OCR01415 - Final Fantasy VI "Greater Alchemic Patchwork"

[djpretzel]

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

[GrayLightning]

The mix has finally seen the light of day at ocr, after 3 years in the making! Told you, you should have submitted it years ago. Regardless, quality and extremely unique work.

[Liontamer]

/shakes da butt

[Tex]

I almost never listened a song done by Israfel. But this is indeed a good mix. I like the use of percussion proposed here. Very creative and wild composition. The strings and the brass really did justice in a whole. And I love the end. It sounds sweet and epic for me. I think this mix have a quality of new stuff.

I´ll check more stuff of Israfel. But I can´t stop listening that.

[Bummer]

Very orchestric, I like that. You can hardly recognize the original melody in the beginning, there are alot of things happening. Trombones, trumpets, very cool beats, drums as the same, and with some strings that really gives this the feel of the wild in the original. Reminds me somehow of some sort of James Bond movie, no wait! Indiana Jones, yeah, that´s it. As DJP already mentioned, this is a remix that delivers pure music enjoyment in full velocity, with much of skills in philharmonic matters. But maybe that´s what you can expect from Israfel, this is an another feather in his already stuffed hat. Very significant stuff here from the dude among the lads.

Favorite part: 3:38, the only part when the mainmelody is heard. Maybe a little odd to put it in the end, but Israfel managed to put the attention to the parts in the middle and beginning. And that worked for me.

[meccaneer]

This is from the Veldt, right? Man, that was a sweet game. The original was inherently danceable. That's why I'm dancin.' I dig the James Bond feel of the piece. Very tension-filled. I dunno if that's how the original was meant...

I don't know how I feel about the drums. They just aren't etchy like the rest. Balance, man, balance! Ya can't make some crisp and some crunch. Why is there so much etchiness anywho; are ya tryin' to hide something? And there's reverb? Why? Is there reverb on the Veldt?

Anyways, enough crittyin.' I enjoy it. No, really.

[CC Ricers]

(Jams along to it and places it with his all-vinyl break/DnB music folder)

Yeah, it's pretty good. There should be some (non-OCR) ochestral Drum & Bass music that I'm missing.

[Poga]

I've had this remix since it was first released on that 'other' site. It's not a beautiful piece, not epic, the production isn't top-notch, but it has great charm in its eccentrically groovin' feel throughout. Great work.

Nice and intensive pace the whole way through, and the sudden xylophone ending at 3:37 was a nice touch to close it out.

Agreed. But it's not a xylophone. Everyone uses 'xylophone' as if it were some generic term. Marimba, ballophone, vibraphone, glockenspiel/orchestra bells, crotales, gamelan, chimes/tubular bells, whatever—they're not xylophones.

[Claado Shou]

Sorry to be the only dissenting opinion, but this mix doesn't seem like it's finished. I know the samples are from 2002, but the strings still sound straight out of ALttP, and there are also plenty of parts that seem to lack a low end. I guess I just don't get the same danceable feeling you all get when I hear it, despite it being drum-driven and how much I love teh drumxx0rz.

Overall, I think the mix is a bit lopsided, and hard to take seriously/enjoy with those bad samples so prevalent. Would've preferred this with better strings, fo sho.

~.C.S.~

[MedHead]

The timing took a long time for me to finally understand, and while that meant I finally stopped cringing, the samples and arrangement just end up too chaotic for my tastes. I thought there was a lot of repetition in the music, and very few good transitions between the themes. Everything had a looping program feel about it.

Looking back at the melody played in this remix, I don't think it's all that impressive. While simplicity doesn't make for a bad theme (it often is the exact opposite), I don't think this melody was interesting. It really simply sounds like something that would be played as the background chord progression to a much larger production, rather than a foreground melody as it is presented here. To make matters worse, the mixing of the arrangement is grating, highlighting the aged samples used.

If it wasn't for my determination to listen all the way through in order to review these remixes, I wouldn't have made it a third of the way. It was a daring move to try the strange timing, and the piece has a definite speed and high-paced frenetic quality about it, but it was unsettling rather than charismatic to me.

[Zeklan]

I have to say before anything else that I loved the Brass usage. Nice.

This Mix feels a little...stange.

I can't put my finger on it exactly.

The original is still there but I feel it was a little under-used.

Not a perfect ReMix, but still good.

That being said, I was still tapping along the entire time.

[RoeTaKa]

I love this mix, I've been listening to it quite alot as of recent (quite rare for me with oc songs). Really good balance of a unique feel with proffesional qualities that make it stand on the middle of the scales between game music and everything else all those other people like haha.

The brass yes is very sweet, the little crescendos and other things are very bright and make for a cool little change in the melody. I tell ya the sections at 1:23 and 2:38 are so damn wicked, the beats are seemlessly cool and the brass is just plain cool on top of it.

A very cool mix, can't be bothered to write more! Bring on the jungle/d'n'b with orchestration! This is like austin powers meets veldt.

[RimFrost the Tourianist]

As others have already mentioned, it's musical style and pace is heavily reminicent of later Bond movie soundtracks. Which is something i really appreciate here. I've kept this FF3-Veldt masterpiece on repeat oh about 10 times now..no need to question it's timing or instrumental quality after the initial reactions it got. It just sound great overall and totally reeks of this familar mystery feel that many of us sense in some 16-bit adventure games.

+1 respect point goes to Israfel

[mv]

I had grabbed this track when Michael first published it, and still listen to it from time to time. It's good to finally see it here.

Michael's remixes are always a treat, and a very interesting/alternate approach on remixing compared to most of the "upgraded originals" kinds of tracks (which i admittedly have done at times). This Veldt remix stays true to this philosophy, and the combination of the nervous strings and brass along with the catchy percussion work paints a really different picture than the Super NES original. I find this to be an absorbing mixture, and an excellent complement (counterpart?) to Michael's "Lesser Kerubic Patchwork".

This mix will definitely not please all ears, and takes an open mind and some attention to grasp and enjoy totally. Some might argue that the 2002 production is not on par with what Michael can do now, but it's still very honorable as far as OCRemix standards go. Ultimately, I stay loyal to the man's music, and can only recommend it to everyone, if only for curiosity!

edit: edited the comments about percussion, which were originally meant for lesser kerubic patchwork, god knows why. (drugs)

[Martin Penwald]

I loved this ReMix from the beginning, because it picks up speed so early. But still, there are some slower parts which nicely build some tension, before it is released in another outbreak of speed.

And then the brass baseline...it makes me tapping my feet all the time.

Great work!!!

[Eclipse_Wargod]

Very good work...

[apoc]

I think the percussion on this piece is definitely sweet and worth noting. I wasn't too impressed, however, by the melody. I think I just felt like it was a little too repetitive and that there was a very small variety in the notes that were played.

I think my gripes are mostly based on taste, though. Nice work overall.

[Liontamer]

Hi there!

I listen to OCRemix a TON, and recently downloaded songs 1-1600 and am sorting them. I came across this song:

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01415/

and it made me rather angry... The woodblock melody is COMPLETELY ripped off from this song:

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=414044&t=8186

that I remembered hearing ages ago. In fact Entropy is a whole year and 2 months older than Israel's song, so I highly doubt the opposite is true. You only have to listen to the first 5-10 seconds of both songs to hear what I'm talking about.

I'm not sure if that actually goes against the rules of OCRemix - I'm a composer, but haven't done any VG remixes yet and thus haven't read your guidelines, but as an artist it's rather sad to hear someone use the same exact melody with the same exact instrument in another song without giving any credit to the original artist. And the melody and sound aren't from a sample CD, either.

At any rate, I just wanted to bring it to your attention.

Thank you

Can you clarify, Mike, on:

1) the general time period of the song creation

2) where the woodblock sample was obtained

3) where the drumloops were obtained, related to why the core of first percussion pattern of GAP sounds the same as the core percussion pattern at, for example, 1:10 & 2:40 of Entropy

[Israfel]

This is just a case of two people using the same drumloops. The drumloops that I used that also appear on Entropy (and that the includes the woodbock "melody") come from Zero-g's Total Drum and Bass CD - http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=176

So, to answer your questions:

1) late 2002/early 2003 - it was done very shortly after Lesser Kerubic which was posted on OCR in 2002.

2) the woodblocks are part of a drumloop from Total D&B.

3) Total D&B

Hope that clears stuff up.

[Liontamer]

This is just a case of two people using the same drumloops. The drumloops that I used that also appear on Entropy (and that the includes the woodbock "melody") come from Zero-g's Total Drum and Bass CD - http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=176

So, to answer your questions:

1) late 2002/early 2003 - it was done very shortly after Lesser Kerubic which was posted on OCR in 2002.

2) the woodblocks are part of a drumloop from Total D&B.

3) Total D&B

Hope that clears stuff up.

Absolutely, thanks Mike. I knew it was fine, but wanted you be able to speak for yourself. Just in the way that Entropy was produced, there was no way you could have actually lifted the sounds directly from it.

I was actually going to reply with this, but held off before asking you yourself about it:

A couple of things that make me believe this isn't an issue of theft:

1) As stated in the ReMix writeup that you linked to, as well as in the Reviews thread, though the ReMix was posted in 2005, the arrangement was actually created in 2002.

2) A cursory search of Silexz's site brings up this bio: http://www.silexz-studios.com/silexz/

The artists states he's predominantly an FL Studio user, and he seems an amateur musician. It's not a far cry to infer that they both sampled the same woodblock loop.

It was presumptuous to say that the woodblock loop was not from a sample pack. How exactly would he know that?

Thanks again for the clarification. I would have handled this as a private message, but I feel it's more important to be open about the potential controversy so that it isn't a future issue.

[Eino Keskitalo]

I don't get this one. Judging by the other comments, it's probably that the chosen tonality is so foreign to me. It makes it sound like random lines pasted on top of another to me. Add rigid (at least by today's standard) string/bass sequencing and I'm confused.

--Eino

[OceansAndrew]

drums are great, but the rest sound pasted on top, and not completely lined up.

Not feeling this one at all, sorry man. There just doesn't seem to be cohesion at all times.

[42]

Definately feels like some great struggle is occuring while this is supposed to be playing; this mix feels to energetic and panicky otherwise.

While the energy is there, there isn't enough context being created here. It keeps repeating itself to a degree and not changing the sounscape up a bit. Also the ending feels cop-outish.

In the end, this mix doesn't really stick to me. It's not terrible, one could do worse, but I find it fairly unspectacular.

[ella guro]

I've had this one for awhile, and it's grown on me a lot since I first heard it. I certainly wouldn't have made some of the creative choices Israfel made here, and I think the production could've used some work.

On the other hand, this makes some really neat and interesting choices of how to interpret the original, stuff that most people wouldn't be crazy enough to do and try to make it work. I really admire what Israfel does, even when I feel like his ideas don't all gel, because he's willing to take a leap and do something no one else would be willing to do. I'm really glad this and his other work is on OCR, because it encourages me and hopefully other listeners to expand their horizons. I also don't to make it sound like I don't enjoy this or don't listen to it from time to time, cause I do.

I remember reading something in post of his that pretty much sums everything up: "Why sound like everyone else?"

[Arcana]

It's been maybe fifteen years now since this song was published. I listened to it when it first hit OC ReMix and I came back to it now because I'm working on a song with some polyrhythms and a vision of a 9/4 section hit my brain and I realized (after a little digging) that it was this song I was hearing.

The comments talk a lot about the production quality and the cacophony and all of that, but the real thing is that the song was memorable, and interesting, and eye-opening. There's unexpected stuff, choices that make you raise an eyebrow, and overall it requires a little bit of guessing as to what the composer intended at times.

The fact that after you listen to some part of this song and have a strong reaction to it, though, makes this something of a classic.