*NO* Final Fantasy 9 & Wild Arms 'Weeping Shards' *RESUB*

[OceansAndrew]

Arrangement of: Crystal World (Final Fantasy IX), Terra (Final Fantasy IX), To the End of the Wilderness (Wild Arms)

ReMixed by: Kenogu Labz (Nathan Armstrong)

E-mail: kenogu.labz@gmail.com

User ID: 24234

Comments:

This song is based off of one of the best themes in Final Fantasy IX: Crystal World. It's an eerie rendition of The Prelude, replete with some of the most haunting harp you'll ever hear. But the original song never pushed the original melody of The Prelude, so I decided to mix the two together, and this is what came out. I also mixed in a little To The end of the Wilderness, because Crystal World was feeling lonely. This is a tracked song, so the style is pretty calm. Most noticeably, the guitar teases until the end, when it breaks out in full. The mix is intended to be chilling, with brief flashes of uplifting emotion. With this resubmission, several things have been fixed: the guitar sample has been changed out, the leads have been thickened to be more prominent, bass was added earlier to thicken the sound, and the entier song mixed more appropriately, making the swells bigger, and the background quieter. Have fun listening!

[OceansAndrew]

Very much an improvement over the original- some of the samples are still a bit thin, but there is a lot more filling out the track, and it retains it's feel.

A little more stereo delay on the synthy lead would have been nice, but really, this is a lot moodier than the first iteration, and I think some good progress has been made.

I'm cool passing this.

yes

[DragonAvenger]

Pretty much what OA said. There is a definite improvement over the last submission of this, and it sounds pretty good to go. It's gotten moodier, which makes a great atmosphere. Thanks for relooking at it!

YES

[Jillian Aversa]

Okay, I'd like to add some fresh perspective here, so I chose not to listen to your first iteration of this mix:

I feel like the intro drags a bit, and then the meaty stuff doesn't last long enough. The arrangement is totally sweet (!) otherwise, I just wish it were better proportioned.

But where is that dynamic contrast? I can tell exactly where the swoops and swells are supposed to be, and not even comparing to your first sub, I still think they don't get loud enough. Bass should be more prominent, the bass drums more booming, and everything just crescendoing to epic proportions. More, more, more! Pleeeeaaaase! I really do wanna hear it.

NO (Resubmit!)

[DarkeSword]

I don't think the dynamics are a dealbreaker in this case. The arrangement is nice and varied, and I think in terms of mood there are good ups and downs.

I liked the arrangement before, and the samples are quite improved over the last iteration, so I'm gonna go ahead and say GOOD JOB. (yes)

[Palpable]

First off, definitely an improvement over the last version. The Prelude/Crystal World riff is pushed back now and the usage sounds much better now. Sequencing is better, and thank you for changing that guitar sample to a more synthy guitar sample. The number of swells and pauses in the second half is a little awkward, though certainly no dealbreaker.

However, I still can't say I'm totally feeling this. There's a problem with the mixing though I can't articulate it well. The lows are somewhat crowded with swells and rumbles, and many instruments don't have a lot of high-end, which sometimes results in parts being hard to hear. The leads might have too much fatness now, certainly a contributing factor to that. But above all, I think the choice of sounds is still not sitting right with me. The bell synth at 2:03 - that's just not a strong sound, it's pretty low and round, doesn't really cut through the mix. Same with the lead at 2:33. With some different EQ, these are probably usable but I think you could find better sounds. The drums brought in at 2:54 aren't that powerful because the low end is already eaten up.

These probably come across as nitpicks, but they all hamper the song in the same way, which adds up. It's a close call vote, but I don't think it's quite up to the quality of other songs on the site. Best of luck to you on the rest of this vote. If it doesn't swing your way, please give it another try!

NO (resubmit)

[Fishy]

So for this most part this is atmospheric and spooky. The one is exception is that guitary synth. It just doesn't fit to me at all. Everything else sounds fairly transparent and reverberant; that synth is comparatively super dry and in your face. One of the diminuendos in particular at 2:33 just drops off awkwardly, you need to smoothen that out. I also agree that the louder bits are disproportionately short.

I think this is close but like Jill I'm not convinced this is as good as main site stuff. It is close and the potential is there. You should look at making those louder bits powerful and epic (and preferably longer), and keep those quiet bits atmospheric. I'd also recommend finding a synth sound that matches the soundscape a little more naturally.

NO, plz resub

[OceansAndrew]

randomly received a tweaked version

[Jillian Aversa]

Hmmm... Well, my vote still stands for now. Hope to hear a full resub at some point.

[zircon]

This is a bit quiet. I had to turn up my headphones several dB to be able to really hear the timbres. I like the atmosphere and soundscape overall. It definitely has a rather desolate feel. Once the guitar lead comes in, it reminds me of Mazedude's earlier stuff. In fact, this whole mix reminds me of the earlier days on OCR, including some of my favorite old-school mixes. It's really evoking that nostalgia factor, with the very 90s digital-sounding samples and glassy, ethereal textures. The emotion here really comes through and I can honestly say not many remixes do that for me, so congratulations. The arrangement is pretty creative and interpretive, with a good amount of dynamics, though I do wish it fell into more of a groove earlier.

My main problem is with the mixing and mastering. It's very quiet, which needs to be fixed for this to pass, since there's no reason for it to be like that (even a few dB through TLs Pocket Limiter or TLs Maximizer would do it.) It could use some more mid-high frequencies and the lead could stand to be a bit brighter. While I can certainly appreciate an old-school sound, try listening to some of Mazedude's works and use them as a template for how your piece should be balanced.

VERY close one for me, please resubmit though... I really enjoyed it!

NO, resubmit

[Liontamer]

Just clarifying that I'm listening to the latest version.

The guitar synth isn't a terrible one. Obviously, we've heard Mazedude use it to great effect. But I agreed it wasn't used well enough here; it really needed more body to it, it was too loud compared to the other quiet instrumentation, and the articulations sounded awkward. Again, no hate on the sound itself, but I've heard that instrument used well, so I know it can sound much better.

1:49-2:24 sounded dissonant and didn't sound cohesive. The low pad was off-key and threw everything off.

Otherwise, I thought the orchestration and other subtle instrumentation was generally well handled. With the electronic/synthy stuff, there ended up being a huge quality disparity.

The other NOs were right in where this needs to be tightened up, with your weakest sounds less exposed, and better dynamic contrast through proper production, EQing & balance. Don't get discouraged though. You definitely have the potential to get something passed at this rate, so keep at it.

NO (resubmit)

[Vig]

I agree with most of the criticisms, although I don't have a problem with the low end. sounds fine to me. I think in general the leads could be just a couple dB quieter, especially the guitar. And aside from that, Andy's right; the mastering is quiet. Honestly I feel like we could fast-track these fixes and post it with a slight revision.

YES (Conditional on louder master, leads down just a hair)