ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'Full of Hope'
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- Game: Final Fantasy VII (Square, 1997, PS1)
- ReMixer(s): Nutritious
- Composer(s): Nobuo Uematsu
- Song(s): 'Anxious Heart', 'Main Theme of FINAL FANTASY IV'
- Posted: 2009-09-11, evaluated by the judges
Right, then: we've been quiet for a while since coordinating the updated torrent involved some logistics. It's ready now, though, so please help seed ReMix OCR01001 to OCR01900! A short summary of recent events: PAX rocked, Christopher Tin is giving OCR-goers $1 off on presales of his new album Calling All Dawns, and be sure to check out Andy & Jill's official demo song for the recently-released FruityLoops Studio 9. Amazing what can happen in just a few days, eh? But seriously, we've been keeping a more aggressive schedule with the posting of mixes, and we need to get back on track. Nutritious has had this mix sitting on the ready-to-be-posted queue for a loooong time, as it ceded its place to other mixes he'd done, but it's finally time... Justin writes:
"This song was originally created for the Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core arrangement competition at Squaresound.com (it placed 6th, which seems to be the only place I'm allowed to attain for their competitions :) ). This is somewhat of a sister mix to my previous submission, Full of Courage, for the FFIV project since it utilizes the same source tunes. Anyway, I'll go ahead and paste my sub letter to them below:
I haven't heard any of the Crisis Core soundtrack, so I decided to stay in familiar territory and remix a piece from FF7. Anxious Heart was an easy choice for me because of its moving chord progression. I decided to go for a much more mysterious and hopeful feel in my take of the original. You'll probably notice that it eventually leads into the FF4 Main Theme briefly as things crescendo. This was actually somewhat of an accident on my part as I was intending for the piece to lead into the FF7 Main Theme. When I was writing it out, I inadvertently began writing the FF4 Main Theme instead. I later realized what I did and changed it to FF7, however, it didn't fit the mood or style nearly as well as FF4. So, I ended up keeping the FF4 theme in the final version."
Really interesting integration of synth leads and orchestral, here; usually hybrid orchestral ends up incorporating beats, multiple dominant synth elements, tradeoffs between electronica/classical passages, etc., but this is really more of a cinematic, orchestral track that just happens to include synthesizers; you can almost picture a couple dudes with Moogs sitting back with the percussion guys, doing their thing. There's a general tone of wonder and revelation, with key use of repeating, interlocking, evolving patterns to set the scene. Vinnie's started helping Larry with inbox/queue management, gaining an appreciation for all that's involved with the crucial first step in submission evaluation. He writes:
"You're starting to make this stuff sound effortless, Justin. This is one of those pieces you can just sink into. The lush atmosphere, the string triplets, and the seamless blending of two themes reminded me a lot of Nick Singer's Forerunner Mixes, but this certainly had your stamp on it too, with the way the strings handled the main melody. The retro synth gave this an unusual character - surprising addition but a creative one."
Agreed... I know with Voices and Echoes people may be a bit saturated on the FF7/FF4 material, but these soundtracks keep inspiring artists to come up with new, imaginative arrangements, and since his debut last year Justin's been proving that he always has something to say, and it's definitely worth listening to.
Discussion: Latest 13 comments/reviews; view the Combining themes can be a risky proposition, but not this time, probably helps that they're both popular FF themes, but who knew they could integrate with each other so well.
- ZealPath on September 30, 2009
- Martin Penwald on September 29, 2009
I love the synths, and the triplet string textures in the moving lines,and think that you could have done even more with them, there was some nice texture, but i think a section with them taking the forefront would have been sweet.
Ending was a little rushed, but you know better now.
I can definitely tell that this was a transition piece for you; you've gotten way better since. :-)
- OA on September 24, 2009
Sooo...
Nutritious and his skillz = amazing.
This track = ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
- JaDE ARaN HaRuNo on September 24, 2009
- Cyan99 on September 21, 2009
- MechaFone on September 15, 2009
- Bahamut on September 13, 2009
gotta be honest though, it sounds unfinished and I barely recognized the themes. Still, as a song by itself, it's awesome. love the energy near the end.
- LuIzA on September 12, 2009
Great combination of synthwork and orchestral, as Nutritious is so awesome at doing. The combo felt effortless here, which really stands out.
Awesome work!
- DragonAvenger on September 11, 2009
djp said it best when he said it was more like a cinematic arrangement with synths thrown in... and it works so well here. Great job, Justin. :D
- HitoriJaNai on September 11, 2009
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