Liontamer Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Ahoy, Heath here, with a non-clubtrance remix submission. Thank god! This is a short mix I did of "the magic house" from ff6 and "succession of witches" from ff8. I really poured my heart into this one, but I'm sure everyone says that. I really tried altering the melodies more than I usually do, and playing with them a bit more in terms of dicking around on my keyboard trying to improvise. I didn't get very crazy with it at all, but at least i tried making it less midi-rip-ish than usual. The hardest thing making this mix? FINDING OUT WHAT THE HELL THAT LOW DINGING SOUND HE ALWAYS USES IN HIS SONGS IS!! answer: apparently they are called tubular bells and are pretty common and i fail. Thank you orkester soundbank for having a decent set of them. (and decent set of triangles too! a staple of many ff8 songs.) For some more song info, I'll copy/paste from my PRC entry notes: "At first I had no idea how to make a song groove at 100bpm (what? generic 4 kick trance beat doesnt sound good? impossible!) but eventually I tried out some stuff that sounded a bit timbaland-esque, which was unfortunate. After fixing that up, I realized I was humming an ff8 song that my mind had blended into the ff6 song, so I went with it and it worked out really well IMO. The picture I paint in my mind is the magic house theme cruising along, and then Ultimecia's time compression kicks in and the 2 worlds collide for a bit." Btw if you blast this on a decent system, the bass synth actually sounds pretty cool, so... yea. If the link does not work, its on the front page of my site, first post. Yes its in 320kbps, yes that is overkill, but you guys know me, I'm always around, I can get a 192kbps version to the judges panel RITE KWIK if its accepted. The project files are on an external hdd burried in my suitcase, otherwise id make one right now. Did I say suitcase? I meant "sitting on my desk right here but I'm too fucking lazy" If this just isn't possible then please let me know and I'll get my shit together. as per the required stuff: Siamey Heath Morris djsiamey@hotmail.com www.siamey.com 971 Thanks for your time guys. PACE! -------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "The Magic House" (ff6-310.spc) http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 206 "Succession of Witches" Opened up pretty cover-ish with "The Magic House", but had some rhythmic interpretation and new countermelodic writing for the groove bias. :43 moved over into some original sounding stuff that ended up sounding pretty aimless, mostly the writing from :52-1:06. The woodwinds didn't really seem like they were in the same key as the groove, so there was no cohesion. Moved over into "Succession of Witches" at 1:11 with some FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC vocals. You could still make out the "white boy talking into a mic trying to sound cool" underneath the production trickery. Cool effect at 1:19. 1:30-1:40 was too cluttered and needed some better separation of the parts; I see the power and dynamics you were going for, but you can clean it up a bit and preserve the intent. Good transition back into "The Magic House" at 1:40, going back to the theme for the finish and retreading part of the first section for a fairly strong close. I just wasn't feeling :43-1:11 at all. For an only 2:19-long track, everything's gotta be clicking on all cylinders. I'd say refine that portion in the middle so the track pieces together strongly the whole way and this would be set. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 Let's start at the intro shall we? The reverb on the filtered kickdrum muddies everything up, I realize it's supposed to be a cool effect but I'm just not feeling it. The opening-filter synth at 0:09 is awesome and what follows is cool writing for sure! The string sound sounds a bit off tho, doesn't mesh all that well with the rest of the instruments. Good transition into the 0:42 part. I agree with larry that the woodwinds sounded a bit off in this section. I didn't think they took away very much from the piece though. BTW, this section (0:43-1:11) is not original but arranged material from 'Succession of Witches'. And the arrangement is pretty cool too. I thought the jazzy lead was well-written even though the sound in itself was pretty weak. 1:30-1:40 could use some separation as Larry said, just some panning and a bit of EQing would help. Maybe even some fine-tuning of volumes. Not a huge problem to me though. Nice transition back to Magic House as Larry also said and a good enough ending. I did think the ending synth is a bit too reverbed though, don't have to overdo it I think this is solid enough in the production area. The arrangement's very cool and outweighs the minor balance issues. It is short but everything that's there is relevant. I see no reason for me to NO this. Cool. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 I like this concept, the funkified take on this pair of spooky themes. Some great instrument choices in this song, and I thought the rhythm changes in the melody were pretty sick (or is that slick?). Some of the sounds are cheap, especially those drums, but it has an old-school vibe to it. I do think at times the arrangement could have used something to fill out the middle a little more. There are places where you fill in the gap with a low woodwind and it sounds better. Nonetheless, what's here is solid. Larry, I'd take another look at 0:43-1:11. It matches almost exactly to 0:58-1:20 in Succession of Witches. Dunno if that changes your vote. Mine is a YES. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 Harr, this has been funked to hell and back. Like it. This is one of my favourite FF8 tunes and you certainly gave it a twist. Interesting filter work, those extra low notes in the intro were awesome and the bass is sweet. Everything has maybe a touch too much verb as AnSo pointed out but you can still hear everything fine. The solo harpsichord was just epic. The FF8 section in the middle was very strong on arrangement, nice use of the vocal samples, especially at 1:20 with the filter. Transition back into the house theme well into 1:50. Arrangement is fine for me, obviously on the short side but an entertaining take on two darker themes. Production is generally strong though I would've liked a few dryer sounds to maximize the funk. I think Larry should reconsider this as well, the aimless out of key bit you mentioned was straight source. I got annoyed when a section of me and RKs remix was quoted as aimless when it was direct from the source, I'm sure Siamey would too. From me though: YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 25, 2008 Author Share Posted August 25, 2008 Larry, I'd take another look at 0:43-1:11. It matches almost exactly to 0:58-1:20 in Succession of Witches. Dunno if that changes your vote. Mine is a YES. Yeah, thanks for the save w/time specifics. Even though that's taken from "Succession," it still pieced together poorly with the rest of the track, IMO. It's still about "The woodwinds didn't really seem like they were in the same key as the groove, so there was no cohesion." The groove just didn't click with the strings, woodwind and e-piano to me. "I just wasn't feeling :43-1:11 at all. For an only 2:19-long track, everything's gotta be clicking on all cylinders. I'd say refine that portion in the middle so the track pieces together strongly the whole way and this would be set." Yeah, still the same issue for me. Definitely a well put together track, and I'm the minority on how much that issue seems to mess up the flow of the track, but I'll stick with the borderline NO. If it had been an issue of using the source enough, then it'd be a different story. Even though Heath inherited that section I had issue with from the source, to me it worked in "Succession" yet didn't click here. If the track were longer, and marginalized that more, I'd go YES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 17, 2008 Author Share Posted September 17, 2008 Hey dude,My song "timeshock" has been in the que for a while, and after being one of 40 songs, it was one of 2 or 3 left before the que shot back up to around 30. I was wondering if that means I will have to wait for another 30 songs to go through before mine gets picked up? Thanks! I'll nag 'em and see what's up. What's the hold up on more votes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 succession of witches is one of my favorite ff8 tunes and this certainly does it a ton of justice. the lead synth sounds a bit awkward in moments throughout this but i'm seeing how this is clearly the intended effect here especially with how the quirky synth instrumentation compliments the funked out rhythm. very funky stuff you got here... too short, in my opinion. hard to get into it when it ends as soon as you do. otherwise, this has it goin good. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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