OCRA-0014 - Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption

[KyleJCrb]

Final Fantasy remixes are SERIOUS BUSINESS

[tebian]

OverClocked ReMix Releases Free Fan Tribute Album, Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption

Well I thought I would post this here and hope its ok with you all. I had got the go ahead to play this CD live on our radio from DJPretzel last week (congrates on your wedding). Friday, Aug 1st 8pm Est we will be broadcasting the whole set of music in a "live concert". I thought you all might want to listen in or join the chat at the our TV stream. I hope to have the game up at same time on the video stream and make it a small but fun event to show off this great work. The radio has a few streams including PSP for those who just want to listen.

This is the Event Page for the www.FinalFantasyRadio.com I have setup and our Facebook fan club plus a few other station fan groups around the world have been notified. Hope this helps to spread the news more about your great music here and the members who make up the OC Remix community. Keep up the great works here and thanks for the music.

[Level 99]

Well I thought I would post this here and hope its ok with you all. I had got the go ahead to play this CD live on our radio from DJPretzel last week (congrates on your wedding). Friday, Aug 1st 8pm Est we will be broadcasting the whole set of music in a "live concert". I thought you all might want to listen in or join the chat at the our TV stream. I hope to have the game up at same time on the video stream and make it a small but fun event to show off this great work. The radio has a few streams including PSP for those who just want to listen.

This is the Event Page for the www.FinalFantasyRadio.com I have setup and our Facebook fan club plus a few other station fan groups around the world have been notified. Hope this helps to spread the news more about your great music here and the members who make up the OC Remix community. Keep up the great works here and thanks for the music.

*jawdrops* What? Wow. This is almost too awesome for words. I'll be at a bonfire at the time but will bring my laptop to get on the chat and make my friends listen in by force if I have to. Feels like FF4 listening-party-v2. Thanks for the support!

Edit: This Friday is July 31st, and Saturday is August 1st...so, hmmm.

[Wiesty]

Production is important but then again so is the quality of song writing and what not. There comes a point when the quality of mix dosent really matter anymore, and it comes down to how enjoyable is it to listen to. I, and millions of others can listen to old Miles Davis and John coltrane recordings for hours, but none of them are incredible mixes with pristine stereo and eq, etc etc etc. They're just enjoyable, and the virtuosity of the musicians vastly outweighs the importance for a perfect mix.

[Level 99]

Production is important but then again so is the quality of song writing and what not. There comes a point when the quality of mix dosent really matter anymore, and it comes down to how enjoyable is it to listen to. I, and millions of others can listen to old Miles Davis and John coltrane recordings for hours, but none of them are incredible mixes with pristine stereo and eq, etc etc etc. They're just enjoyable, and the virtuosity of the musicians vastly outweighs the importance for a perfect mix.

I would have to say it really is a personal preference here. If what he was looking for is high-quality sound engineering, mixing and mastering, so be it, not all the songs may have been his cup of tea. I'm of your opinion, Wiesty, that production may not end up as the be-all-end-all deciding factor of a good mix, but in many cases, it plays significant part. Coming from a perspective where sound theory and mastering is still pretty new to me, many things I've found to sound good in my own mixes were done by mistake at first. Many of these arguments boil down to the personal opinion of the listener, as music is anything but objective.

And now, I'm giving everyone a big hug.

[tebian]

Friday, Aug 1st 8pm Est

Oops i was afraid i might have posted that wrong here too. We are doing two shows on Friday "July 31st" and then on Saturday August 1st, this was setup so if you cant do one we would have that 2nd show. Sorry about the mix on the dates.Really hope to see you all come out one of the nights.

I have made a shout out box for all to add there words of wisdom to the http://events.finalfantasyradio.com. Please leave a note to the audience if your part of the project. Anyone else of course who wants to post there is more then welcome to add information or notes or even url's of projects they are doing. I thought it would be another good way for the Final Fantasy community that listen to the station to meet Overclocked Remix.

I am sure our audience tonight would like to hear from the masters of remix.

[SoulinEther]

AeroZ. Did you know your moniker spelled backwards is "ZoreA"? As far as I'm concerned, it could spell "feces." Or "innocent bunnies being slaughtered by greedy farm hands" - it wouldn't change how awesome Fallen Dragoon is or how much your work and talent impress me.

Alright. Fallen Dragoon has its touching parts. That cello pierces my soul. It's so emotional. So is the melody and stuff. After.. 2:43. Everything after that is gold. A gold-tipped arrow that has reached for my heart and is now pushing its way out my eyes. Or a gold piece of jewelry that you look at and enjoy. It just depends. I usually am a fan of chiptunes but sometimes in this piece I just have to wonder if their color fits. Maybe I just wanted.. MOAR CELLO. Because I love cello. It's so emotional.

Anyway, the song in the OST is now engraved in my mind. Possibly forever. Thanks to this song.

(and your Mysidia remix is ... well, you took a really weird song and made it weird in an interesting and different way. I like it.)

[tebian]

Thanks to Limit99, Nitritious and OA for stopping into the concert last night. We had a great time and really appreciated the commentary. Tonight we should have all our FaceBook fan club in there and hope you all well come to enjoy chat at 8pm Eastern.

To the artist of the CD the music was well received by my listeners. We averaged about 80 listeners on the radio streams and 20 people in the TV chat room over the 3 hours. Thank you all again for some great music and I hope I showcase more of you work here on Final Fantasy Radio.

[Flexstyle]

It's true, I tried to make it clear that I was stating my opinion based on my personal preference. I'm less of a musician and more of an engineer; it's just the way I've been trained and have trained myself. After all, I hope to make a living (or at least part of one) out of mixing and mastering songs some day.

That said, I don't want to undermine the hard work that was definitely put into this! Props for getting the project done, to all involved!

[Nokonoko]

As someone for whom the game holds a lot of nostalgia, I may not exactly have fallen in love with every track, but I certainly did appreciate the project as a whole, so I’d like to add my voice to the multitude of other congratulations and thanks.

In particular, though, I quite liked Smiling Hilltop for Four Hands — it’s such a nice piece — because it’s so rare to find quality piano renditions of the FF tracks outside of the official collections. I was wondering what my chances were of getting my hands on the sheet music …

[audio fidelity]

i'll ask long for you nokonoko - he probably still has the midi data

[Nokonoko]

Thanks so much! Oh, and just in case anyone isn’t aware of it, there are interviews with the composers here.

[Joseph Collins]

This is one of those rare OverClocked ReMix albums that actually does the source material nothing less than absolute justice. Not one of the main album songs sucks. Not a one. If you loved the original Final Fantasy IV soundtrack (or any of the remixes), THIS ALBUM IS FOR YOU. This thing has it all! A number of styles, the complete soundtrack lovingly remixed, and even some epic singing on a few songs! Words don't do this thing justice. You just have to EXPERIENCE it for yourself.

Do it. You will not regret it.

[avaris]

This is one of those rare OverClocked ReMix albums that actually does the source material nothing less than absolute justice. Not one of the main album songs sucks. Not a one. If you loved the original Final Fantasy IV soundtrack (or any of the remixes), THIS ALBUM IS FOR YOU. This thing has it all! A number of styles, the complete soundtrack lovingly remixed, and even some epic singing on a few songs! Words don't do this thing justice. You just have to EXPERIENCE it for yourself.

Do it. You will not regret it.

Hey thanks dude! When we originally set out to make this project this was our #1 intention. We wanted to make the album a nostalgia trip for those who really loved FFIV. Thanks for the comment it really means a lot that the album got the nostalgia juices flowing!

[Fureddi]

This is one of those rare OverClocked ReMix albums that actually does the source material nothing less than absolute justice. Not one of the main album songs sucks. Not a one. If you loved the original Final Fantasy IV soundtrack (or any of the remixes), THIS ALBUM IS FOR YOU. This thing has it all! A number of styles, the complete soundtrack lovingly remixed, and even some epic singing on a few songs! Words don't do this thing justice. You just have to EXPERIENCE it for yourself.

Do it. You will not regret it.

Personally, although I have every FF album on my PC up to 11 Online without the expansions, IV isn't that great of an album musically. Nobuo matured as he created the music for V, VI and VII in my opinion. Then again, I can't say a bad thing about VII at all... the spin offs, yeah I won't go into them...

But. I have enjoyed this album. It is worth downloading to be sure. Still, nothing on VoTL for me. That and Project Chaos are my favourite two Projects.

[quintin3265]

Personally, although I have every FF album on my PC up to 11 Online without the expansions, IV isn't that great of an album musically. Nobuo matured as he created the music for V, VI and VII in my opinion. Then again, I can't say a bad thing about VII at all... the spin offs, yeah I won't go into them...

But. I have enjoyed this album. It is worth downloading to be sure. Still, nothing on VoTL for me. That and Project Chaos are my favourite two Projects.

I agree with this comment. The remixers did a good job with what they had. The problem I had is that there just wasn't enough source material for all the tracks that were on the remix album. Look at the VGMdb - the remix album is almost three times as long as the original is.

[KyleJCrb]

I don't think that has anything to do with it: I count 52 tracks for the OST, and 46 for this album. The only track that is remixed more than once on EOB is Rydia. The reason the remix album is longer than the OST is because overall each song is longer, due to the nature of remixing, which involves extending sections, writing new material, changing keys, tempos, styles, etc. etc.

Unless you mean that there weren't enough GOOD songs on the original soundtrack to do a full remix album like this, which is entirely subjective.

[Retnuhytnuob]

Just found the site about 2 weeks ago while looking for which of chrono trigger's tracks were composed by Nobuo. I now have 11 of the albums, and much of the rest of the site's collection.

FF IV (II then on my US SNES) is the first RPG I really had much experience with, and remains one of my favorite games to this point. As such, hearing these renditions of the soundtrack means a lot to me.

Excellent work on each track! (Including the 'Rhymes with Elixir' track for humor value, though I don't think it really fits with the rest of the album)

As an album I found that though the songs themselves excellent, but that the flow from song to song was... at times... awkward. This may be one of the factors with the people who dislike the album as a whole. While I am aware that the album is ordered as the tracks appear in the game, I will admit that I needed to reorder the tracks to get the full effect of the Betrayal, Strife, and Redemption themes without the song breaks destroying the immersion experience.

Concerning some individual tracks:

Fighting for Tomorrrrow perfectly captures the warrior monk aspect of Fabul, as well as the struggle and pride they have, even when facing almost certain defeat. These monks show hope even then, as was the case in game. I have chills each time I listen to this track

Full of Courage and The Might of Baron give the perfect beginning to the album, showing the strength of the hometown, and pride of the airfleet. The march in Might works excellently with the electric guitars, strings and trumpets in a wonderful rendition of this track.

Edward's Dream Quartet's string arrangement gives a wonderful break amidst the other tracks, giving a softer taste amidst the other electric/rock tracks (this track flows especially when played directly after Overture ~ Tellah's Prophecy)

The Skies Hold No Angels for Us is perfect for that city, and what has happened there just before you arrived.

All six battle songs (Of Fiend and Man, Interlude ~ Yay!, Survival Instinct, Treason, and the two Finale songs) play excellently. More than just capture the epicness of the battles, they enhance it. The voice work in the Finale, brings heightened emotion, as it does in Fighting for Tomorrrrow.

Theme of Love for Guitar Duet was a calming break amidst the strife of the events in the tracks surrounding it.

Long Time Gone is simply an enjoyable and at times invigorating track.

I enjoyed Golbez 'N Goblins, though overall the 'in and out' effect (and the sound edge it causes at the beginning) which is applied to much of the track (lasting till 2:15, and brought back in at 2:45) comes close to ruining the track for me, as the pressure changes strains my ears both when using headphones and when listening through a stereo. Fortunately, for most of the song other instruments keep this from completely overpowering. - Still, I will have to say that bLiNd'S other tracks here work better for me.

Somewhere to Hide has an excellent musical track. For me though, the Vocals (though well done) don't work as well for me as they do in other tracks, which makes them a bit of a distraction for me.

Of the other tracks, there are a few which buried the source a little too far, a few others which had some clipping problems that hurt them for me, and several that work well in context that I havent yet commented on.

These brought back some good memories. Thank you!

[Colma]

I have been a fan of this site for a couple of years but I absolutely adore this album, I signed up just to say that. I especially love bLiNd's tracks, it's all great though, there is honestly not a track on it that I don't enjoy.

[Moguta]

After listening thoroughly, gotta say that my reaction to the FF4 album is very mixed. There are tracks I personally think shouldn't have even made the album... but there are those too that I feel push the envelope for remix excellence. Thanks to "Fighting for Tomorrow" and "Genesis of Destruction", I can't get the idea of an entirely remix-opera (as opposed to genre-singular 'rock-opera') project out of my head. It's so exhilarating to hear full choir with such passion in a free fan-made VGM arrangement. Such efforts truly embody and signify just how far game music remixing has come.

On that note, congrats and kudos to all involved!

[Forgotten]

god i love the song B-02 I Love This Radio (Theme of Love) [Theory of Nonexistence] from the bonus CD

[audio fidelity]

Nokonoko just pm'd you with long's info

[prophetik music]

Long Time Gone is simply an enjoyable and at times invigorating track.

hey, thanks, man! i think you're one of the first people to comment on my track

[DrumUltimA]

My turn to post here!

While everyone's entitled to their own opinions, I will say I am surprised that so many people found this album "disappointing", or an example of a "decline in quality" on ocr. This album actually exceeded my expectations. There are a few weak tracks in my opinion, but I'm pretty genuinely enjoying everything I hear. I've been listening to it like crazy since it came out. Call me silly, but I don't think my standards are particularly low either...

I'm also surprised at how many people aren't picking up on the humor in some of these tracks. In fact, two of my favorite tracks are Rhymes with Elixer and Zeromus the Serialist for that reason. I actually thought Zeromus the Serialist sounded really cool the first time I heard it... but I was probably biased knowing the guy who made it is not likely to have produced something like this out of inexperience

[A-RoN]

I'd say this is one of my favourite OCR albums of all time as Final Fantasy 4 is my favourite RPG IMO. Then again, I may be speaking biasedly as many different opinions are coming out from reviews here and I actually enjoy the contreversy for once. The genres covered here really add an emphasis to the atmosphere Uematsu was looking for. It's got everything from rock, metal, electronica, ambient, traditional house-trace, and even classical. It's a good break from my current listening studies of beats (oh no! Double A's trying to be the next DJ Premier!)

I think the arrangements are excellent as both creativity is expressed and the source tunes are easily recognizable. People may complain about sticking close to the original especially with simple tracks like Theme of Love for Guitar Duet or Almost Fell for the Trojan (actually, that one goes off), but these ones are great to listen to when I'm just chillin. C'mon people! Enjoy music for music, so the real can be brought back to the people!

The highlights for me are songs that have The Fabul Men's Choir which consist of OCR members who individually made some tracks here. I especially like Fighting for Tomorrow which sports some savagely oriental big beat mish-mash. It kinda sounds a little j-pop especially at 1:43 Not a big fan of the ambient tracks as they drag. I wanted a little more Wu Tang clan style for Damcyan Castle (er...pretend I didn't say that). Edward's Dream Quartet reminded me of Truth Behind the Project for Crisis Core...good stuff here. Survival Instinct was one that absolutely blew me away. I've been trying to produce a good drum and bass track and this guy beat me to the punch nicely. I thought it was a cinematic hip-hop track at first but then the boss theme comes in with an assault of some bangin' breaks and synths. But of course, my favorites are bLiNd's tracks. They absolutely outshine joecam's bling-bling and thank God he's been healed of his hospitalized condition back in 2008. I have to get a club dancing with Path of Deception and Bridge of Eternity has been on repeat for a long time in my car. A bunch of Facebook friends of mine now want a download button on my MP3 player application because of this song...he he. The bonus track I love this Radio is a good one to play off an 8-track if you still have one and can get one of these old skool puppies pressed. Calcobrena After a Night of Dinner and Dancing is just cool, zyko must be one of your influences, huh? Of Fiend and Man is interesting. Cinematic/rock/electronica can make ears bleed if not done properly (especially noticed this with the way the swelling horns and strings were mixed in). Tweek's stuff gets better as he continues remixing. The humour in some of the tracks is GOLD! I especially enjoyed Metal Mage (I WANT MILK!) If there was a form of sexual inuendo in that, I can't tell, but hey, it's funny! That's what counts. Ana(pro)logue at 1:01, 1... 2... 3... wow... And please give Zeromus the Serialist another keyboard...preferably a Korg Triton synth. And I almost forgot. In Edward's Dream Quartet at 2:02. I don't know why? I just find that bit until 2:11 funny! Although, if this was actually done with a real professional orchestra, I'll take it back.

To conclude, this album has too much sizzle but still has alot of steak to it. I'm highly surprised at how much work has gone into this one. So many collaborations! So many tracks! Excellent coverage off a game that's so under-rated today even with the DS release which was actually very addictive and challenging. What's not to like about FF4 and what's not to like about the music from the original sound track and this album? Download!