Final Fantasy 7 'Tools of the Ancients'

[LegendofSymphony7]

So, after being a pair of idiotic teenagers for two years, we (the Legend of Symphony) have decided to actually use the WIP forum before sending DJP any more absolute junk -- and trust me, even though we only tried three times, we tried with stuff so bad it would make an anthropomorphic trash can vomit in disgust.

Anyhoo, I suppose I should be talking about the mix in progress. Well, it's an arrangement of "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" (aka "City of the Ancients" aka anything else you can get from roughly translating the Japanese title), with a bit of a feel from bands like Tool or Porcupine Tree -- I am aware that the two are not exactly separated at birth when it comes to sound schema, but that's what we've heard from people who've listened to it. It's nearly finished, but there's always room for more polish.

So, without further ado, we give you 'Tools of the Ancients'.

Any advice would be appreciated, and we will be reworking and improving upon this piece until we think it works.

NOTE: The tune is being hosted on NG using a user name different from our OCReMix handle. This is not a theft of someone else's work.

[Skummel Maske]

I like the sound, although it took me a while to recognize the source tune.

[Rozovian]

Source was easy to recognize for me, maybe because I'm not a fan of the time sig adaptation on Blind's and Leifo's track on the FFVII project.

The genre-jumping works well if both genres are well produced, but in this case, neither seems to be. The whole mix seems to lack in the high range. In the intro, only the toms reach far enough to sound good. The orchestral bit after the intro needs more stuff going on. It could use some more textures. Add some chords to some of those empty sections. Even short notes octaves would be better than nothing. Staccato stuff, something to fill the holes in the frequency range, and the space between notes.

The rock section needs some serious production fixes. It's drowning in low mids. More highs. Also, there's a few instances where you should fix the timing, it's not as tight as it should be. Bass guitar sounds terrible, needs more bass, less guitar. And more punch. The guitars are mostly just noise, tho someone more into the genre (and guitar processing) should advise you on how to fix that.

Overall, I've got mostly production issues with this, which is a good thing. Means the writing is decent or better.

More compression on the drums, more high range in the EQ, fix the writing, fix the guitar processing, and you''ll have a significantly improved wip. Good work so far, I like it.

[LegendofSymphony7]

Source was easy to recognize for me, maybe because I'm not a fan of the time sig adaptation on Blind's and Leifo's track on the FFVII project.

The genre-jumping works well if both genres are well produced, but in this case, neither seems to be. The whole mix seems to lack in the high range. In the intro, only the toms reach far enough to sound good. The orchestral bit after the intro needs more stuff going on. It could use some more textures. Add some chords to some of those empty sections. Even short notes octaves would be better than nothing. Staccato stuff, something to fill the holes in the frequency range, and the space between notes.

The rock section needs some serious production fixes. It's drowning in low mids. More highs. Also, there's a few instances where you should fix the timing, it's not as tight as it should be. Bass guitar sounds terrible, needs more bass, less guitar. And more punch. The guitars are mostly just noise, tho someone more into the genre (and guitar processing) should advise you on how to fix that.

Overall, I've got mostly production issues with this, which is a good thing. Means the writing is decent or better.

More compression on the drums, more high range in the EQ, fix the writing, fix the guitar processing, and you''ll have a significantly improved wip. Good work so far, I like it.

Now I'm asking myself questions about what instrument to use for the new textures... Could a flute add something that fits? another violin? Maybe a synth?

You can blame the lack of highs on the quality of our mixer, as well as the quality of our speaker cables. We had to filter out the higher frequencies to reduce the static, hum, and hiss. Now would be a good time to get a job...

Our guitarist/bassist was a bit of a fool to add distortion to all but one track -- and that guitar track had the toughest effects to work around. I'm going to destroy that effects processor of his, I swear it.

We're glad you liked it, though. With enough work, we hope you can love this piece.

[Midian_Galaxus]

This mix definitely has that Tool sound. More Lateralus album than anything, but that's a good thing. Overall, I like the arrangment, but if you're going for that kind of Tool sound (you used it for the name of the arrangement) you're missing that one all important aspect. The payoff. The culmination of the subtle guitars into one huge dropped-d barre chord thrashing session with heavy bass lines that have an ungodly amount of insane effects.

As far as the production, I agree with the issues already raised, and from the sounds of it, I wouldn't worry about that quite yet until you've got the equipment to worry about it. Work on the arrangement, get that where it should be, then get a job and get the equipment to get yourself focused on raising the production value of this mix. If you work all this out, I expect to see it on the front page for download at some point, as it's a fairly rare sound for mixes around here, and ought to be appreciated.

[LegendofSymphony7]

This mix definitely has that Tool sound. More Lateralus album than anything, but that's a good thing. Overall, I like the arrangment, but if you're going for that kind of Tool sound (you used it for the name of the arrangement) you're missing that one all important aspect. The payoff. The culmination of the subtle guitars into one huge dropped-d barre chord thrashing session with heavy bass lines that have an ungodly amount of insane effects.

As far as the production, I agree with the issues already raised, and from the sounds of it, I wouldn't worry about that quite yet until you've got the equipment to worry about it. Work on the arrangement, get that where it should be, then get a job and get the equipment to get yourself focused on raising the production value of this mix. If you work all this out, I expect to see it on the front page for download at some point, as it's a fairly rare sound for mixes around here, and ought to be appreciated.

Joe Brown here. I recorded both the guitars and the basses (as there are more than one) in this tune; Josh thought it would be more appropriate for me to respond because of that.

I first would like to thank you for listening and constructively critiquing the current issues in the mix. If I had the money, I'd be running out of a Marshall JVM205H head and not a Crate GLX212 combo on the guitars. The bass... well, being that I was using my friend's equipment (and I shall not be using his processor anymore. xD), I really can't do much about that.

Second, the ending as written is very different from the ending as executed, and I had attempted to get that Tool-esque payoff. Guess I didn't hit it quite on as I should have; but we gotta go back into the studio anyway! Heh.

Frankly, I'm surprised that no one has attempted a remix in this vein yet. A second one we have in the works is for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and it, too, carries the Tool sound (I think it hits the mark a hell of a lot closer than this mix does), but up until I get new equipment, I don't think I'll be trying anything else until this mix is perfected with what we have in hand.

Thanks again for your P.E.A.C.H.ing!