docnano

D'oh! In that case, terrific playing, Proto...

I'm actually a nanomachine colony that recently self-assembled in a laboratory in Southern Michigan. Hence my recent appearance. Seriously, I've been playing classical piano forever, but only in the past year or so began composing stuff I'm happy with. Thanks Will and everybody for the positive feedback, Chris and I have worked pretty hard on this one. We'll consult on any suggestions you all raised and then probably submit soon!

Mostly memory, aided by MIDI recording. I don't make sheets or anything while composing, since it just seems to bog things down for me. And Proto is right, it's quite romantic in style -- though I'd argue that "classical" can be used to encompass both the classic and romantic periods, so I think Theophany is in the clear.

Halc, your mixes are always so bloody nostalgic -- even this one, though I've never had much to do with Pokemon. Maybe because it reminds me of the Super Mario Land theme.

Ack! Source usage is my bane. I should just try to do a straight cover, then the source content would probably come out perfect. Forgot to mention that the brief middle section on the piano comes from the Forest Temple theme. So, at least a tad more in there... Anyway, glad you like it. Just to be a pompous @$$, I believe they said the same thing to Mozart.

Oh, ok. I thought you were talking about a two-mic setup (near and far) for the violin alone. We actually did record separately, so the mixing is much more straightforward. It's still tricky to bring the violin up too much without making it sound overpowering, but I'll play with it some more -- still early on developing my mixing skills...

This is fantastic! Where did you get the sax sample? I'm impressed with how expressive you made it.

Thanks for the comments, guys! Yeah, mixing the violin has proven to be more challenging than I expected. I mixed the violin down a bit (and applied some EQing on the reverb) to avoid blasting people's ears with the high notes, but I can try to bring it out a bit more in places where the piano dominates too much. Maybe Chris can comment as to his mic setup for the violin -- out of curiosity, why would a two mic setup make a difference? Soften the sound a bit?

Chris and I teamed up on this one. It's meant to capture the mixture of delight and wonder a normal human might feel upon glimpsing these sprightly forest folk for the first time. Everybody knows the source: Remix:

I love this track. Everything just falls into place perfectly. Oh, and WillRock's Limerick definitely wins.

Suspicion from Final Fantasy IV. It's a simple tune, but packs the gut-wrenching punch of a dear friend's betrayal. from Secret of Mana. This one perfectly conveys the feeling of drowning in a sea of sorrow, and is full of the spine-tingling harmony that made the SoM soundtrack so great.Tears of the Stars, Hearts of the People from Xenogears. This track is gently flowing and highly melodramatic, especially those vibrato parts -- great stuff for its time. Perfect for the revelation of a shocking tragedy. Better stop there. Can you tell I'm a sucker for the melancholy?

I feel like there's actually close to 50% source in there, so you're pretty close to the minimum. It's clearly discernible from 0-0:50, there's a little residue of it in the next 10 seconds, then it comes back clearly at 1:43 with some alterations, then gives way to another more original section at 2:21. Maybe ~90 seconds of source out of 187? I'm no dubstep guru, but to me the original sections need the most work, as they seem a little sparse and are only very loosely tied to the source. Sprinkling in some more obvious source refs would be good in these sections. And it seems the dirtier, the better, so maybe it could use some filthy panning synths popping up at random throughout, but especially during the more liberal parts. More booms, pitch drops, and general mayhem might help make the structure more interesting, as long as you use them in a non-repetitive way. Definitely a good start and an interesting listen!

Well, certainly closer than Humans & Gears and probably closer than Creid (except for the Lahan theme). At least, Myth preserves the mystical moods, tender harmonies, and general epic feel of many of the OST tracks. If Creid was yang, this is yin. I do wish Mitsuda had covered Knight of Fire instead of Dance of Death, though.

Not a big fan of iTunes myself, but at that price I was too impatient to hunt around for something else. I think I saw on the Square-Enix site that it was sold out on Amazon, but that might have just been the Japanese release. Oh, and not to slight Humans + Gears in any way, but I strongly disagree with the originator of that quote. H + G is a (very good, but quite heterogeneous) remix album, Myth is an orchestral album with arrangements that stay very close to the composer's original vision -- why even compare the two? Viewing Myth as a kind of "OST plus," I think it's extremely good.

It's not Creid, but it doesn't try to be. I personally prefer an orchestral rendition of most of Xeno's tunes, anyway. I think the arrangements and performance are fantastic, and at $12 US on iTunes, it was a steal!

It's definitely expressive compared to many synths, and I can tell you put a lot of thought into the dynamics etc. I've heard some mixes posted with surprisingly synthy strings, even in the past few years, but one never knows where to expect leniency from the panel. In any case, it would sound infinitely more amazing with real musicians.

Definite WIN. Hope you expand on this (as it sounds like you're planning to)!

Terrific arrangement -- short, but polished, and you packed in a lot of detail and variety. Definitely could hear this in a Metal Gear movie.

This is a nice arrangement, with a good variety of rhythmic motifs and moods for such a short piece. OCRemix might want a little more development of the theme if you were to submit this. And Chris is right that it's hard to pull solo strings off with samples (I've tried a lot ; especially the articulation is impossible to reproduce with most sample libraries. It would be best to get a real string quartet together to record this, or take it in a different direction that doesn't try to be so acoustic. I'd love to hear more classically oriented mixes like this, though. Good work, and good luck!

This is around 2/3 classical to my ears (stylistically), but a very nice arrangement! I'm also a classical pianist and have been attempting to break into jazz for some time, so I understand the desire to keep it modest for now. It's a very different way of thinking. Anyway, kudos and congrats on your first mixpost!

I may be in the minority, but the CD skipping actually put a smile on my face. For a split second, it even tricked me into stopping what I was doing and checking what was wrong with the "disc"...

Well, well, this puts me in a cheery mood! I agree with WillRock that the piano sounds mechanical, but in this genre it's forgivable. Good work!

Nice. The whole piece seems more full and original now. I like the new middle section, much more climactic. The new violin countermelodies shine through and provide a better flow. Actually, that new violin sticks out just a tad, maybe try lowering the volume on that instrument part. Other than that, some sections could be tighter rhythmically. Sometimes the bass, violin and piano seem to sit in slightly different grooves, so it wouldn't hurt to check it with a metronome. As for a title, I was gonna suggest Emerald Tears, but that's apparently already an album by a British jazz bassist. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

The source is one of my very favorite VG songs of all time, and your instrumental work does it justice. Gorgeously expressive violin playing, as usual. The guitar also sounds really nice, at least to my amateur's ears. The parts are well separated in space and mixing is good, apart from some overload on the piano at times. Piano work is very nicely emotive, not at all mechanical as I often hear on the site. I especially like the new-agey improv-y stuff at the end, probably my favorite part of the mix. I think you could back off of the percussion a bit, at least in the beginning. The tambourine hits seem at times too harsh for such a tender moment in the piece. Decreasing the velocity of the tambourine hits, or adding lot of wet reverb, might help. I like how you vary the percussion, but in general you could be a little more repetitive (within a section) so that a constant feel or flow is maintained. Arrangement-wise, I'm wondering if this is too conservative for OCR. The first couple of minutes sound a great deal like the Creid track (which is to say, beautiful). Maybe you could think about exploring more of harmonic space, or adding some countermelodies earlier. You do this in the last minute or so of the piece, I just would like to hear more and earlier! I like how you change things up at 1:42, but something seems missing... it seems like a high point of the piece, yet it's sparse, like the song is screaming for a more quickly moving melody or countermelody here (maybe on violin?). Or a moving/syncopated bass part. Apologies for talking your ear off. Terrific start, keep up the good work!