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This remix goes way harder than it has any right to. LOVE IT!!! I hope you do not mind, I included this track in a video of a little mod I did for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It fits the gameplay so well! 💛  Can see it here if you are interested:  

(and the 500% slower version too for good measure)    

not a remix (yet), just a reconsideration of how to approach an iconic track... Slowed using PSX and FL PaulXStretch settings as follows Stretch: 9.9 FFT size: 0.61 Tonal vs Noise: 0.887 / 0.255 Filter low: 44hz Filter high: 16666hz Ratio 1: 1.000 / 0.250 Ratio 2: 0.454 / 0.500 Ratio 3: 1.000 / 1.000 Ratio 4: 0.781 / 2.000 Ratio 5: 0.316 / 3.000 Compress: 0.444 Free Filter enabled to produce EQ bumps at Solfeggio frequencies 174/528/963 Hz and cuts at 285/396 Hz  

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

This opening sounds lovely and really got my expectations up to get things started. We then get to 0:32 and the sampled flute is introduced. The tone on flute is great and I like that, but there's other issues about it that cause problems. First off, it's placement in the mix is very forward and loud. I'd recommend to shoot for pushing it back in the mix so that it feels at a similar placement as the solo vocalist in the intro. You should be able to achieve that with careful application of the wet/dry levels on the reverb as well as some reduction of volume. Next with the flute, we come to articulation. And well, there is no legato, it's all detached. Whenever a more agile line is played (such as any of the chromatic passing tones like 0:38; I'll come back to this later) you can hear the separation between all of the attacks as well as times where the attack is too slow to keep up and the note barely sounds before being cut off by the next one. If you're able to, I'd recommend to try to record yourself playing the line. The arrangement itself is pretty conservative with a few small places were things were added, the intro is great, and the middle bridge 1:34-1:46 was nice. The melodic embellishment with chromatic passing tones in the melody are a form of personalization. I didn't necessarily agree with the chromatic notes because they do sound awkward in context, but they are making it your own thing and that is a step in the right direction. The texture is mostly homophonic throughout with a few other part having movement is the pizzicato, harp, and horns in different spots. Some of those were buried in the mix and not easily noticeable. Now that's not necessary to get a pass, but could help when thinking about future arrangements to keep the listener's interest going. The number one issue here is the balance between parts. As others have already said before me, the brass gets very big at times, and as I pointed out already the flute is very forward to cut through everything. In reality for a solo flute to cut through in an orchestral setting the backing parts would likely need to be playing softer than the flute for it to be able to project and carry out. In a digital context it's easy to just turn the volume up, but when you do that it just sounds unnatural. With all that said, it's going to sound like I hate this. That's not the case, I feel like there is space for this, but in it's current form it's not ready yet. NO