Theophany

~Final WIP Update: Levels, Compression and EQ Feedback Needed~ First of all, thanks to everyone who has been listening to this and giving feedback, I think it's become a much stronger and better mix because of the feedback I've been getting. I really appreciate the time everyone took to listen and give feedback. Anyway, on to the mix... Changes: - Removed the metallic grating sound from the rim glass samples, but now I think I need to raise the levels a bit... - Added a brief stint of wind effects at beginning, but it kind of feels inappropriate when it's the only sound effect in there. I was trying to bring back the feeling of crossing the ice fields of Narshe, but I'm considering taking it out to avoid a lolwut response by the judges - Reduced muddiness of piano chords (?) The issue was some intense EQ I did on it in trying to get a certain sound. - Made the ending mezzo aria climax more intense with revamped chorus, added more gong smashes, horn tweaks, slight timing changes Comments welcome about the final changes (especially the climax). Otherwise, it's time to talk about compression, levels and EQ, and my ears aren't too trained at this. Part of me wants the climax to be louder, but when I crank the volume up on my headphones it's pretty loud/powerful as is, but I guess I'm thinking *comparatively* to the rest of the mix. My questions are: - Do the loud/climactic parts feel powerful enough to your ears? Do they come off sounding a little empty? - Is there any harshness / level / EQ stuff that sounds off to you? Piano too loud at certain parts? Strings muddy? - Does the mix sound too low to you? - Ideas on remedies? I was planning on doing a slight EQ to the climax to make sure the strings come through, since the chorus gets loud, but now I'm thinking it might not be needed. Any final thoughts before I make the changes and post the final submission for download?

This track is beyond amazing... and full of win.

I think it's from the rim/water glass sample, most likely. I'm not sure what to do about it at the moment, but I think I could take the sample into Audition and try and at least lower the metallic feedback, though it's probably the sound of the person's finger running across the glass. I kind of like it but it doesn't really jive with the rest of the soundscape. I think I changed the EQ on the piano to get the certain sound I was going for, and it may be the reason for the muddiness. I'll mess around with it for the final update and experiment with the octaves as well, since I transposed the chords down from the original composition because I wanted a more thunderous sound. I still want that sound, but we'll see if I can't get the muddiness out. Thanks for the extra input

Wow. Thanks for the great feedback. I'll mess around with those muddy chords (though I kinda like their muddiness) and see if I can't make the chorus a little more dramatic, though that's been a really tricky section for me. It's funny you mention LOTR, because I've been basing my ideas on how to resolve between sections almost exclusively on Howard Shore', and it probably shows right before the mezzo part with the solo flute. Practically ripped straight out of Return of the King. I'm glad you agree about Celes. My original take on Celes' theme was going to go the Wagner Taunhauser (Pilgrim's Chorus) route, but I think you nailed my thoughts exactly as to why I was just feeling kind of "DO NOT WANT" about it. Plus, it put the mix over 7 minutes, and way over 6 MB...

these sounds are pretty sweet, man. arrangement is really great too, especially once it starts to break into the Corneria chords. i was really getting into it. I'd say keep going the direction you're going. you could start by bringing in the broken chords from the original track using one of your new instruments (i don't know how else to describe those little notes that are all over the place in the original corneria track). i think it would sound pretty cool. at the same time, i could see the main Corneria theme being a bit awkward considering the vibe you have going here. you don't have to stick to it if it doesn't work for your mix, though, there's plenty of other cool themes from the ost that you can try if you can't find a way to make Corneria work. the Corneria theme *could* work if you play it down, the way you played those string chords at the end of your track, maybe transpose the theme lower a bit so it matches and sounds a bit deeper and matches the feel of your mix. but all in all, the wip sounds great so far. this is a pretty unique take on Corneria. i think anyone remixing Corneria pretty much has to do something radically different when you consider what Wingless did with the first one. looking forward to the update...

~Semi-final Update~ Alright. It's 6AM, and this is WIP3. I added a climax, added compression, and by some miracle it's actually under 6MB with decent quality VBR, and it actually sounds good. It is, however, 6:55. Is that a record? What's the longest track on OCR right now? I've been through many different versions of this, but in the end I use the mezzo whatever bridge from the aria as a standalone climax, without going into Celes' theme (sorry man). I don't know why, but neither version of Celes' aria theme worked with the mix. It just felt sappy and wrong, and rushed, and it made me cringe at the thought of submitting. As it is, though, I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. So what do you guys think? Submit it? Title recommendations? Feedback?

Done and done. Pizza in 3...2...

this remix is love...

Wow, man, thanks for all your effort! I'll turn the bass way down in the next version I post and try to make the sounds pop a bit more by separating them out, but yes--the strings are way more clear just from your EQ alone. I think that's probbaly the issue-- when I was mixing on my crappy headphones I couldn't hear the bass so I had to jack it way up. I'll keep your advice in mind before using the compressor. It will be nice once all the tracks are exported individually, Audition has some nice compressing features imo and a multitrack thingy so I can lay the whole mix out and switch between the parts. Hopefully I'll have something up this weekend to repay the quick reply! At work right now, otherwise I would do it now... : /

1. Yeah... I guess I meant after the EQ and compression 2. That has been a huge problem for me. My plan was to export all the tracks separately (strings, etc) and was hoping that could somehow bring the strings out more once all the individual tracks are EQ'd.... 3. It is a fine line, and this will be my first time EQing, so your feedback is really appreciated. My project files for this are in 20,000 different places (because my comp is too lame to handle everything in a single project file), but I will probably begin exporting the individual tracks tonight and begin mixing them. A Gario compressed/EQ'd master sounds awesome. You'll need the mp3 though, won't you? Or do you want me to upload the wav somewherez? Also: I'm going to be using Audition for my EQ/compression, unless anyone has a better suggestion... Thanks for the quick feedback!

Alright, OCR brethren... I've been working on this track for like 2 months (for those of you wondering "Doesn't this noob have an unfinished FF6 track?). I just today finished this track to the point where I'd call it listenable, BUT, it lacks EQ & compression, and I mixed it low. So if you want to hear this as it's meant to be heard, I'm going to have to ask you to JACK UP YOUR VOLUME. SOURCE TRACK: The second source track is a surprise For most Lufia 2 fans, this is probably their favorite track ever, period. With that in mind, I have given this bitch my best shot. I hope Lufia fans will do me the honor of saying they enjoyed it. My ultimate goal was to give Lufia fans the chills while listening, but we'll see. Also, if you're wondering what those weird metal sounds are, they are supposed to be the sound of the Dual Blade resonating. So, my feedback questions: 1. Do you think this will make it passed the judges panel? 2. Anything stand out as pain/pleasure to your ears (nitpicking encouraged)? 3. I have never EQ'd a mix before, but I feel that with proper EQ and compression, the finished product will many times better, cuz right now it sounds kind of lo-fi and lacks punch, the drums especially. Is OCR willing to guide me on this? OCTOSTRIKE// Jason

This is damn good. You could lower those cymbal hits a bit at some parts, and maybe add some reverb. I would check out freesound.org if you're looking for some free percussion sounds. There's a lot of good stuff there, if you can sort through all the horse shit. I like your use of the source, but I also like a lot of the original material you added. If you could find some better horn sounds, that would be awesome, but they're definitely not easy to come by. I wouldn't mind a source material "climax" toward the end of the mix. You have some source as it is, but it would be really nice to hear the choir come back, and then maybe bring that cool bass and ambiance back and then maybe a repeat and alright, maybe a little too specific... Looking forward to another update, keep up the good work...

I think you're right, actually... I think I'm going to take the material from Celes' Aria di Mezzo Carattere. I checked the source out again and was like O RLY hell yes = )

Thanks man! Yeah, the climax is going to have the same intensity as the intro. I am still not decided on which melody I'm going to use for that climax though... Hopefully the next update will be up sometime this weekend. Stay tuned...

UPDATED: - Intro added - More source material added - Paired bass with piano (Rozovian, I agreed with you about the bass after I thought about it) - Final buildup - No climax/ending yet - Transitions between sections kind of shaky at the moment

thanks for listening, man i was having some ideas yesterday on how to include other sections from the source and keep the mood i have going. hopefully i'll post an update this weekend, since it's a 3-day holiday in Canada. i definitely don't think this would make it passed the judges panel as is. stay tuned and thanks for the great feedback guys!

Super fast feedback Otaku: Yes... the whole thing needs a massive compression job to boost the overall volume, I think. I think my tentative plan is to continue with the piano and try to make it try to build up in to the more dramatic opera melody later in the overture, maybe with the strings supporting it. I've even thought about throwing a choral feel into the mix when the opera melody shows up, but I haven't quite figured out how to make it gel yet. I just kind of have this vague blurry section floating around in my head... Artemis: Yeah, the backround insturment is glass rim sample. I agree with you, I think the mix needs more direction... Thanks for listening and posting!

~Final Submission~ Thanks for all the help, guys. Here is the final submission: I'm deleting all the older WIPs. ~Final WIP Update: Levels, Compression and EQ Feedback Needed~ First of all, thanks to everyone who has been listening to this and giving feedback, I think it's become a much stronger and better mix because of the feedback I've been getting. I really appreciate the time everyone took to listen and give feedback. Anyway, on to the mix... Changes: - Removed the metallic grating sound from the rim glass samples, but now I think I need to raise the levels a bit... - Added a brief stint of wind effects at beginning, but it kind of feels inappropriate when it's the only sound effect in there. I was trying to bring back the feeling of crossing the ice fields of Narshe, but I'm considering taking it out to avoid a lolwut response by the judges - Reduced muddiness of piano chords (?) The issue was some intense EQ I did on it in trying to get a certain sound. - Made the ending mezzo aria climax more intense with revamped chorus, added more gong smashes, horn tweaks, slight timing changes Comments welcome about the final changes (especially the climax). Otherwise, it's time to talk about compression, levels and EQ, and my ears aren't too trained at this. Part of me wants the climax to be louder, but when I crank the volume up on my headphones it's pretty loud/powerful as is, but I guess I'm thinking *comparatively* to the rest of the mix. My questions are: - Do the loud/climactic parts feel powerful enough to your ears? Do they come off sounding a little empty? - Is there any harshness / level / EQ stuff that sounds off to you? Piano too loud at certain parts? Strings muddy? - Does the mix sound too low to you? - Ideas on remedies? I was planning on doing a slight EQ to the climax to make sure the strings come through, since the chorus gets loud, but now I'm thinking it might not be needed. Any final thoughts before I make the changes and post the final submission for download? ~Semi-final Update~ Alright. It's 6AM, and this is WIP3. I added a climax, added compression, and by some miracle it's actually under 6MB with decent quality VBR, and it actually sounds good. It is, however, 6:55. Is that a record? What's the longest track on OCR right now? I've been through many different versions of this, but in the end I use the mezzo whatever bridge from the aria as a standalone climax, without going into Celes' theme (sorry man). I don't know why, but neither version of Celes' aria theme worked with the mix. It just felt sappy and wrong, and rushed, and it made me cringe at the thought of submitting. As it is, though, I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. So what do you guys think? Submit it? Feedback? ~2nd Update~ I haven't made any progress on this mix since this past weekend; I'm putting it on hold until I finish my Lufia 2 mix, which I've been working on for almost 2 months. Hopefully you guys will get to see the Lufia wip this weekend, and after that I'll attempt to finish what is becoming the ever larger task of finalizing this remix. Hopefully I'll get it finished sometime this month... Jason ~1st Update~ Well, I'm pretty sure nobody thought I was going to do this for the intro: However, I still have not decided what the climax/ending is going to be. I have thought about using Celes' melody from the Opera House, but more and more, I'm leaning towards using the two horrifying chords of the title screen and then leading to an outro. I think it would contrast the "pretty" middle section somewhat nicely, and Celes' opera melody might be a bit too sentimental in terms of a climax. What do you guys think? I still don't have a 'proper' transition to the middle section from the intro, it's a little abrupt. I don't have any ideas on how to bridge them yet, but I get the feeling it's a small detail that will just make the transition 'work'. It could even be a simple matter of timing. Let me know if you feel there needs to be a transition. The same goes for the final section. I have a stock transition there now, but it's not sitting 100% with me at the moment. Still, I wanted to share the updated mix to get more feedback on what I've got so far. ~Original Post~ This is still an early WIP, but feedback is definitely needed. The source material for this WIP is taken from the FF6 Overture, but it's a pretty liberal arrangement, so I'm not sure it would be accepted. If you guys have ideas where to take this mix or other themes to incorporate, either from the source track or from another track in the game, please share, because I've kind of run into a wall. I like the sound, but I'm not sure it's an ocr remix yet. There's a random click at the end of the song. I think it's the mp3 encoder I used : / Special thanks to the user who started the ocr wip storage site on firelash. I would take a remix request from him any day : ) Here's the original track, the source appears around :44: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYSUJ7stN9k&feature=PlayList&p=06AB6E3F68E2F48D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=31 I know it's been around five years since anything by Theophany got posted. I'd say the other members did most of the work during the year or so we were actively trying to remix stuff, but since I'm currently the only one left interested in remixing, I'm trying to start up fresh for now. I'm kind of a n00b, but I've been doing my best to level up lately in the hope of providing ocr listeners with pure audio sex. I'd also like to offer my sincere apologies for the incident with the majora's mask remix. I hope my efforts on future remixes can make up for it and show our love for ocr through solid contributions to the community... Please don't hate us? Jason