OCR02906 - *YES* Final Fantasy 4 'Dreams of Glory'

[DragonAvenger]

Your ReMixer name: Argle

Name of game(s) arranged : FF4

Name of individual song(s) arranged: Hey Cid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehx1vUvSqgI

Name of arrangement: Dreams of Glory

This is for the Cid tribute project. I think it might be coming out soonish? Not sure. Anyway, I took the original march and sped it up to make synth rock. Initially was going to record some guitar leads, but honestly I suck at the guitar. And I like the way it turned out.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgr2Uarqg-0

Edited June 13, 2014 by djpretzel

[OceansAndrew]

I really like the concept of this a lot; the speed is good, and the overall feel is solid. The breakdown is nice, and the solo is pretty well written.

The rhythm guitar part sounds pretty fakey, and without subtle nuances and imperfections, having the same pattern for each part gets pretty samey. The drums also suffer a bit from this, though there are little variations and some minor fills that help that a bit more. I think larger fills as well as some builds into sections like the breakdown and solo would help the excitement of the piece. I also think that additional attention to the sequenced leads would be nice; Really get some more expression and modulation into those long notes. What is there right now is fine and serviceable, but it could be so much more. The ending is also a little abrupt; it's fine as an ending, but to pull it off, you will need a bit more warning and a full measure drum fill might do the trick.

I think it's pretty close and you might get some YES votes regardless, but I think the detail work on this needs to be touched up a bit and resubbed. I enjoyed it a lot but don't think it lives up to your potential.

No, please resubmit

[Chimpazilla]

I agree with Andrew. This is a good arrangement, but there are just some things I think can be fixed that will make this song really shine.

That guitar lead is really wide and distorted when it enters at 0:13, distractingly so for me. It competes with the backing guitars quite a bit in frequency. There is a cool little synth arp at 0:26 that is completely smothered by this huge timbre.

At 0:59 you've got an organ that's really competing for space with those rhythm guitars.

You've got a very nice sine lead starting at 1:10, but almost zero transition into that section, so the lead sounds out of place. How about a gated downsweep or something, signaling the softer sound? Same for the transition back to the guitar lead at 1:33, nothing there for the listener to adapt or prepare for a totally new sound.

Drums are pretty good, kick is quiet though.

Writing starts to get repetitive in terms of chord structure and backing guitar patterns, but you do have quite a bit of cool soloing going on. Wow that ending is sudden, but workable.

This is really close to a pass, just tame some timbres, carve space for that arp to be heard, and add some transition stuff and it's golden.

edit: I've just listened to this track again and have read the other votes. I will maintain the crits I've given here, but the arrangement really is quite good, and the soloing in particular is smokin'. No need to hold this vote up. Gonna give this a pass.

YES

Edited April 12, 2014 by Chimpazilla

[Liontamer]

Opened up pretty solidly, with good energy. The arrangement had good variations of the theme, as well as some original soloing-style stuff. 2:06's section felt like a copy-pasta, but got out of that feeling a little later, so my initial fears of laziness in the structure were put to rest. The ending was a bit sudden and could have been given a bit more space to wind down.

I'm not going ZOMG at the production quality, and OA and Chimpa's criticism aren't necessarily wrong. I liked their insight into the rhythm guitar patterns needing variation and some of the mixing choices. I myself felt the soundscape was slightly muddy. I didn't agree on the crits of the transitions though, but that may just be me.

On the whole, this was solid work and the arrangement carried it nicely for me. Issues aside, I didn't feel it needs to be held back as is, but if it doesn't make it, this wouldn't need TOO much work to get it where it needs to be. Count me in.

YES

[Nutritious]

Yup, I'm hearing a lot of what's been mentioned in both camps here.

The rhythm guitar did sound a bit off tone-wise when it came in (like some frequencies were cut or something). Drums also could use a little more presence in the mid-low range).

But yeah, I really love this arrangement. You're getting maximum mileage from a limited source tune. The leads didn't have the awesomist evar tone, but are very nicely nuanced to keep them fresh.

There are some production issues, but they were relatively minor in my book. The energy is great and the arrangement is fantastic.

YES

[DarkeSword]

This piece really comes together for me around 1:12. Really love how you scale back that big energy stuff to keep things from getting super tiring. I've been judging a bunch of tracks tonight and they all seem to be really aggressive, high energy tracks with a lot of loudness happening. When doing big soundscapes like this it's important to give the listener a break once in a while, so these sections where you pull back a bit are nice to have.

Really fun arrangement that doesn't wear out it's welcome either. Nice solid arrange, some mixing issues, but nothing killing it for me.

YES

[Vig]

Not on board with all the criticism. Sure it's synthetic as hell, but I'm not hearing that as a problem. Clean sounds, clean mix. Could use more bottom, but I'm letting that slide since it's a rock arrangement.

Great details to the writing and production. Only complaint about the writing is that it's a bit repetitive, but honestly this is a pretty solid track.

YES