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*NO* Final Fantasy 6 'Amor Mio, Caro Bene'


djpretzel
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Hello!

I've got a remix to submit; it can be found here:

ReMixer name: M1lesTeg

Real name: Eli Badra

E-mail address: ebad@gwu.edu

REMIX INFO

Game: Final Fantasy VI

Song: Aria di Mezzo Carattere

Comments:

I've had a great love for this piece ever since I first "performed" it while playing FF6 way back as a kid. It's beautiful and stirring, even on the SNES.

I found that the song was surprisingly underrepresented on OCR, given its popularity. Entering my freshman year of college, I found myself with more free time than I knew what to do with. I finally decided to get up and write a mix. The piece was written entirely with FruityLoops using the SquidFont Orchestral soundfonts and a Harp soundfont, both found on darkesword's web site.

My girlfriend, Jill, sang for this piece. We used the Italian lyrics that we were able to find on the internet. Both the Italian and translated lyrics are at the bottom of the message.

I owe her for lending her gorgeous voice to the remix. Also a huge thanks to The Prophet of Mephisto, who helped me greatly with balance and such, and LordMaestro, who helped me with the nitpicky equalizing issues.

The English translation is a little rough.

LYRICS:

Italian:

Amor mio, caro bene

Perche vai lontan da me?

Giurasti un amor, che mai non dovea

Aver fine per noi

Nei momenti di tristezza

Nei momenti di dolor

A te, mia stella, penso

Con infinito ardore

Un legame senza speme

Perche mai dovrei aver?

Che cosa tu vuoi ch'io faccia oramai

Mi devi dire tu

Dolcemente, con amore

Hai risposto al mio gridar,

Per sempre ognor, per sempre ognor,

Qui a me, t'attendero.

-----

English:

My love, my dear

Why do you go away from me?

You promised us a love without end.

In moments of sadness

And moments of pain

I think of you my star,

with infinite passion.

Why must I have

A bond without hope?

What do you want me to do?

You must tell me

Quietly, my love,

You responded to my shout

Forever and ever

Besides me, I will await.

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Wow. This vocal performance is easily on par with ones I've heard on Broadway. Flawless, as far as I'm concerned - though I think I hear just a little bit of clipping at times. However, I don't think they carry the whole mix, the rest of which is not so good. Having just listened to the source tune several times, I can confidently say that this arrangement is way too close. In fact, unfortunately, this mix even takes AWAY from the arrangement of the original, removing the sweeping string parts that make it emotional and dramatic. As it stands, it's simply a more minimal version of the original (though of course the vocals are outstanding), with Aeris' theme tossed in for no reason. Execution could be way better too: I would advise that you go to hammersound.net and pick up more soundfonts and make use of layering/high end EQ in order to give your samples, mainly the strings, a brighter and more realistic sound. The woodwinds, horns, and percussion aren't all that hot either, but they get the job done. I think maybe having some original vocals or at least some soft "oohs" or "ahhs" in the bare instrumental sections might have helped. But even if you did have the best Gigasamples in the world, it wouldn't help given your current arrangement and structure.

To recap: the vocals are AMAZING. No changes needed there. Everything else needs a lot of work. The arrangement is really not much more than a simplistic version of the original played with lo-fi samples (and there ARE lots of ways to get free stuff to sound better). No structure, no interepretation..

NO

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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Aria de Mezzo Carattere" (ff6-208.spc)

Have to check arrange albums and so forth before we get hasty on this. Where did they obtain the lyrics? The fact that they found them on the internet screams out that they're taken from some sort of arranged version. We need more information than what they gave. We'll be checking out the Final Fantasy: Grand Finale & Orchestral Game Concert 4 versions to see how close this is to those arranged tracks.

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NO

Here's why:

- Vocals are amazing, no doubt, but they simply cover the source material verbatim. If you had added some original vocals for the middle section, it would have been really cool, but as it stands I can just listen to the Grand Finale version and get the same stuff.

- The harp part is nearly identical to the original; i'm comparing this mix to the SPC as I review this. Way too similar.

- All of the instrumentation is exactly the same as well; strings and harp, with some winds. Nothing new there either.

- The structure is the same. We get the slow section first, then there's the breakdown in the middle, and then the faster section in the end.

- You didn't even bother changing the key! (this is not really horrible, I just wanted to mention it)

- Take away the (amazing) vocals and you're left with a nothing but the original run through squidfont (I'm exaggerating here; I appreciate the Aeris quote, but it's left so underdeveloped that may as well not even been there). Not enough arrangement.

- Production aspect stinks. Too reverby, and the samples are stretched beyond their means.

I really liked the vocals; your girlfriend has an amazing voice, and you're lucky as hell to be with someone so skilled. However, the production is severely lacking and the arrangement needs to be much more dynamic and interpretive if you want this to be on OCR.

Back to the drawing board!

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Edit: I dare someone to no this.

NO

Here's why -

Simply put, the arrangement of the original surpasses this ReMix. The goal here is to improve upon or at least put a song in a new light. This is Squidfont without velocity alteration. Very dry, static and uninspired arrangement. Instead of adding or changing things, it takes the "lazy minimalistic" route. The most interpretive things done are single timpani strikes or minor additions with a horn or string line. There's nothing here that's really at all beyond the scope of the original.

On the other hand, the vocals are incredible. By far the most talented vocalist to potentially hit OCR.

Let's get a production that does this voice some justice.

-D

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Nice performance, not so nice arrangement. It's really a shame, it would be quite neat to feature a trained vocalist on the site, but the arrangement (which is what this site is mainly about) isn't really up to par. Among other things, this is too similar to the original and the production is rather iffy (too much reverb, for instance).

NO

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The other NOs covered it, especially DarkeSword who gave an excellent checklist. YESing this mix would have been a mess. This was a great performance by Jilly on the vocals, but we're looking for more interpretive ideas beyond a cover with minor instrumental additions and the verbatim Grand Finale arrangement lyrics.

I'm looking forward to hearing Jilly's Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time mix, which offhand I couldn't say would be accepted in the WIP stage I heard it in. But it'll certainly be interesting for us nonetheless.

And I wanna remind everyone out there, including M1lesTeg, that when you pick a remixer handle, don't pick some stupid nickname you'll be ashamed of in a few years time. C'mon, you're basically stuck with it if you get posted here. Better luck next crime, young lovers.

NO

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Very neat mix, but as everyone has already stated there's barely any arrangement here. The main issue has already been brought up so anything I say in addition would just be repetition. Next time work on expanding the ideas, changing the genre, melody, harmony - bring something new to the table. Doing an orchestral version of an orchestral piece demands greater creativity as well.

Enjoyable work, but there's too many arrangement shortcomings here. Hope to hear more work from you in the future that showcases more creative and original additions.

NO

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