MIx of Final Fantasy I and II battle themes

[Tostigroover]

Hi all,

Listening to Voices of the Lifestream, I visited this site. Listening to several remixes, you guys inspired me to create my own remixes.

New version in a more recent post below.

I wrote a remix that starts of with the Battle Theme from Final Fantasy I and changes into Final Fantasy II's Battle Theme.

I would love to hear some responses. As long as it is criticism I can work with, I do not mind whether it is positive of negative.

Cheers,

Dirk.

[Pander]

I don't really know what I was expecting, but this beat my expectations by a fair enough margin.

There are certainly faults (I'll bring a few up later) but overall it's pretty fair.

Guitar distortion around 0:45 is really cool.

Bass synth throughout has a good fuzzy sound, like a BJ for the eardrum (around 1:37 for a bit)

Random touches like guitars joining in around 1:51 add character.

Good bridge at 2:50. I likey!

Criticisms:

Overall the mix is a bit too dichotomous. It might as well be two songs except for the fact neither one is long enough on their own.

Instrument quality is suspect at points. You do a good deal with it, but at times(0:31) things like a odd synth noise or lo-fi hi-hat make an entrance that detracts from the sound.

Bassline (especially early) is simplistic and overpowering. In fact, it seems like all instruments spend some time overwhelming the other elements on their respective registers (bass CONTROLS lower freq, guitar/synth share time at upper end). So even though you'll have about 4-8 instruments going at once it might as well be 2-3 for all my ears can tell.

A little too little original arranging in the first half of the song (FFI portion). Key change and personal touches help, but if it could go solidly in some unique direction at 1:30 instead of towards the FFII battle theme it'd do a lot. Given your distortion and synth elements I'd suggest a more mechanical verse.

I'm not a fan of the ending. You are about to slow the tempo down to end and then suddenly you dive in and out a few times before disappearing. I'd rather have seen a slower-tempo close or even a fade-out on a solo. The bursting in and out is rather harsh.

Interesting though. It is definitely a fun listen.

[Tostigroover]

Pander, thanks a bunch for the quick feedback. Everything you mention, is useful. Although I do not promise I will implement every single point in the final product, I will probably try them out.

- Dichotomous track. You hit me where it hurts. I tried to write the track so that I would end with the FF I track. I could not make it work and the FF II part fit too well.

- Overwhelming frequencies. Valid points. At times I like to have instruments mash together but I know some parts where I do wish to clean it up.

- Too little personal arranging, especially first half. Of course, the first part of the track resembles the FF I battle theme pretty much 1:1. The only FF II and original parts I put in it are small and in the background. I went for that, though I liked starting out with the basic FF I theme and then slowly building up to FF II -- FF II's main melody does not start until 2m49s.

- Unique direction. I have to say I am in dubio since I feel the track lasts long enough. If I can keep it short enough, I will give it my best. What do you mean with "a more mechanical verse?'

- The ending. I actually quite like the ending, especially its harshness. Maybe we have different tastes but I do not like fade-outs or solo's.

I really appreciate the feedback. If I get more, I will take all points into account and take another look at the track, after this period of rest.

Cheers, Dirk.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Pander, thanks a bunch for the quick feedback. Everything you mention, is useful. Although I do not promise I will implement every single point in the final product, I will probably try them out.

- Dichotomous track. You hit me where it hurts. I tried to write the track so that I would end with the FF I track. I could not make it work and the FF II part fit too well.

- Overwhelming frequencies. Valid points. At times I like to have instruments mash together but I know some parts where I do wish to clean it up.

- Too little personal arranging, especially first half. Of course, the first part of the track resembles the FF I battle theme pretty much 1:1. The only FF II and original parts I put in it are small and in the background. I went for that, though I liked starting out with the basic FF I theme and then slowly building up to FF II -- FF II's main melody does not start until 2m49s.

- Unique direction. I have to say I am in dubio since I feel the track lasts long enough. If I can keep it short enough, I will give it my best. What do you mean with "a more mechanical verse?'

- The ending. I actually quite like the ending, especially its harshness. Maybe we have different tastes but I do not like fade-outs or solo's.

I really appreciate the feedback. If I get more, I will take all points into account and take another look at the track, after this period of rest.

Cheers, Dirk.

Actually,

I agree with Pander on the ending.

It's too harsh on the ears, and if I want to have the song on loop, I'm not gonna enjoy it every time.

Perhaps instead of a burst and then cutting out everything only to burst again,

you can have it burst but let it decay and then burst. No difference in timing, just a nice reverb effect.

[Pander]

Oooh decay would be good. You can have bursting in and out without the 100dB shift in sound every half second for a couple seconds.

Good response to criticism, remember that I did LIKE the bulk of the track. I think I was really expecting a midi rip, because it seems like the FF battle themes provide the simplest starting grounds for new remixers. You, however, do not sound new, and as such bowled over what I was expecting.

The ending is definitely an item of personal taste, and I know fadeout guitar solos aren't everyone's cup of tea, so I hope a delay or some other FX can be put in to moderate the tsunami of sound that comes at the end.

By mechanical I was pointing to the fact that you seem to have a handle on synths pretty well. Look at the intro to the FFII battle theme, it's almost all synth there, if you didn't already know the sources you'd wonder if it was a different movement of the FFI battle theme that you decided to do a synth breakdown with. Perhaps drop out the guitars and play with synths, perhaps another key change (something lower), keep it going for 30 seconds-ish until you lead into the FFII battle theme a bit more naturally.

One example I can give of how to awesomely transition from one track to another can be found in

. The first transition in songs is 1:57. The second is 3:58. I think the editor did a fantastic job of synching, you can't really tell the songs aren't supposed to be anywhere NEAR each other if you didn't already know the material. The instrumentation, tempo, tone were all kept the same between the themes.

However, when you end around 1:28 you drop the guitars and drums and go straight for only the bass and bassy-lead synths in a completely different tone. The strumming in the background throughout the first half of the 2nd minute is nice, but I wish it'd have more playtime with the FFII battle theme earlier in the mix. Also, when it does enter in fully around 2:52 it feels too low-leveled compared to the cymbals crashing, only rising up during the last seconds of the song (3:08).

The guitars are a big strength (they're some of the better samples I hear, and their arrangement is nice), and going from ever-present in the FFI part to almost non-existant til the last 20 seconds of the FFII part is too large a leap. I completely understand dropping them out a while, but I don't think your synths should fill up a whole minute and a half on their own.

[Tostigroover]

Hey neblix and Pander, thanks again for the comments.

Although I like the harshness of the ending, you make a strong point. Going from 0 to 100+ dB seems like a big leap. I will see what I will do about it. I like that the start and end sounds very sudden, in this mix. Maybe I will keep some bass or synth rolling during the final four notes -- no jump from 0 to 100 dB but the same effect. Or do you foresee a problem there already?

I will also try to see what to about the transition from FF I tot FF II and the lack of guitar after that. I hope you forgive my inexperience by saying this again but I still do not fully understand what you mean by a "mechanical verse." As I see it, you give me two points of feedback. First, you suggest the transition form FFI to FFII to go through a real transition (e.g., first settle the synths in an original piece before starting with the synths that now kick off FFII). Secondly, the guitar should return earlier during the FFII part.

Many thanks again to both of you. It really helps hearing the thoughts of others on the track.

Cheers, Dirk.

[Tostigroover]

Hi people,

I had another fiddle with the remix. You can find the result in this file:

As always, I would love to hear helpful responses, either positive or negative.

Cheers.