djpretzel Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 email sub file The White Knight.mp3 - very cool changes to the progression at times - djp Hey there ! CPacaud Christian Pacaud cpacaud@saintstudios.com --- Final Fantasy 6 Celes’ Theme I always thought Celes was the most interesting and well-developed character from the game’s cast… Always struggling between her allegiances and her friendships to the point where she almost destroys herself; strong yet still fragile. At the time, many years ago, I felt really attached to her story and I can remember playing the melody from her theme on the piano. It was only natural that I’d finally put my own touch to this wonderful piece, so here it is. Now I’m feeling nostalgic, might have to take the old SNES out of the closet ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital Coma Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Why did you link to your soundclick page and not put this song there? Poor recording and uneven, plinky performance for this slow, steady arrangement. The chord changes made are nice and well-placed, but are not supplanted with much development and instead just come and go. During the louder sections, many chords sound sustained far too long, flooding the sound. Rerecord. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The wingless Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 Coma: Poor recording! Me: I agree. But it's not horrendous! pass! Coma: plinky performance! Me: sounded smooth enough for me. pass! Coma: no/poor development Me: I heard development! It wasn't grand or sweeping, but subtle and delicate. pass! Coma: flooded sound! Me: I agree! But it's well within reasonable listening! pass! End result: I cancel out Coma's vote. Democracy works. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 This was a tough one. first of all, i think the problems with recording quality and sus pedal are completely negligable. second of all, adressing some behind-the-scenes complaints of bad notes or chords...these complaints are frankly unfounded. certain tense intervals are used sparingly and appropriately. To condemn these choices would be to condemn many top 19th and 20th century composers and virtually all the best jazz musicians of the past 50 years. the chord progressions and voicings are really very well done. The chord progression demonstrates a really thorough knowledge of theory, and great tensions are used to very powerful effect. such a display is really rare on OCR, so it makes the problems with this mix that much more painful. The problem being that the arrangement is really poorly thought-out. the first 3/4ths of the mix has a very consistent, very plodding pace. there's nothing wrong with doing a slow solo piano piece, but you need to give yourself more space. relax, take it easy, and mix up the pacing a bit. every beat drops like a hammer, and it gets very tedious. Further showing lack of forthought into the arrangement is the frantic section at 3:08 which comes virtually out of nowhere. no buildup, no preface, it's just there. for some reason. You really need to keep in mind where you want the song to be going throughout the whole take, so you can slowly but steadily build the mix up to where you want it to climax. Don't get me wrong, there IS build in this remix, but it's oh so subtle, nearly stagnant and certainly tedious until 3/4ths thru you it's like you say "OSHIT WHERE DID THE TIME GO? GOTTA CRANK IT UP!" Listen to the Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett. Pay attention to how smoothly he gets from point A to point B. it's amazing then, to realize what a huge difference there is between the two points. you didnt notice as he was building up the dynamics. think through the song a little better, map it out, plan to give yourself perhaps three minutes more..hopefully enough time to better explore your ideas and give yourself plenty of space to build the remix without rushing it. and please, please, please, rerecord and resubmit. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Celes" (ff6-122.spc) The recording indeed struck me as needing improvement. I don't like muddy solo piano pieces where many of the notes and chords mash together. Lengthy sustain can be ok, but I need more clarity than this. Call it a character flaw, but these aren't negligible issues to me, and I typically won't accept pieces like that. Heavily sustained and/or reverbed sounds can work in moderation, but I felt that some tracks, like this one and Etude for Piano in F# Minor, can go overboard with the ideas . The arrangement is alright. Somewhat conservative on the surface, but subtlely interpretive things are going on here upon closer inspection. I would have appreciated some room being made for the arrangement of 1:08-1:27 of the actual source tune. In any case, I thought the development, as it were, was too simple and cyclical. The track does its thing from :00-1:45 and then basically repeats itself from 1:45-3:07 with little notable change. Going into the second iteration of the "Celes" theme, the escalation of volume at 2:20 really didn't work here, since the piece just retread it steps. Pretty anti-climactic. I wasn't jarred by the change into the more active section starting at 3:07, but felt that the gradual transition from 2:57-3:06 was very unstructured and didn't work effectively in making that move. Also, perhaps incorporate that section and similar ideas to that ealier on in the composition. I could see why Vigilante felt more could be done with this mix in length and certainly dynamics. This doesn't have to be bombastic to be engaging, mind you, but this was still pretty tedious I would agree. Also, I don't mind a subtle close as opposed to something with more overt resolution, but the ending from 3:38-3:58 seemed to consist of fairly random notes that just sputtered out as the finish. I see the attempt at keeping things moody and sombre, but this was still a pretty lackluster conclusion. Christian's a skilled pianist, and I'm certainly glad to know he'll be involved with Xenogears Light over at OneUp Studios. I feel like this could pass with just a bit more thought regarding the sustain levels, compositional variation and dynamics. Afraid I can't go for this as is quite yet, but I hope you'll contemplate going for a resubmisssion, Chris. You'll be on here yet. NO (revise & resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcos Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 I agree with Vig in that these are some really good chords here. By the end of the song it just seems to be plodding along, it needs some kind of climax, or a tempo increase. I do also think that the recording could have been a little better perhaps, but that's only a small gripe really. The sustained chords are not as bad as I thought it would be, but perhaps more reverb and less sustain would be best. It's not a big no, but I would like to see this more refined, heeding all the advice above. NO (Please resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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