djpretzel Posted May 13, 2005 Share Posted May 13, 2005 Remixer name: bobsideways email: bobsidewaysmw@yahoo.com website: bobsideways.tripod.com Game remixed/arranged: Final Fantasy 6 Songs remixed: Celes' Aria and the Overworld Theme (Terra) http://bobsideways.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/variationsonafantasy.mp3 Optional link if that doesn't work: http://bobsideways.tripod.com// Click on "My Music", you'll see the song on the right side, labled "Live-Variations on a Fantasy" I started composing this about a year ago, fully intent on sending it in with computer sounds from Finale. My good friend Ubernym talked me into using a local community orchestra instead. For that I am extremely grateful. The orchestra took one look at it and agreed, and even let me do the conducting. The recording is live and in concert, which means mistakes, odd sounds, and jerks who cough and refuse to cover it up. Let me just say, though, that they did really well, despite all that. There were spots that I could not hear from my vantage point, but turned out perfect on the recording. My compliments to the person who did the recording, as well, because we were in a high school auditorium, but his equipment is set up to give an illusion of a professional concert hall. Anyways, enough rambling out of me. I hope you enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israfel Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 It's neat that an orchestra performed this for you, but while the arrangement has its moments, I don't think it makes up for the performance and recording. There are little flubs throughout the work and tuning is a real bugaboo. This simply feels a bit under-rehearsed. Plus, in what I suppose is an effort to get this under 6mb, the encoding is rather low quality. NO Still, congrats on getting it performed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny B Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 Getting an orchestra to play your arrangement is in of itself a huge acheivement. You should be proud. I try to make concessions to the quality of recordings of this scale, mostly because of the sheer difficulty of making it happen. Let's go through this one. Like Israfel said, the tuning is "bugaboo" in some sections. Mostly not too noticeable, but some parts screechingly apparent. More importantly, however, the orchestra doesn't blend and balance as well as it should. Probably the violas. I hate viola players. The most deaf of string players. Personal vendettas aside, I agree again with Iz that it sounds under-rehearsed. Of course, we shouldn't dwell on sound quality issues here. I don't expect an amateur utilizing a community orchestra to represent the pinnacle of orchestral finesse. Aside from some questionable "arrangement decisions", I hear very little difference from the original or arranged versions i've heard before. This is a cover of Terra's Theme, and one that's been done before. A commendable effort, dude - but sorry, it's a guidelines thing. NO -D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Celes" (ff6-122.spc) & "Tina" (ff6-201.spc) I'm more with Izz's stance on the mix, in that the arrangement is alright, though conservative, but mostly the production and performance were hurting the piece, agreeing with Dan that production is something I wouldn't dock points from considering the circumstances. If the overall presentation was better, I'd scrutanize the arrangement more, though from several listens you can hear that many creative liberties aren't taken beyond transposing the source tunes to the genre. There are some, but not too too much. In any case, there were some particularly glaring flubs like the strings at 2:43, which were really off. I think some more playthroughs would have made this one solid. I'd hope that you could have the opportunity to to work with this community orchestra in the future on other material. Please specially give the name of the orchestra if you indeed conduct them/work with them again. Though you are the arranger/conductor, not giving a bit more info on your performers is a bit of a faux pas for me. Upload this to VGMix; it's a very cool piece, Bob. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Congratulations on getting an orchestra to perform this. I actually enjoyed listening to this. Unfortunately there's barely any arrangement here. It's quite conservative. As I have said before, this is a paramount issue for me when judging a submission to a site that's supposed to be about arrangements. I want to hear and feel a new interpretation whether it is something that I personally like or not is not really relevant. I want to hear a recomposition, a new light shed - especially on a theme this beloved. So, yes there are production issues here and I totally agree with what has been said before me. There is also an under-rehearsed feel, but to me these points are less important. The flubbs also do stick out but I kind of like the charm this brings. We don't expect orchestral recordings matching LSO or the like. If this had more liberal expansion and interpretation of the arrangement and indeed orchestration I could pass this despite the current flaws, but as is it's a NO. Congrats again for your efforts, this was an entertaining listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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