[djpretzel]

:This is a Re-Send, I didn't get the confirmation email:

Hey David, got another submission for OCR.

Remixer name: Darangen
Real Name: Michael Boyd
Email: darangen@hotmail.com
Website: www.darangen.com


Name of game: Final Fantasy 1
Name of Song: Chaos Temple

Comments: RPGamer.com has held a competition "Splendid Performance",
where a challenge was to give a theme a new feeling and/or meaning. So I took the Chaos Temple theme, which usually made me feel weighed down and fighting an uphill battle, and made it into a cheerful, liberated feeling.
Something that would go great with the ending credits of the game.


I know I've covered the Chaos Temple theme before, but hey, it's the chaos temple!!! :)

Hope you enjoy it,
-Darangen

[The Orichalcon]

Source: http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 12

Okay, some pretty good guitar here, the grunge sounds like it's favouring the left channel a little more than the right, but the synth that comes in balances that so it's all right.

Sound quality is pretty good, the drums sound a little basic, but they're overshadowed by the live guitar sound and generally good synths and bass used on the mix.

My main problem here is that this sounds like an instrumental version of a vocal track. ie: it's missing vocals. It doesn't cripple the mix, I just think it would have been great if you'd made up some lyrics and sung them over it. However since you haven't done that, I'm focusing more on the leads you've used to carry the brunt of the piece. One of them in particular sounds very dry to my ears, but you have a whistley lead in there that covers it nicely when it's introduced.

Given the simplicity of the source, the arrangement here is pretty creative, Taking a two-tone melody and transforming it into a unique rock song isn't easy, and you've done a great job.

While I think it could have been better, this is passable for me. Nice work and nice fadeout at the end.

YES

[DarkeSword]

Man, the Chaos Temple theme is so awesome. I wish I had written it before Uematsu did. Wouldn't that have been totally awesome?

...

But then nobody would remix it.

Anyway, onto the mix:

Nice! You successfully took the Chaos Temple theme and put it in a major key. I've always found that harder to do than the vice versa (probably cause I suxxx), but this was really effective. I like how you kept the B section though, since that was already in a major section of the original.

Guitars are clean and the song changes up and progresses nicely throughout. I really like this.

YES!

[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by [url=http://www.ocremix.org/about/?artid=4

Submission Instructions & Standards[/url]]Bitrate should be as low as possible to achieve the desired sound quality, within reason. We recommend and use the free MP3 encoder LAME. If it's a really short song, feel free to bump up the bitrate a bit, but do not exceed 192Kbps . . . if it's a realllly long song, and won't fit under 6MB, please consider cutting a shorter, alternate version. It's a bandwidth thang ^^

208kbps VBR = BITRATE TOO LARGE! Just hook it up with a new version later and it should be fine. Anyway...

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 12 ("Chaos' Temple")
http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF1_psf.rar - 108 "Chaos' Temple"

Let's not forget that FF1 actually had that next-gen arranged soundtrack action from which to draw inspiration from. Getting into the track, the percussion was immediately dry and could have sat better in the track, like TO alluded to, but that wasn't a dealbreaking issue. Still one that could stand some substantial improvement in the future, as it limits the effectiveness of the entire package.

In particular, nice instrumentation from :33-:44 & :55-1:06 with that e-violin-type deal, and the whistley/sine wave lead was also nice and understated. Both helped create a nice texture to the piece when in play.

Arrangement basically retreads itself at 1:30, so though the arrangement ideas were very thorough and interpretive in the first place I was a bit disappointed to hear the same sections basically repeated at 1:30, 1:51 & 2:02, though you did supplement those with the electric guitar to beef things up, which was certainly good although a bit too subtlely applied.

2:36 finally built off of the first part of the track into some new material before going back to some of the ideas of the first section to close things out at 3:16 via gradual subtraction of sounds. Seemed like the drums from 2:36-3:16 were getting crnnchy and/or distorting, but I'd need a second opinion. Regardless, I was glad to see things progressed and developed here nicely like DarkeSword mentioned after my initial repetition fears.

Mike continues to bring it with some more fun material that really makes me want to compare him yet again with Ailsean. They share the same energy and enthusiasm that makes their arrangements very enjoyable to a broad portion of the community. I'd still like to see more improvement with the production on the percussion, but there's no question the sum of the parts has what it takes. Very fun.

YES

[GrayLightning]

Taking one of the most famous pieces of all time in game music history is tough. I'm a purist in this case, that's my personal view. You just don't decide to repaint the Mona Lisa. (I'm being slightly sarcastic)

But moving on...

This is a really good arrangement. I wish the melody was more present though. But the arrangement and production is definitely capable and I find no reason to reject this. On a personal note, it is a little cheesy and sappier than I'm used from you. ;)

Really neat stuff from a technical and nonpersonal angle though. Keep up the good work darangen. YES

[Liontamer]

Under 6MB file has been swapped into the original sub letter. Someone please verify the new hotness for us.

[GrayLightning]

Originally Posted by Liontamer

Under 6MB file has been swapped into the original sub letter. Someone please verify the new hotness for us.

Verified. It's good to go.