Vocal Collab: Shenmue + FFX (Suteki Da Ne) + The Last Story

[DjMystix]

'Just This Once':

Download MP3

Vocals: Sabrina Valenzuela

Violins: Amaterasu

Guitars: Magellanic

Sources:

ShaHua (Shenmue):

Suteki Da Ne (FFX):

Toberu Mono (The Last Story):

-----------

History

-----------

This one has been in my todo list for a long time. I just finished playing The Last Story and got blown away by "Toberu Mono". So here I am paying my tribute to Nobuo Uematsu with a little bit of Shenmue touch.

Just started working on the track, following is my currently draft/idea (very rough at the moment):

Draft 1 (Made within a couple of hours)

Draft 2

Almost finished arrangement

Please ignore the vocals for now, they are just placeholders to give the vocalist some idea of the mix's structure.

Sources:

ShaHua (Shenmue):

Suteki Da Ne (FFX):

Toberu Mono (The Last Story):

[Magellanic]

Oo exciting. Suteki Da Ne is a fave of mine so I'll be checkin' to see how this develops. I approve of using the Japanese lyrics

As for vocalist, perhaps you should collab with Sabrina again? Anywho, looking forward to updates on this one, not heard anything from you for a lil while

[DjMystix]

Oo exciting. Suteki Da Ne is a fave of mine so I'll be checkin' to see how this develops. I approve of using the Japanese lyrics

As for vocalist, perhaps you should collab with Sabrina again? Anywho, looking forward to updates on this one, not heard anything from you for a lil while

Thanks! I had Sabrina's name in mind as well Let's see if she agrees to do this! Just before I go to sleep, one more update with a little bit of "Toberu Mono" added:

Draft 2 (still very rough and lacks TONS of background stuff)

[Magellanic]

I'm liking the solo. It sounds as though you're using Suteki as the base of the song then fitting the other sources around it? Its early days, but the transition between the two sources at 01:14 could do with being smoother. It sounds a little like "source 1 end, source 2 start" rather than a constant flow. I'm probably splitting hairs though.

Other than that, as you've said, the background is somewhat sparse but if you can incpororate some of the lush orchestral textures from Suteki that would be amazing. With that song, the melody does shine but its also the harmonies and counter-point that make it. Being a big fan of the orchestral version it'd be great to mix some elements of that with it.

[DjMystix]

I'm liking the solo. It sounds as though you're using Suteki as the base of the song then fitting the other sources around it? Its early days, but the transition between the two sources at 01:14 could do with being smoother. It sounds a little like "source 1 end, source 2 start" rather than a constant flow. I'm probably splitting hairs though.

Actually, the transition happens at 00:40 (The violin lead is part of Suteki Da Ne) but I still agree with you on 01:14 and will definitely do something about it. And yes, the main song is going to be Suteki Da Ne with Toberu Mono acting as bridge and Shenhua as Intro and ending)

I have plans to add orchestral strings, horns and stuff to this mix but overall, I do want to make it sound like a chillout-pop song (I should probably stop doing chillouts now; don't know how many I have done already).

btw, Sabrina has agreed to work on this track. I will try to get it finished by either today or tomorrow and hand it over to her.

[Magellanic]

Sweeeeet! I'm lookin' forward to hearing the completed arrangement. I'll be sure to have a gander whenever you post it up

Hearing this does make me want to do another FFX mix. Perhaps I'll try and do another of Zanarkand. (I know I've done one but meh, such an awesome score)

[DjMystix]

Sweeeeet! I'm lookin' forward to hearing the completed arrangement. I'll be sure to have a gander whenever you post it up

Hearing this does make me want to do another FFX mix. Perhaps I'll try and do another of Zanarkand. (I know I've done one but meh, such an awesome score)

I hope I can live up to the expectations. and yes, you should totally do another Zanarkand mix; that would be awesome. While you're at it, why not try your hands on mixing multiple sources? I think "eternity" from FFX-2 can definitely flow with "To Zanarkand"

[DjMystix]

Aright! So the arrangement is mostly finished. Now I need vocals before I can mix it any further.

Link:

Almost finished arrangement

Some points:

- Vocals are placeholders at the moment

- The whistle at 02:56 - 03:32 is a placeholder for "Toberu Mono" vocals.

- Ending drum pattern to be re-written a bit.

- mixing is not done. Needs polish after real vocals are added.

Hope you guys like the arrangement. Can't wait to have Sabi's vocals

[Emunator]

I really love this arrangement. I would strongly urge you to get a live guitar/violin performance on here. Finding those performers shouldn't be difficult but in this case I feel like it would be REALLY worth it, considering how good the arrangement is.

Your vocal mixes lately have been an absolute goldmine, hope this one gets finished!

[DjMystix]

I really love this arrangement. I would strongly urge you to get a live guitar/violin performance on here. Finding those performers shouldn't be difficult but in this case I feel like it would be REALLY worth it, considering how good the arrangement is.

Your vocal mixes lately have been an absolute goldmine, hope this one gets finished!

Thanks a lot! I would love to have someone provide the guitar and violin part while I wait for Sabrina to finish the vocal part. I usually don't get much response but anyway, I have posted this on collab/recruit section and hope to get someone contribute their skills:

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?p=857608#post857608

I'll try to ask Level99 if he can help with the guitars (he has mad guitar skills)

[Chris ~ Amaterasu]

Hey DjMystix,

Wes just msged me on FB, and he told me about your 'awesome mix' =) If you want me to do some string work, violin/viola I can fill those parts out for you.

[DjMystix]

Hey DjMystix,

Wes just msged me on FB, and he told me about your 'awesome mix' =) If you want me to do some string work, violin/viola I can fill those parts out for you.

hell yes! and thanks to Wes! It would be great to have you on this mix as well. I will PM you the details. Many thanks for the help!

[DjMystix]

I finally got some time to sit down and make some progress here. This new wip has Sabrina's finished vocals. I still have to fix a few mixing issues (including vocal harmony). Also left is the live parts (guitar and violin) and some more background stuff.

WIP3 (Sabrina's vocals):

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3443029/My%20Remixes/WIP/DjMystix_Remix26_wip4.mp3

Once again, we've tried something different. Instead of an instrumental bridge, we used Sabrina's sweet vocals. Hope you guys like the new wip.

[Magnetic Ether]

This sounds great, I'm really looking forward to the final mix!

I want to offer to play whistle for you but unfortunately I'd need an F which I don't have...

[-Dan]

Very good and relax man.

With better samplers or real instruments would be awesome.

[noTuX]

Man, this is really good! I wish I could give you some sort of feedback, but I can't come up with anything. I can't wait for the final version.

[DjMystix]

Finished at last! Magellanic, Amaterasu and Sabi did a fantastic job making this remix a million times better than what it could've been. We hope you like it

'Just This Once':

Download MP3

Vocals: Sabrina Valenzuela

Violins: Amaterasu

Guitars: Magellanic

Sources:

ShaHua (Shenmue):

Suteki Da Ne (FFX):

Toberu Mono (The Last Story):

[noTuX]

Yeah...see you on the front page.

Seriously, you guys did a fantastic job on this remix!

Couple of things: When Sabrina starts humming around 2:56, it seem just a little loud to me and the snare is a little weak, but I suppose that's just a personal preference. Other than that, really good stuff!

[Calum]

Putting some of my favourite games together - thanks you!

Well recorded/mixed live stuff and well sequenced midi. (Props on the video as well) Everything's pretty solid but there were a few tiny things which stuck out with the vocals:

1:52 - vocals are a tiny bit flat hitting the first note (i think).

3:22 - humming was generally quite loud but here the performance seems to falter a little.

Generally i found the vocals a tiny bit lacking in energy in parts of the song (e.g. 2:05)

3:08 - drum fill - velocities are either the same or too similar and come off as strangely electronic on the semi-quaver snare hits.

BTW This is me super nit-picking - you guys did an awesome awesome job. Just a few things that stuck out to me.

[DjMystix]

Thanks! I'll take care of the humming and snare velocities. I personally feel vocals are great. Them being soft and "sweet" was the requirement of this track

Glad you liked it!

EDIT: Updated the track with the suggested fixes (Of course YT has same audio as before)

Download MP3

[DjMystix]

Here's the absolute final version of the track with quite a few fixes (timing on violins, strings, vocal "glitches", de-essing, some background stuff re-recorded etc.)

Download MP3 [Final Version]

Thanks everyone for listening and pointing out all the issues ! Hope you enjoy the track as much as we did making it

Just a reminder that YT link still has old audio

[Emunator]

Oh my god I can't wait to listen to this when I get home Thanks for taking the crits to heart and getting some live performances on this, I'm sure it'll be amazing!