OCR01356 - *YES* Final Fantasy 6 'Seized with Fury'

[djpretzel]

Hello, my friends. This is my first submission to you guys. I hope it's good enough for you. Here is my info:

name: housethegrate

real name: Alexander Liss

website: www.housethegrate.com (coming soon)

email: housethegrate@gmail.com

remix game: Final Fantasy 6

Thank you very much, friends. Let me know if you have any questions or need any more info.

[Israfel]

The only reason I can figure for this not being a direct post is questions regarding the amount of arrangement vs. original material. Vast chunks of this are a bit too close to "cover" for my own tastes, but there's probably enough arrangement to qualify for the site.

YES

[GrayLightning]

The only reason I can figure for this not being a direct post is questions regarding the amount of arrangement vs. original material. Vast chunks of this are a bit too close to "cover" for my own tastes, but there's probably enough arrangement to qualify for the site.

I'm very familiar with the soundtrack and the source materials, Decisive Battle and Fierce Battle. Considering the contentious/conservative nature if the mix, judges should please check the source materials carefully.

Your assumption is right Israfel. This is a very tough one, because this sounds wonderful, and obviously house has some great guitar skills. But I feel the arrangement ultimately is a bit too conservative as noted by you and others (in our previous discussions). This isn't just the decisive battle - it has the atma theme at 3:45. I'd like to see more interpretation here, changing the structure, expanding some of the concepts more.

Extremely enjoyable and competent but it's too close for me to consider - and for me where arrangement creativity/expansion is my paramount concern in what qualifies, I'm going to have to stick to my track record and ideals. High quality work in many respects, but too conservative for me. Sorry borderline NO.

[zircon]

This is a clean, well-produced mix that introduces just enough outside material to pass the standard, in my opinion. I can't help but think, however, that it's pretty boring. How many FF6 boss battle guitar remixes are there? I've heard too many to count, and none of them do anything particularly new or interesting. This one in specific has a stronger arrangement than the others, but I'm just a bit dismayed at the lack of creativity I've been seeing lately in this type of remix. A significantly changed chord progression, more variation in the rhythm, less generic rock percussion, more synthwork. I'd like to see anything that would make it more interesting.

Nonetheless, I have no major objections, and am obliged to give a

YES

[Liontamer]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Phantom Train" (ff6-116.spc), "The Decisive Battle" (ff6-124.spc) & "The Fierce Battle" (ff6-303.spc)

Sure, on some level I agree that "The Decisive Battle" is overdone, but you know...meh.

Up until 1:33, it's basically a cover to start, but we've had great "conservative" remixes in the past like CarboHydroM's first OC ReMix, FF7 "Still More Fighting" where the underlying/support instrumentation is sometimes the most significant change, which is what I felt was the case with the cover-style sections here. In Carbo's case as well as House's, just listening to the track casually it's easy to feel it doesn't take enough creative liberty or interpretation, but when you take a closer look, I think it does more than enough to get the job done even when not straying far from the melody itself.

Good drumwork and orchestration additions really helped put the expansive touches here, and I've got nothing wrong with that from a standards context as long as the changes are thorough/developed enough within the context of the rest of the piece. Good fusion of styles, I felt. The slowed down section from 4:50-5:15 was pimp.

The arranged sections were excellent the whole way through. The original and arranged material from 1:33-2:50 were nothing short of skilled. I first noticed Alex from the word of mouth created from his Dwelling of Duels Clockwork entry "La Hora es Tarde", so it's great to see him submitting material.

After having his brother Dan's DoD winner Ninja Gaiden 2 "Ninjascape" passed by the panel, I'm glad I could call it the same way for Alex. Ashane & House are two guys to be aware of when visiting TheShizz.org & DoD. Some of the haters say the guitar guys are all the same, but I think they're just another example of the depth which the community as a whole possesses. No qualms on this one at all.

YES

[danny B]

First off, that initial rain sound makes my medulla oblongata hurt. It sounds like the bones in my neck are breaking. Call it a nitpick, but it gives me a headache everytime. Immediatly following that, we get what amounts to a direct cover of the theme for the next minute or so. Then, there's a sparse section of a smooth guitar solo that builds up into a more interpretive section of the main theme. Following a so-so transition, we go into Atma Weapon.

The major problem with this mix is that without the guitar, most of this is a direct cover. What alterations there are lie on the side of simplification. It's not until the near-5-minute mark that we get any kind of substantial rearragement. Then, after about 30 seconds of that, we go back into the cover. I'm not really hearing much of an arrangement here, as much as 2 cover songs linked together and sprinkled with some largely unrelated jam sessions. The entire mix sounds very sparse and weak. It's volume is very low, and nothing really has any punch.

The percussion is not at all dynamic, and it's got a GM MIDI sound quality to it. It needs much more velocity modification to even begin to sound natural. Some of the fills are decent enough, but mostly it's pretty awkward as far as the drums are involved.

The sound quality on this track isn't by any means terrible - some of the string work (2:10 for example) is superb, and there's a solid effort at providing dynamic contrast. However, the arrangement is nowhere near where it should be to overcome the major problems inherent in the mix. The guitar doesn't lie above the mix where it should be, the winds get muffled very badly (and i'm sure we're missing some very cool things there).

Overall, the sound quality issues negatively affect the arrangement aspect, because many of the good arrangement ideas simply can't be heard. I'd need to hear a much more solid mix to justify passing this conservative of an arrangement.

NO

-D

[zykO]

i swear i tried very hard to find things wrong with this so that the fact that i like the piece so much doesn't play a role in my decision

but you know, i didn't find much. i found a rather conservative approach to an overdone theme and while that usually would can it for me, this is some smart rock n roll. there is a fine line drawn between a cover being a lack of interpretation and an almost-cover being an interpretation that pays tribute to what, essentially, is an already working/functional approach

would changing it all that much more, REALLY improve it? there is enough interpretation and variation to keep it from being a potential OMG OMG MIDIRIP and yet it still rocks you into the ground.

what really grabs me is how much better house has gotten at incorporating non-rocking elements into his music. eventually, this guy is going to write a massive rock opera that'll blow us all to oblivion.

i also want to echo zircon in that this has to be one of the most interesting ff6 guitar remixes to date. i mean, come on, we've heard them...

this may be close to it... but it isn't that close

bada bing bada YES

[GrayLightning]

i also want to echo zircon in that this has to be one of the most interesting ff6 guitar remixes to date.

He said it was pretty boring and was dismayed by the lack of creativity.

would changing it all that much more, REALLY improve it? there is enough interpretation and variation to keep it from being a potential OMG OMG MIDIRIP and yet it still rocks you into the ground.

Certainly a valid question. If most listeners in this community would have their way, I think most of them would prefer covers more than anything, but that's not what our community is about.

I feel it's not really an issue of changing it to improve it as that is to me one based on perhaps personal preference or taste, but rather changing it more to make that special/unique/new interpretation. I don't find that in conservative mixes (apparently neither did some of the YES votes here); nor did I find something here that matches other mixes we have passed in at least this single criteria. But we all have different viewpoints on that I guess. I agree to disagree.

[Harmony]

The key for me is that the sections that are close to covers are just that: sections. My vote would be an easy NO if house had tried to pass an extended version of material like the first 1:33, but what we have here is far more expansive. The other material in this six minute mix shows good amounts of creative expansion on the theme and is well executed (1:34-2:50, 4:50-5:15). The reinterpretation, although conservative, primarily comes in the form of creative supporting instrumentation as Larry mentioned, and tons of dynamics created in part by the wonderful transitions (3:40, 4:28,…) that just aren’t there in the originals. What's here is enough to make it in my book.

plus I like the rain intro/outro.

YES

[Vig]

this is good stuff. There is certainly a good amount of exploration as opposed to meticulously planned arrangement, but it's quite impressive. Something that struck me about this piece and about house's playing is that he understands much better than most metal guitarists the value of dynamics. He knows how to play with few notes, which makes his (very) impressive chops sound that much more tense and kickass than if he were shredding for six minutes. The song meets our requirements for arrangement no question. sure a lot of the elaboration is guitar wankery and vamping, but who am i to take off points for that?

the song certainly isnt perfect; some of the eq sounds a little thin, the organ in particular sounds weak. However, nothing here would prevent a

YES

good stuff from House. (the castlevania nod around 2:40 was very cute. I like that kind of shit.)