Mr. Hu

Hey, so Wayo Records is reissuing the SoA soundtrack on CD and vinyl for anyone interested, with a little shikishi (bonus card) as well. Looks beautiful, if you're a collector. https://www.wayorecords.com/en/wayo-records/653-skies-of-arcadia-eternal-soundtrack-cd-edition.html

This is quite a toe-tapper. Absolutely get a "Graceland" vibe. This kind of mixing of multiple hi-mid instruments is something I struggle with, so I'm impressed by that as well.

I just really like the part! But yeah, that harmonica is also rul rul noice.

As a bass player, I super super dig the electric bass on this. I can just see some full-suited, sweating Italian session player with a 60's Fender jazz bass, squished inside the pit alongside all the other musicians, trying his absolute best to stick to the notation while everyone else gets cooler parts than him. A consummate pro. This remix is awesome.

I often close songs in the middle of super note-y solos, but every the "wankery" here was so stylish and well-placed. Fantastic job. Even better are the last 90 seconds. Absolutely sublime work.

Not expecting it to blow me away at all, but when that Squirtle came out of the water I squealed internally like I haven't since maybe the first Hobbit trailer like, 7 years ago.

THAT is so awesome. Wow. Warms my heart, haha. One of my all time favorite games, and really probably my favorite game ever that never got a sequel (okay, it got a remake, but still!). Hopefully the composers of the game will get their hands on a copy somehow.

This reeds and voices in this are very intimate, which juxtapose the industrial-ish drums so, so well. It also paints a very clear picture of the condition of Valua as an environment, even more so than the original. Man. I love this track.

I can't believe how good the acoustic guitar sounds on the "after" FF6 mix. I can like, HEAR the timbre of the wood. Bird's eye maple, right?

I'm unfamiliar with the original, but I'm digging this so hard. That lower octave lead is like the halfway point between the shimmering high stuff and the noisier sounds (which have the perfect amount of grit, to my ears), and it blends in so well; it almost keeps the whole mix glued together. Great sound and panning on the kettle toms as well!

Not familiar with the original, but I love this. So much personalty! You did a great job in making it sound like a full-band ("band") take.

I think the brush scrapes (I think that's what they are) during the first 33 seconds are far too loud, or take up far too much frequency space. They basically sound like white noise hiss, which doesn't establish a very relaxing mood, heh. There's also just too much bass frequency in the left ear, and the snare sample from 1:10 to 1:29 is too...."blatty"? Might need a different sample, or maybe the velocities should be dialed down. I like the very humanized rests. You have the potential for a ton of neat interplay/cycling though with your instruments here, so to complete your arrangement, maybe you could just get a complete drum and bass bed frame down, and add things on top, and take out sections of whatever as you go along in order to have more features for the individual tracks.

Yo can I just say that while some of the production hasn't aged well (mainly the cymbal hard panned in the left) this arrangement, the second half especially, still holds up so well. The drums are perfectly repetitive and that the guitars DON'T solo has me still bumping this track as cleaning my kitchen music after all these years. Still my fave FFVII ReMix.

As someone who listened to the "Love Hurts" Sonic 1 remix two hundred times over the last 15 years, this almost sounds like a sequel to that song. Or a companion piece, at least. I'd agree that it's better than the source, for sure. And I actually quite like that I need to turn it up a little!

I'm actually a huge fan of those low horns in the intro. You know, that late 80s "Wonderful World of Computer Music" cheese. When they're used in the right place, that is. The last minute of this was so ridiculous and different, and for that, I loved it. Can we get a Techno Viking version, anyone?