djpretzel Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 My ReMix: Name of ReMix: A Venture Through Hyrule *Contact Info* ReMixer Name: Antisheep Real Name: Paul Statezny E-Mail Address: Paul@Antisheep.net Website: http://www.Antisheep.net Userid: 22730 *Remix Info* Name of games ReMixed: The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) Name of Individual Songs ReMixed: (In the order of the medley) Overworld(LttP), Dark World(LttP), The Lost Woods(OoT), Great Fairy's Fountain(LttP/OoT), Windmill Hut(OoT), Deku Tree(OoT), Title Theme(LttP) Composer: Koji Kondo Link to Original Soundtracks: Link to the Past MP3's - || Ocarina of Time MP3's - My Comments on A Venture Through Hyrule: This arrangement is actually the first Video Game Remix I've ever done. It's also the first orchestral piece I've ever completed. The purpose behind it was originally to make a tribute to the great Koji Kondo, one of my favorite composers of all time. I chose Zelda music because the Zelda games were my favorite ones that he composed for; they're full of adventure, excitement, and a story to tell. That's what I modeled this arrangement after. I wanted to illustrate all the auras that are radiated by the different areas of Hyrule. I arranged almost all of of this piece by ear without referring to the OSTs. I admit that some areas of the medley don't contain the greatest amount of original content. However, there are still some very noticeable additions to it. For example... (1) The meters for Deku Tree and the LttP Title Theme are changed. (2) Most of the transitions are comprised of chordings that I made up myself (not taken directly from the games) (4) The piccolo solo and upright bass part in The Great Fairy's Fountain section (5) The LttP Title Theme is changed from a very light major to a very dark minor (4:24) ***Important*** Regarding the following statement in the Submission Instructions & Standards: "However, it is strongly advised due to the nature of the way mixes are evaluated that you maintain focus and continuity in your arrangement, which is much easier when you are dealing with songs from a single game's soundtrack. Please keep this in mind - part of the focus of this site is to highlight and pay homage to the work of game composers, not cram as many of their songs as possible into a five-minute arrangement." - As I have stated, I was not attempting to "cram as many of" Koji Kondo's tunes as possible into one arrangement. I attempted to the best of my ability to make the arrangement pay tribute to many of the very catchy tunes of Zelda while still maintaining a somewhat natural flow. I hope this explanation shuns you away from being turned off by that aspect of my arrangement. Thanks for considering my ReMix! ~Paul Statezny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc), "Dark World" (loz3-12.spc), "The Goddess Appears" (loz3-24.spc) [also as OoT "Great Fairy's Fountain"], "Title" (loz3-01.spc) http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 35 "Lost Woods", 40 "Great Fairy's Fountain" [also as LttP "The Goddess Appears"], 57 "Windmill Hut", 03 "Deku Tree" Frankly, I felt this was a relatively tough call, as I can't judge this piece independantly of other orchestrated Zelda pieces. I'll be straight up with you when I say I feel the bar for those type of pieces is really high. Right now, I thought the arrangement was pretty good; it manages to have many good parts where themes are given some good interpretation and even areas where two source tunes combine into one via melody/counterpoint (most noticeable, for example, at 1:53). One thing that's generally unavoidable given this track's format, was that drasted medleyitis, which was here in pretty full force. If you encoded this in a VBR format averaged at around 100kbps, you'd be able to actually add up to a minute and a half of material and flesh out your arrangements of the source tunes a bit further. While I felt the various tunes were ultimately underdevelop as a whole, this was decidedly more interpretive than the major majority of huge medleys we get, so it could feasibly gain some backing on that level. Though I felt the performance aspect of the sounds was fairly realistically handled, another issue I had was with the instrumentation not being quite expressive enough. It's not bad at all, and I'd defer to the opinions of our experienced orchestrators on that issue, but personally, I thought there was a little room for improvement. That doesn't mean you need der ubersamples or even different samples at all, IMO. Frankly, this sub already shows off the great results that can be gained from exclusively using free samples, which so many haters nonetheless insist is a bane of the panel. There were also some areas where I felt sounds clashed, most notably at 2:36 when the Fairy theme is supplemented by some oddly written strings. Then around 3:06, the crossfade used in order to shift from 4/4 to 3/4 was REALLY awkward and disjointed. The strings brought in at 3:47 under the Windmill Hut/Song of Storms theme also weren't in the same key, so the gradual transition from major to minor by 4:24 also felt poorly done. Other Js' comments on those areas, and whether or not they actually function properly, would be informative for both myself and the submitter. Overall, a cool, but slightly underdeveloped medley that I feel could use a bit of polish. Addressing some of the seemingly glaring issues in the previous paragraph might iron out some of the more overt/rougher kinks that are holding me back from the YES. I think this needs a bit more, but congratulate you on a very good first submission, Paul. Best of luck on the rest of the vote, bro. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Orichalcon Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 Straight away this mix sounds flat and dull. The marching beat in the background is so subdued that I'm wondering why it's even there, it doesn't keep the beat, it just distracts from the other instruments until the bass comes in at 0:58. As different melodies come in, it's apparent that things are transitioning well, although that's not an arduous task with Zelda from what I've heard before. The piano that comes in is really flat, dry and subdued, much like the rest of the instruments in this mix. There isn't much else to say. The arrangement is all right in itself, it's just rather bland to listen to given how subdued and basic everything is. I disagree with Larry about the strings at 3:47, as I feel the dissonance was necessary with the style of the piece. They resolve eventually as they play along, only going out of key at appropriate times. I felt the mix from 4:24 was making it sound a lot better than it was in the beginning, the tone gradually shifted which was a surprise. I'd say go back and rework on the sound of this. Try to give the drumming in the background a less repetative sound. I know it's a marching style beat, but it doesn't need to be the same thing over and over. Make your instruments sound more lively, less bland and this could be a good medley here. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 not bad, although not very subtle. There is a lot of rhythmic repetition. most of the instruments play a repetitive groove under the melody. i'd like to hear each part have a more living role in the song. the larger problem is the medleytits or whatever. the songs are decently composed, but there's virtually no development on any of them. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 I agree that this is not bad. It's fairly solid in terms of arrangement and instrumentation. However, that is not enough for our bar. For example, while you did have some interesting ideas here and there in your interpretation of the originals, there was a lot of verbatim arrangement which I felt could have been changed. Be more creative with the rhythms, harmonies, and transitions early on.. what you have is enjoyable, but it's not much of an interpretation. It's just a re-instrumentation. It does get more interesting as it goes on, which is good; now do that for the whole mix! If you can get that going, I think you'll find that the whole piece will have a bit more life and energy to it than it does now. Your use of samples is pretty good. These sound free to me, and they're used fairly skillfully considering. I guess my main beef is that there's not a lot of panning; everything sounds kind of centered. Try to spread things out like a real orchestra. Also, the snares are definitely not helping the realism factor.. they stand out as being particularly mechanical. Working on the timing, velocities, and even sample layering could benefit your snare line. Refine & resubmit. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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