Liontamer Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Contact Info * Remixer Name: Uboichi * Real Name: Uub Jacobson * E-mail: uboichi@gmail.com * User ID: 10339 Remix Info * Games Arranged: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade; Zelda 3: A link to the past; Super Mario World; Final Fantasy 6 * Songs Arranged: Music from Karazhan which actually has no title, the mp3 file I based it on is called KA_OperaHarpsiWalkUni01.mp3 in the MPQ archive; Princess Zelda's Rescue; Sub Castle BGM (SMW); Fragment of the Opera Overture and The Phantom Train. * Original Composers: Russel Brower (WoW BC); Kondo Koji (Zelda, SMW); Uematsu Nobuo (FF6). My original intent was to just make a Remix of the music from karazhan. Everytime I went there with my guild I'd set the BGM volume to the max when we went to Moroes simply because I loved the music so much there. At some point our days of raiding Karazhan were practically over as we moved on to harder content, but I still grabbed every opportunity I could get to go Karazhan again just for the music. I even downloaded an MPQ extractor to be able to transfer the mp3 to my MP3 player so I could listen to it while not at home at all! But alas, squeezing the time needed for a study, for being board member of my study association, making arrangements for my choir and for playing WoW in one week was a hard thing to do, so I didn't have a lot of time to spend on Remixing. But as we say in the Netherlands, 'blood flows where it can't go' meaning by nature we have urges we can't resist. So all the time during college I was thinking about how to Remix this tune. Then suddenly the idea popped up to mix it up with The Phantom Train. They both were in 6/8th and kinda had a same feel in the melody. And then the other day I was humming my ideas a bit while listening to music when the opera from FF6 passed on the playlist. And there was this particular part of the overture that seemed to blend really well with the Phantom Train. So a couple of weeks later when I had time I started on the Project. And in some weird way I accidentily managed to get the castle theme from SMW involved in the mix. And then I was thinking like "if it's there anyway, why not put a bit of emphasis on it?". So I used a church organ to highlight that part. I was so pleased about the change brought by the organ that it kind of influenced the rest of the project. A lot. Shortly after I came up with the title of the mix and decided that for such a title at least one other SNES title had to be used. So that became the Rescue of Princess Zelda. Actually I was thinking of the Crystal Theme, but they're basicly the same and Princess Zelda's Rescue was the more common used title on OCR ^^. Note: My project was based on the harpsichord version of the karazhan melody. There exists an organ version also, but despite me using an organ that's not the version I'm using. http://uboichi.googlepages.com/TheGhostsofNintendoarehauntingKarazh.mp3 Arrangement Breakdown: 0:00 Follows the original part of the overture as close as possible, but still trying to give my own sound to it 0:34 I abandon the original feeling of the overture part while maintaining the melody with a slight variation. 0:42 I introduce the organ to scare the crap out of people with SMW! Bowser is coming for you! GRAAHHH!! 0:52 Introduction of the Phantom Train team. Melody by the light instruments flute and oboe, accompaniment by heavy ones like the organ. I've seen a lot of ghosts in Karazhan, but I have to admit I've never seen a phantom train. 1:09 Transition to next part. 1:24 This is where it gets interesting. The introduction of the Karazhan melody on the piano, which the Horns try to drown it 'cause they want to stick to the phantom train tune, in which they fail at 1:32, but at 1:40 the organ starts backing up the horns by going back to the overture tune in his own mad deranged way. The organ and piano play a war between order and chaos. The organ gets the overhand with his melody though, which gets echoed by the rest of the orchestra that agrees at 2:03 in a recap of 0:34. 2:14 A recap of 0:42, with a twist. Emo bowser? =O ... Not! GRAAHH!! 2:46 Throw out the light instruments and bring in the brass! Bit like 0:52, with 2 trumpet parts, one playing main melody, other playing counter. Organ is banished! 3:02 Transition to next part. This time with strings 'cause they can be even scarier than the organ in a context like this. 3:17 The organ starts playing again, liking the mad character of the Karazhan tune. The strings try to reason with it by playing the phantom train motive, but they're playing it on wrong pitches! =O 3:31 The progression of the Karazhan tune, which got ignored the first time because of the organ trying to play a solo. Deliberately lighter than the organ part at 3:17 in preparation of rescueing princess zelda. 3:49 Yay! Princess Zelda is rescued! Or is she...? Guess the organ caught her just after her escape. Damn you Link. 4:23 Another Transition! How original! 4:35 Almost the entire orchestra now joins in with the Karazhan tune, except for the horns who in a desperate attempt still try to drown everything with the Phantom Melody. 4:56 End. I hope you enjoyed it! P.S. In case of rejection please leave the link in so people who are interested can listen. LT Edit (7/26): Here's a YouTube of the primary source: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Thanks for the breakdown. This would have been a headache to sort out myself. I like the general concept of combining a whole bunch of similar 3/4 themes. I don't think this quite delivers on that promise though. My problems lie in some of the theme overlayings, like at 1:40 and 3:17, where the organ just doesn't work with the other instruments. I know that's intentional, but I think it hurts the song much more than it helps. I also thought the entire piece was too medley-like. The solo piano transitions broke the flow (and reminded me of Song of Storms hahaha), and the switch to the Zelda theme near the end was abrupt. To me, the song would be stronger without Zelda. Those problems aside, I thought the themes played well together and your arrangements on the themes were good, apart from maybe the opening Opera bit, which was quite similar to the original. The piano at 1:24 gets drowned out and I probably would have tried to make room for that, as it's supposed to be a lead there. Again, something you mentioned as being intentional but I wasn't feeling it. Lastly, I get the feeling the song is too restrained when it gets to its loudest moments. Very hard for me to put my finger on. Maybe it just needs more dynamic contrast; hopefully someone else can touch on this. Overall, I don't think it quite adds up to a YES. The arrangement problems are more significant to me than the production ones. Good luck in swinging the rest of the vote yer way - it could be that this just doesn't work for me. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Game Rip) - KA_OperaHarpsiWalkUni01.mp3 http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=loz3 - "Crystal" (loz3-23.spc) http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=smw - "Sub Castle BGM" (smw-15.spc) http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Overture (part 3)" (ff6-207c.spc) [1:19 section of source] & "The Phantom Train (ff6-116.spc) Though several of the transitions worked, I also felt like many of the others were abrupt and didn't flow well (e.g. :52, 2:13, 2:45, 3:47, 4:33). I thought the FF6 sources were the only things that really connected well to the WoW source, but that could just be me. SMW was decent, but the major key parts of Zelda definitely felt extremely out of place. The piano handling the main source melody at 1:24 was buried, and the brass was muddying up the soundfield over the top of everything else. The brass sounded extremely lossy, almost like listening to it with cheap headphones; it's not meant to be an insult, but more describing the effect of the sound. There's a kind of lo-fi warbling going on from 1:16-1:32 throughout much of 3:09-4:22. 4:46-4:47 also deforms a bit. Agreed with Palp on 1:48-2:02 being a mess. It was too much of a detracting negative despite the purposeful intent to tell a story with it. 3:17 felt a bit cluttered, but I wasn't as put off by that. The production needs to be cleaned up a bit so that warbling is eliminated. The attempt is there not to treat this arrangement like medley-itis; the sources clearly aren't just treated verbatim. But the way the sections were pieced together wasn't as effective as it should have been, IMO. I'd work to build smoother transitions between more of the themes, so that the changes don't seem so haphazard. Between addressing that and the production, this would be in much better shape. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Intersting concept for sure. What strikes me when I listen to this is how cluttered it sounds. We're talking both arrangement-wise and production-wise. Like Vinnie and Larry pointed out, 1:48 is absolutely a problem area but as early as 0:45 it gets extremely cluttered. The organ is just occupying a LOT of space. Actually I didn't even hear the piano at 1:24 until 1:34 so that really needs to be put up front. I also agree with Larry re: the brass. Somehow it feels like some of the harmonies are clashing. Like the chords are to thick, the notes to close to each other. You've got an organ which means you have pretty much every frequency avaliable to you, don't put them all in the middle. Spread out some chords and melodies instead of putting them all in the same register. Use the different instruments strengths. I think for the most part the transitions worked although 3:03 was a little abrupt. Though the zelda theme was terribly out of place, didn't feel that at all. I understand your concept but coupling major and minor at the same time (I mean at the SAME TIME) is just not a good idea, especially when it's already this cluttered. While I understand and admire your concept I feel it doesn't justify the result. It just sounds cluttered and doesn't really help you getting the 'story' out there. You have a good start, this could be quite the arrangement, you really have to tidy this up first. NO(resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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