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OCR01492 - Final Fantasy VII "The Twelfth Commandment"


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This got off to a GREAT start. Dramatic, original, interesting. Sadly, that didn't hold up. After about twenty five seconds, it started sounding like everything else. Generic. The ending is great, just like the beginning, but... wow. The middle is just such a waste of time. I don't mean to be a stick in the mud (which I always am), but some skillful guitar playing, high production values, and good samples do not good music make. I listened to it twice and I won't ever listen to it again. It actually sounded like I was listening to a Final Fantasy Mystic Quest style arrangement of the song, and that is not a compliment. I'm sure this has a lot to offer for fans of FF7 and for people who like people playing guitar, but that's all it is in my opinion. An arrangement of FF7 that has a guitar. It's also what is known as, in my opinion, everything that's wrong with OCR. Not that it's a song from FF7 - that's fine, it's legitimate video game music even if it's ReMixed really often, and OCR is very good about posting music from all sorts of games - but the fact that this is going to get worship because it has good samples and guitar playing.

No offense, though. It really isn't a bad piece, it's just unbearably generic in my opinion. Good generic music, but generic music nonetheless.

If its generic, then theres a similar piece in the site, I can't really find any.

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I agree with artemisjaeger. I may get flamed for it, but i cant seem to bring myself to care about the opinion of idiots.

This song has little artistic value other than competent guitar playing. So why did it get approved? It uses guitar! OMG! Lets face it..there are certain "forumlas" on this site that will always get an approval from DJJudges. it's getting old.

-jorg

ROFL. Why I would listen to a troll like you after all your negative reviews, I wouldn't know.

Frankly, I thought some of the string parts, starting at 1:16, did indeed sound too rigidly sequenced. Perhaps they were too dry, or it might have been a consequence of giving the synth strings more volume over the one's Jason was playing, I couldn't say for sure.

Nonetheless, to say that the arrangement was generic, when when we have nothing like it on OCR or in the community-at-large fusing rock elements with strings and piano specifically in a British rock style, is stupid. There's not a song or artist's arrangement approach in this community that sounds like this genre of music. No one's required to like it, but when you start leaping towards baseless, flippant comments like "generic", you just look close-minded.

God forbid "DJJudges" accept creative stuff on the site like this. Let's go back to the 2/3rds-techno days.

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I agree with artemisjaeger. I may get flamed for it, but i cant seem to bring myself to care about the opinion of idiots.

This song has little artistic value other than competent guitar playing. So why did it get approved? It uses guitar! OMG! Lets face it..there are certain "forumlas" on this site that will always get an approval from DJJudges. it's getting old.

-jorg

Do you people even listen to other remixes before making these comments.

"there are certain "forumlas" on this site that will always get an approval from DJJudges"

Like you'd even know, all you hear is what gets passed. We get more than enough crappy guitar mixes that are rejected. We get the same amount of ignorance from both sides. People who say judges only accept techno, people who say judges only accept guitar mixes.

How about you listen to every mix on the front page, then point out how they're all "formulaic"? Until then, you'll remain an ignorant prick.

As for this mix, I love it. It's less grungey than I personally would've liked, and the violin did nothing for me. But otherwise it's a decent arrangement of the Judgement Day music.

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I wasn't going to comment on this, but...

I'm just enjoying it too much not to! I just keep LISTENING to it, sometimes playing along with the melody and the riffs, sometimes just letting it play alone...

I like it. A lot. Fun music indeed :D! At first the strings kind of bothered me, but then I realized I was just projecting what I expected onto it, and I realized there was nothing wrong with them as they were (i.e. significantly dry). And I love the phrasing and articulation of the strings during the aptly-described "Beatles" section.

Normally I comment only on mixes that "stand out" to me for some reason (although by no means have I commented on every mix I love greatly), but really I just came to give thanks for such an enjoyable piece of music! I don't really remember the source material, but it's got a fantastic melody, and the chord progression is wonderful - really fun to play along with, because it's very easily disectable, not only instrumentation-wise, but arrangement-wise (i.e. it's an excellent piece to study for "How to fill 4 minutes on the strength of a good melody")

Maybe it's just me but I found the little F#major chord at 2:29 stood out as being really irksome - what are you, Midee+Prozax, a pair of music theory majors with Post-Traumatic Stress syndrome? Stupid comment, since obviously you didn't use it the first time you made that transition (and since I'd make a fool of myself trying to talk theory), but I just kind of cringe at that spot, since it annoys me every time I listen to it, for no real reason :( maybe you can release a version without it? :mrgreen:

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I agree with artemisjaeger. I may get flamed for it, but i cant seem to bring myself to care about the opinion of idiots.

This song has little artistic value other than competent guitar playing. So why did it get approved? It uses guitar! OMG! Lets face it..there are certain "forumlas" on this site that will always get an approval from DJJudges. it's getting old.

-jorg

Well I was going to team up with THE RZA and do a Kill Bill-style spaghetti western version of it with a splash of Russian disco, but for some reason rock just seemed to work better. I dunno... :?

-Midee

Maybe it's just me but I found the little F#major chord at 2:29 stood out as being really irksome - what are you, Midee+Prozax, a pair of music theory majors with Post-Traumatic Stress syndrome?

It wasn't prozax's idea YOU LEAVE HIM OUT OF IT!!!

Heh, it's just a simple segue chord I came up with quick. It's not my favorite, but it never really bugged me. Anyway, this is the only Final Fantasy 7 (and beyond) track I will ever arrange. If I do anything else from the FF world, it will be from 1-6. I really don't like the rest of the music from 7 that much, but for some reason I just had to arrange this one.

(No I'm not making a version without the chord.)

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... Umm, I just want to be clear that I don't think this piece is actually bad. It just isn't of any interest to me. Jorg's comments are not mine. Please don't kill me. =)

And for the guy that said there isn't another piece like it on the site, I would spend the time to link a bunch of 'em, but I am really tired. It's not that it sounds identical, it's just that it shares a lot of traits with other songs that I don't like. Like I originally said, it's good generic music, but it's generic. Some people like generic music and I don't think there's anything wrong with that - hell, I listen to different kinds of generic music myself, I just don't like this kind of generic music. Or something, I dunno. I'm really tired and I'm probably making an idiot of myself. Scratch that, I'm definitely making an idiot of myself. Someone brought up a point (sorry for not quoting you whoever you are) that there isn't rock arrangements that use strings and piano in a British rock style. I kind of disagree. Maybe I'm letting the music from VGMix polute my impression of what's on OCR, but guitar+symphonic elements... yeah, that's been done a bunch of times. The only good one I've heard is from Xenosaga.

As for the British rock aspect, let's not split hairs. It's really not THAT different from normal rock. I don't want to start an argument on this subject, though, so... fine, it's the first song to really emphasize British rock elements. I don't think that's enough to make it good, though maybe a little original. Maybe I'm being a bit flippant with the "generic" word. I mean to say that it doesn't have anything really NEW to add. Not that it didn't do something different or anything, but it's just small things. Nothing really new. I don't like 95% of the stuff on this site for the same reason. It's not that anyone's bad at music here (though some are), it's just that I have stupid high standards and want someone to be the next Bach. Sorry.

Oh, whatever. Have I sufficiently made an ass of myself for you guys? I'm gonna get some sleep. Midee and Prozax, I like a lot of your stuff and I don't mean to be insulting (even though I probably have been). I look forward to hearing music from the both of you because I think that you guys are progressing in a good direction. Keep at it and I'm sure you'll only be hearing praise from me soon. =)

Edit: Ugh, that last line - as if my praise fucking matters! This is great work, and you didn't deserve my idiotic and uninformed critique.

Edited by oakthielbar
I was an asshole
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Well, as a massive Muse fan, I had to see what this was about. He ain't kidding about the Apocalypse Please bit. I've heard that song hundreds of times. Obviously it isn't identical, but both stylistically and production-wise, it's very similar to the Muse track. Overall, i'd say there's pretty good production all around. There are some trouble spots, in my opinion, but they certainly don't impact the majority of the piece. Some of the string lines are a bit dry and lacking in dynamics, in need of crescendo/decrescendo and the like. Also, the strings are mixed a bit hot, often becoming the forerunner when it seems they should be supporting. It isn't always the case, though. The actual sound quality of the strings is top-notch, however. Nice work!

The "beatles" part or whatever hits me like a ton of bricks. It goes from the angsty brit pop/rock to the happy fun time 60's vibe like THAT. Maybe it was intentional, and I can hear the effect intended. But personally, it gets me out of the trance that the earlier sections set up.

The arrangement/combination of the styles/tracks is very impressive. The Muse -> FF7 transitions are mostly very well done and don't sound contrived or forced. The guitar work as a whole is consistently superb. While I wished the guitars would be more out-front-wall-of-sound on some parts (mostly because it's more Muse-ish ;)), they adeptly represent the angst-ridden guitar riffage of the source band.

The drums are easily the least impressive part of the track. They really aren't mixed very well. The kick has no body, and the snare has that very "triggered" feel to it. The hi-hat suffers greatly from machine-gun syndrome. More velocity adjustment there would make it sound far more natural. The arrangement of the drums fares a bit better, but it doesn't sound very....human. Could be my comparison to Muse's drummer, who has a VERY tight feel, which I don't think could be replicated verbatim. But that's not a necessity :). Also, as long as there's the comparisons to the production being as similar as possible to the Muse, this track certainly lacks the crazy-compression-slammed sound of the Muse. When I listen to Absolution, it's absolutely floored with compression and maximization and the like. It greatly enhances their stylistic expression, in my opinion, and I felt that particular production aspect was missing. So it didn't hit me as hard as the Muse does. That's what multi-million dollar recording and mastering facilities are for! :)

Overall, one of the most intriguing OCRemixes i've heard in quite some time. Some of the transition areas are a little rough and jarring, and it seems to be much more a Muse song than a Final Fantasy 7 Song. It's certainly enjoyable, and a more than worthy OCRemix. Good show, sirs.

-dB

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Absolutely fantasic mix on all levels!

This is the first mix I have heard from either of these two (to my knowledge anyhow) and I will certainly be looking for more.

Brings back many great memories of my party being showered in pandora's box and shadow flares!

EDIT: Actually I have found a colaboration done by prozax, ailsean and jaxx within my library so I hae heard from one of them at least! That track (from Uniracers) was great too.

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Wow, all of the angst in this forum. It's a remix, people. It is not going to appeal to everyone. That is the law of music, and the reason there are so many genres. But the least we can do is treat each other's opinions with a bit of respect. Love the mix, hate it, express your opinions, whatever, but please respect each other. Otherwise what's the point of sharing?

I still love this mix, BTW. Very powerful!

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The first thing I thought of when I started listening to this mix was "Wow, this sounds like Dream Theater!" Quite quickly, though, I realized that the inspiration was MUSE and just kept on listening. This is a great remix in the style of the best Progressive Rock around. Great job. :-)

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I'm kinda mixed on this one as well. Pretty much, as we all know, there are two versions of this song on the site. I have and like them both. This one is a little more softspoken and gives like... an optimistic feel to the song, and the other one is grungy and crunchy. So I'm like... I can't decide?!?!?

Both of those mixes, I'm guessing would sound AWESOME together. You have a crapload of good elements in each one, so I was trying to think of how it would sound if they were put together. Of course I suck at making music, but I do like listening.

It's an awesome and easy listen. Uber good job! ^.^;;

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  • 2 weeks later...
I don't think anyone asked, but, does anyone know where I can find the old version? I really loved this mix and kinda wanted to see how it evolved...

This one? Entered in the Dwelling of Duels competition, came 6th.. if there is any difference at all, it's miniscule (mastering, sample changes).

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I don't think anyone asked, but, does anyone know where I can find the old version? I really loved this mix and kinda wanted to see how it evolved...

This one? Entered in the Dwelling of Duels competition, came 6th.. if there is any difference at all, it's miniscule (mastering, sample changes).

Dwelling Duels weights big vibrato and long mixes too much. The Twelfth Commandment is awesome. Also the name of the mix is great.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I absolutely love everything about this remix, i had a go at this track once, and it was no where near as creative as this one. Those key changes are fantastic, excellent string work. Guitar tone was not my obvious choice, but worked exetremely well, sounded great. The beatles section blew me away first time i heard it. You two should definately work together lots, this was really refreshing.

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