Chimpazilla Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 (edited) Name of Remix: The Dream In My Reality Games Remixed: Final Fantasy, X-2, XII and XIII Source tracks: Kiss Me Goodbye, YRP Battle 3, Blinded By Light Musicians: AngelCityOutlaw, Argle, Chernabogue, XPRTNovice Since everyone remixes the hell out of FFs VI-VII and sometimes X, I thought it would be cool to show love to the under-appreciated and/or hated FF games. So I made a pretentious-sounding half prog-rock, half jazz arrangement of three tracks from three different Final Fantasy games. I played the guitars and did most of the arrangement, Argle did the mixing, hammond organ, additional strings and gave the drums a makeover. Chernabogue did some string sequencing (he also did brass, but I wound up just using the strings) XPRTNovice did the piano sequencing and played that awesome saxophone in the last half of the song. Yep, that's about all I have to say. I attached the mp3, which is a bit different from the version I have posted on soundcloud and YouTube. Argle says: "AngelCityOutlaw approached me to mix this track, which I did, being a fan of prog metal. Along the way I replaced some of the sounds and added some of my own material to the track, to help fully realize the sound I heard in my head. So it ended up being a more general collaborative effort. Listening to the great performances turned in by AngelCityOutlaw and XPRTnovice made me want to squeeze every drop of potential out of the arrangement." Chernabogue says: "I have nothing to say, except I was happy to help!" XPRTNovice says: "......." Simon Says: "YES this thing. You know you wanna!" Anyway, thanks for listening. Edited October 6, 2014 by Palpable closed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 31, 2014 Author Share Posted July 31, 2014 (edited) I remember this one from last year in the wip forum. I felt at that time that the transition at 3:06 into the Kiss Me Goodbye source was awkward, and I still do. It feels like two songs jammed together. The intro consists of a teeny bit of piano from this same source, giving it a bit of a bookend feel, but the transition into the metal part right after the intro piano also feels awkward, and the piano sequencing sounds mechanical. The middle of the piece has some really good moments. The two themes there are woven fairly well. The guitar work and organ are definite highlights. Drum work is detailed and punchy. I'm not as big a fan of the choruses using the Blinded By Light theme, they sound a little forced into the arrangement, and the string sequencing there is rigid and unhumanized. I love the guitar work in the chorus sections but the strings are leaving me flat both times. Both choruses sound nearly identical. The soloing both synth and guitar after the second chorus are really fantastic. The second song that starts at 3:06 (yeah, it feels like two songs) is well done, Joe is wonderful on his sax as always. The piano sounds mechanical. The drums in this section could have been swapped out for something more jazzy, these heavy drums don't quite fit here but they are mixed well enough. Strings have the same unhumanized issues here but they are a bit more hidden so it isn't as much of a problem. My biggest gripe about this song is, "is this two songs or one?" I'm actually going to reserve my vote until I see what some others think... edit 9/27/14: I've just revisited this track, and my vote still covers my feelings about it. I still feel like this is two songs jammed together. Somehow, the gap needs to be bridged. As a suggestion, it would be great if you could find a way to bring in some more guitar in that last section (as Jivey also suggested), be careful not to crowd the mix while doing this though. I think that would do it for me, if it were executed well. NO (resubmit please!) Edited September 27, 2014 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 (edited) This track starts off as some kind of prog rock opera mix, very enjoyable. Some great tones throughout. Production quality is decent, the guitars in particular are very clear which can often be a problem in these kinds of tracks when a lot of other stuff is going on. The choice of instruments - organ, guitar, strings, work well together. Drums are complementary and audible. Arrangement wise I'm hearing minor repeat of sections in the first few minutes, but you have more than enough variation there to keep interest. The main thing I'm not liking is the transitions to different source/sections. I'm even finding the tempo change at 2:21 a bit disjointed to my ears. I'd love to hear it gradually sped up to that change rather than just drop that change on us. When we make the change to the next source around 3:06, it feels like we're moving into a new song. There are some things I think that could work to make the transition smoother and link the two parts together. As I see it, there are two issues which are working against this "second" portion of the song: 1. At 2:21 we up the pace, with some nice riffage and that mad synth solo, then at 2:54 we drop everything to a slow down. This feels like we're building up to something that doesn't eventuate. 2. That guitar is a part of our lives for almost 3 minutes, and then vanishes. Perhaps that nice big strum at the end followed by some licking over the top as we move through to the sax would help cut over better. To give an example, have a listen to the lethal weapon soundtrack. I'm not saying to do that, it's just an example of how guitar and sax play off each other really well. I actually feel this is really close. For both "parts" of the song, I feel arrangement, production and source wise it's there. There's just a bit more work to be done to get those parts feeding into one another to feel like a cohesive piece. NO (please resub) Edited September 20, 2014 by Jivemaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 There's some minor production things that could be cleaned up - exposed strings at 0:48, mechanical drums/piano in the second half - but nothing egregious. It's actually really well put-together. I read Kris and Joel's comments before listening and saw they mentioned an awkward transition, and I assumed it was the one at 2:21, which struck me as a very Dream Theater thing to do. A bit too abrupt for a tempo and instrument change, but not a dealbreaker imo. But of course, they were really talking about the second transition at 3:08, which is a dealbreaker. There's really no connection to the first half of the song. It sounds like the band finished their song and the next guys are rushing onstage. I don't think you need to do much to get this sounding fully cohesive; in fact, I really like Joel's suggestion to have the guitar play against the sax. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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