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OCR01421 - *YES* Alundra 'Dreamwalker'


djpretzel
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Yes, he emailed this in bbcode... -djp

Hey what happens if you write a submission e-mail in bbcode?

Anyway, there has yet to be a single Kohei Tanaka ReMix on the site and he's the man.Xardion, Alundra, Alundra 2, Lennus, Lennus 2, Gatekeepers, Mars Story, Bounty Sword among others.... ALL BRILLIANT SOUNDTRACKS!!

SO IF THIS ONE MAKES IT, IT WILL BE THE FIRST EVER KOHEI TANAKA!!

B00002SWCJ.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

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http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Alundra_psf.rar - 126 "Reflecting"

Really cool stuff. I liked how this was creatively similar to Sam's concept with his Landstalker mix. Though the genres weren't the same, he was again able to extend a relatively brief source tune into a much longer piece.

Very beautiful & flowy winds carried the piece with some light brass on support. Glad to hear some strings arrive at 1:20 to change the texture, and I liked the strings and tempo increase both arriving around the 1:30-1:40 area to provide some increased depth and dynamics.

Beyond the 2-minute mark, things got a lot more pronounced and powerful with the louder lead and the drums arriving. Just a great sense of build here. Slowing things with the harp at 3:03, dropping out the percussion and revisiting the more gentle instrumentation was another nice change of pace. And after 3:30, the the speed and intensity tradeoffs between sections became a lot more frequent.

And the trademark lil' flurry ending from Shna? Dat be good. Suffice to say, I hated it! Sam fulfills a much-needed niche in the community, tackling a lot of material that otherwise gets little-to-no coverage. Really anticipating what could be coming next, as he's got a few composers left in his favorites list that he still hasn't tackled.

YES

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Bleh game and source material. Shna and his deviance in game music tastes. :wink:

This is probably one of the more accessible mixes I've heard from Shna. The intro starts off with very interesting and thoughtful arrangement for woodwinds. Quite convincing. The composition and orchestration in general is nicely executed. I particularly liked the interplay of the instruments.

One slight gripe I had was the orchestral placement. It's unorthodox and doesn't really make much sense. You have two snares, one way way to the left of the soundfield, the other slightly right. Then you have two harps, one sounds centered, and the other one is far off. If this were an unorthodox setting sure, but I don't feel it's anything but orthodox in this regard. (I think I'm going to talk to you about this in more detail later in private to find out your thinking on this).

The ending sections were particularly nice as well and were the highlight for me. Very thoughtful build up to that point.

Good concept, arrangement and execution. YES

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Wow, what a wonderful change of pace. Once I got over the disappointment of not hearing a classic Shna Rare Mineral Addict-esque take on the theme I was completely drawn to the delicate woodwinds and strings that fill this mix. The clarinet/oboe work through 0:41 is a great intro before the strings and brass build to a more central role from 0:42-2:25. As tends to be the case with sampled and sequenced strings, some of the solo violin sounds a bit shaky to me (2:00, 4:50 come to mind) but this is a minor issue that is masked well here. Selectively placed lows and a vibrant snare keep the atmosphere light throughout, even during the build starting near the 4-min mark. Man I love the panning on that snare. Rolls are here, accents are there, ghost notes all around; great stuff.

I can be a sucker for a decent sounding piece but the arrangement, which doesn’t lull for a second, takes the cake on this one. Sam takes the simple solo guitar melodies of the source and builds an intricate orchestral tapestry that at once feels like a natural extension of the theme and is a creative expression of Sam’s talents.

Nice work and keep ‘em coming.

YES

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wow

it took me like 5 days of trying to download this and failing each time (it just wouldn't ever finish loading) to finally get it. talk about frustration.

and then. wow. release. this was akin to approaching a eye-ripping cute chick and knockin on the door for months and then finally gettin a piece.

and what a piece.

i had a conversation with shnab about shining force music and we were picking apart what we liked about certain compositions and i hear so much of what we were talking about in this; the way he visualizes the soundfield is very clear to me in this piece. its got that same controlled business... far from chaos... musical ingenuity. i don't think this is accessible at all; at least not from a compositional perspective since this is highly experimental... your instrument placing is just simply unusual.

the instrumentation. brilliant, sir. i hear the string phrasing and i hear how they play within the soundfield and i am convinced of what i'm hearing instantly. the percussion is nuts - variety is an understatement. the woodwinds are soothing... most of this sounds very organic altogether... it isn't the most believable sounding mix ever but i have a hard time focusing on shortcomings when the arrangement as a whole is so awesome

what a piece indeed.

YES

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