*NO* Golden Sun: The Lost Age 'The Misty Island'

[OceansAndrew]

Respectfully submitted by Adnarel (Matthew).

lightandgold@gmail.com

[website lacking]

ID #: 34366

"The Misty Island" remix by Adnarel may be found at this link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QOHCKM6Z

An arrangement from the game Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Original track remixed: "Lemuria."

This game was produced by the Camelot software team for use on the GBA handheld system. The composer for the game was Motoi Sakuraba.

The original music for Lemuria can be found at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUCDv4hX5zg

Notes from the arranger:

I've been making Golden Sun remixes for years now. I've used my YouTube account to release my work, but after some truly inspiring encouragement from members of a board I visit, I thought it was time to see if I could possibly make something worthy of OCremixes. Recently, I had a request to do the music for Lemuria, which I did. Lemuria is a land in the game that corresponds to Greece, or Rome. The land once was splendid and full of life, but has since fallen into decay and disrepair. It was with this in mind that I sent out making this remix. The remix is in two parts: "greatness" and "decay." The first section takes the melodic theme, and puts it through a few gentle permutations in tempo, style, and instrumentation, after a lengthy (too lengthy, I'm told) exposition. Decay is the state the player finds Lemuria in-game. Therefore, the second section is much more reminiscent of the in-game music. The end of the arrangement is a wistful little look back at the "glory" theme and some truly gratuitous ripping off of the celebrated Claude Debussy in the ending chords.

Like all other remixes I do, I started off notating it in Noteworthy Composer 2.0, and then transferred the MIDI file to Mixcraft 5.1 where I made serious efforts to make it sound like not-crap.

source-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttqO0yOCDhU

[DragonAvenger]

I had to think this one over for a while. It's very minimalist, which tends to lean towards repetition without much change. That being said, I still felt like I hear the main riff a few too many times. However, the complete change of style and background are a fresh approach and I think are done in a way that allows the melody to stay prominent and a good focus throughout.

The soundscape is again minimal, but I think it achieves what you are going for, and does have that sort of "mystical from the days of yore" feel to it. There are some times when things feel a little mechanical, but again, that could be attributed to the style. It didn't personally bother me too much.

Honestly, because there isn't too much expansion on the source melody, I could see the other judges going the other way with this, but I think this mix sets out what with a goal and succeeds in it.

YES

[OceansAndrew]

This is ridiculously difficult for me to gauge. On one hand, the source is totally there. On the other, it's in a genre that is super hard to pass any sort of judgment on, because it's so serene. Sequencing in some parts is mechanical, but it sounds super authentic to stuff i'd hear in a spa.

Production was clean and spacious, and though i'm not sure what anyone else will say about this, I enjoyed it. Good luck on the rest of the vote.

Yes

[Palpable]

Yeah, this is not an easy song to get a handle on, but after listening a few times, I feel ok with my decision. The source doesn't come in strongly until 1:35. I caught one quick quote of it before that, but for the most part the intro is all atmosphere that's not tied to Golden Sun. The 1:36-2:29 section used source, but felt very meandering. I didn't think this section was structured very well, and when it started changing chords it seemed random. Then there's another original section before the source is used fairly conservatively in the second half. Honestly, I thought the first half was pretty lackluster and directionless compared to the second half, which accomplished the whole ambient Lemuria thing much better. 4:45 was a beautiful section but again, barely tied to the Lemuria theme and didn't flow that well.

Sorry, not really feeling this one, though I will understand if it passes. Production could have been a little better, but it's got a very nice sound and it uses the Lemuria melody in several places. I didn't timestamp it but it may be close to 50%. I just thought the way in which the Lemuria melody was used wasn't interesting enough, the song didn't have a good flow, and was too directionless even for ambient.

NO

[CHz]

The source tune is really not used all that interestingly in this. There's the slow quotation starting at 0:27, the section from 1:35 to 2:04 playing a modified version, a long, conservative block starting at 3:05 to 4:40, and then another short quote in the end at 5:12. Aside from the long block, this doesn't feel like it's developing the source at all, but rather just sticking it into a lot of original material. It especially feels meandering at 1:53, where that turn in the melody throws the atmosphere off.

The production is fairly decent for the atmosphere of the track, although the sequencing of a few things is pretty mechanical, like that flute. The arrangement is the killer issue.

NO

[DarkeSword]

I'm with Palp and CHz. I feel like a lot of this mix is very long sustained notes with a couple of synthy embellishments. When we do get the melody of the original, it's mostly some mechanically sequenced run-through of the source tune.

There's a nice atmosphere, but ultimately I don't think it expands much on the source material, and I think the performances of the organic elements could be more humanized.

NO, resub

[Vig]

A bit on the quiet side. The mix is also a bit dark at times. That said, I'm a sucker for decent ambient stuff, which this is. On the other hand...there really isn't a ton of subtlety here. I feel like it gets by on the strength of the sounds, which aren't actually that unique. Keeping its head above water is the fact that the structure is fairly well-conceived.

Close call for me, but I've got to say YES

[Liontamer]

Seemed awfully quiet to start, but the levels rose enough that it's wasn't just bad mastering. Interesting soundscape and effects. After a lengthy build, :59 finally started getting more active. As the volume picked up, the e-piano articulations became more exposed. It's not a great sound to have upfront when it comes to realism. It's a bit of an beginner-ish sound to use, but in fairness it's used fairly well.

Awkward stuff melodically at 1:52. Didn't seem like there was much direction to the piece. Dynamically, it was certainly interesting, though I didn't feel like the source was playing a big part in the track until the melody finally came in at 3:05. Good rain SFX, BTW, for a subtle sonic touch. The source usage from 3:05-4:42 was pretty conservative though, and really needed a higher level of interpretation or personalization in the arrangement.

4:10 picked things with some woodwinds. The articulations should have been better, but were serviceable. The dropoff of the nature SFX at 4:42 in basically 1 second was too abrupt. I heard a fuckton of very light clicks and pops from 4:44-5:12; it's a shame they're in there, but I could live with it.

From a production and structure perspective, I was actually with the YES's. It's ambient/spa stuff, and the structure seemed fine to me. That said, this didn't satisfy the source usage aspect of the arrangement at all. The source usage is supposed to be dominant. For me, I need my minimum 50% source usage, and thus need 171 seconds of overt source usage for this 5:42-long track

Taking everything CHz said at his word, the source usage would be :27.75-:38, 1:36-2:04.5, 3:05-4:42 & 5:12.75-5:24, which was about 147 seconds or 42.98% source usage. I enjoy the track in a vacuum, but in other words, this needs more areas of the Golden Sun source tune used at some point in the arrangement. If you can do that, you'd stand a much better chance of passing, other criticisms notwithstanding.

Good stuff so far, Matthew. Even if you have no desires to modify this arrangement, since that simply may have been what you were going for, I look forward to hearing more submissions from you.

NO (resubmit)