*NO* Final Fantasy 10 'Zanarky'

[djpretzel]

Hey djp,

So, I ate some bad mayo, and pooped this bad boy out.

Remixer name: bladiator

Real name: Karl Harmdierks

Email: bladiator@juno.com

Game: Final Fantasy X

Song remixed: To Zanarkand or In Zanarkand (I've seen it both ways)

Original song URL: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/ps2/Spring_Water-To_Zanarkand.mid (lots of others there, mostly sucky MIDIs)

Inspiration of song: My man-love for Larry.

URL:

Thanks,

~Karl

P.S. Zanarky, ha, I'm witty.

[The Orichalcon]

Arrangement is pretty solid. The first minute or so is played in the same style as the source material, giving it a few unique spins and being played a little faster. The remix kicks into high gear at 0:58, switching into a swingtime beat, introducing drums and strings.

My major issue with this is in the sound balancing. The piano is very dominant in the mix, which isn't necessarily bad, it's just that it nearly completely drowns out the drums. I can barely hear them, and I think the piece would benefit from having their volume boosted a bit more.

The flute introduced at 1:38 is playing an original accompaniment to the piano, which is subdued to the background while the flute plays. The strings and piano come back in around 2:08 and take over from the flute in a different pattern which compliments the theme rather nicely, before the piano breaks off at 2:24 for a much gentler rendition of the theme, while the flute does some nice backing. This is my favourite part of the remix.

We have a nice buildup back into the drums, piano and strings section around 3:00 which takes us through to the end. Once again the drums are very quiet in the background here.

Another issue facing this piece is the quality of the instruments. While they're arranged and played incredibly well, the strings sound very dry and basic at times. The piano still has that fake sound and the drums are very tinny and subdued. While it doesn't majorly hurt the piece, I feel it takes away from the professional sound that the remix's arrangement has accomplished.

Still a very nice remix, and I have no issues with it passing.

YES

[Vig]

The samples are hurting in some places more than others...the strings in particular.

also it sometimes sounds to me like the melody just keeps repeating and repeating. difficult to break seeing as the original is only 16 bars long (plus bridge).

however the arrangement gets more and more interesting as the song goes, and the performance is excellent, great voicings, chord choices, etc.

wish the samples were better, and i think it could benefit from a bit of original material in between the (very numerous) verses.

YES

[DarkeSword]

The piano and the arrangement are awesome. I love the ideas your brought to an oft-arranged piece.

However, I take issue with your percussion. It sounds horribly fake and doesn't balance well with the piano. It's in the back, of the mix and has no definition. Such a spirited piano performance demands and equally lively and organic percussion section. Yet all I hear is "boom chick boom chick." I weep.

Strings are a bit fakey as well, so that was also diappointing.

In anycase this mix is a NO with a strong strong request for a resub.

[The Orichalcon]

New updated version, Blad's fixed the volume issues with the drums.

I don't have access to the FTP, so I uploaded it to Douli's hosting:

File is much better now that the drums are up a bit. Strengthen's my YES.

[JJT]

I'm extremely torn on this one. I'd written out a complete decision, but after thinking about it some more just erased it and started over. Here's my final synopsis:

Excellent performance and in many ways, an excellent arrangement.

The string sample, however, is just embarrasing to listen to when juxtaposed against the rolling and lyrical piano lines.

In addition to that, the drums are pretty sparse and not used effectively at all. For example, the simple beat when the drums first make their entrance is appropriate, but when the "A" section repeats and the strings take the melody, the pattern is EXACTLY the same. The piano and the strings move towards a climax that ends at 1:40, but the drums don't match that crescendo, they're just roving on autopilot. Change up the pattern, add some ride cymbol, do SOMETHING so that the drums are taking an active role in the arrangement. At this point they're little more than a metronome.

Listen to 2:26. The drums lay out and then come back in at 2:45 with the hi-hat, executing a slow build. The snare is in at 3:01 and the build continues. At 3:23 the arrangement continues to build momentum, but the drums are idling in some sort of musical purgatory.

To summarize, Karl you've done some very good work with this ReMix, but the overall presentation has been dragged down by poorly thought out drum programming and an awful sounding string sample.

An inspiring piano performance, but sadly i'm giving this a NO.

This could be improved greatly without a whole lot of effort, so Karl, please resubmit.

[Liontamer]

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 102 "In Zanarkand"

I played this just recently on VGF73, but man, I'm admittedly disappointed that Karl's man-love for me didn't result in an unequivocably strong mix. 2nd place for Splendid Performance: Reborn Meaning? No way, I heard stronger material than this from several other participants.

I agree with most everyone that the arrangement is pretty good. Clearly we've got the stylishness typical of Karl's works. But the production on this is definitely lacking and needs to be improved. Say what you will, but the balance between arrangement and production here is heavily skewed towards arrangement. Whereas I felt "Moontang" had a favorable balance and the fairly weak samples there were used well enough, this was not put together nearly as well.

The sampled piano has no body to it, and the thin, robotic, almost MIDI-like strings push the boundaries of acceptability alone. Then there's that awful drum pattern, which was so plodding and plain that it hurt the track drastically. When I read Jon saying "metronome," that perfectly expressed my disappointment there. It almost doesn't get any simpler, and that's a shame.

I think when it comes to pieces from Karl that aren't live piano, his stuff needs a lot of work on the production level to match the obvious quality of the arrangement. There really should be some improvement shown in those regards from submission to submission, and I'm not hearing it.

This is as solid of a NO (resubmit) as I've ever heard. And that's no disrespect to either Karl or any of the YESs, but I feel this needs richer, more realistic sounds and better-written supporting instrumentation to compare favorably to any of the stuff recently posted here.

Of course, you COULD argue that I'm pissed he stole my lady... :'-( Kik u, B-Unit.

[GrayLightning]

I was going to yes this, but after repeated listenings I think there could be some things fixed up for this one. I don't have a problem with the piano production, it's not a recording from galaxy studios, sure, but it's passable.

I personally think the arrangement here is wonderful, and arguably blad's best. The voicings and the color of the piece is great, from the piano perspective. The beginning is great. The piano composition and performance reminds me a little of gershwin plus music from american soap tv music (which usually have great scores, I should note).

The string and flute writing is one of blad's most mature, really great ornamentation. The runs and trills are a great touch.

Drumwork on the other hand though is really lackluster. But yeah the string lines could be better, and certainly the drum work needs to be. I'd rather have it not here than here at all in this case.

Tough call, I could almost go either way on this, but given the concerns of others as well as my reservations... I think that is telling and I also think that even a little more work at least would help this a lot for posterity's sake.

very borderline NO, resubmit.