Chimpazilla Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Your ReMixer name: Argle, Cosmic Sounds Name of game(s) arranged : Sonic and the Black Knight Name of individual song(s) arranged: Theme of Merlina - Name of arrangement: The Icy Journey Through Hope and Sorrow Here's my track from the Christmas album. Remix from a game I've never played, which is rare for me. I prefer to have some emotional connection to a source, but I couldn't decide what to do for this album. I don't even think the source has anything to do with winter or Christmas, but never mind that, it's a Christmas song now. Special thanks to Cosmic Sounds, he pitched this source to me, contributed a few parts, and gave it a name when all was said and done, so I'd like him to have collab credit. Cosmic Sounds comments: Merlina’s Theme is a very graceful and lonesome one. One that portrays a lot of her emotions regarding her premonitions about the future of Camelot. It was one of the main songs in the game that I really liked because of the imagery that it presented. I often think of a winter sunset, or a bare tree with the gentle November wind blowing all of the fallen leaves around the sky. This gracefulness and lonesomeness is what I wanted to portray in the parts that I sent to Argle for the collaboration. Argle did an awesome job at incorporating the parts and emotions into the song . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 I did a very rough breakdown, but this came out way over 50% overt source usage. 00.5-22, 36.5-1:22, 1:25-1:36 (FF battle!), 1:36-1:59 (loose), 2:00.5-2:12.25, 2:13.5-2:17, 2:36.5-2:53 (loose to 3:00), 3:02.5-3:17 It's a relatively short theme with 2 distinct sections, so it wasn't difficult to make out. The opening piano sounding so similar to the source tune's piano had my alarm bells going off to start, but there were lead changes and much more interpretive ideas later, so it was a non-issue. Smart lead change at 1:02 to keep the piece fresh. The bowed string sequencing/articulations lacked some realism, but sounded serviceable. Other than that, the arrangement was well-developed and on point, short and sweet! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Right off the bat, the piano sounds a bit stiff. It sounds like too many loud, sharp notes played in sequence. It could be that you're not letting off the velocity levels on the less prominent notes or it could be the timbre of the sample not having a softer tone on the lower velocity notes. Feels like a step back from the piano work in the OST. lol Larry @ the FF battle theme pseudo cameo Nice use of reverb spacing to give this a very wide-open feel, like with the glock and sleigh bells. As mentioned, the strings sound a bit fakey, but they work here. Arrangement is on point with good expansion on the short original theme. Really cool changeup at 2:31 with an effective transition. Way to bring it back to business . Overall, very nice arrangement and pretty solid production minus a couple minor issues. Good stuffs. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 Piano sounds stiff and rigid, even the delay doesn't make up for it, and in fact emphasizes the stiffness. Gotta work on those velocities. I'm with Justin though, I don't humanize my note timings on lead writing, with the exception of during chords, then you HAVE to alter the note start times within the chord, otherwise it sounds amazingly mechanical. Little fills are also always helpful. Nice soundscape here, harp glisses are awesome. Darn that stiff piano bugs me. Clarinet at 2:02 is nice, especially the harmony part. My big issue with your musics Argle is that I always find them overly quantized. I wish you would go off grid a little more in your works, add some more groove to your writing. The mixing here is very good, although I would like more string humanization, I really hear almost no swells. Darn that piano. Maybe a sample with a less sharp attack would help take out that stiff bite at the beginning of each note. Still, lovely track, gonna pass it. But please consider these issues. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 I find this to be quite a creative piece, taking a short piano number and turning it into a fuller arrangement and plugging in a christmas vibe was a nice choice. I can hear your source and have no problems with that. More humanised piano would be great in this mix. It's not enough to break the track for me, because you're using a velocity variation throughout, but def consider getting off that grid for future piano parts. The strings didn't feel overly realistic to me either - a bit stiff with not a lot of tonal variation in them, but they were usually accompaniment and didn't stick out too much. Mixing is pretty good here, I can hear everything clearly. You've got the song loud but kept it feeling soft. Nice work. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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