OCR01021 - Final Fantasy VII "Fluss der Liebe"

[GreatLeo]

Oh I love Collabs they are always great to listen to in my mind because they add the style of more than one artist. But anyways about the song which has always been one of my favorites. The ambient water sounds are a very nice touch reminds me of wingless's SOM Water Palace theme he did way back. I think Gray, DarkPrinceLuca, Israfel and freemind did a great job on this and definately would like to see them get together and produce another fine mix.

[Gwilym]

i can't get into this track. obviously it's made a lot of people happy, but to me it seems amateurish, aimless, meandering and, frankly, boring... sorry.

there are some nice little modifications to the original theme, and a choir sound that i like, but aside from that nothing holds my interest. it's not really bad, but i feel nothing when listening to it, aside from faint boredom. two major nitpicks though:

-the piano is too mechanical. every note seems to have the same velocity*; it needs humanising.

-the 2:32 section is too human. every note seems to be syncopated; it needs quantising.

mm.

*despite the fact that the volume of the notes varies

[Villainelle]

Damn! DJP's blurb sounded promising, and I was especially enthused to hear something Israfel participated in (love your other stuff), but...I have to agree with the other negative reviews on this one. I second everything Gwilym said except the "amateurish" bit...the original orchestration keeps sounding like it has the potential to really take off, but then just ambles about idly. Drums were better left out entirely. A case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, perhaps? It does sound like an overly long intro that never gets off the ground. *sigh* It was such a great choice of an uncommon FFVII track.

I'm sorry. Really wanted to like it, but can't.

[robochar]

Wow! I really enjoyed this....its very beautiful and it has a very real orchestra sound to it. It also convoys alot of emotion and spirit. If I saw any room for change I would say made a little more dynamtics would of helped. But otherwise a great piece ^^

[Israfel]

at about 2:30 is when israfel's contributions are most felt - need i even say that michael dover is quite adept at writing engaging orchestral accompaniment?

Well, actually... I'm surprised that I haven't commented on this mix yet. But in the interest of full disclosure, any mention of engaging orchestral arrangement in this mix should really be aimed at Gray. My involvement in this piece was extremely minimal- in fact, the mix was already considered finished when I first heard it.

All I really did was add the horn melody at 2:40, as well as little background stuff like the harp chords at that same section.

But all the same, I enjoyed working on the mix, and hope that I can do more collaborations in the future. Preferably one that I'm more involved with.

[benevolensaurus]

This is very nice, very ethereal, very... floating. As DJP mentioned in the write-up, those subtle high-end electric synth FX are quite bea-utiful, and really make this mix something special. Seriously, a little addition like that can add so much to a piece like this, and the people who made the piece knew full well how to take advantage of that.

Like others, I too feel the drum to be a little out of place, but that's not enough to ruin the piece as a whole.

So yeah, like I said, very nice overall.

[Bummer]

This reminds me of Bugenhagen´s lessons in the game, this remix would so fit in there, dudes.

It has a very lonely beginning, sounds like someone is sitting in the slums of Midgar and plays some notes on a piano that happens to stand there. When the piano then gets two-handed, the strings comes in, and then we got the feel of the Lifestream, a smooth and calm that just lets your problems melt away, a very touching remix if I might say.

Well done to all of you.

[42]

I didn't really care for the change at 2:34 with the drums coming in and all. It's trying to add a marching tone to pretty good classical piece before hand.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a great and well done mix and worth checking out if you like orchestral/atmospheric mixes, but it just isn't for me.

[OceansAndrew]

Some nice moments for sure here, though some of the parts are ultra mechanical. The piano is super robotic, especially, and the whole organic illusion is lost when it heavily pounds the notes. COmbined with an overly meandering arrangement, I can't bring myself to like this one, despite some great synth tones.

[Emunator]

I don't think the piano fits at all in the intro. At least, not until the supporting strings comes in. When it's just the piano over the ambient sound effects it felt like I was listening to 2 entirely different songs. I agree with OA on the lack of humanization that really makes the song a lot less immersive. The staccato strings and unusual drums fit within their section well enough, but it feels way different from the mood the intro set up and there really wasn't any sort of transition to help bridge that gap.

The sound effects are nicely done, though, I'll give you guys that Those still hold up to today's standards. And I guess the ending feels cohesive enough to work, too, despite the piano. I guess overall this isn't a bad piece to listen to, but it feels very aged and certain elements stick out like a sore thumb that make it hard to really get lost in the mix

[Mockingbird]

I really like this one, despite the out-of-place snare. It's soothing, flowing, like a song about the Lifestream should be.