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OCR01353 - Final Fantasy IV "The Sky Was Never a Limit"


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Another excellent contribution from goat. It feels somewhat slow with the intro, as things are kind of dry until around 2:30, and not much can be said for the quality of the instruments, but when that guitar hits, it gets pretty damn juicy. And from 4:27 on, it's just plain awesome. My only real criticisms would be the sound quality and about a minute of superfluous intro. Otherwise, it's gold. Thanks again, goat.

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Yeah, I downloaded this from VGMix....a couple of days or so ago now, but only listened to it tonight between lectures. Had to double-check iPod to make sure it was actually goat, at least until I heard the guitar.

Nice, (comparatively) soft piece from goat, but my preference still goes towards Unchosen Paths - Rancid Purgatory and Scale the Machine. Speaking of which, why haven't they been submitted here? :)

Not quite goat's (now) semi-trademark style of metal-orchestra, but pretty close, and a darn good listen too.

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Man, you have no idea how happy I am to see this one make it to OCR. I downloaded this one from VGMix, too, about a month or two ago. Can't quite remember. Goat should know that I NEVER visit VGMix but I did in the hopes of finding something of his that wasn't here and I was lucky enough to stumble across this. This one deserves a lot of praise. Whenever I hear an orchestral mix with some awesome guitar work thrown in, it reminds me of the piece at the end of Mr. Holland's Opus. That's a good thing. Excellent job.

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Yeah, that November Rain solo is great. It's a shame that poor Slash is incapable of performing it live without severely screwing it up. It's strange, for such a good guitarist. Who knows, maybe he was doing it just to spite Axl.

Anyway, nice remix. It's great to hear guitar playing on OCR. Ninjascape was one of my recent favorites. Keep it up, goat!

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Pretty cool stuff is an inspiration forever. This ReMix is quite amazing. I’ve never listened to something like that. Great composition! This combination orchestral/metal really surprise me. Instruments of high quality here. And hey, what are you doing, man? You´re a great artist on OCR since that did good things. :wink:

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I’ve never listened to something like that. Great composition! This combination orchestral/metal really surprise me. :wink:

I guess you don't listen to Japanese music much! Download "Silent Jealousy" by X Japan for speed metal with all the compositional sophistication of one of Brahms' symphonies.

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This well-titled mix is the best release of the month so far. Orchestral and rock ballad. Some have accused it of trying to be two songs at once, but I disagree. I find it to be a symphonic rock ballad with an extended ampless intro.

As far as the orchestra goes, the horns sound better than the strings for once. French horn and middle brass really shine here. The solo violin and the string ensemble are unremarkable. I have yet to hear a convincing orchestral snare sample, and this piece doesn't make much ground there. Too much high-frequency, not enough of a sustained sound on the snare.

The rock is where it takes off. The violin takes the Prelude melody, with french horns doing an imitation of the harp arpeggio, all over a shimmering string pad. I will disagree with djpretzel, and instead compliment this particular choice of arrangement. Very well done. The violin and flute counterplay in the middle act of the rock section works as well. Goat's axe finally shows up in the final act, and the transition is very easy to swallow. The composition is truly inspired. Nothing canned here, just a soulful solo over the Prelude melody. The song finishes epic, with an amazing repeating chord progression in the final minute. One listen to this one justified the title.

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I usually stay out of the review section of this site only because I have been accused of being an elitist snob for some of my criticisms. That being said, let it be clear that I think this remixer is a talented individual.

I'm not really competent to speak about the orchestral sound quality that has preoccupied some of the other reviews. I'm of the opinion that anything one can do to make the instruments sound less digital is a plus. Perhaps some of DJP's suggestions in his review would do the trick.

It is clear that you are a talented guitarist. As a longtime player myself, I have a few items of constructive criticism. First, develop your sense of harmony. For the most part you do okay with this, but it is obvious that you are reaching for something beyond what you understand. For instance, the run from 5:20-5:27 bears no relation to the song at that point. The rest of the solo is better, but still rudimentary when compared to your apparent technical ability.

You can address this problem by learning arpeggios and WEAVING them. Do the same thing with modes. Make sure you have them down cold first, then move on to weaving. Most importantly, do it continuously until you feel your mind go into a mild trance. That's when you know you are getting it. If you don't know what I'm talking about you should ask/get a music teacher.

The second item relates to the first in that my suggestion from the last paragraph will solve it as well. I'm guessing that one day you realized that you were able to play fast and that if you heaped on the compression you could sound exactly like some of your metal heroes. This has led to some cliches in your style.

For one, you don't have to display your right hand dexterity every time you need to fill up space. High BPM sixteenth notes of the same pitch can put one to sleep just as easily as the slowest nursery rhyme. This goes for your runs as well.

The other thing that I could mention is for you to take off the hyper compression on your guitar and go with a sound that allows you to control the volume of your notes. It will really allow you to express yourself a lot better once you pay attention to that aspect of the music. Right now you have the equivalent control over your guitar as a pianist has over a keyboard without touch sensitive keys. I know that that's the metal style, but there's a whole world beyond that type-casted compressed distortion that you might find very interesting.

To conclude, I admire your compositional risk-taking in this song. I also appreciate the humanity in your guitar work. I think that you have a great musical mind. Though, I also think that there is a whole world that you might miss if you "settle" for your already impressive abilities. This is not condescension (I would probably have to practice some of your runs quite a bit in order to get them clean), but rather some hopefully helpful suggestions based on my analysis of your playing.

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I can't say I know goat personally, but I can say I disagree with the last post. I'm sure goat knows exactly what he was doing and wasn't just playing notes to fill up space. I'm also sure he's a compitent enough guitar player to know about dynamics, but just ops not to use them in a piece such as this because it is not needed for the solo.

I'd also like to point out when soloing as a lead over an accompniament (sp?) its important for the osloing instrument to actually be heard.

Anywho, to goat: I really enjoyed this and as always I think your variences in ryhthm really enhance your overall productions. I'd love to see more cross-style productions from you in the future.

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There aren't enough mixes of this flavor. It really is an excellent piece.

Does an exceptionally good job of transitioning from one segment to another. Namely, it starts out with just the basic prelude theme, then uses the cello, viola, or whatever it is (low string instrument, I can't tell) to change the tone of the piece, eventually flowing into a rock ballad. As I said, there aren't enough remixes like this, and out of the ones I've heard this has got to be the best. My only regret is that the mixer closed such a long piece with such a short ending, only a simple arpeggio going down a few octaves, would have done better lengthier.

Whoa, great piece though.

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