*NO* Chrono Trigger 'Town Life on Acoustic Guitar'

[djpretzel]

Here goes: I'm trying to make up for the crap I've submitted in the past by submitting something that's actually good enough to be worth listening to.

It's a guitar arrangement of "Peaceful Days" from CHrono Trigger, inspired by kLuTz's version of the same theme.

The Info:

My name: Geoffrey Taucer

My real name: Jeremy Waters

Game: Chrono Trigger

ReMix Title: Town Life on Acoustic Guitar

Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda

One live take, one solo guitarist, recorded in my bedroom with Nero Wave editor and an SM57 mic.

-Geoff

[DarkeSword]

Hey I really like this. The guitar playing is really nice, the recording is pretty warm, and the arrangement is pretty good. The section where the source speeds up is really good; I like how you improvise without going totally original and making up something that has nothing to do with the real song. The original bits come off as very integral to the whole song. It's a nice holistic approach. Conservative, but interpretive enough for me, and interpretive enough for OC...

...yo.

YES!

[Liontamer]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Peaceful Day" (ct-1-04.spc)

http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR00873 - "Town Life in Piano"

I compared this with kLuTz's version just to make sure the differences in arrangement were there. The mix here is in mono, but it doesn't matter. Just pointing that out as well.

The performance style was the same from :46 until the end and the arrangement just meandered around until the end, making it hard to grasp the direction of things. I felt it needed more focus there.

The lack of variation in the performance beyond :46 also kept the arrangement too similar for too long, especially for so short of a track. By 1:33, I felt like the piece was just retreading itself thematically. Change the flow with another subtle alteration in your playing style, like you did with the switch in tempo at :46. It's one of the same strategies kLuTz used in his own mix to keep things fresh. I'm hoping something can be done to eliminate some of the hissing as well with a little post-production, as well.

Geoffrey's a name I've been hearing more and more about in the past few months. I don't doubt he has the skills to make it here, but I don't feel this is the piece that'll do it.

NO

[Digital Coma]

Simple guitar. kLuTz's own take was a very simple piano arrangement. The original has some more material than either his or this guitar arrangement incorporates.

Very conservative with minimal, generic acoustic stylings interpretation. Buzzing strings degrade the performance. Not much here.

NO

[zircon]

Yeah.. I think recording could have been better - there's a lot of fret noise and an audible noise in the recording. The buzzing doesn't help too much either. Might want to try recording at a better location, or using a de-ess plugin like mda de-ess (free) to reduce the noise. Or at a minimum do another take and try to reduce fret noise, because it's a little irritating. Anyway, in terms of rearrangement, I think it's solid, but really lacks in dynamics and structure. I didn't find kLuTz's take all that interesting either - it didn't really go anywhere, and neither does this. Changing up the playing style more, making more rhythmic changes, or incorporating some other parts could conceivably help (like some soft woodwinds). Even if it was re-recorded, I don't think this arrangement would stand on its own.

NO but keep at it.

[Vig]

certainly not unpleasent to listen to, but clearly not up to the bar, either. Solo guitar, straightforward and short arrangement. I or any other guitarist in the community could spend a day recording and churn out six mixes like this.

NO