OCR03221 - *YES* Xenogears 'Ominous Waltz'

[Chimpazilla]

Remixer name: SOuNDSNC
Name: Brenden Frank
Email:
Website: https://soundcloud.com/soundsnc
userid: SOuNDSNC
Game: Xenogears
Arrangement: Ominous Waltz
Original Song: Omen
Original Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda
Link to Original:

Comments: This was made in Ableton Live using primarily Miroslav Philharmonic. I've always wanted to make an arrangement on this piece because of its dark tone. I have the utmost respect for Mitsuda and his ability to make an emotional impact with his music. Arranging his music gave me a deeper connection to what he was feeling while writing the piece. I would certainly say my rendition is a lot less negative but I definitely feel that the ominous tone was maintained throughout.

[Chimpazilla]

This is really lovely, but sooooo conservative and similar to the source. It is so similar that I actually layered the track with the source to check, nope not the same but very similar, right down to the continued arp pattern on the harp (played an octave lower in this mix than the source) and the sleighbell sound. I really like this mix, but is it too conservative? I'm going to see what others think.

edit 4-20-15: You're right Emu, it does sound boomy. The harp is taking up the low end for quite a good portion of the time, so it feels like the low end is missing, while at the same time having too much in the mid-lows. The instruments do need an eq cleanup, and any delays and reverbs need to be lowcut to take the mud out of them. I usually lowcut all my reverbs and delays at an absolute minimum of 100Hz, usually higher though, but it depends on the instrument. You really do not want to hear the low end of reverbs or delays, they only mud things up.

Compression has definitely been applied after the reverb, this is evident because the mastering is too loud for the genre, a lot of the subtle dynamics are lost and the end result is too reverby. You're going to want to mix and volume-balance the instruments just the way you want them in the mixdown stage so you don't have to raise the gain on your master compressor and/or limiter this much to get the volume this high.

I also think the samples won't sound so exposed once the mixing (re-balance, eq cleanup of instruments and reverbs/delays) and mastering (overcompression) are addressed.

I'm still concerned that this is too conservative, but I still find it lovely, and there are some nice extra harmonies and details added. Please clean it up!

NO (resubmit)

Edited April 21, 2015 by Chimpazilla

[Emunator]

Something about this track sounds off to me... are you throwing compression on top of your reverb? Something's causing a lot of elements in this mix to sound "boomy", for lack of a better word. Is anyone else hearing this? The mixing is pretty loud for the style and I don't think the mixing treatment is appropriate.

Some of the lead instruments sound very shrill - I can't tell if any of that would be alleviated with a different mixdown, but your high strings and the clarinet/flute (?) are painful on the ears when they hit high notes (example: :57, or 3:47, just to name two.) The sequencing across the board is decent but not especially convincing. With stronger mixing I think you could get by with what you have, but the wind leads, piano, and backing harp all stick out as more noticeably fake.

Your arrangement is pretty nice, lots of interesting countermelodies and harmonies that work well with the basic foundation of the Omen source. For most of the track, there's not much of a low-end presence, but there are times where you've got 3-4 or even more instruments occupying the same mid-high frequency range, and it becomes too imbalanced very quickly. I would suggest reconsidering how you distribute your harmonies to different instruments in order to achieve a more balanced mix.

I actually think there's a lot of potential in this arrangement but there's several critical things that aren't jiving, as well as a reverb/mixing issue that I can't quite pin down, that's making this fall short to me. Curious to hear what input the other judges have here.

NO (resub)

[Liontamer]

Interesting conservative structure to start, while still managing to subtly give the piece its own voice. I actually think this effectively pulled off an eerie feel, and from the beginning there's new, original foreground writing supplementing the source tune. 2:21 moved over into some wholly-original writing while retaining the mood of the "Omen" arrangement in the first section. Around 2:41, I dug the gradual fade-in of the piano playing the familiar six-note pattern from the source intro, only sped up.

Around 2:58, the soundscape got pretty crowded and I can see where the criticisms of murkyness and shrillness are coming from. That said, it wasn't a huge deal for me, and while there's an overall ambiance to the soundscape, everything was still clear enough to be heard reasonably well. I didn't feel that the texture was hugely problematic, and just don't agree with turning this down on production grounds. Whatever perceived mistakes the artist may have made in mixing it or applying compression, I didn't hear anything that was a dealbreaker as far as distinguishing the various instruments, and don't want to make the perfect the enemy of the good here.

3:49 until the end featured not only the additive original string writing, but also the altered piano line with the six-note pattern. I think the interpretation aspect of the standards is covered through the combination of subtle instrumentation changes and the substantial additive/expansive writing.

IMO, this fires on all cylinders. Sure, the mixing should be cleaned up some, but a lot more works than doesn't work. Brenden really came through with a solid, deceptively expansive & interpretive arrangement, as well as good enough production to mitigate any realism issues with the samples. If this somehow doesn't pass, I don't think the arrangement needs to be touched whatsoever; this would just need some mixing adjustments. That said, I think this is fine as is, the arrangement is very strong, and I want to see this go forward.

YES

[Clem]

Skillful orchestral arrangement. Making good use of your samples. Nailing the darkly grandiose atmosphere. The low frequencies are very dynamic. I honestly felt that they were a strong point, tho they run a little hot. There is some shrillness in brief moments. Enjoying the contemplative vibe

 

Bassy reverb is cool, especially with nicely dialed compression and no percussion to clutter up the tones and sometimes post-reverb to burn the signals together - why not? It can warm the tone quite abit, which is what I hear in this mix. This might be improved with the reverb turned down a little bit, but the balance as is is pretty dreamy.

 

I don't hear any distortion and all elements of the mix have clarity . . . even visceral presence.

 

YES

[Palpable]

The way this arrangement approaches changing the original is pretty subtle, mostly revolving around modifying patterns from the source, and adding flourishes here and there. It's immediately reminiscent of "Omen" but I think kosher with our standards. I enjoyed it too, FWIW. 

 

The bassy reverb is unorthodox and I can see people jumping to point it out as a flaw (in fact, it probably wasn't intentional), but with little else going on in that range, like Clem, I didn't mind it. Everything else sounded on point to me except maybe some of the higher string articulations. There was a little realism loss there, but not a big issue. Seems like a solid pass to me.

 

YES

[zykO]

gorgeous.

conservative as sarah palin's underpants but certainly a beautiful piece of music. you've basically embellished the original piece with a subtle underbelly of countermelodies and giving it a more polished sound (sans the mixing which as others have pointed out is a tad bit unorthodox). 

speaking of which. i'm kinda ok with that, honestly. it isn't jarring by any stretch of the imagination (we have the supple nature of the piece to thank for that) but i can see how the reverb sounds "boomy." to me, it simply stretches out the track's ether and warms the soundfield like bathing you in the soft glow of a morning summer sun. perhaps from a strignent audiophile perspective, it's a baddddd but to me, it just sounds lovely.

i want to echo palpable on the higher string articulations; it is really the only place the track loses me as the strings start to lose its organic calm and become shrill. but really, all in all, a minor quip.

whatever you're doing here works and is so pristinely calming and pretty (i can basically listen to this for hours on repeat), it deserves a little more exploration compositionally. but that is hardly a reason to fail it.


YES

[DragonAvenger]

I gotta say, for me this just barely skims by in terms of arranging and embellishing the piece. I do agree that the arrangement is downright beautiful, and I really enjoyed listening to it, but I will say that it is pretty conservative. It comes down to the embellishments and harmonies and countermelodies, all of which are used very well, to bring this one over the bar. 

 

I wasn't feeling the super echoey feel of the track at first, but by the end of the track I felt it worked quite well. Definitely not conventional, but it gets the job done to add an eerie effect to the track. 

 

I'd like to hear more from you!

 

YES (borderline)