OCR03195 - *YES* Final Fantasy 7 'Make Who React Her'

[Palpable]

Contact Information

Artificial Fear
Mat Graham
www.artificialfear.com

[Chimpazilla]

Intro ripped right from the source, interesting. I like the metal interpretation of this song, and the track is quite well done, although the arrangement is rather conservative in terms of following the source rather closely. The inclusion of that "knocking" sfx from the source is good, I like that.

The guitar work here is very good, I especially like the soloing at 2:36. The track is well mixed overall. Good drumming with plenty of variation. Ending is abrupt. Pretty straightforward treatment of this source, but I like it.

YES

[Liontamer]

Yeah, the ripped intro wasn't giving me much confidence, but it did change at :12 to actual arrangement. The soundfield was cramped and for all the volume, I thought the textures were somehow a bit empty. Something about the kicks didn't sound great; they could be pulled back some. In any case, any issues I had with the mixing weren't a huge enough deal to hold this piece back.

Interesting soloing from 2:36-3:00; kind of a shrill sound, but it did stand out. SWEEEEET bass drop at 4:12 for the finish that should turn a few heads.

Nitpicks aside, I loved the energy throughout here. Mat really gives a darker feel to the source tune while making good use of original writing additions with the rhythm guitars and drums. It's a very solid, creative rock adaptation that should earn him some new fans! Count me in.

YES

[Flexstyle]

Pssshhh, Larry, you're just an old fart. I love those kicks and think they're swell.

I dig this quite a bit. I'm especially a fan of the way you nod to the original source in some of your background instrumentation and FX--that chuntering, rhythmical low triplet sound effect, the fakey choirs, some clangs and stuff for good measure. Good stuff!

Let's see--no production beef, no arrangement beef--yep, looks like I'm ready to sign off on this one. My only possible flag would be that Squeenix is usually a bit unhappy with people ripping sound from their games, so I'd be careful with that intro bit.

YES

[djpretzel]

We can't post things w/ squeenix direct sampling like this.

Needs to be re-created from scratch as closely as possible rather than sampled.

[Liontamer]

Aight, I'll email Mat and we'll see if he can tweak this.

[Palpable]

for all the volume, I thought the textures were somehow a bit empty.

That was the first thing I noticed besides the direct sampling. The lead guitar could have been fatter and the pad less so, but I thought the mixing was pretty solid otherwise. The next thing I noticed was that it followed the source pretty closely, almost a straight genre adaptation other than the drums and rhythm guitars. But that's fairly substantial on its own. The second half introduced some new elements and generally did more arrangement; by the end, it won me over. Creative ideas, great production and playing, a winner.

YES

Edited July 23, 2014 by Palpable

[DragonAvenger]

The lead guitar could have been fatter and the pad less so, but I thought the mixing was pretty solid otherwise.

Will echo this as well. 1:12 in particular shows off that the lead guitar is missing a little bit of body. Aside from re-pointing that critique, I'm in harmony with the rest of the votes here. The later soloing works out really well, and the arrangement is a solid personalized upgrade from the original. Very cool.

YES

[Clem]

Uuurrgggh. This is heavy shit. I like it. Connection to the source is clear, and you spice things up with some well-done metal style rearrangements. The lo-fi intro leading into the heavy smack-down is cool. Production quality is there... individual elements are distinct, percussion has beef, rhythm guitars are mean. I think the rearrangement could be made more interesting with some rhythmically striking riffs and drum parts (Meshuggah and Dillinger are my metal fixes), but as a straight forward slow thrash rearrangement of some of the darkest stuff from FFVII, this does the trick.

YES

[Jivemaster]

As everyone else has mentioned, that sampled intro must go, as it's against the submission guidelines.

Now I don't mind this track. There are a lot of decent ideas in here. Amongst the riffing and chugging the source is clearly heard. Your guitars are nice and large (a staple of the genre), and while you repeat a few sections in the arrangement, things don't get repeaty.

Ok, my gripes - on the production side of things, I actually feel the mixing could be greatly improved in this track. I'm finding some elements difficult to hear, especially that snare. It's trying to pop out and can't quite make it. I think a large part of this is the low end on the guitars is choking the other elements. I really think lifting a HPF on the guitars would help enormously.

I'm not going to slam down a NO on this one with the others saying it's fine, but in the future, I think you really need to explore some options to get more clarity in that bottom end. Making things easier to hear will make your music a lot more enjoyable.

YES (super borderline)

[Beatdrop]

YES

This is one of my favorite songs from the game, so it’s nice to hear an arrangement that retains the eerie quality of the original while turning it into something heavy as fuck. I like heavy. The mastering could use some work, as it gets kind of muddy at some points, particularly during the opening section, but I can forgive it because the arrangement is just so good. This is littered with amazing guitarwork, and the soloing in the latter half of the song melted my brain. To beat a dead horse into a bloody pulp, the sampled audio from the original in the beginning has to be nixed. With or without re-creating that tiny part, this absolutely shreds, and that’s not a term I use lightly.