djpretzel Posted November 6, 2005 Share Posted November 6, 2005 LT Edit - Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=53396 ReMix link: Contact Info Your ReMixer name: Abadoss Your real name: Kenneth Edward Keyn Your email address: Abadoss@yahoo.com Your website: http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/ Your userid (number, not name) on our forums: 2642 ReMix Info Name of game(s) ReMixed: Chrono Trigger Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: The Brink of Time, Guardia Millennial Fair Additional information: I started remixing this piece in February 2004, using Finale 2003. During that time, I sought the help of Jeremy Robson, who I, after hearing his Philharmonic Suite: Part I, had hoped would be able to master what I had started, since Finale's only output is MIDI. However, when I showed him, what I thought to be, my finished piece, he critiqued it and handed it back saying that I could still improve it. So, I went back, fixed what he said was wrong and tried again... and again, and again, etc. Nearly two years later, through the music department on campus, I gained access to Finale 2006, equiped with Garritan Personal Orchestra. After a great deal of reworking, regarding instrumentation and expression, - I'm hoping this is the last time I say this - I feel I have a finished piece. I must note though, if it weren't for the gracious consultation of Mr. Robson, I wouldn't have a complete piece. He kept challenging me to go back and make it better. Hopefully, it's at a level worth listening to. I chose "The Brink of Time" pretty much on a whim. I went over to vgmusic.com and picked out several MIDIs that I thought I might like to remix and that was one of them. However, I felt that I needed a little bit more, so I decided to couple it with a theme that I'd been wanting to do for a long time, "Guardia Millennial Fair". About six months in, I started hearing "Zelda's Lullaby," from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, in part of the cello line, so I tried to accent that a little and, later on, I gave it to the oboe, which quotes it in the second repeat of the initial A section. Speaking of sections, this entire piece fits under the form of Compound Ternary (|:A:|:B:|:A'). I originally considered it a Rondo (A|B|A'|B'|C|A"), since it had three statements of what I had first considered the A section, or a Sonata (|:A:|BA'), since my original ideas of the A and B sections fit better as the two themes of the Exposition (A) and C worked as the Development (, with the A' being the Recapitulation. However, as Ilook at it now, the theme of the Development ( actually repeats before going to the Recapitulation (A'), which makes it more practical to consider the piece in a Ternary form. The Compound end of it comes from the fact that each of the sections can be broken down intosmaller forms (A = AB|A'B' / B = CC'|D / A' = A"A"). And, yes, the title is a reference to the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The piece was written in Finale 2003 and mastered in Finale 2006 (with Garritan Personal Orchestra). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 First of all, the good. I do like your arrangement. The compositional ideas you brought to the table are interesting, unique and more sophisticated than a majority of submissions we get. Your orchestration is capable, in general. Lovely instrument selection. I love the woodwind, harp and chromatic percussion used as the backbone of the piece. It creates a very enchanting and fairy tale like atmosphere. Now for the problems. Like the older version, this still bears some of the problems of before. There's no sense of attention paid to dynamics or articulation. The mix comes off as dead. Garritan Orchestra is capable of significantly better the results. The problem here is there's no attention paid to production. You need to be able to work with your samples to sweeten their sound, in terms of composition, orchestration and reverb/space placement and eq. The sound of this with the lacking production, lack of dynamics and the huge oversight that this was encoded in mono (why??). Kenneth, keep up the good work, I genuinely like the ideas you brought to the table here. Now you need to work on polishing this mix up. I'd really like to see a sense of evolution of the mix as well, this seems like in a state of stasis, in addition the production issues I cited as well needs to be addressed. Keep at it, I hope to hear a resubmission or further work from you soon. Interesting, but not there yet. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "The Brink of Time" (ct-2-13.spc) & "Guardia Millenial Fair" (ct-1-06.spc) http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 26 "Zelda's Theme" I see the track is in mono off the bat, so already this isn't going to have any semblance of placement other than background/foreground, which is gonna hurt the piece. Not a huge deal, as I think there are broader issues here than simple stereo/panning. Despite being a very subdued, delicate piece, some of the instrumentation suffers from crowding during the busier sections (e.g. 1:19). There's some slight buzziness in the low end after that point as well. Decent, delicate stuff for the first minute or so, though it lacks a certain energy to it. The production on everything is very, very dull; nothing sounds rich at all here. Too bad, it has somewhat of a Jeremy Soule/Secret of Evermore type feel to it. Some Zelda reference stuff at 2:36 that started a little oddly but resolved itself nicely. Good stuff there that was only striking on the first listen. Things remained quiet until "Guardia Millennial Fair" came in at 4:00 with some fairly basic arrangement that didn't really strike me. It's not bad, just that in comparison with the earlier material, the arrangement for "The Brink of Time" was decidedly more inspired and interpretive. The material from 4:51-5:14 sounded wholly original, I believe. I think you could do more with these samples; there's no need to change anything there, Ken, but you should be working towards giving the sound much more body and depth. Do that along with some well thought-out stereo action and some further interpretation on the Guardia Fair theme and this would have a much better chance. It's fortunate, at least in my opinion, that this doesn't sound as emotionally bankrupt as the previous version, but at the same time it noticeably needs more work on the nuances. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted November 21, 2005 Share Posted November 21, 2005 MONO OUCH the arrangement isnt bad, if a bit plodding. but you really need to stereofy. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Orichalcon Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 The track is mono, why? I know Larry, Vig and Gray have already pointed that out. But it really does seem a strange choice. The arrangement in this is very nice. The strings and flute fit together very nicely, however it does tend to drone on with no real climaxes, the tone stays the same right the way out and the piece sounds flat. Where's the orchestral might in this? It doesn't sound like the type of piece that should get away with such a low sound right the way through. The tone and the key is actually reminiscent of Andrew Barnabas' music, which is probably why I'm expecting it to build up to a climax, or more powerful section at some point. While it sounds nice, I'd recommend working on those dynamics a lot more. The piece needs to be in stereo, it needs soft and loud parts, different orchestral instruments coming in (you can't rely on a flute for 5 minutes.) Not bad, but it needs much more work. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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