djpretzel Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 LT Edit - Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=67325 Contact Info ReMixer name: Long Dao Real name: Long Dao Email address: LongeBane@gmail.com Website: http://longebane.aoikokoro.net/ ReMix Info Name of game(s) ReMixed: Final Fantasy III (J) Name of ReMix: Journey through Dreams Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Lute of Noah, Dark World, Boss, Airship, Eternal Wind Comments: It's finally done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff3.zip - Tracks 5 "Lute of Noah" (:00-:43, 3:57-4:47), 42 "The Dark Crystals" (:43-1:15), 43 "Battle 2" (1:15-2:04), 36 "The Invincible" (2:29-3:12) & 49 "The Everlasting World" (3:12-3:57) Thanks for listing some sort of information on the source tunes this time. Well I dunno about the rest of these lazies, but I waited for a while on this one because the question here was really whether such a relatively conservative arrangement should be a pass in lieu of the new writing here. Bothering with the question is mitigated by the sound quality needing improvement unfortunately. For the improvements made in not having the soundscape so sparse by having more sounds in play, the sampled instruments here still lacked some richness though the improvement is there. Some sort of velocity/volume flub on the strings at :26 that needs to be fixed. Again, I liked the tempo shift at :52 during "The Dark Crystals", but again I would have liked it more had that idea not been lifted verbatim from the source. Yes, "making brass samples sound good is tough". Nonetheless, when they sound really really poor and fake (1:15-1:28) in contrast to the other sounds being used, you're gonna need IMO a stellar arrangement to make up for it (see: StarFox 2 "Mercenarios de Lobo"). The performance there has to sound less rigid/more human to downplay how glaringly fake the samples sound. Section from 1:39-2:03 sounded awkward due to whatever was handling the low notes. Plus, whatever string instruments were in front just sounded too synthetic. Same for the piano from 2:04-2:29, which was trying to sound rich but didn't pull it off. Same for that harp-like deal at 2:29. Like I've mentioned before, and I believe Gray had similar views, orchestral music is a genre where IMO medleyitis is not as negatively impactful as it can be for other types of music. It really depends how the transitions sound to someone, but abrupt ones tend to work ok here. 1:16 didn't work so well, probably on account of the brass sample, though you can hear how the xylos stayed around in an effort to not make things too jarring. Same with 1:40, which was still "Battle 2" but where the instrument change was a good idea that didn't work IMO. Still, you get props for some of the transitions being pretty good, like at :44, 3:12, and 3:57. That being said, you still could have developed these themes more. Practically all of them had their structures and tempo kept verbatim with the source. You worked in some additional instrumentation ideas and those were definitely going in the right direction. If the sounds were more richer/realistic sounding and some of the performance less rigid, this would fit well on an FF3 arrange album let alone here. But that refinement definitely isn't there, so I've gotta say NO once again. The execution's simply not matching the ambition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 I think this arrangement has a lot of good ideas, but I disagree that the medly construction of this piece isn't bad in this case. I think it really detracts from the overall arrangement, mostly because no idea is present long enough to be fully appreciated. It sounds like I'm listening to a sampler CD for some 1990s sythesizer sample set. The piece suffers from bad samples (ugh, the brass) and sparse voicing. This piece really needs more mid voices to fill out the soundscape. Some tempo changes would help too; the constant 8th note barrage gets monotonous. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 pretty much in agreement with Darke here. this does sound like a sampler CD. with an arrangement that covers this many themes i'm looking for a little more continuity then just the fact that there's a steady cadence of 8th notes through much of it. again, as darke said the brass samples are pretty bad, and the sequencing gets really mechanical, especially when the guitar part gets really exposed. this could be better. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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