Liontamer Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Zephyrum Guillaume SAUMANDE guillaume.saumande@wanadoo.fr Final Fantasy 8 Never Shirk Your Destiny Premonition, Rivals, Never Look Back, The Looser Nobuo UEMATSU Hello, Here it is my first remix on your website. There is a long time I discoverd the site of ocremix (a real goldmine !!), and I was eager to post my own arrangement. It’s an arrangement from several musics from ff8. I chose this game because it’s the first whose music had a real impact on me. Its OST is composed of a lot of masterpiece. When we listen these different musics, we see they have been thought for an orchestra. A CD with orchestral arrangement still exist (Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec) : the musics are sublime but I find this CD incomplete. A lot of other musics of this game would have merited to be present on this CD, in particular boss musics. So, I wanted at the beginning to make an arrangement of Premonition. The original music was sill wonderfull with its two memorable melodies, its magnificient introduction, its complex organisation (in only 2’30), an rich an powerfull harmony. I attempt to keep at maximum the orginal organisation in adding some orchestral effects : percussions, brass, picollo... At 2’30, there is a repetition of the first medody to arrive to the summit of this music. Just after (3’12), the sound is faint, the music mysterious. It’s the arrangement of Rivals, melody near of the first theme of Premonition, the witch’s melody. This piece is use to introduce the third arrangement : Never Look Back (3’40). Logical, when the battle go wrong, we had better to run ! For this piece, I tried to keep a maximum the power of the original : stressfull rythm, discordant chord, effects of crechendo with brass. Global organisation of the original piece have been nearly keept, with a rythm more present in the repetition. This part of the arrangement end by a note dreadfully sad wich introduce the final piece : The Looser. The poor running person have been recaptured, he can see his end coming. I cut the part prelude of the original piece to keep only the nostalgy of the strings. That's all for explainning, I hope you’ll enjoy this mix ! Zephyrum ------------------------------------------------------------- http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - (214) "Premonition", (218) "Rivals", (112) "Never Look Back" & (111) "The Looser" The levels were too quiet, IMO, and the whole track sounded needlessly distant, though that wouldn't have put down an amazing arrangement. There was a missing piece here in terms of making the whole thing sound cohesive. The drumwork starting off so spartan didn't help. The sample quality was decent, but the was a huge lack of realism and finesse in the sequencing. It's a step above the PS1, but the standard isn't PS1 quality. Arrangement-wise, the structure felt too close. The opening felt like a straight up rip of "Premonition" with a minor sound upgrade, which already makes in an easy NO-go. The whole first half was a wash and wasn't unique at all in terms of the arrangement, then the take on "Never Look Back" was just as rip-ish. You need to reread the arrangement section of the Standards here and again and present a more interpretive arrangement next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Sorry, but not suitable for OCR. The songs flowed together alright, but were far too close to the originals. As Larry said, in parts it felt like a sound upgrade. There was a flatness and quietness here that made this a lot less compelling to listen to than it could have been. I just feel like the samples weren't used that dynamically or realistically. They felt distant as well, especially the drums, which didn't help. I think you have some ways to go in terms of improving your music game. Try to balance the instrument levels better and get those samples a little less flat, and I think it would help your music out. But even with better production, this particular arrangement won't work for OCR. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 It feels like everything has been pointed out by my talented brown colleagues, I will however point some important stuff out for emphasis. While the sample quality wasn't the worst around the production needed a lot of work. It sounded very distant, as if being played through a pipe of some kind. More than that the samples wasn't used to great effect either, more variations dynamically and with phrasing would be an improvement. The arrangement is at times very close to the source. It did connect alright and none of the transitions felt especially jarring but you need to be more creative with the source material. I'd especially appreciate some more intricate percussion work, something that's often overlooked and would be perfect for this kind of dramatic tune. What's here isn't enough put this over the bar. I can tell you know your theory but you need to work on making a more interpretive arrangement and most of all, improve your production. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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