djpretzel Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronus616 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 God... this brings back so many memories. Amazing voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyril the Wolf Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 This is really good. So many good things about it, even when the vocal technique isn't THE BEST it just works so well to further bring the emotional content of the piece out. Thank you for this remix. I met diotrans at MAG and she was cool, glad to see she's posted. Keep up the awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuIzA Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 this mix is as the original title suggests... simple and clean... and hella smooooth. great vocals compliment it greatly and def brings out the emotion, as cyril said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danileigh79 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 This game is so awesome that I have waited in much anticipation since 2005 for a new remix of Kingdom Hearts. The acoustic guitar/cello mix is awesome, it's so simple, and I love the mix of English and Japanese.... Hikari is second only, and I do stress ONLY, to Passion/Sanctuary from KH2 in terms of VGM tracks with fully sung vocals. Great job, hope to hear more from you in the future, possibly an acoustic rendition of Passion (lol) Danileigh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Nice reverb Seriously though, this mix sounds pretty nice, live even. I like it very much! Very nice voice and the cello is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcana Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 I don't know the original source, so I can't compare to the original. This is a nice song, I enjoy the acoustic sounds. It's very natural, very intimate. I have a love affair with diotrans's voice, because she's an extremely capable singer who has a gigantic range. The backing instrumental is very good, and I enjoy it. Congrats on your first mix! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darksun45230 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 This song is beautiful. It's hard to let that go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chernabogue Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Great mix, the vocals are good and smooth. The arrangement is calm, I really like it ! A great alternative to Utada Hikaru's original song ! Nice job ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master_Yoshi Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 It sounded a bit too sparse for my tastes. I know it's supposed to be acoustic and unplugged, but maybe bringing the guitar a bit more to the front would have assauged that minor complaint. As far as the vocals go - wow! Fully agree with djp - this song is damn hard. You did brilliantly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
void.pointer Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 I want to be nice, but this remix is absolutely horrible. The chick can not sing. Sorry to be rude but I need to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sodoshiin Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 It was exciting to see this new addition on the list, and I sincerely wanted to like it, however, I couldn't get past how grating the vocals were to even begin to appreciate the rest of the work. I genuinely admire the attempt on such a difficult song, but perhaps this mix would have been better as an instrumental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monobrow Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 Well Amy... I am not a huge fan of your vocals honestly. I think maybe a different room spacing may have helped, maybe a tiny bit of autotune. Maybe some more reverb, but honestly it would only cover up some core problems. There is a lot of very nice emotion though, and you KNOW what you are doing and conveying, I really get that from the dynamics and annunciations, emphasis on words, etc.... I get that... Just the voice as an instrument itself needs a some work, and even more control. I understand that this is a difficult song to sing, but none of the other instruments are having problems, and I view the voice as an instrument :J HOWEVER, that being said. I absolutely love the arrangement. The guitar and violin/viola/cello are friggin excellent. Uber excellent, seriously. I'm very impressed. There is a lot of emotion and depth to this arrangement. The recordings are excellent, the space the song has too. It's very professional. The vocals? Maybe some people like them right away. That's cool too. Just not my cup of tea, and maybe they will grow on me, who knows? The arrangement is excellent enough for me to want to listen to the song again anyway. I would never try to sing over something like this, I do not have the balls. You do, so kudos girl! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 I personally am not a huge fan of the style of Amy's vocals here (not an indictment on you of course!). However, I did find a lot of things done put together well with the instrumentation and the overall flow of the vocals in adding emotion. The song is a lot more cohesive to me now that I get to listen to it on repeat rather than hearing it live though. Great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villainelle Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 This one's tough. The instrumentation is lovely, and at certain points, particularly when the singer drops into a lower range, the vocals work very well--for example, the latter part of Japanese bridge. I think the problem may be that for the majority of the track, the singer is singing far outside of her range, leading to a strained, monotonous quality that desperately tries to hit notes, rather than evocatively explore them. As Monobrow said, there is a lack of control of the voice at these points. It is a bit harsh on the ears. Cheers for the singer's effort and courage. Hopefully you continue to practice and gain control over your voice, as you would any instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostChronos Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Okay, I understand that the remixes of vgm's on this most holy of sites is open to ALL kinds of interpretation, but, I prefer the musics that are instrumental only. (my opinion) Mind you, I love the trance with the vocals tracks. Those are damn nice. Amy sounds good, but it's a bit much. Then again, I am biased, so I'll shut up. Good job though overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xauriel Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Pros: The instrumentals were incredible. I loved the strings and guitar particularly, very smooth. Cons: To be completely honest, I don't like the vocals in this very much. And sadly, this song depends largely on the quality of the vocals. Please understand I'm not saying the singer sucks or anything, this song is absurdly difficult to sing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Shinigami Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 There aren't a lot of KH mixes here (yet), so when I saw this one I was really excited. It was late at night, though, and I didn't have immediate access to headphones, so when the song started I had to turn the volume down because of the vocals and as a result couldn't hear the background music sufficiently. Since listening to it with headphones and during the day, I can safely say that the background music is stellar. Unfortunately, the vocals only sound slightly better than they did. As it's been noted before, the vocalist's voice needs some tuning. This is not a slight against the vocalist's obvious potential and existing talent, which is easily audible in the lower range of her singing (0:47–1:25 and 2:06–2:27), but the majority of the time she sounds – whether or not it's true – as though she's not confident in her capabilities, so she sings from her chest rather than her stomach and doesn't open her throat completely for fear of her voice cracking. After the first twenty seconds of the song – which are quite good, if a bit loud – she remains mostly in one or two octaves, which creates a tinny, monotonous, and somewhat nasally sound, and reminds me unpleasantly of a number of contemporary female singers who I can't tell apart because they all apparently worked very hard to sound exactly alike. It seems like she's trying too hard to match the original vocalist's range rather than branching out and embracing her own. She should practice vocalizing (not necessarily singing, for the time being) in the higher octaves and exploring her lower ones, which are far superior in quality. I would love to hear her sing in that lower range. Also, while I appreciate the effort to include the Japanese version, I feel I must point out that though I'm not anything resembling fluent in Japanese, I do hear it regularly and the answer is a resounding YES – that portion of the song does sound exactly like the vocalist doesn't speak a word of Japanese, and I find that both extremely distracting and more than a little disappointing. If "Hikari" is as much a favorite song of the vocalist's as "Simple and Clean" and she has been listening to both for years – so much so that she has dedicated time and effort to noticing, recognizing, and admiring the differences in the vocal melodies – I don't think it's inappropriate to point out that more effort could have been included in becoming familiar with the exact pronunciation, inflection, and intonation of the lyrics from "Hikari" for use here. If the vocalist didn't possess the "Hikari" single, which is slower than the mix used at the start of the game and easier to decipher and sing along with, it can easily be found on YouTube. I am absolutely not saying that the vocalist has to be fluent or interested in learning Japanese (or any other language) as a language itself merely to use it in a song, but the inclusion of "Hikari" in this mix makes knowledge of at least the specific pronunciation of that song's lyrics an unequivocal requirement. If the vocalist was not prepared to sing part of a Japanese song as though she was at least familiar with the Japanese language itself, she shouldn't have included it at all. As it is, the vocalist's awkwardness with it does detract from the rest of the mix. Overall, it's a good mix. There are better and there are worse, and this one fits nicely amongst the laudable first tries. Had this song been an instrumental, I would have snapped it up even though I'm not a huge fan of guitars. The vocals are not mediocre, but they do leave room for improvement. It's an adequate beginning that will have me approach another arrangement by this mixer with caution, but has not turned me away completely. ~LS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zidane Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Well, I am absolutely stunned... in a bad way. The Kingdom Hearts remixes approved for OCR are few and far between, and with tons of great source material (from the entire series) it baffles me. Granted I don't really keep up with the WIP sub-forum much, albeit I bet there has been some noteworthy stuff in there to be rejected (with good reason: standards). It's obvious how this got approved, but I couldn't even finish listening to this. The quality of the recording, the instruments, all fine and dandy (nothing particularly special about the arrangement here either, granted the cello was introduced). I remember hearing a similar take on Hikari/S&C from Missy (an average mixer) a few years ago, but she actually just spliced the official English and Japanese renditions of the PlanetB remix together and the end result was - enjoyable. At the risk of being rude, this just makes me sad. OCR hits its 10th year, has been met with some pro success, and we get a new KH mix! Unfortunately, this will not go on the playlist. The vocals ripped this song to shreds. The held note at the beginning was shaky, there were more than several instances where diotrans was not in tune, overpowered the music or didn't annunciate strongly. Also, the falsetto coupled with the guitar reminds me of a handful of volunteer praise and worship singers from my private school days. In lieu of complaining anymore, I will just digest the fact that "they can't all be winners". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechaFone Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Your vocals are fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Mixing that with the strings wasn't great, but it didn't suffer, either. Anyway, big fan of the KH series and this was a pretty decent tribute. Awesome switch there halfway through, with the Japanese lyrics. Kudos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortal Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 You got really nice voice i hope you will continue making song Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yosefu Posted February 7, 2010 Share Posted February 7, 2010 Very nice mix. I personally don't like the vocals and the parts that were in japanese because i found it very irritating. Either way it was still a very beautiful song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwordBreaker Posted February 7, 2010 Share Posted February 7, 2010 OCR going into unplugged mania these days, eh? While I personally enjoyed Dreams of Absolution's transition a lot more, this one is not a bad effort overall. The vocals are commendable, but as most of you pointed out they're not perfect...and maybe they don't have to be. It's understandable to nitpick because this is an extremely hard song to get right...the bar is already really high. Not to mention the millions of fans who already memorized the song from top to bottom (including me). As a first attempt to remix this song for OCR, it's not bad. The high-pitched parts sound strained, especially towards the end. The low-pitched ones, on the other hand, are really good. I'm impressed that you included both the Japanese and English parts. Japanese sounded awkward at first, but picked up well later. Finally, the vocals do indeed sound very high compared to the instruments...and it would've been great if you included back-up vocals and more harmonies. Perhaps that would've covered up the small weaknesses. Maybe the imperfection of the vocals gives the song an organic unplugged vibe as some of you mentioned. Also, it helps that diotrans is a talented singer. Nobody's perfect. Finally, I have no quips with the instrumentation; violins and acoustic guitar sound great! Gutsy attempt, people! Hope you collab for "My Sanctuary" next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clavus Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Can't say I liked it. It's a decent remix, but it just didn't sound quite right. Keep practising on those vocals and that instrumental work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Penwald Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 This remix really grew on me, especially the vocals. Hearing completely natural (i.e. absolutely no autotune or other technical wirardry) vocals is strange at first, but I came to really enjoy it; it feels as if this song scratches an itch I didn't know I had. About the Japanese part of the song: for someone who doesn't speak a lick of Japanese, your pronunciation is pretty good. Better than that of most Americans I met who did speak the language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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