[djpretzel]

Hey,
It's good to be submitting again. ^^
This remix is a collaborative effort between myself and Joseph Liao (aka "Fatty Acid"). I was browsing the archives of VGmix when I stumbled across his remix of the opening credits sequence for Final Fantasy X-2, "Under a Full Moon" (which I really enjoyed). The more I listened to it, the more ideas it inspired, so I contacted Mr. Liao about it and he was cool enough to allow me to re-remix his work for OCR submission.


Hopefully, the tags are correct. I apologize if they aren't.

Remix title: Final Fantasy X-2 "Under a New Moon"
OCReMix
Remixer handles: Fatty Acid & sephfire
Composers: Takahito Eguchi & Noriko Matsueda Track Title: Eternity - Memory of Lightwaves
Platform: PS2
Developer: Square-Enix
Album: http://www.ocremix.org
Content Type: Game
Year: 2005

Hope everyone enjoys. To the OCR crew, keep up the good work.

Thanks much,

Daniel Floyd ("sephfire")



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[Liontamer]

http://www.noderunner.net/~llin/psf/...FFX-2_psf2.rar - 101 "Eternity ~Memory of Lightwaves~"

Been looking forward to this one. Played it back on VGF47 just after it was removed from VGMix (for being a revision of a previously released mix). I certainly encourage all of you out there to check out Fatty Acid's original version of the track to compare it with this and hear what revisions were made. Played the first version on VGF35 and Sephfire managed to do a good job updating the track with some synth/instrument replacements, his own arrangement additions, and a bit more subtlety with the overall levels.

If there's cool rhythm alteration, you know Joseph's responsible. Very nice additive synth work as well that blended nicely with the "Eternity" source tune. Interesting e-piano work with the relatively lengthy intro until :51. The flow kind of plods along for those of you listening at home, so don't get your hopes up that it'll break out into something faster.

That's not to say it was a bad thing. I thought things were really laid-back. The synth percussion work was serviceable, but definitely could have used more humanization (it was practically the same intensity throughout) and variation (spice it up 'n shit).

Going on a hypocritical tangent, one thing I've always found interesting about Dan's mixes are that he can neglect sample dynamics (in this case, the piano) and they still sound alright. There's definitely not enough velocity work done here to humanize that area, but I had no big problems with it affecting a track like this. The fade at 4:30 was also a little too fast.

The volume on the percussion definitely should have come down. It was too loud and that prevented it from sitting well within the piece; hurts the texture. One could easily argue that it merely sounds pasted on top, and you just DON'T want that kind of criticism coming your way. Also, this could have employed panning more significantly to creating a more surround-style soundscape.

Some Js might say the pacing and build was boring, but I got a very chill vibe from it. Must be my chill bias. In terms of working with the source tune composition, the arrangement was definitely up to par with me. So there were some "questionable mixing choices" (as I hear Shael yell from the back "WTF???) that I think underminded the performance; enough to snag some NOs or bring YESs down to the borderline. But ultimately, this was one of those tracks where The wingless could swoop in and say "i couldn't give a fuck what the problems are," and that's basically my take on it. The mix was definitely alright to me - the arrangement was certainly there, and the production was otherwise solid enough as well.

YES

[The wingless]

Bandwidth exceededed'd

[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by The wingless

Bandwidth exceededed'd

Look in the FTP, you cotton pickin' varmint.

[Vig]

This mix does stay chill the entire time, and it's far from perfect. the piano comes off as cheap and tacked-on at times.

however, the piece is very enjoyable, and despite the uberchillness, it does have plenty going on dynamically. the instrumentation varies, the rhythm section swells and wanes. it's well put-together.

YES

[DarkeSword]

fantastic

This is fantastically pretty and super-chill. I love the combination of synth, strings, and twinkly sounds. Fantastic texture. Personally I think everything fits together very nicely. This is perfect fantastic chill/nighttime driving music.

fantasticYES

edit: fantastic

[zircon]

I do like the texture here, and the sounds are warm and well-used, but I think that the arrangement and structure is kind of lacking. There's very little progression throughout the song: the layers don't really change in a significant way, the drums sort of plod along, and the same chords get repeated over and over and over. Honestly, I think this could have been half as long and still gotten the idea across. There are some nice variations going on, but there isn't enough 'meat' to make the arrangement (and the mix as a whole) interesting. I like the chill feeling being attempted, but the static nature of the arrangement and sounds combined with their dry timbres to begin with don't hold up the mix. I'd like to see more done to spice things up over the course of the remix; perhaps a tempo change, key change, totally new instruments, a different chord progression, new drum layers, more improvised melodies, more background harmony, etc.

I encourage a resubmit with some of these ideas in mind.

NO

[GrayLightning]

The arrangement's there in my opinion. The concept's great, but my main gripe is a lot of this sounds extremely sparse. Usually there's only a few elements going on at once. At some points we just have the gated synth, drums and melody. For an ambientish mix, where's the clever processing, harmony, or soundscape?

Just needs more meat in my opinion.

As a fan of these two artists, sorry, but I'm borderline NO on this one.

[analoq]

could use some more layers, but what's there has got a nice, crisp sound to it.
what i'd really like from this is a bass line that just doesn't play the root of the chords.

oh well, it's a cheesy chill remix that most people will enjoy one or more listens of.
yes

[danny B]

Wow. This is actually a really tough decision. I like the fact that it isn't needlessly complex or inundated with special fx that mean nothing. Conversely, it is somewhat sparse and dry at points. The stutter fx are a bit jarring at first, but after a listen or two they become more acceptable.

I have to stave off my prejudice, as I'm definately not a fan of the original. I think it's too ballad-y for it's own good and too cheesy. But this mix does well not to cheese it up any more. The beetz are simple yet effective, and are served well by not transmogrifying into a new beast every 4 measures. There's a solid effort at keep the percussion fresh, and I think it pays off.

If I were to nitpick, the ending is a bit abrupt, and like Larry mentioned, there is a conspicuous lack of velocity alteration. It's not particularly bad, but something that may have spiced it up a bit. The arrangement is solid, taking the original tune and laying it out intelligently and methodically. I can't think of what more we could ask for in an OCRemix, personal hatred of the source (THASAUCE) aside.

GJ

YES

-D