*NO* Final Fantasy 10 'The Dream Is Clearing' *RESUB*

[DragonAvenger]

Original Decision

Remixer name: Bluelighter

Real Name: Guillaume SAUMANDE

Mail:

ID forum: 30998

Game & Songs: ff10 & Twilight, The Deceased Laugh

Interpreter: Guillaume SAUMANDE (piano)

Composer: Junya Nakano, Nobuo UEMATSU (only for the first arpeggios)

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoAP9rnS7j8

Hi !

Here my piano version of Twilight from ff10. I really love the original music of Junya NAKANO, atmospheric, and very murky!

I wanted to keep the nature very atmospheric from the original. I started by the first arpeggio from “The Deceased Laugh”; and continue by arpeggios with the first harmonies of “Twilight”. After this, I used a rhythm heavy, slow and hesitating; in low and then in high. The arrangement finished by some quick arpeggios, very dissonant.

In this piece, there are some reference to movies like Dracula and The Ninth Gate (music by Wojciech Kilar). Don’t look for a melody; it’s only an atmospheric piece with piano

In response to your precedent feedback, I’ve made a new record, this time directly linked to my synthesizer in order to have a cleaner sound.

Thank’s to consider this mix, and I hope you’ll enjoy!!

Bluelighter

Edited August 26, 2013 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Vig]

Okay, looking back at my prior vote, I thought you needed a better recording, and a more interesting middle section. Lets hear it.

Um...Your track is completely out of phase. Sum to mono. it's almost completely gone. Easily fixed, but definitely needs to be fixed.

[Fishy]

Yeah some very weird phasing going on here. Can't really vote on it properly when its this out of phase.

[Liontamer]

Yeah, the bitrate was way too low as well. I don't even get how the arrangement works in using "Twilight," since the source is just drones/pads, but I'll listen more closely later.

EDIT (6/20): Having heard the 192kbps version (included in the first post), there's a little bit more clarity than before, but that alone wouldn't address the various issues here.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Liontamer

[Palpable]

I don't even get how the arrangement works in using "Twilight," since the source is just drones/pads, but I'll listen more closely later.

The only connection is the chord sequence, which is in this case very distinctive (almost random!). I don't think this source is unremixable but what's been done here just isn't engaging enough to me. It would be very hard to remix this source in a way that I would pass yet stays true to the simplicity of the original. This certainly tries but in spite of nice rubato, dynamics, flourishes, and different approaches to each section, there's still a lot of repetition. YMMV, I'm interested to see what others have to say.

NO

[DragonAvenger]

I've gotta agree with Vinnie on this. I do think Twilight is a source that is in theory mixable, but there has to be more going into it than what you currently have here. There's a lot of ambient chords going on, and I can hear the connection, but there's little direction to the mix as is. Just relying on the chords is iffy in terms of what we could call source usage or not, which is why this is so tough. I think All that being said, there's a lot of good emotion in this, with good uses of dynamics and tempo.

My personal thought is that you should focus more on the other source in your mix, as it gives you more to work with and you can move with more direction in it, but I'm curious what the other judges have to say on this.

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

As I said, I thought the recording/production quality was already pretty poor, unfortunately. I'm not sure what has happened with Guillaume's setup that causes the sound quality to sound lo-fi, but it should be improved. Still, what's there with the production could possibly be serviceable if the arrangement was very strong, though I could likely vote NO on that level still.

As far as the arrangement goes, this does try to make a lot from a little, but I felt it wasn't very engaging for the first half, and ultimately didn't feel like a substantive piece. That's always going to be a problem when trying to arrange a source tune that's just a bunch of seemingly random chords at random intervals. There's no easy way at all to make the connections from the relatively random progression of the source to the more orderly changes done in this arrangement. That relationship from source to arrangement is just not apparent or overt enough.

I felt like 1:01-2:05 was performed too loosely and with too much dissonance in a manner that didn't seem to have a substantial purpose.

I agreed with Deia that an arrangement focused more on "The Deceased Laugh" would automatically possess more focus and direction and play more to Guillaume's arrangement and performance strengths.

It's a good effort here, but the poor mixing, awkward performance in the first half, and lack of a clear connection to the "Twilight" source tune all make this a NO.