djpretzel Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Remixer Name: Ellywu Song Title: The Masanume. Name of Game: Chrono Trigger. Name of Individual Song: Frog's Theme. Song Link: (Or simply check out the Chrono Symphonic Website!) Comments: This was one of my 3 mixes from Chrono Symphonic, and whilst i'd love to submit Schala and the Queen its a bit too long. Therefore i give you The Masanume, a standard Hans Zimmer and Friends version of Frog's Theme! Thanks in advance -Ellywu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Well.. I wouldn't say it's Zimmer, he'd have way more brass + taikos + huge snares 1:30 in I'm still not really hearing the theme - only somewhat vague allusions to it. 1:37 it intros for the first time quietly, which is a little worrisome given that the whole thing is only 4:00. The intro overall probably could be restructured to be a little more engaging.. same goes for the material around 2:00. Really basic orchestral texture going on until 2:30 which just brings back the same motifs we heard before. ~2:50 the theme comes back again, but again, it's quiet. Why is all the emphasis on harmony, and not melody? Finally, the brass is kind of ugly as a vehicle for the melody towards the end, because of the long attack times and the overly edgy sustains. Try a different sample or use a different instrument for it. I'm normally not a stickler for advanced composition but I really think you have to work on that here. There's a lot of very basic stuff and nothing really to keep the listener occupied. You have a lot of instruments but somehow it sounds sparse. The structure is relatively repetitive, with the same rhythms and motifs, and little interesting variation of the melody. Also, the ending sounds rushed. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 if you want to talk about advanced composition, there's a ton wrong with this song, much having to do with parallel 5ths and 8ths. the way this technical problem gets translated to the listener is that the parts dont sound independant of one another. This is frankly a significant problem, the voicings are all bland. Other than that, Zirc is right in that the composition is also rhythmically simple. I'd say these are the two biggest problems NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Kaeru's Theme" (ct-1-19.spc) I don't see how there was a problem with the inclusion of the theme. Aside from the quiet brass from :14-:31, Frog's Theme was noticeably present at :56. You can obviously hear Chris playing the simplified chords at :40 with the brass. They were allusions, but strong enough to make a meaningful connection before 1:30. Melody prominently kicked in at 1:34. The arrangement ideas initially sounded not unlike GrayLightning's "Sacratus Bellator". Not quite sure why the area around 1:48 was as quiet as it was. I think it could have been louder and still had the same contrast, but it's personal taste rather than a big criticism. Frog's Theme came back at 2:38 seemingly with the retread action, but soon changed up into some other good instrumentation ideas even if the arrangement was relatively conservative for the genre. The writing's not quite vanilla to me, but I can see why it could be interpreted that way. By 3:18 though when the strings come back in, and also with the Frog melody at 3:34, I felt like I've heard these ideas enough. Personally I liked what was in place, but it could use more liberal interpretation. The ending at 4:02 was pretty anti-climatic/sudden/lame. Not that I'm crapping on it, but I felt you could have drawn it out longer and formed something more satisfying. The samples also felt too exposed right at those last few seconds. I don't have as major issues with the lack of complexity in the writing. Nonetheless, Jesse's right in that the voicings are flat & bland and don't convey the energy and emotion your writing intends to express. The texture is decent, but when you focus in on the individual sounds, each instrument sounds too subdued and noticeably lacks power and energy. Where's the oomph? If you drastically refined the voicings for a richer more realistic sound, I'd likely YES this, as I think the writing does a fairly authentic job of adapting the theme to a movie score style. Promising work so far, and some of the best I've heard from you Chris. Definitely don't be discouraged at this vote, and see what else you can do with this. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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