djpretzel Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 metaphist (feat. Wy0StarFox guitar) Paul Ford peford@cfl.rr.com http://www.arcane-d.com Final Fantasy 6 Mt. Koltz theme "So You Want To Blitz?" When browsing the FF remixes on OCR one day, I was astounded to realize that there were no remixes of the Mt. Koltz theme, one of my favorites from FF6. Of course, Sabin learns his first "Blitz" technique on the mountain, hence the name. My original goal with this was to practice dnb style drum sequencing. DnB is probably my favorite genre of music, so it was fun for me, and pretty challenging as well. However, the remix quickly evolved into some sort of freak hybrid thingy with the addition of the guitar and the ambient section. Speaking of the guitar, originally I had FL Slayer there (which practically got me jumped in the forum back-alleys). Even though I said that it was just a test to see how a guitar might sound there . Anyway, when I finally decided to ask for a guitarist to replace Slayer, forum member Wy0StarFox stepped up to the plate and delivered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Mt. Koltz" (ff6-109.spc) Oy, production was rough on this one. WAY too trebly. C'mon now, bro, you had to have noticed the treble was too bright. A clippy disaster. At :40 the lead came in and sounded almost exactly the same as the original. The rhythms were changed up and so forth, but the strings on melodic lead didn't exactly help distinguish this from the original. I heard a lot of breakbeats formed around the original, but not quite enough was done to interpret the melody itself. Some harmonization was heard, but not much. Lots of supporting instruments here, like the harp, were nearly being obliterated by the beatwork being so trebly, rough, and abrasive. We hit a slower section at 1:46 that sounded alright. Whatever blippy electronic thing came on as support at 2:26 was annoying; it sounded pretty pasted on. The tambourine there was too bright and trebly. Oh man, that section from 2:40 was not a highlight. The bass work wasn't smooth at all, and the transition around 3:09 to the heavier stuff was weak. The guitar underneath the melody at 3:21 just didn't fit properly and created a poor contrast of bright and dark sounds (the guitar & the string lead). Some nigga crazy breakbeat stuff showed up at 4:00, and it was a little too out there. The shoddy production was really holding this back. I dunno why this got subbed in this condition, frankly. The Ikaruga subs were much cleaner sounding, but this sounds muffly the whole way through. Interpret the melody more, tighten up the awful production for a cleaner sound, change some of the synths/sounds so the guitar work actually meshes well here, and make some of the breakbeat work more integral in actually rearranging the source tune. This needs a huge overhaul to even be a contender, bro. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted May 26, 2005 Share Posted May 26, 2005 Not feeling this. The concept is good - breakbeat style drums with acid synths and orchestral elements. However, hybrid genres are difficult, and this mix proves it. There are a bunch of technical problems here. I'm a bit under the weather at the moment so I can't tell whether or not there is a problem with the frequency spectrum.. however, I do know that a lot of the song elements are not jiving. For instance, the orchestral strings are not high quality (I think there are free soundfonts that are better), so the fact that they're in the front of the mix kind of brings down the whole thing. You might consider introducing other orchestral elements, or lead synths, in order to cover up the weaknesses in samples. Plenty of posted mixers have used this technique. The gating/stuttering isn't helping either, not to mention the drum patterns and samples themselves (outside of the tambs/hihats) are somewhat uninteresting and out of place. As for the arrangement, I like the structural ideas. There's progression, layering, original material, and variation. However, some of the harmonies don't quite sound right - like an accompanying synth pattern will simply not change with a chord progression, or the bass will play notes out of the key signature. These sound like somewhat minor nitpicks, and maybe they are, but in my opinion they combine together very fast and affect the mix negatively. In terms of the breakbeat drum elements.. again, I like the idea. Varying up drum patterns is a great idea for keeping a mix fresh. But this particular drumwork just sounds to me like it needs more polish, and a *little* more regularity, to fit in best. I think you have a good grasp of some fundamental concepts of remixing. Keep working on it and I'm sure you'll submit a winner sometime. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Whoa I like a lot of the ideas on the drum track. There’s some really trick stuff going on with the hi-hats/snares (0:46-0:53, 3:07-3:19), we’ve got tight cuts (0:53, 1:19, 4:00,…) and plenty of percussive variety throughout. The percussion is also well integrated with the melodic elements which helps them make the arrangement spicy. Some of the percussion is bass heavy for my tastes but it’s not completely overwhelming. The sparse section from 0:27-0:53 I thought was strange and worked only marginally well at introducing the rest of the track. Some sections aren’t quite there yet. I’ve been waiting to hear some Wy0StarFox guitar but the live guitar is too far back and gets swallowed by the bass which is too loud (also at 1:47-2:27, 2:40-3:06) and isn’t that good of a sample. Also, the harmony at 2:55, around 3:31, and a few other places is odd. I’d solo two or three elements at a time and make sure the harmonies that are created are the ones that you’re after and are also pleasing. Production in general is loud, high and muddy. All of these problems can probably be fixed with global EQ but more individual attention to the track levels, the high frequencies on the percussion and the combined lows of the strings, kick and bass would be a much better approach to fixing this mix’s mastering. This is a good effort but I think a rework/resub would be the best call here. Keep working at it. NO (Please Resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 This mix can be summed up as chaotic. The whole arrangement, texture, instrumental/frequency combinations just clash. This needs to go back to the drawing board and recomposed one instrument at a time in my book. Find which combinations work best with each other, piece by piece. I agree with harmony's assesment, I think Larry's monitoring system is showing up more treble than there really is, again. Some of the harmonization is also questionable/doesn't sound right in my book. Especially during the thicker string sections. I like some of your arrangement ideas, and your fx processing yields some interesting results, but this needs a lot of work. As liontamer said, this needs an overhaul. Sorry, NO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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