oakthielbar

FINALLY! This is what OCR has needed for quite a while. This may be the best remix on the site - and if it's not, it's definitely up there.

There isn't a remix here that has choirs of the quality that I'd prefer. Just because a remixer cannot afford to hire a real choir doesn't mean that it won't sound bad if he doesn't. Certainly it's not the composer's fault and I don't begrudge him - I mean, honestly, it's not like he can help it - but the fact is that the choir sounds mechanical (inhuman shifts in volume, attacks sounding a little off, etc.) and that counts against the piece. Honestly, though, with what they had they did a pretty good job. A good composer makes the best of what they have at their disposal, and they did just that. Does that mean that things are perfect? No. There's always room for improvement, and in this case I would say it's mostly issues with the choir. Maybe they'll figure out something else to do next time, or perhaps it will be the same (because who the heck has the money to spend on super freaky good choir samples?). EDIT: Sorry still for being such an ass about this.

I'm not sure if you're referring to me or not, but I am not complaining about how easy it is to understand the lyrics as much as I am complaining about how human the choir sounds. It is a matter of believability. The choir samples used sound mechanical in most places (though wonderful in some others). I think it's enough so that since they are in a very featured position in this song, it is hard to fully get past it and does decrease the enjoyability of the piece as a whole. That doesn't mean that the piece is bad, though! EDIT: Seriously, I apologize. I made this about myself over and over and just behaved poorly. This piece is excellent, and I was an ass.

Very true on all accounts. I still would have liked to have seen the choir come down a bit at some points, though. I hope that I don't sound like I disliked this piece, because that's not so.

Well I understand what you are saying but you have to understand that if you were to go hear something like this in an orchestral hall it would sound the same. Not at all. Listen to recordings of songs performed in orchestral halls. Alright, that's all well and fine, but it doesn't sound good the way you did it. I'm not saying that you didn't make choices in the piece - and if one of them was to have chaotic dynamic switches to represent an unpredictable madman, so be it, but it still doesn't sound good. Numerous pieces have choirs backed by orchestra (listen to some of Vaughan Williams' symphonies) and you will find that they do not drown out the orchestra so much as work with it. That is actually why enjoyed the ending and the part where the choir and orchestra comes back in after the organ solo - because they work well together dynamically and the articulation is still clear. And when your choir samples sound mechanical, you should expect some comments. They may be better than average, but they're by no means perfect. EDIT: I'm sorry for being such an ass about this. Really, I'm sorry.

The whole of the mix is fairly muddy. It's difficult to hear individual instruments because they're either drowning in reverb or are at the entirely wrong dynamics. In fact, the entire intro jumps from one dynamic to another much too often. The choir samples are grating to say the least. The prelude on Kefka's theme with the organ is the best part by far, including where the choir comes in (up until it becomes just the choir). The very end is also rather well done. The rest, though, just sounds very messy. EDIT: I really could have been more constructive in how I provided my feedback - I'm sorry. The arrangement is really impressive and this is a fine piece of work.

I have to say, I am rather impressed. Very solid remix.

Alright, fine. Bland and uninteresting was a bad comment. I'll try to be more specific: The beat is pretty normal, though the rest is semi-interesting. The choir sample really brought the mix down a level. It just sounds like a group of guys singing indistinct stuff in a disconnected manner. In fact, my biggest complaint is about the choir sample - it should not have been used at all. If not for that, this piece would be much better. The drums still need to be more interesting, and though the choir ruins this piece for me, it's certainly not BAD as a whole. There. Sorry for being a brash jerk/idiot in my earlier post.

Bland and uninteresting. EDIT: Self-describing comment. This music is neither of those things, and I'm sorry for saying that.

Pop piano arrangement. There are a couple of good moments, but for the most part, I feel like I'm listening to aural cheese. It's still better than most of the piano stuff that gets posted, though, and it's not so bad that I couldn't make it through the whole thing (which is becoming increasingly common). EDIT: This piano arrangement is actually good, and I'm sorry for being an asshole to you. My comments were thoroughly unproductive, and I apologize for that.

For the most part, the arrangement is very boring. The samples are fantastic, but the sequencing and production values are rather mediocre. EDIT: I'm really sorry for being an ass about this. The arrangement is far from boring, and you didn't deserve my negativity.

Good enough? Hah! That's a laugh, you're way past being good enough. But I appreciate the compliment. =)

Good god! I knew you were good, Dhsu, but that's just ridiculous.

I can respect that he has tried to do something original, but this just sounds awful. I could barely get through the whole thing. Seriously terrible. EDIT: I'm seriously sorry for what an asshole I was about this. Regardless of whether I liked it or not, I should not have said such insulting things.

Wow. I didn't know what to expect when listening to this, but when it got started I was amazed. Probably the first clever over-dramatic symphonic super film style arrangement I've heard of a video game tune. In fact, this piece is very well done. There's a lot of originality in this. I'm not too keen on the ending, though. It's too abrupt, but that's probably just my desire to hear more speaking.

Oh, he's still around.

Oh, man. I was already completely sure that I had to buy Spore, but now I might even be willing to sell a kidney or something for it if I have to. I mean, shit. Brian freakin' Eno. He's my idol.

I didn't like it at all. Sorry that I don't have anything productive to say. EDIT: And yet I said something anyway! Sorry for being such an ass.

Holy %*#@ing !&%$. This is unbelievable. Shnabubula never ceases to amaze me. There is nothing more to say than it's sheerly brilliant.

In spite of how awesome this is, I have very little to say. Download it.

I think the tuning works wonderfully, but all of the other instruments wreak havoc on this piece. They sound like shit. The guitar work is nice and the general composition of the piece is a very pleasant listen, but I can't get over the terrible sound of the "flute" instrument and the "music box." Those really detracted from this otherwise great mix. EDIT: I'm really sorry for being so insulting and rude, especially when you put work into making this. I should have offered helpful feedback rather than being such an ass.

There is definitely something wrong with the file. Quicktime and iTunes will not play it at all. I had to play it in Windows Media Player. Anyway, as for the song... I thought that samples were alright. There were very few issues that I had with them. The only things that came into play were awkward orchestration and poor production. The prelude had great production, but it became very bland after that. The entire piece sounds like a hybrid between a film score and a marching band show. That makes this a very boring piece to listen to for me. There's very little going on here that catches my attention. I didn't care for it, but that's because I mostly don't care for pieces written in this style. EDIT: Sorry for being such an ass. This is neither a bad nor a boring piece of music.

I'll give a very condensed version of what I have to say. It has some good parts and it has some parts that are not so good. It sounds more like a rock song than an orchestral one the way it's written in spite of its choice of instrumentation, and that really turns me off. And the ending could have been much better.

Hey everyone, this is Oak (fka Kevin Stephens). I've been receiving a lot of e-mails and regretfully lost almost all of them before responding (yes, I've been lazy on responding.) I went ahead and uploaded the sheets for everyone so that no one will ever have to e-mail for the sheets again and can just grab them online. There are two things to note, first. They are in a weird file format (.TIF), but Adobe Acrobat should be able to read them. Also, the end of the piece has a C# higher than is playable on a piano. Unless you have perfect pitch, just change that to a C natural. If you do have perfect pitch, you probably have enough theory knowledge to make an adjustment to the piece yourself. =) If not, bitch at me and I'll post a solution to the forums. I believe Patrick made an adjustment for the recording on OCR, so I'll just figure out what that was. Anyway, enjoy! https://www.dropbox.com/s/g0ml2a51tr60e9y/etudesheets.zip?dl=0

This piece is extremely good. If the goal was to create an excellent atmospheric piece that could very well work to substitute the original song from the game, then this is a total success. If not, I don't care, it's still a total success. Wonderful piece. I disagree with Pretzel's suggestions, though - giving the piece a more intense climax towards the end and changing the hihat would have completely ruined the feel of the song. In fact, changing anything in this song... bad. As for seeing DarkeSword make a piece that's grittier, more industrial... that wouldn't be so bad. I won't complain if he doesn't choose to, though.