DragonAvenger Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 ReMixer names: Izkemia and Claudio Lavín Real names: Fernando Calvo and Claudio Lavín. Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Izkemia/54943087704 Userid: 31942 Name of game arranged: Final Fantasy 1 (FF1 Brandon Strader's project) Name of arrangement: Dance of Descent Name of individual songs arranged: Underwater palace, Gurgu volcano, Chaos temple, Menu screen, Ending theme, City theme, Opening theme and Save music. Comments: This is basically a prog metal medley of eight FF1 OST tracks. It was a big challenge for us to arrange this, as major scales are predominant in the original tracks, and we tend to avoid them in our compositions. Anyway, we think it came out decently. Recording this took lots of effort and time, but it was definitely worth it. The medley is rather conservative in terms of harmony –with some exceptions like, for example, a ‘jazzy’ take on “Menu theme”-, but we played quite a lot with time signatures, keeping very few of the originals. We really hope you guys like this! I really want to thank Andrew Struve –AKA Obtuse- for telling me about this project, Brandon Strader for making a kickass intro for the song and for his invaluable support, and my good friend Claudio Lavín, who recorded the guitars and made the solos. Without your help this wouldn’t have been possible! Fun fact: neither I nor Claudio have EVER played FF1. ----------------- - Underwater Palace - Gurgu - Chaos - Menu - Ending - Town - Openinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91WF_l7lUg - Save Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Sequencing at the beginning was a bit stiff in the melody, but it worked well enough as an intro. The song itself is pretty solid, and features a ton of different source songs without feeling like a medley. THe drums were a bit upfront, but reminded me more of the snappleman/norg track from the ff7 project in terms of production more than anything else. The sections were personalized and the flow was good. I am good passing this. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 I will say that while this is distinctly a medley, the transitions and overall style keep things organized and together, and the themes mesh very well from one to the next. I have no problems passing this. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Man, what drum samples are those? I hear them all the time, and I can't think of a time where that snare ever sounds anything but too soft and not befitting harder-sounding tracks. In any case that was basically the only problem. I never have a problem with medleys as long they have legit structure and flow, so this was all good. Absolutely excellent, personalized handling of this multitude of themes with some sweet transitions. The guitars could have wailed a bit more and been more expressive, but what was here was still strong enough. Pretty solid performances and just a strong as strong can be collab. VERY cool debut from Fernando and Claudio that should leave the people wanting more. They haven't even reached their potential yet, when you compare this to DoD's top guitarists. Further polish will come in time, but I like what I'm hearing so far, and sincerely hope there's more to come. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Holy crap those orchestral samples sound fantastic. I wish those made more of an appearance throughout the rest of the mix and that the intro and the body of the mix didn't feel so detached from one another. There's plenty of room in the mix where orchestral elements would have been able to fit and give this some extra personalization, but that's just my personal preference. The arrangement, despite some clear medley-itis, is definitely passable. I just think it'd be really cool to hear you work in some of that gorgeous orchestral writing in with the metal portion, as well. The acoustic section really provided a nice counterpoint and kept things interesting. Aside from that, there's some minor balance issues, namely with the lead guitars feeling a little bit buried. I also wasn't nearly as fond of the guitar tone as everyone else, it felt a little bit thin and not quite as grand of a sound for an epic prog-rock arrangement as it could have been. It's a very, very minor thing though, this is pretty solid arrangement with some great performances and all that, this is an easy pass in my book. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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