*NO* Final Fantasy 9 'Doomed Lovers'

[OceansAndrew]

PROJECT TRACK

Your ReMixer name: Brandon Strader

Your real name: Brandon E. Strader

Your email address: oinkness@gmail.com

Your website: http://brandon.rainwound.com/

Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your

forum profile: 3123

Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy IX (9)

Name of individual song(s) arranged: Mistaken Love

Nobuo Uematsu, PS1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BCDdmpI11U (first time I posted a

youtube source, so sorry fellas. I just assumed the other OSTs were on

the site)

Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind

it, how it was made, etc.

The song itself, Mistaken Love, was enough inspiration to do this. It

always brings me to tears with how over-the-top epic it is. This is my

first entry into the FF9 project, which I'm hoping to do a few more

of. The music is so incredible in FF9, which was the inspiration for

starting the project to begin with. My rendition is somewhat of a

progressive rock version. I dropped all the orchestral elements, and

slapped in some heavy guitars for the first half, and acoustic for the

second half. There's some B4 organ in there and 70s synth lead, pretty

accurate instruments for that period. I didn't really leave my comfort

zone for this remix, as prog rock is sort of my specialty, but I think

it fits the source and it came out really well. It sounds a bit like

something my prog band Rainwound would have done.

[OceansAndrew]

production is an improvement over your usual fare, as far as balance, but the lead guitars are mad dry, which makes them sound pasted on top instead of sitting in the mix. i don't think any reverb is needed (maybe a touch), but some delay would really sweeten the tone. I think rhythm guitars are good when they are in your face, because they are doubled ( or quadrupled ) and hard panned, but leads need to have a little more finesse. The synth sounded a little buried as well, tonally weak and piercing. I'd carve some room out for it in the eq of the rhythm guitars, and maybe reduce the high end of it and increase the volume.

The piano and acoustic guitars sounded very nice, because those sections tended to let everything breathe a little more, and the compression wasn't overpowering.

Arrangement is pretty good, with some direct stuff, some altered stuff, and some original sections. The flow was decent and as far as arrangement i'm ok with this, but the production needs to be tuned up. Less pasted guitars and more nicely balanced mixing. You are close, dude, so keep it up.

No, resubmit

[DragonAvenger]

Source as I heard it:

0:00-0:32

0:40-0:57

0:57-1:27 - fairly changed

1:27-1:44 - more fairly changed

1:44-1:55

2:00-2:32

3:12-3:45

Plenty of source in there, no qualms on not having enough.

I had to think on this for a while and, at least for this track and the NiGHTS track, I've come to a conclusion. I feel like you get hung up and stick with using a part of the source that isn't necessarily something that should be held onto. In this case, the darker part of the source melody is used for over a minute in your mix. To me that part sounds like a transition in the original, and dragging it out in here makes things feel awkward. I'd suggest cutting out a good portion of that, and maybe if you still want to keep your variations in there using them elsewhere in the mix. Having 3 go-arounds of it (getting more varied as you go) just feels like too much, and it killed the flow for me.

In terms of production, I have to say that I liked how you treated the piano and the drums especially. I felt they were very good for the style, and the writing on the piano at the end was nice. The left hand of the piano at the end felt a little mechanical, but it's not that noticeable. The rest of the sounds in the mix don't seem to be gelling as well as they should. I think some of it's balance, some of it's effects. Either way, it's not sounding as good as it can, or as good as it needs to be. Another thing that bugged me was that near the end the acoustic guitar is doubled and panned to either side. It sounds strangely unnatural this way, and I think you only need one background guitar, possibly slightly panned.

Man, it's a start, and you're getting there, but you've got to get those production issues nailed out, and then hit up that arrangement a bit. Keep working on it! NO (resubmit)

[Palpable]

I heard a lot of the same problems that OA and DA did. The dryness was pretty apparent in places, especially the end of the song. Some more reverb would have been nice to gel it together. The piano was mechanical and a weak link next to the guitars and drums. One thing they didn't mention that I took issue with was the transitions. You've got a couple (1:44, 3:12) that sound like the start of new songs. There's also a mixing issue at 1:44 because the new section is a fair bit louder than the last. Those kinds of things really make a track less fun to listen to.

This is a borderline NO. The arrangement is good, the production is just a hair under the bar. I would normally call this a conditional YES but with two NO votes, it's better to just let you iron these out and send it back, especially because the fixes are easy. We'll try to fast track your next version.

NO (resubmit)