djpretzel Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Hi gang, Since I last submitted anything to OCR, I've been getting a lot of e-mails about finishing the final form of Dancing Mad. I decided to finish and submit the final form now, even though the third form needs to be improved/redone so it can be accepted. This is the final form of the Dancing Mad series, the final Kefka part. The four parts to this series are now all available on my website, http://www.greatdialectic.org/hosting/songs.html. If this one gets accepted, I'll clean up and resubmit the third one, too. In any case, I hope people like it. I started it years ago, and I've learned a lot since then. At least people will have their closure now. Here's a link to my submission: Contact Info: waxingeloquent Casey Bushmaker waxingeloquent@hotmail.com http://greatdialectic.org/hosting/songs.html (<-- new website) ReMix Info: Final Fantasy 6 Dancing Mad Thanks! waxingeloquent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I heard this on the WIP forums and I had mixed feelings about it.. seems like not too much was changed from that version. I think the sound design and percussive work is really cool, and there are also lots of interesting compositional ideas scattered around. Some of the variations on the theme are just awesome, around the middle of the song. However, at 2:23 (like I said in the WIP forums) things just totally lose momentum. Even with the chaotic percussion, things just seem to slow down too much, and that whole section feels empty. Though things do pick up as the song comes to a close, it's not enough. Basically, I think the structure still needs to be worked out to keep the energy going. Finally, the ending is really abrupt and doesn't do the mix justice. I don't have a problem with anything on the production end really.. Shna's stuff is similar in that area. I just think stepping up the arrangement so it's more logically laid out would improve the mix. Refine + resubmit. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Dancing Mad (part 3)" (ff6-314c.spc) Personally, I thought this sounded way too lossy/lo-fi, less than the 128kbps CBR would imply. Gotta go VBR and bump up the average bitrate as well. As zircon mentioned in his comments in your Works thread, the instruments sounds a bit cramped and tend to mush together. Boost up some higher frequencies to try and sharpen this up a bit, as right now it sorely lacks polish. Pretty swanky shit, all things considered. Yeah, this has a lot of Sam's style and pulls off most of it, only with the percussion being nicely groove oriented during the intro. I think you and Shnabubula could put out very good collaborative material. Almost negligible, but the strings seemingly faded down too quickly at :19 (and didn't at :23 when you repeated the part). :41 gets the melody in gear. Nice original synth section at 1:04 that ran a few bars too long. You could shave 8 seconds off right there, IMO. Make the transition quicker. But otherwise was a nice way to keep things moving. Was a little disappointed with 1:20 simply repeating the section at :41; could have sprinkled in some subtle variations or additions there. Nice idea at 1:52 for some more variations, but I really would not have used the same synths for the melody at 2:08, as the track was feeling too samey and stagnant as a result. zircon was right about the emptiness from 2:26-2:49. The percussion patterns and synths alone sounded too sparse. Give it a little something extra without losing the nice dynamic contrast you employed moving into 2:26. 3:03-3:15 onward did seem rather empty-sounding, and 3:15-3:25 could use some more meat on those chords playing the source. Going back to the melody section from :41 at 3:40 was kind of a downer in that I felt like I had now heard it too many times and that you needed to do something different to close it strongly. Also, the sudden finish at 3:52 did not work at all. It (arguably) worked as a transition at 2:20, but did not resolve the mix nicely at all, IMO. This is really promising stuff, Casey, and I hope you keep working on the arrangement further to eliminate some of the more empty and stagnant areas and keep it engaging for the entire 4:01, like zircon alluded to. I also think the whole things needs to sound more crisp and sharp on the production, but worry about that secondly. Very nice stuff in place so far. This has the potential to be passed with more work. NO (rework/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Some of those leads sound...stringy. i.e. thin. Poor choice, i think. The production isnt fantastic, but it's no deal-breaker. my problem is that the arrangement is rather flat. much more could be going on harmonically and dynamically. around 3:00 and at other times two lines will do interesting things harmonically and then converge, which is cool. In a lot of ways this reminds me of shnabubula's stuff, but it's just not at that level yet. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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