RustedMind

Hey, RustedMind here... Listening to the track now. A year makes a hell of a difference, doesn't it? 'Star Steeling Princess of Zeal' seems to be turning into the musical equivalent of a manuscript, going from draft to draft, near gutting, rewriting, tweaking, but always getting better. Kinda feel some deep, resonant parallels with the book I've been writing all this time. Hard to get everything out of your head and into your computer, especially when life and other ideas for projects clamor for attention, but I'm glad you kept plugging along. Kinda gives me a bit more hope that maybe I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel myself and finally get my book published. In regard to all the CT samples, I'd say don't worry so much about how you're going to replace them, just do it. Your track's moved so far in the past year, the samples are cheapening it. Imagine that, eh? Seems to me like it's time to make your own samples, assuming you haven't already. Anyway, thanks for the update, buddy, hope you finish this soon so I can get the mp3 with that nice OCRemix title.

Oh no buddy, I never wanted you to shorten this track! If anything, either leave the length where it is, or, if the Muse yanks you out of your chair for a dance, for the love of God, make it as long as she wants! Anyway, to clarify my earlier statement regarding the length, I was merely pointing out that making Star-Stealing Princess of Zeal over eight minutes suggested that you wanted to do more with it than what we've been hearing, hence my reference to earlier demos as a skeleton. I'm kind of the same way when it comes to writing stories--I spend copious amounts of time building backstory, character development, history, and lore before I even start on a draft. In fact, I'm on what I hope to be the final draft of the first in a trilogy of books that takes place on another planet. There's well over fifty thousand years of history and lore linking this fictional planet, Virginis-e with Earth, so I know a skeleton when I see one. If anything, Star-Stealing Princess of Zeal has the potential to be every bit as rich, complex, and touching a journey as my story, The End of Dreams. Were a writer can need hundreds of thousands of words to paint a picture, someone gifted in music can paint one in minutes. Sometimes I envy musicians, particularly when I visit OCRemix, but it's people like you that inspire me to write, so I'm glad I've been able to help in some small way. God bless man, and keep it up.

All I have to say is... WOW! I can't believe how much the track's changed! Incredible! It's still a little rough around the edges, but you've all but eliminated the repetition issue already--and the variation--whoa, you really took it to heart. You weren't kidding when you said you rearranged a lot. One thing that kinda hit me when I listened to the updated version was how the remix really did capture 80's analog synth, which is kinda what Square-Enix was going for with the 2300 AD computer activation samples. It would seem to me that you could make your own retro-futuristic samples to replicate by recording the activation of old CRT monitors and TV's, ancient floppy and hard drives, or just big-ass chunky power switches. One thing that always kinda captured my imagination as a kid was when I'd reach around the back of an old IBM PC(you know, the kind that sounded like you were gonna blast off when you hit the switch). That sound always kinda made me wanna lean back in my seat to keep from getting whiplash. Anyway, you could run those kinds of samples through the CV inputs of analog synths, both physical and emulated in software to achieve some pretty wild effects. Who knows? Maybe you could replace every CT sample you wanted to use in a weekend.

I've been following this remix for months now, and it just keeps getting better and better, but the breakout into variation I was expecting for at least two months just hasn't happened yet. It would seem to me that you've built one hell of a skeleton for what can only be described as an intricate, chill, yet deceptively exciting ride, but in making it over eight minutes long, without more variation, both from the original melody, and your own ideas, it can only be that--a skeleton. I think you knew that at one point, which is why Star-Stealing Princess of Zeal is over eight minutes long--you wanted to expand upon it, but something happened along the way. Maybe you thought you had too many technical issues to work through and postponed the final work until you forgot you wanted to do it. If this is so, then now is the time. The core--the thing that gives your remix movement and power--is perfect--it's time to give life! Although I hesitate to mention this after my earlier critique, it's better that you have the heads-up than get blind-sided by the judges later. The use of CT samples could cause an issue for final submission, as remixes with samples taken from Final Fantasy games have been previously denied due to Square-Enix's overzealous use of attack dog lawyers. All that said, please don't take this as completely negative criticism. Star-Stealing Princess of Zeal has had me at the edge of my seat since the end of November, and I've been waiting for it to take off once you ironed out the concept. Personally, I think now is the time for you to really cut loose and have fun with it. Keep the version you just posted as your baseline and just go nuts, man. You'll figure it out.

I echo Souperion--there's an airy ambiance to your mix, something distant, wistful, and(fittingly) beyond any single era. My only suggestion would be in regard to the title. It just seems almost pretentious to simply slap an "80's Mix" sticker on something so uniquely haunting. How about 'The Revelation of Analog Dreams'? The name would seem fitting because the synths sound distinctly analog, and Enhansa is known as Zeal's 'city of dreams'. There, the people sleep their lives away in search of deeper truths, which they believe, may only be found beyond the veils of sleep.