Final Fantasy VI - "Coin Song" & "Edgar and Sabin's Theme"

[jnWake]

This is a (mainly) 6/8 remix of 'Coin Song' mixed with 'Edgar and Sabin' (the castle theme).

Most recent version:

.

Older version: https://soundcloud.com/jnwake/final-fantasy-vi-a-waltz-for-a .

Sources:

- Coin Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njdju0gL_xk&feature=BFa&list=PL905DD7A1D1A57F4F .

- Edgar and Sabin (Figaro Castle theme): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6DwKL87XVA&feature=BFa&list=PL905DD7A1D1A57F4F .

Edited December 18, 2013 by jnWake

[XPRTNovice]

This is pretty cool man. 6/8 is one of my favorite time signatures.

Before the strings came in, I was envisioning something Baroque, but I tend to be a little silly. If you want to go orchestral, this could be a really cool concerto of sorts.

[jnWake]

Baroque would've been a fun idea, but I didn't think about it

Anyway, I updated the song (link in the OP: http://soundcloud.com/jnwake/royal-coin ):

- Changed the piano patch to a better sounding one.

- Added Contrabass to the song.

- Added a couple new sections.

I still haven't worked on humanization/adding effects, so it still sounds quite rough. I'm still not sure if I should add percussion or something like that. Comment if you can!

[jnWake]

Double post!

Finished the remix. I followed some instructions and managed to make CVPiano sound pretty.

I also added a few more sections. The ending is "original", following a chord progression similar to the intro's one.

Anyway, comments and feedback are very appreciated!

[Elder Kirby]

The section following the 2 minute mark gets very noticeably repetitive, maybe you could add some variation to that violin?

I like this a lot, though. Very smoothly made.

[jnWake]

Thanks for the comment. I see what you mean and I could understand that people may find it repetitive. To be honest it doesn't bother me but if the potential repetitiveness seems to be a flaw to more people I may add a third voice to that section.

Also, changing this to Mod Review.

[Flexstyle]

<MODREVIEW>

Well, I must say, this is quite a pleasant listen. I do indeed like the way you've gotten CVPiano to sound (can be difficult sometimes, I agree), and the arrangement flows very nicely.

There's a rogue timing issue at about 0:20-ish; you'll hear it if you listen, I think.

I will agree with the comments about repetitiveness in the section between about 2:00 and 2:30. My remedy would be to spruce up the piano part, do a bit more arranging with the source in that section. Put some flourishes in there, so that we know this isn't just copy-pasted from earlier in the song. Judges tend to dislike repetitiveness quite a lot.

Overall, the piano playing is perhaps a bit rigid, although I'm not sure how much luck you'll have with that issue with CVP. Some of the timings are still just a bit too locked into the piano roll, if that makes sense, and I'd tweak the velocities a bit too. Put a bit more emotion in there if possible.

I have no quibbles with the mix, at all, as it does a lovely job of avoiding distractions from the arrangement.

Overall, it's quite nice, but I'd fix just a couple minor things before I submitted it, if I were you.

</MODREVIEW>

[jnWake]

Yeah, I noticed the timing issue, but I hoped it wouldn't be that noticeable. It's just a rendering glitch so it's easy to fix.

I guess I'll see what I can do to the 2:00 - 2:30 section, maybe more piano stuff would help as you suggest.

I'm happy with most of the piano's sound, but as you say, there are some sections that could use some tweaking (some of the fills I put on some chords sound a bit odd).

I am allowed to keep the Mod Review tag up so that I can get more mod opinions, right?

P.D. The CVPiano settings can be found

for anyone that's interested. CVPiano is a bit buggy though, so I recommend adding the VSTi when the track is ready to be rendered.

[Flexstyle]

Indeed, you're welcome to do so. I do find that whenever a mod has already reviewed a track, though, that it has lower priority in the eyes of other mods. Just personal observation. Once you've gotten a couple more opinions, I'd recommend setting it to "finished," if possible.

[jnWake]

Sure, just wanted to see if there is anything else I should work on before posting another version here!

EDIT: Moving it back to Finished and I'll post a new version soon.

Edited June 14, 2012 by jnWake

[jnWake]

Final version updated:

http://soundcloud.com/jnwake/royal-coin

Moving again to Mod Review. I did some changes to the piano, velocity stuff and changed the melodies a bit in the second repeat of the Figaro Castle Theme.

EDIT: I wonder if this is ready for submission?

[Rozovian]

not a mod review:

Intro piano still sounds pretty stiff. Dunno how your changes are, but your pianbo might not respond much to velocity. Also consider timing edits. You'd be surprised how far off a human performance can be and still feel emotive and human rather than poorly timed.

This track seems to lack a conductor and a clear dynamic structure. Pretend to be a conductor, and see what ideas you come up with.

And yeah, mods tend to wanna cover all mod review-marked tracks rather than give a single track a whole lot of reviews. This is also just a quick listen and comment, since your last mod review was a week ago. If you need mod reviews for every update, you need to work on your critical listening skills.

[Chimpazilla]

Nice track. The entire thing needs humanization. Those strings especially could benefit from some volume automation. (think "swells") In particular, there is an abrupt (and unnatural) cutoff at 2:29. The song could speed up and slow down, go softer and quieter too, this would all help. I believe this is what Rozo means by "pretending to be a conductor."

[Rozovian]

Yeah, tho changing tempo is usually unnecessary and easily screws with the timing of delays and other effects. It's easier to keep a steady tempo and just change the dynamics and occasionally trail behind or run ahead with some instrument.

[Chimpazilla]

Yeah, tho changing tempo is usually unnecessary and easily screws with the timing of delays and other effects. It's easier to keep a steady tempo and just change the dynamics and occasionally trail behind or run ahead with some instrument.

Good point about messing up delays... so disregard tempo change suggestion. But definitely some volume autos.

Rozo... nice to see you back in action!

[jnWake]

not a mod review:

Intro piano still sounds pretty stiff. Dunno how your changes are, but your pianbo might not respond much to velocity. Also consider timing edits. You'd be surprised how far off a human performance can be and still feel emotive and human rather than poorly timed.

This track seems to lack a conductor and a clear dynamic structure. Pretend to be a conductor, and see what ideas you come up with.

And yeah, mods tend to wanna cover all mod review-marked tracks rather than give a single track a whole lot of reviews. This is also just a quick listen and comment, since your last mod review was a week ago. If you need mod reviews for every update, you need to work on your critical listening skills.

There are velocity changes in the piano track, but maybe I should make them harsher. This is like my first try at humanizing, so I don't take that many risks! I'll do some timing changes, it's hard to not make it sound like if someone was terrible at playing piano.

I'm not sure what you mean with the conductor thing, but I'll look more into the dynamics, since I didn't work that much on them, except for some sections (like when the contrabass plays the main melody).

Also, I've only put this track for mod review twice, so it's not like I'm asking for mod reviews all the time.

Nice track. The entire thing needs humanization. Those strings especially could benefit from some volume automation. (think "swells") In particular, there is an abrupt (and unnatural) cutoff at 2:29. The song could speed up and slow down, go softer and quieter too, this would all help. I believe this is what Rozo means by "pretending to be a conductor."

I'm not sure what you mean by swells and have not worked with volume automation, but I'll read about it

The cutoff at 2:29 is something I'll work in. I guess I'll begin the fade out earlier. Thanks for the feedback!

EDIT: Moving back to WIP for a while. Trying to spice the mix up.

Edited June 25, 2012 by jnWake

[jnWake]

Megabump!

I've reworked the mix, tweaking old elements and adding new stuff. I added more instruments (winds) and changed some parts of the mix. I think it's sounding much better now!

Link: http://soundcloud.com/jnwake/royal-coin-v6 .

EDIT: Got a MIDI cable so I reworked some sections with it. Hopefully it sounds better now. Also, changing to Mod Review again. I feel this is close to being done!

[ondellonoya]

love your interpretation man..!!

[Rozovian]

Source ok.

Feels a little rushed, perhaps you should drop the tempo slightly. A bpm or two, no more than that It's subtle but it just might be the right fit fot this track, unless you prefer it this way... or faster?

It's got some human groove to it now, tho some more dynamics (soft parts, loud parts, swells, and, uh, wanes?) would improve it further.

2:25 transition is not good. The rest of the track flows well.

Can't tell without dling and importing and checking the spectrum myself, but you may have some excess lows in some of the instruments. Don't be afraid to reduce those with eq, it should give you a little more headroom to work with, if you feel you need it.

Keep working on being your own conductor conducting your own orchestra, figure out when the audience need a lighter, softer part and when they can take a bigger, louder part. It's a beautiful arrangement, just gotta be fake-performed right.

[Argle]

I think a real violin would sound much better than the sampled one you have. I'd be happy to knock out a recording for you. PM me if interested.

[jnWake]

Source ok.

Feels a little rushed, perhaps you should drop the tempo slightly. A bpm or two, no more than that It's subtle but it just might be the right fit fot this track, unless you prefer it this way... or faster?

It's got some human groove to it now, tho some more dynamics (soft parts, loud parts, swells, and, uh, wanes?) would improve it further.

2:25 transition is not good. The rest of the track flows well.

Can't tell without dling and importing and checking the spectrum myself, but you may have some excess lows in some of the instruments. Don't be afraid to reduce those with eq, it should give you a little more headroom to work with, if you feel you need it.

Keep working on being your own conductor conducting your own orchestra, figure out when the audience need a lighter, softer part and when they can take a bigger, louder part. It's a beautiful arrangement, just gotta be fake-performed right.

Thanks for the comment. Is this an official Mod Review? I get confused because mods often say it is a mod review when they do one

Anyway, I had not thought of lowering the tempo. I'll see if it works!

I need to play a bit more with the volume envelopes for the dynamics. The envelopes I used here were made for the tracks before I played them on a MIDI keyboard. I recorded the piano track with a MIDI keyboard now too, so there's some volume tweaking pending...

I'll check the lower frequencies thing. I probably didn't erase that many lower frequencies due to my headphones.

I actually like the 2:25 transition but I see why it can be a bit hard, since the tempo changes a bit harshly. I'm glad you liked the rest of the track!

I think a real violin would sound much better than the sampled one you have. I'd be happy to knock out a recording for you. PM me if interested.

That sounds quite interesting, but I'm afraid that recording only the violin would be a bit odd. Do you have access to more than a violin? The song has a violin, viola (that could be easily replaced by a violin), cello (or contrabass) and a "ensemble" track I use for rhytm sections. If you have any sample of your recording it'd be quite nice too.

If somebody else plays any of the instruments on the track (flute and horn are the wind instruments present) and wants to record, PM me! If I can get a full set, I'd attempt a recorded version of this!

EDIT: Also thanks to oldellonoya for the comment. It's always nice getting them!

Edited July 20, 2012 by jnWake

[Rozovian]

imo, if it's good feedback and you trust the person giving it, it shouldn't matter if it's a mod review or even whether that person is a mod or not.

But yes, big official mod review. Was doing a whole lot of mod reviews, and I was too lazy to type those nine letters.

[jnWake]

I only asked in case I needed to change the thread tag back to "Finished". I appreciate all feedback of course!

Anyway, I worked a bit more on EQ and instruments placing. Also, I played the piano track with a MIDI controller.

So, this is (for now) the final version of the song:

http://soundcloud.com/jnwake/coin-song-figaro-castle-fv .

Hope you like it!

[Garrett Williamson]

The mix feels a little off.

I don't know. More reverb maybe? On the piano and strings and all? Maybe a stronger compressor on the strings and piano? Do you have a limiter on the master track?

Overall the ReMix itself is nice, though.

[jnWake]

The mix feels a little off.

I don't know. More reverb maybe? On the piano and strings and all? Maybe a stronger compressor on the strings and piano? Do you have a limiter on the master track?

Overall the ReMix itself is nice, though.

I didn't use much reverb on the piano, that's true. But I tried with more reverb and I didn't like how it sounded... Maybe I can blame ReaVerb for that?

All other instruments have a fair share of reverb. In fact, I was afraid I had used too much reverb lol.

I used compression on most tracks, but not really strong ones. I wanted the mix to sound as natural as possible. I also used a limiter to raise the overall volume.

I'm kinda new to this producing stuff, so thanks for the comments!