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OCR01363 - Final Fantasy VII "Beyond Midgar"


djpretzel
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Certainly a nice interpretation of the theme. I particularly enjoyed the elaboration in the third minute.

It's too bad it was delayed by five months though. Maybe BogusRed was waiting for an answer from Native Instruments support. :lol:

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Final Fantasy is a very used word on these days. This is probably the year of Final Fantasy Mixes. Pleasant piano. Some ReMixers can do good songs with only one piano because they put some variation on the volume and time. This is the case. Only one instrument and this is great. The piano was played nicely..."plonk, plonk, plonk..."

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This is definitely well arranged and thought out. As described before, mastering and sound quality is a slight problem. Also, as a fan of piano arrangements, it's hard for me not to claim that I would have liked to have heard this done on a real piano. This would give the song its own personality and make it feel less edgy.

Again though, good work and can't wait to hear more stuff from you, particularly with multiple instruments.

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I'm digging this. I've always been a sucker for solo piano mixes and this one is no different from the others as it's grabbing me by the throat and pulling me into it. It's a little simplistic, however, for my taste and there wasn't enough going on at certain parts to keep my full attention but just when I started to slip away, you'd get things going again. So as a whole, it worked out. :)

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Though the justification of the piece was already written so eloquently in the review by DJP himself, I feel I just wanted to summarize in a few words.

Excellent dynamics, movement, and overall feeling.

-but-

It's a mediocre piece, lacking variation on both the melody and counter-melody.

"Conservative arrangement" eh? Y'know, you really don't have to post every single Final Fantasy piano arrangement you ever receive. I enjoyed the piece, don't get me wrong, but it didn't warrant a download (just my opinion). BogusRed's best work so far is her Zelda piece. That one made me cry.:cry:

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Wow BogusRed. I never usually post anything about songs AFTER their posted, but, I had to at least say a few things about this song.

This is my favorite song out of Final Fantasy 7 and not since Klutz's redition of the song have I loved the theme more. In fact, I think your arrangement (to me) is slightly superior to his. But anyways, Excellent playing, excellent recording, excellent arrangement.

Wow.

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First off, positively outstanding.

I always get emotional when I hear this song, and I've longed for a good arrangement, as none of the orchestral versions have suited me (mainly because they weren't true to the feel of the music and its meaning in the game). For those who don't know or don't remember, this music first appeared in FF7 after nearly 10 hours of gameplay in a sunless, slum city after multiple devastating accidents. For me, the music represented the crawling out of a festering pit and the opening of a new world. This arrangement captures those feelings.

I finally have what has already been called a very emotive arrangement - thank you!

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It's about time this mix came up. :P I've had her initial recording saved to my hard drive for the past few months, and to see the finished version up on the site at long last I'm pretty much showing relief at what she's done. One can wonder if the wait was well worth it; although I'd tell you now that I appreciated the skill that came around her previous arrangement "Into The Golden Sunset" (which I like most people have found it to make me cry), so that can be firmly taken into account.

As an OCR "pianina" myself (;)) I'll be sure to drop my thoughts on all this:-

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Remix

In terms of familiarization towards the original it feels very conservative in its linking towards it, so that can help associate firmly with FFVII gamers. The execution of the performance is generally good for the most part, although if there were some aspects that could shake some people they would relate to some sudden jumps up and down in dynamics and slowdowns to match; I think they seem to somehow make the piece feel a bit struggled in some segments, although the natural presentation is still there at heart. Variance on the theme is still available in spite of its conservative tendencies, mainly shown by a total change of key in comparison to the core theme (and the initial recording I came across to begin with, may I add), and enough variance upon the general rhythms and structuring for the source material when noted. The structure, while good, seems to stick a bit too closely to the specified theme but it's still good enough to help keep much of the track's emotive aspects strong, most especially with the more creative ending sequence that managed to come through. So in terms of this aspect of the arrangement, I don't really see this as the most adventurous interpretation of the theme but there's still some good unique aspects in the arrangement that have aided in making its (rather belated) entrance to OCR possible.

Creativity

In terms of breathing in some extra life towards the song there's been a good amount of changes in mood to help add to the more reflective atmosphere that Susie was looking for. Generally the sections link well even though the conservative arrangement have partially not made that her responsibility; however those who appreciate the game shouldn’t see that as too much of a problem. For me I found some of the dynamics linking into some of the areas could have been a bit more careful in their execution, although I still found that fairly reasonable. I found a lot of fresh expressions with a lot of tense portions shown at the start as well as some more upbeat aspects near the middle and darker moods near the end - those can help provide a fresh pace throughout the course of the arrangement here. I didn't sense too much repetition; she's had a good go at eradicating that aspect altogether by making sure that various variations on the track's melodic structure are given unique rhythmic incarnations to make sure that no segment sounds the same. For much of the time I found the overall performance of the theme to really shine well; while not the most expansive of pieces it's very enjoyable work if you want to take on board piano arrangements and/or Final Fantasy mixes, so that can be of some positive well being here. Well done.

Production

In comparison to her initial recording of this, I found this to be a lot cleaner and better executed in terms of instrument clarity; one qualm that I've had with the sample was that it made some of the softer sounds feel a little bit on the unclear side, although there's been some good reasoning for the choice behind it. Even through here the processing sounds mainly alright for what it was, although it can be argued that some of the muddy tendencies with the softer segments could be cleared with some bolder EQs; rolling off a very light amount in the low-mids might do the trick there. The recording itself is very clean and well shown in terms of dynamics; was hoping for a little less sustain but it is still well thought out. That has even been shown in the basic sound levels, where much of the recording tendencies are taken at a well balanced quality and have easily allowed the dynamics to be able to come to their own. The panning has been shown well through the overall instrument space, as well as much of the room ambience that was taken around it. In terms of this aspect I noticed a fair amount of excellent aspects taken to the rendering as well as some areas that could do with a closer re-approach, although as it stands I really felt this aspect has been able to make it shine on its own. Good stuff.

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While I personally feel that the recording is a great improvement over the version I found on her website 3 months ago, I still honestly believe that she showed her emotive side much stronger with Into the Golden Sunset. That's not to say this mix pales in comparison; although it plays rather conservatively, it has still been able to take a grasp at the theme in its most reflective and meaningful form throughout, something that I feel that piano arrangements should be recognised more for.

So yeah, I can definitely say that the mix's release was worth the wait and it's another well thought out addition to BogusRed's musical library. I hope she comes forth with some good stuff in the future; you know that pixietricks and I can't operate the female mixing scene by ourselves :D

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>stunning work. it's hard for almost everyone to create such a memorable slow piano piece, but you've done it. the changes in tempo, intensity and softness of the notes, and just teh overall amazing compisition really set you apart form other remixers.

damn good job

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Beautiful arrangement of what must have been rather difficult to bring to the piano. Well played, too. I don't know why everyone is describing this as a "slow" arrangement, there are quite a few technical moments in there.

If that's an acoustic piano, though, I'll eat myself.

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Wow. I dont' have the words to describe the beauty in this piece. Wow, you can't tell it's a remix, in the sense that it's just so awesome that it's a piece that you can just play when you are reading or something like that, and you couldn't tell the difference between a famous classical artist and this in particular. Yes, I know, Mozart and Midgard, what a comparison, but wow, I don't know, it's just my opinion.

Keep up the awesome work.

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I'm not an expert in music, so I won't pretend to be one, but this is definately an excellent and well done piece. I didn't feel it was very conservative, except in style, which feels a little neo-classical. Definately another good one to add to the collection.

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wow... just wow...

What a BEAUTIFUL piano piece. It's the type of piece that makes you feel at peace, especially at 2:41. It's just an amazing piece, a great piano solo, beautiful quality. An amazing piece. Kudos to the remixer for making suck a beautiful piece.

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