OCR01362 - Xenosaga "Ein Anderer Abschied"

[djpretzel]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[The Xyco]

I'm digging the vocal sample motif here, it conveys that ominous, frightening feeling associated with the original. I'm sure that's where alot of people may be turned on or off with this mix. I feel that, although maybe not the best sounding vocals per se, they add a whole new level of tone to the piece as a whole.

The rhythm is awesome. Very powerful, teetering on the edge of overpowering, but not yet falling off. Very cool.

The end seemed to come kind of abruptly. I was waiting for a second section with the piano, but then it seemed to drift off.

Overall, a great mix. The arrangement is solid and cohesive. If anything I'd say all the power built in the second minute doesn't leave room for a big kicker at or near the end. Nonetheless, this mix is totally rad. Very powerful and dramatic. Glad to see such an impressive mix made from such a repetitve track.

[Rexy]

Ah, more PriZm-y goodness and the site's first Xenosaga mix to boot. First of all I want to say congrats for what he has done in getting the mix onto the site - that's showing that with his second submissin he's become a firm establishment right across the community as far as the audience can see.

For full emphasis i'll quote my VGMix review when it comes to sharing my thoughts behind all this :-

Production techniques

PriZm has adapted to a track that has intertwined chilled electronica with some moody rock, which I feel has done well to expressive his emotive side. Panning has been expressed far enough to distinguish the instrumentation as well as applying various pan shifting techniques to add to a deviated feel upon the audience. The instruments chosen are of a very strong quality as a whole most notably with the recorded guitar and the piano, synth pad and string sounds - can't say much about the tones of the other sounds but their general sustain, distortion and delay based manipulations have worked to add to a good amount of feel to them. The mastering has been perfected to an epic quality - nothing much I can fault in that area at all, even on the sides of EQ frequencies for the specific sounds. As a whole I can say I'm impressed with the setting as a whole - very different from what I witnessed with Bowser is Pissed, but still pretty much likeable.

Compositional structure

The track started off with some light ambient noise - sounded more like a human cry from this angle - before emerging into a good amount of reflective synth work. These textures then built themselves into a steady 7/8 march by 0:26, steadily building the textures firmly enough for the next section in line. I found the voice clips at 0:23 to be well established here, although if there's something that could be stated here it'll be towards the general quality of the clips - I ended up detecting a light amount of hiss on them. A good way of wanting to eradicate some of it would include to try and EQ the frequencies out, or maybe to apply a light half-second fade in at the start of the file and a similar length fade out at the end. As a whole, the audience should be in for some great foundations for the intro.

At 0:46 the melody line is shown on a female soprano voice - very reflective choice to be able to add to the more reflective provisions for the target game itself. Its similarities to the original have done well to link the listener strongly with it - one that I felt has managed to grab a hold upon the audience on first glance. I for one am not quite sure about some of the downward pitch bends upon the voice, but that's probably me; I found this to be well accomplished as a whole regardless.

1:57 then brought in a light break in the music, with light cameos for the riff for "Song of Nephelim" making their call and response formations upon the piano and oboe respectively. This in turn managed to lead into a solo portion on the guitar at 2:17 going on top of the piano melody line, and it's here that its Eye-of-the-Tiger-inspired motions have done well to add a more aggressive motion than what has previously been witnessed. In fact, its aggression was shown to be a bit of a jump from what has previously been witnessed in the mix, but outside from that light aspect we are in for some firm provisions as a whole here.

Then came the 3-minute mark, where the aggressive tone was maintained in time for a key change and the melody's re-entrance. Here, the provisions have worked well to portray a more angry side to the source material, which I for one have managed to appreciate strongly here as a whole. I for one saw this as a very worthy climax as a whole - it can be argued that there wasn't much variance from the version of the melody from 0:56, but it is still broad enough to maintain the audience's interest.

Finally it's from 4:02 that the aggressive tone has continued on to the end, but if you listen closely you'd see the guitars fading into the light synth and piano accompaniment for the end. The piano notation has added a good amount of feel at that aspect, and it could have finished with their note at the end there. But it still continued on with a light reference to Song of Nephelim at the end - I feel the intensions there, although I feel it would work a bit better if it was brought in the same key as the rest of the accompaniment. So naturally, I found that part to be out-of-place with the rest of the section, but otherwise this has worked.

As far as i'm concerned I actually digged a lot of the components that came together, and I found it to be one of the cooler mixes that managed to come out of the community on first exposure. I now understand where he's coming from with the ending sequence after he explained it to the judges, although it still feels a bit unsatisfactory in its execution; plus, EQ-ing out some of the hiss on the sound clips could help make them stand out a little bit better for what they were worth.

But those are just two minor grips that I've had with a rather spectacular addition towards the site. Well done PriZm, and best of luck in future works and the judges' coordination on "A Star Freezes Over".

[Azure Prower]

I got nothing intelligent to say, other than this mix kicks ass.

Trust me, I listen to almost all the mixes on this site. I like alot of them, but I only post on the really good ones. Feel proud of yourself PriZm.

[Being]

Prizm really outdoes himself yet again, and the best part is that it's with a game that hadn't been remixed thus far.

[Hawke Edge]

Awesome stuff. Very.. pseudo-mellow while not exactly hardcore to the edge.

But, it brings back memories vaguely of Xenosaga - a gbame that certainly needs more music than a mere battle theme and cinematatic melodies.

In any event, this song - translated as "Another Departure" - will keep you to your seat.. or at least near your radio.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

HAHA! Nice work, PriZm. To be honest, I found the WIP version of this far less impressive than "bowser is pissed," but now that I hear the finished version, this is definitely one of my favorites. Great job!

[Navi]

Finally.

[PriZm]

thanks y'all for the reviews.

Just to clear things up a bit, the female vocals were recorded in my basement by a soprano singer called Leonie who happens to be a very good friend of mine (of, if you want, a really good friend of mine who happens to be a soprano singer). They weren't sampled or anything, and all the gear I had was my Shure SM57 and Behringer UB802.

[Rexy]

Well I can say I was fine with the singing, which seemed to blend in well in creating that haunting feel to it; it was just the talky bits in the intro that made me think that they could have been from the game given the rather different encoding quality taken through. O.o

Still appreciating the decisions taken, I assure you.

[PriZm]

oh yeah, the talking bits were taken from the game.

I was just pointing out that the vocals were recorded in Da Basemunt™ in response to djp's description.

[Compyfox]

For those who ask themselves what the title means. It's in german and translated to english it means:

"A different Farewell"

[KyleJCrb]

I've been listening to this one since it's VGMix release a couple months ago, so it's good to see it here. Quite a drastic change of direction from Bowser is Pissed", but, in my opinion, this is a little more listenable (not that BiP was unlistenable; it was just DnB insanity ). Very nice instrumentation with the orchestral bits and the guitar, and of course, the guitar playing is very good. Another worthy addition to anyones playlist. Great work, PriZm.

[Tex]

The end seemed to come kind of abruptly. I was waiting for a second section with the piano, but then it seemed to drift off.

Indeed. Some awful things are going on this ReMix in terms of transition. The oboe sounds weird with his time. But the drums are very good. Always, the guitar is the most amazing thing here as well. I like the technique of delay on the piano. Great job. As PriZm an inspiration, never forget to listen 'Bowser is Pissed'.

[Scufo]

Hmm...well, the first time I listened to this, I was doing other things, so I wasn't really listening very intently. After that, I was getting ready to post a bad review of this mix, but I decided to listen to it again, just to be fair.

That said, I didn't think it was a bad mix...but it definitely didn't blow my mind. To me...it just seemed to linger. I didn't really draw any feeling from it. I think it's good, but it's nothing I'll listen to over and over. But that's just me.

[SlashEdgewind]

hmmm, I just really wish I could figure out which theme this is. Also, I think it would've been interesting if maybe you had taken a few more lines from the game and I guess sprinkled them across apropriate parts of the mix. and yes, that last thing after the piano is just poorly done. grats on being the first remix of this on the site though. 6/10

[LinearX]

The original theme is "Inner Space" - the music played while you are aboard Proto Merkabah working your way towards Albedo.

[Soldier of Fortune]

Hmm, very nice. I like this.

[LinearX]

According to Prizm, it's Beach of the Void. But both songs have similar melodies going.

Ah could be, I don't have the CD handy, but the haunting melody of 'Inner Space' really sticks out in my mind over Beach of the Void. It's just somber and spooky, and further is by your side while you're playing the game rather than when you're watching the endless cut scenes.

I guess this is as good a place to ask as any: When in the HECK are they releasing the Xenosaga Episode II OST? I can't find it anywhere.

edit: As far as the mix goes, I think I liked the original themes better. They're spooky and slow and better that way. This feels a bit over the top throughout, though it seems skillfully assembled.

[Red Shadow]

Once again, Prizm fails to disappoint.

[Antelucan]

This is fantastic! I am particularly fond of the otherworldly vocal accompaniment. You have my gratitude, PriZm, for creating the first Xenosaga OC ReMix. Now, all I can say is I want more!

[Vexxon]

Yay for the first Xenosaga remix! It was definately a good one to open with.

Unfortunately Episode II does not feature the work of Mitsuda. Sad It has really taken away a lot of my interest in the franchise. It just won't be the same without Mitsuda. However, the soundtrack isn't really all that terrible. There's not yet a full OST, but there's a limited version available already. Send me a PM if you want to know more.

I agree, the idea of Xenosaga without Mitsuda is somewhat disappointing. I heard the composer for the .hack series (can't quite recall his name) worked on Episode II. His work was decent...but thats it. Decent.

[Mimeblade]

I've heard several developmental stages of this song by PriZm and liked the progress he's made on this, however, it's strange that after he submitted this, it's like he disappeared from the face of the earth? Anyone know where he went, I've tried e-mailing him and such to no avail. Did he change aliases?

[KyleJCrb]

I've heard several developmental stages of this song by PriZm and liked the progress he's made on this, however, it's strange that after he submitted this, it's like he disappeared from the face of the earth? Anyone know where he went, I've tried e-mailing him and such to no avail. Did he change aliases?

He's been posting regularly in WIP and I've been keeping in contact with him for the Summoning of Spirits project. He's around.

[Suki]

Unfortunately Episode II does not feature the work of Mitsuda. Sad It has really taken away a lot of my interest in the franchise. It just won't be the same without Mitsuda. However, the soundtrack isn't really all that terrible. There's not yet a full OST, but there's a limited version available already. Send me a PM if you want to know more.

I agree, the idea of Xenosaga without Mitsuda is somewhat disappointing. I heard the composer for the .hack series (can't quite recall his name) worked on Episode II. His work was decent...but thats it. Decent.

The composer's a she. And her name is Yuki Kajiura. I personally liked her style of songs actually. Chants and everything. Mitsuda was great, but somehow I found his choice of vocals rather disappointing. It just didnt fit with Xenosaga I, imo. Yuki Kajiura's done more anime ost's than game, like Noir, Hack and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles.