Final Fantasy 6 - Magic House Remix

[Kamasenin]

After beating FF13, I decided to play 6 again for some reason. Then, I came across this tune, and I just had to do something about. I trimmed down the original from 2:35 down to 1:08 while still capturing all the nuances. I removed the tempo slowdown changes to keep the pace steady, and I played around with the arrangement components. I also tried to give this track a more glorious / evil sound to it. Enjoy!

Original - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUp2aBnTICM&NR=1

Remix - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSApPymgbKU

[Melbu Frahma]

Wow. I would've liked to have seen this made longer, personally. It's got some good stuff, at least in my untrained opinion.

[Archangel]

The theme from Owzer's House has always been one of my favorites, it's so nice to hear it remixed so well!

But why such a short piece? I think you should definitely expand it a little bit, maybe add slower build-up intro and an ending part, and you've got three minutes right there!

I love the overall sound of the mix, it sounds like an insane supervillain's victory rock dance. =D

Very nice indeed, I hope you intend to do a longer version too.

And congratulations on beating XIII, I hear it's rather difficult. =D

[Emunator]

Hey, this is pretty cool But yeah, really short as well.

The organ sounds wonderful and the writing for it is equally enjoyable. The lick from :09-:14 is really slick!

I feel like the piano isn't packing as much punch as it should be, it kinda pales in comparison to the strength of the organ. The notes themselves could use a bit of sustain too, I think.

If this is finished, fair enough. But I'd love to hear this expanded a bit and the production polished, I think it might stand a chance against the OCR panel with a bit of work

[Kamasenin]

First off, I want to give a big thanks to Emunator, Archangel, and Melbu Frahma for their feedback. I believe that I've improved this remix dramatically.

1 - New song length is now 2:08

2 - The piano now has a larger fuller presence by adjusting notation and sustain times.

3 - Auto dynamics have been partially removed on the drums. Once in a while I'd get a much louder "snap" in a snare that was out of place in the song.

This theme starts out with a glorious sounding intro and exploration type of melody as you begin to explore the house of paintings.

The body of the song kicks in after the first movement to show the emotion of all the paintings coming alive to attack you all at once.

The outro is a brief eerie piece to show the emotion of one evil painting still remaining...the final piece Relm is creating. Hopefully now, this piece has a chance to stand up to the judges. Enjoy!

Remix - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSApPymgbKU

Original - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUp2aBnTICM

[Emunator]

Yeah, this is sounding a lot fuller, very good work bringing all these instruments to life!

I'm not really feeling the flute-sounding instrument at the end, though - it seems an odd choice to throw in for the last 10 seconds of the mix and sounds rather weak compared to the rest of your instrumental samples.

All in all though, this is good I'd look for a suitable substitute for the flute at the end, maybe work on smoothing out the transition from the intro to the section with drums (it seems kind of rough as-is) and make any last touch-ups you see fit... and then seriously give some thought to submitting this. It's good

[Archangel]

I agree with Emunator, it's getting a lot better!

Just a few suggestions - it's what I would do, you're welcome to accept or reject them:

1) At the beginning, I'd repeat the first 10 seconds, and make the last note a bit longer, maybe try a ritardando, it makes it sound more grand, this way it's a bit rushed.

2) I'd adjust the volumes in the part from 0:11 to 0:30 so that the playful piano part is more audible, it sounds great, but it's a little too quiet, the organ is drowning it a bit (like luciana07 said).

3) Again, I would use some tempo changes in the part from 0:30 to 0:39.

4) I think the transition between 0:39 and 0:40 is too sudden. I think you can improve it just by making the break a bit longer, just a second or maybe two. If you make the last organ note a bit longer and stretched (tempo change) and then immediately continue with a longer break, the 0:40 part will have a greater effect after the suspense created by the break.

5) Tubular bells are a nice addition, I wonder why you didn't use them in the first two parts too? If I were you, I'd use them in the beginning too, at least a few times.

5) Lastly, the last part might be a little too calm to finish off a song like this. Maybe if you turned it into a sort of bridge? I'd definitely finish this song with the refrain, plus if you repeat the part from 1:07 to 1:43, you get some extra time for the song.

6) I'd also recommend a bit of instrument variation. You don't necessarily need to add any new instruments, you could use the ones you have now, but let them interchange a little bit, like a sort of dialogue. For example, the melody between 0:50 and 1:07 can be played by the organ (like now), but at 1:07, the harpsichord or the piano could take the lead. And at 1:12, another instrument could take over. There are all these little pieces of melody, and all are played by the organ. I'd let the harpsichord get some more attention too. =D

That's it, I suppose, I really hope you improve this, it sounds very neat, just a little more tweaking and you're done. =D Congratulations!