OceansAndrew Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Contact info Remixer Name - Sage Kasai Real Name - Christian Michael Poynter Email Address - Sage_Kasai@yahoo.com (the space is an underscore) Website - www.myspace.com/sagekasai User ID - 36848 Submission Info Name of game arranged - Kingdom Hearts II Name of submissions arranged - Roxas, The Other Promise, Dearly Beloved Link to original soundtrack - See "attachments". They are titled as above. Additional Information - The game is for PS2, with "Roxas" and "The Other Promise" being composed by Yoko Shimoura, and "Dearly Beloved" being written by Kaoru Wada Hey guys, I've been a huge fan of OC remix for a long time, and I'm really excited to be a part of the force which has brought me countless hours of inspiration. OC is actually what made me fall in love with the electric sounds of techno and trance, and since then I've gone from being a neoclassical composer to picking up my synthesizer and starting a career as an electronica artist, which brings me to the inspiration for this mix. I have always really wanted to do a kindom hearts remix, though I could never pick a song (there were too many I loved) and I was always really busy with trying to start my music career. I decided to do this mix and give it out for free to promote myself as a musician (and because, hey, kindom hearts music kicks some serious ass) so I sat down and knocked this mix out in a solid 12 hours or so. Not really much to say about the mix, I just arranged how I felt necessary. I stripped the songs down to their most basic elements of melody and chord progression, and then built them back in the way that I saw fit. (though I’m sure that’s pretty common) I opened with solo piano playing the exact notes that start the roxas song, and it’s nothing special until I begin to fade in a PWM synth of “the other promise’s” piano part. From there the mix builds as one would expect techno to. The melody first enters at 1:08, but doesn’t bloom until about 1:21 or so when I fade in the acid and saw synth’s. at 2:02 the song becomes suddenly tranceish with an overly reverbed piano playing the breakaway from “roxas” which I use to transition into the dearly beloved theme. At 2:58 I do the same thing I did with the roxas remix, dropping the bass and percussion in typical techno fashion, then filtering the bass in while the countermelody appears back overhead. Part of me feels like I went back into roxas’s theme without enough transition (or without transition at all), though after listening to it for a few times, I was pretty happy with the way it sounded and left it. The song ends after playing a variation of the same tranceish section from 2:02 and leaving nothing but the hollow sounding piano with which it began. I wanted to almost make it seem as if those opening notes contained a whole world, full of emotion and wonder, and as the mix ended, the metaphorical story of roxas closes, revealing only the plain cover. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with this mix, and I hope you guys like my spin on an old favorite. sources http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yna9FIlV03Y Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted November 2, 2010 Author Share Posted November 2, 2010 Production is a little over-compressed and some of the EQ is a little crammed in the low end, but otherwise the sounds are pretty decent, if a bit on the generic side. One thing I noticed is that the builds aren't near as massive or epic as they should be. The compression on the piano made it pretty static sounding and a little harsh, and though there was gating on the synth, the chord progressions were pretty blocky. Arrangementwise, the themes were well integrated, but there really wasn't a lot of interpretation beyond the genre conversion. Some additional chord changes, melodic embellishments, or even original sections added would be nice. The flow was good, however. I think larger builds and breaks, and more interesting rhythmic backing would make this a lot more compelling. It's good, but could be improved further. No, please resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 The opening piano sequencing doesn't sound terrible, but it should be more realistic. The electronic elements were pretty loud yet very lossy sounding as they took over at :20. As soon as things started getting kind of muffly and distorted at :28, I knew I was in for some trouble. At :41, the synth lead and everything around it sounded so lossy and lacking high-end clarity. At 1:08, we hit the main section with a very tepid lead and some generic saws. At 1:22, the sound were changed up with the saw as lead and the bubbly synth behind. Really generic vanilla sounds. There was also no solid-sounding percussion or anything filling out the background to anchor & drive the track, so the texture felt so empty despite the volume being loud. At 2:03, the sounds were still a bit generic, but at least you had a nice pad that filled out the background properly, and the gated synths did combne well with the piano (which still was too exposed unfortunately). The transition to "Dearly Beloved" at 2:30 didn't flow with the arrangement ideas before it, and neither did the return of Roxas's theme at 4:20. A rather awkward combination of themes for this music style. I couldn't disagree with OA more, the integration and flow wasn't there. It was just an ABA structure, and not a smooth one. Following the return of Roxas's theme at 4:20, the structure was basically a copy of the opening, only the deconstruction of elements rather than the build. You're definitely better than the average first time submitter, but there's no conhesiveness with the writing and the production was weak. Until you learn how to properly structure an arrangement and build a soundscape, you're at a ceiling as far as the music you're making. You've got a ways to go, Christian. Hit our ReMixing forum and get to asking questions. Keep at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted November 15, 2010 Share Posted November 15, 2010 I think you've got a good idea here, but right now it's not quite developed enough for OCR. Things are a little simplistic right now; there is the style change, but the melodies themselves are pretty straight from the source, as well as the chords. As OA mentioned, things are a little blocky, even with the gated synths. Combining that with the fairly generic sounds makes the whole song feel simpler than it is, if that makes sense. The transitions to and from Dearly Beloved need some work as well. Things are a bit overcompressed, as Andrew mentioned, although it isn't super bad. Pull it back a little and that will help. I think arrangement is the biggest issue, but there are some other points that need to be addressed. It's a good start, and I would use the WIP forums to get some additional feedback before resubmitting. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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