*NO* Final Fantasy 12 & 4 'Crystal Gradient'

[Chimpazilla]

Contact Information

Username: timaeus222

Name: Truong-Son Nguyen

http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222

http://tproductions.comeze.com/

ID: 39971

Submission Information

Games: Final Fantasy XII (Penelo), Final Fantasy IV DS (Edward)

Remix Title: Crystal Gradient

Console/Platform: PlayStation 2 (XII), DS (IV DS)

OST Composers:

XII: Hitoshi Sakimoto, Hayato Matsuo, Masaharu Iwata, Nobuo Uematsu, Taro Hakase

IV DS: Nobuo Uematsu

Sources: Attached MP3's.

Composed in FL Studio 11.

Remix: Right here, MP3 VBR1.

And the WAV.

Comments:

"Well, this was written quickly. I didn't really have more than 2.5 days total to work on this for the Final Fantasy Crystal Clash, but I'm still proud of this result. It has that Diggi Dis Wild Arms sound, plus some zircon ambient flavor, making this one of my most organic mixes to date. Fun fact: the name was inspired by Calculus and Inorganic Chemistry (Crystal Field Theory + Gradient Vector = Crystal Gradient).

At first, I didn't exactly feel up to the challenge of mixing two seemingly incompatible sources. When I heard Edward's theme, I was quite literally raising eyebrows and wanting to flip tables. It's just a harp playing two super long arpeggios, and I found the implied chord progressions to be all over the place. I chose Penelo's theme with the hope that its chord progression could be re-adapted to fit most other sources. Fortunately, though barely, I was able to tweak some things and make this work with Edward's eccentric harp song. I think you'll find that the chords I used are very specific, and that few others might have actually worked. It was down to the wire with this one, and I literally wrote and mixed the last 75% of the arrangement on the last possible day I could have had time to do anything (Saturday), but I'm glad this idea came to fruition.

Source Breakdown:

0:00 - 0:22 = Penelo

0:22 - 0:39 = Penelo

0:39 - 0:42 = Edward (Sine Wave)

0:41 - 0:45 = Penelo

0:47 - 0:51 = Edward (Sine Wave)

0:51 - 0:54 = Penelo

0:56 - 1:11 = Edward

1:11 - 1:26 = Edward + Penelo (Sine Wave)

1:28 - 1:45 = Edward

1:45 - 2:01 = Penelo

2:02 - 2:05 = Edward (Sine Wave)

2:06 - 2:10 = Penelo

2:10 - 2:13 = Edward (Sine Wave)

2:11 - 2:19 = Penelo

2:19 - 2:32 = Penelo

22+17+4+3+15+16+4+8+13 => 102/152 secs Penelo

3+4+15+15+17+3+3 => 60/152 secs Edward

There are overlaps, so these percentages are with respect to the entire track.

67.11% Penelo

39.47% Edward

- Timaeus"

Extra Info:

This may be a lil short, but eh, what can I say? 75% of the arrangement and mixing was done in 12.5 hours. xD Also, Brandon apparently really wanted me to submit this, so I did.

Penelo:

Edward:

Edited November 5, 2014 by Liontamer
closed decision

[OceansAndrew]

I think if you did edward's theme in a different mode it'd fit better, as there is a lot of dissonance that doesn't resolve correctly. I like the production choices, though the snare is a bit piercing, and could stand to have a touch of EQ run on it. I think the source use is fine, but it's really short. I think a bit more expansion would be nice.

Overall it has a good start, but between some weird clashing, some production issues, and a somewhat nebulous structure, I think spending a bit of time polishing it would be the right call.

No, please resubmit

[Chimpazilla]

Oh hey, I remember this track, and these two themes! *thinks fondly back on FFCC compo*

I really love how you handled Penelo's theme, with the rhodes and staccato strings, and the synth lead. All the Penelo parts of this song sound terrific, and the production is up to your usual standard of excellence. I'm sorry you got stuck with my Edward theme as your second source though, because Edward really feels forced into this arrangement and has an awkward/uncomfortable feel, sorry to say, it makes for quite a disjointed overall arrangement. Once you return to Penelo with the piano and strings, the arrangement is once again stellar. I would love to hear this song again, with the Edward portion replaced with other aspects of the Penelo theme, I'll bet that would be just dynamite. The Penelo theme has five (iirc) separate sections to choose from, lots of material there.

NO (resubmit)

[Jivemaster]

Very contrasting themes we have here I must say. Cheerfulness and moodiness side by side. You've certainly made some interesting choices with the source tunes here.

Firstly, I like your instrumentation. There are some funky vibes and a nice selection of quality instruments varying the soundscape. I found these to be mixed quite well, you have made good use of stereo space and everything feels fairly balanced to me volume wise.

On the arrangement side, the songs do clash a bit. It's not as big a deal to me but it's definitely worth mentioning. I think those changes between the sources gave some nice contrast, but at times the contrast was too much (particularly when Edward's theme dropped for the first time, things got quite dissonant). If doing a resub I would really consider changing a few of the notes to make the pieces fit better together.

The other point of contention is some production aspects. I felt there were too many highs in the mix. So much so that I had to turn my headphones down a few of times while listening. Couple this with what sounds like some strong compression on some elements (some drum hits are quite powerful at times, like the snare for example) makes the track a little hard to listen to at normal volumes. Especially as this track is very acoustic driven, it'd definitely pay to ease off things and not hit quite as hard.

I think if some work is done to address these two major points, we're golden.

NO (please resub)

Edited November 5, 2014 by Jivemaster