm a firm advocate of "when in doubt, boost the reverb" to solve most of my sound issues, much of this piece sounds needlessly washed out and cavernous. This does not, however, mask the inherent talent behind the arrangement, which is as deep as it is broad emotionally.

Yes, we've been stringent on sound quality, notoriously so on Orch. pieces, but as I've mentioned time and time again, we reject this song based on quality, and I'm damn sure he ain't gonna run out to buy the $400 phat-b33tz sound font or whatever the hell you kids use nowadays. In any event, as far as rejecting mixes on the basis of sound quality, that just makes me sad like Michael Moore on a day without cake.

It's good stuff. Deal with it.

YES

And let us not forget... Mikey's got one... fat... ass.

This is Squidfont, however, it's not Squidfont used really well. The strings sound really lo-fi and filtered; sounds like you used those combination string section sounds at the end of the bank.

The flute really goes out of tune at the higher register, sometimes it gets rather painful. Also, the horn seems to have no attention paid to velocities on it; it sounds very static and lifeless.

I caution you when using Squidfont; it's not really much good for anything aside from strings, and you should always try to use the individual strings and build your string textures from there; aside from that, most of the other samples have intonation and clarity issues.

As for the arrangement, I really don't find it very compelling; not much more than sustained strings with a flute and harp playing over it. The harp work in this song is the only real thing thats commendable. And that ending just cuts off; no resolution, no build, nothing. This piece really lacks any kind of tension and resolve that's so important in an orchestral piece. It meanders and repeats, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand the other judges' YES sentiments.

NO

A grand effort compared to this mixer's previous mix on the panel. More dynamic contrast would have been welcome, but as is I still found it very enjoyable.

Edit: While I found the arrangement enjoyable, there are a number of issues that can be improved on as far as the orchestration and polishing goes. As stated by the mixer, this is new territory for him and it does show. Hopefully we can expect brighter things in the future from Koelsch.

My vote is changed to a borderline NO.

hmm....since this damn mix is still up here for some reason, with teh mad question marx, i'll say that

it sounds very grainy, and the instrument quality does hurt it.

the strings are a little dull, the horn is lifeless, and the flute is shrill. the oboe is also bathed in verb until my ears bleed.

the arrangement is interesting in some spots, dull in others. i think the inconsistent arrangement plus the fairly bad sounds lead to a NO, but it could easily be fixed up, i think.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/ValkyrieProfile_psf.rar - 123 "Eternal Hydrogen Anxieties"

I thought this was a pretty relaxing piece. Like Gray mentioned to me, this took a section of a "meh" original (Motoi Sakuraba's "Eternal Hydrogen Anxieties") and worked with it well. The arrangement was well thought out, IMO. One small problem I had with this were the piercing woodwinds at 2:03, 2:37, 4:45 & 5:06. Scale them back a bit at those points.

What's important though is the overall work, which was very solid, but has need for improvement. The intro was excellent until the French horn joined in. The synth for it is noticeably weak throughout its use in the mix and doesn't add the energy or strength that it would obviously provide if it sounded more realistic. Because it doesn't sound natural in any way, it really stands out negatively compared to the rest of the mix.

Some others had problems with the samples in general, but I felt the other instruments worked well enough so I didn't have a problem with them...when there were a few of them. Unfortunately, when K1 attempted to go out with a stronger 2nd half with lots of activity, the instruments just mushed together in the low midrange (3:23-4:38). He's gotta work things out so that everything sounds cleaner and generally occupies its own space.

Great stuff so far on the arrangement side, but the production (while decent) is holding this one back. I'd like to see this get refined and resubmitted, as it would ultimately make Koelsch1 a stronger musician. It's close to being over the line, but I don't see as being there yet. It'll be nice to hear this one with improvements.

NO (definitely resubmit)