djpretzel Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 Here's an interesting one. I've been toying with this for quite some time now, especially ever since I heard the "Black Mages" album. It's a solo version of the FF6 Battle theme done in a hard rock piano style. There's quite a bit of myself in this. Ever since about 5 years ago I got hooked on bands like Yes, Dream Theater, and Genesis (all bands that Uematsu has admitted having heavy influence by), I've developed quite a repertoire of patterns, bass lines, thematic elements and whatnot to use, as a jazz musician will build an encyclopedia of licks and motifs in which to draw from. This piece, like much of Uematsu's battle music, falls squarely into this genre of prog rock/metal with it's driving melodic elements, multi-sectioned form, and classical motivic overtones. Oh well, I'm rambling, but in any case, after a while of playing with this, I thought it would be fun to insert a snapshot of the FF prelude into intro, as well as adding some transitional content. It took me a while to get a decent recording, as it's speed lends itself well to muddying a good recording. I finally got an adequate take though, although there are a few week spots. Many hours in the recording studio yielded this take. In any case, this definitely is the direction I'm heading for arranging these days. I have a piano arrangement of Hunter Chance FF9 (that I'd love to do, but is quite difficult to get down correctly), and of course, as everyone has one, "Some day the dream will fade" from FFX, but since that's so piano friendly, I doubt I'll even bother sending it. Edit: You asked for it by tomorrow, I've got it I just finished an almost 4 hour studio recording session, and have come out with the final version of the FF6 Battle theme, now entitled: "Final Fantasy VI - Battle Theme (Ivory Metal mix)" So, you can now go ahead and tell the judges to throw out the file I sent, and to download this file: Thanks for doing this, I know it wasn't exactly the normal route. -Noir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 Eric has requested we throw this mix out. I'm locking it for now until a decision has been made on what to do with this mix. "One request, while I'm at it... and this is actually my first time speaking with a judge about this. I have 2 other remixes in the cue. One of them is another piano arrangement, an FF6 Battle Theme arrangement... it went under the name "Eric Barker", and not Noir. I'm aiming a bit higher now that I'm getting my recording technique down a bit better. If it goes into judging before I upload a new version, throw it out. It would be nice to be able to fall through the new version later, but I can understand if that's not really kosher, so if I have to start at the bottom of the cue again, that's fine. It was submitted in early November, so I'm worried it might come up shortly. I'll email you again when I upload the new version. -Eric " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted February 12, 2004 Author Share Posted February 12, 2004 Well, he submitted two back to back and this was the better of the two, so if he withdraws it then the other FF6 sub, which wasn't as good, won't be posted either. Do you know him or can you see if this affects his decision? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 I don't know him. He pm'd me this info along with the other one during 6MB issue last week. I'll pm him back with the info and see what he wants to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 He says they are both the same, and he's now requesting "Tell ya what, I'll try to have a re-vamped version of the FF6 battle them by the end of the day tomorrow. " Ok or not? Edit: I just talked with ari and he suggested if eric gets this in by tomorrow, ok, if not resubmit. I agree with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Updated with new file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protricity Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Hmm, that horrible off key bass REALLY turns me off right from the start. How could you possibly recover now? Hmm, not much arrangement goin on. This is pretty much a piano rendition of the original. Ah, lots more arrangement later on. Second half is better. Perhaps I would reconsider if that horribly off key bass was removed at the beginning. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 i don't mind the dissonance at the beginning. sounds like it could have been intentional, and either way, it is interesting. the piece has good dynamics. the problem is that there isn't too much rearrangement and there isn't too much harmony. The harmony is mostly limited to the melody against the bass note. it sounds empty. it comes across as an unchallenging piece, and the arrangement doesn't do justice to the good dynamics. i feel like if i practiced for a week i could play this piece live, and that's not a good thing. i want to hear more harmonies, and more interesting harmonies. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 I don't like the dissonance in the beginning. I can see what you're trying to do there, but I think it would work if you changed that bass note to match your chord changes. The arrangement is a pretty straighforward rendition of the battle theme; not much in the way of change in the first half. This piece has a lot of momentum, which is great, but I wish that left-hand would lay off the eighth notes for a while and do something substantially different, because it gets tiring after a while. You definitely know what you're doing on a piano, no doubt about it, but I'd like to hear some more in way of variation in terms of the development of this arrangement. It just starts off and goes and goes and goes and doesn't let up the whole way through. Definitely not bad; I do like a lot of it, but I'm going to give it a NO for now and encourage you to take a look at some things and resubmit, particularly the opening dissonance Prot mentioned and harmony stuff Vig talked about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 I agree with some of the criticism the other judges said of this mix. The first minute isn't too great. But as the mix progresses the playing and arrangement gets better and better. I like how the mix changes variations very smoothly. The section at 1:50-2:00 is just great. From then until the end is the strength of this mix. I love the performance here. I think the mastering or possibly the recording here is a weakpoint. I would have loved a stronger and sharper bass and more clarity through the whole mix as well. The bass and treble are a bit cloudy. Watch your levels, I hear a bit of distortion especially early on with the stronger notes. Very nice ending. There's some issues here, but the highlighted sections make up for it, so I will give it a borderline YES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Dan Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 Actually, I kind of like the dissonance in the beginning as he's offsetting the melody from the bass by a half step at a time and then resolves it. Works for me. I like the varied expression and dynamics. And the playing is top notch with a few hesitations here and there and maybe a flub or two, but other than those minor gripes, this is very well executed. And the jazzy part that starts at 1:50-ish is enough for me to give this a YES. And as far as piano performances that we've received in the past, this is possibly one of my favorites. The quality is great, the playing is great, the recording is great, AND it's live. And if it's NOT live, it's the most impressive sequencing job I've ever seen on this site. Hands down. Either way it's an impressive end result and the work that went into it seems obvious. YES D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny B Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 The bass notes in the beginning work for me. It's dissonant, but dissonance is not always bad. Like the D^2 said, it resolves. I like how a lot of it is similar to the original, but a lot of it is totally different as well. It keeps it fresh, while at the same time familiar. Performance skill is top-tier, no qualms there. Recording works for me, could use a dash more reverb, I say. It's a new take on the ff6 battle theme that I never thought possible. Good Stuff. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israfel Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Interesting work. Couple points. --your voice leading is too muddy. Aside from the melody, most everything is in lower octaves. It would be better to have some variety of register --the rhythms are a bit jerky and uneven at times. You rush (:35 for example) and drag (like at :51) the tempo throughout the piece. --the mix comes off as too straightforward. For example, 1:05, with the simple two-part texture. --the recording lacks clarity- and has a general muffled quality. Although part of this is likely due to the bottom-heavy arrangement. --too little rhythmic contrast. The driving bass line seems to go on forever and quickly becomes tiresome. BUT...I'm still going to pass this- there's no reason that a posted work must be a compositional masterpiece. The way I see it is that this work will undoubtedly be well received by listeners as it is a competently performed work with an arrangement which, while simple at times, does have a few strong points- for instance the far too short change-up at 1:51. I have no mind to pass a work simply because the listeners will like it, but in this case I feel that the piece has enough going for it to not overshadow its flaws, but make it enjoyable nonetheless. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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