[Liontamer]

Remixers: sephfire (Daniel Floyd), tweek (Brian Arnold)
Game Remixed: Final Fantasy 7
Track Remixed: Opening/Bombing Mission
Email: sephfire - sephfire_cec@yahoo.com, tweek - bmarnold@uga.edu
Website: sephfire - www.sephfire.com, tweek - www.tweekmusic.com

Tweeks Summary:

"This remix was inspired and produced because of Zircon's FF7 remix competition. Out of all the tracks that were offered, I still can't put my finger on why I chose this one, but I'm certainly glad I did. I decided to change the song quite a bit from the original, with the most obvious change being the time signature. Converting the piece from 6/8 to 4/4 was no easy task. Throw in the fact that the song is full of melody lines that last no longer than a few measures and you find yourself with quite a difficult challenge. In spite of all that, I am exceptionally happy with how it turned out. Having sephfire join the project with me facilitated this mix being taken to the next level. His touch and expertise greatly added to the outcome of this mix. All in all, I can be, and am, very proud of this mix. Enjoy!"

Sephfire's Summary:

"The track was already about 80% done by the time I got involved. I rewrote the first minute (the Opening section) and then just played around with what Tweek had already layed out, adding some strings here, a stutter there, a synth line somewhere else, etc. As tight as the mix sounded already, I didn't have to do much. Tweek is growing at an alarming rate as a musician. I hope we get the opprotunity to collaborate again soon."

JIMMY EDIT

[quote]Hey bro,

Here it is. I worked with the kick and the strings a bit and I hear a huge difference. Mainly because after working with them a little bit, the compression has drastically been reduced in areas.

Let me know.

The old link should still be active for you to compare.

The new one:

The ID3 tags are NOT complete on the update. I wanted you to listen to it before we went to all the trouble. If you're happy, we'll get them fixed up and re-upload it.

Cheers mate.

Sephfire and I would request a link retention in the post in the case of a NO decision.

[big giant circles]

Hmm, I thought there was talk of a DP here?

This is a solid piece. Great adaptation of the title/bombing mission. Converted fairly well into 4/4 from 6/8 without too much loss in translation, so to speak.

The main setback this track has, deals with the volume and compression. The mix tends to get very cluttered at times because of this. Particularly with the marc strings, and bass drum. Lot's of reverb + certain frequencies, + loud noises = sonic clutter. Particular examples are bass kick that comes in at :58, strings from 1:21 - 1:27, again at 1:43 - 1:48, the crash cymbal there is struggling for air big time.

So here's the deal. This is still a pretty darn easy call. But I'm going to make it on the condition that you turn down the reverb just a smidgen (mainly on the kick and strings) and drop the master volume a hair. Otherwise, this is really great stuff. Nice work!

YES

*EDIT* Brian tweaked the reverb and toned the volume on the strings down a notch. I feel like the clutter isn't as apparent, and the cymbal crashes and other instruments aren't fighting for air. (compare 1:43 - 1:49 of the older and newer versions to see what I mean)

-BGC

[Liontamer]

There was DP consideration, but Andy was solid on it going to the panel and I agreed with his call after giving it another listen. tweek has a more solid pontential DP candidate that he's working on for the FF7 project, so I've decided to panel this one and run with that FF7 track later.

[big giant circles]

hope i'm not jumping the gun here, but i was chatting with brian this morning, and talked to him about taking the reverb and volume down a notch on just the strings and bass drum.

will post his response shortly. he's going to talk to sephfire about it.

[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by big giant circles

hope i'm not jumping the gun here, but i was chatting with brian this morning, and talked to him about taking the reverb and volume down a notch on just the strings and bass drum.

will post his response shortly. he's going to talk to sephfire about it.

Nah, taking the initiative and reaching out to the submitters to check out potential issues is always cool.

EDIT: Let's see what we've got...

http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 102 "Opening - Bombing Mission"

Nice opening with the bells. The old version definitely wasn't this clean before. 1:27 was pretty flismy for what seemed to be a good spot for a high impact point. Strings immediately afterward (1:41; same at 3:15) were kinda thin, but the sound balance already sounded pretty delicate. Something where the string work was denser felt like it would have clicked better.

Not a blowaway production job, as the track seemed to want to be more grandiose sounding but didn't have all the oomph needed. Good dynamics though, and a solid arrangement. Not much else to say, homies.

YES

[zircon]

Very MGS feel in the intro, with the fast sequenced synth FX, big drums, strings and horns. I was expecting more though, at :51 - seemed like a bit of a letdown in terms of energy. Past that, the bass + big drums helped to fill things out but I can't help be reminded of your Speed Limit mix, seph. The marcato strings, heavy compression, and bubbling synth arps are all pretty similar. Even the riff being played was quite close. Try to vary up your sounds more from mix to mix. On the whole, the production was good but on the boomy/overcompressed side - it could use more upper-mid to high range energy.

The arrangement is good, though the bombing mission section is fairly liberal and doesn't make use of all the source material. I would have preferred less reliance on production/processing tricks to push the arrangement and more actual melodic/harmonic variation tying new ideas back to the original. Structurally, same thing... it didn't feel disjointed, but it felt more driven by textural changes rather than fresh writing and material.

Objectively speaking I think this passes our arrangement and production bars fairly readily. But I do feel that musically it's somewhat uncreative, compared to previous mixes I've heard from both of you.

YES

[JJT]

Nice work. I think the low end is just a tad muddy, but this is obviously OCR material.

YES