Chimpazilla Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 ReMixer name: sschafi1 Real name: Sean Schafianski E-mail: Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Drakengard 3 Name of arrangement: Ignus Name of individual song(s) arranged: Black Song/Kuroi Uta Comments: Being a huge fan of Keiichi Okabe and his work on NieR, I figured it was time to make a Drakengard 3 remix to commemorate this fantastic new game! This is a pop/rock arrangement of Black Song International. The original name is much longer but "International" means the same thing, haha. Here, you get a very good helping of the source material, so it is definitely not too liberal this time around. I bought the official piano book and used the exact same progression as the original source; it is a little longer than the original because of the added guitar solo. The arrangement starts mellow and slowly builds while gaining instrumentation, then bursts out into the rock section. After the guitar solo, it ritards and goes back to being mellow and slows down considerably at the end as per the original. I hope you all enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 Lots to like about this mix! I'm definitely hearing plenty of source, and I actually prefer it instrumental-style. I am liking the changes in mood throughout this piece. In the intro there are some bits of pad or something that seem off somehow, they sound off-key and just odd like they aren't releasing correctly, I'm not sure how to better phrase this, but the problem persists all the way from 0:00-2:28 when the electric guitars start. The acoustic guitars in the intro are lovely. The EP is also very nice. At 1:06, the drum kit sounds too heavy for the mood and the beats are generic. At 2:28, the hats are sounding loud, repetitive and distracting. The piano sounds quite stiff and quantized in this section. The piano sample isn't the best, but it sounds more humanized up until 1:36, at which point the piano writing becomes sort of predictable and stiffly quantized to the grid a bit too much. At 2:28 this stiffness/quantization really stands out, it feels like the piano timbre really doesn't fit well at that point, the writing doesn't fit with the faster drum pattern happening all the way until 3:31. Same issue at 3:31 though, with a slightly different drum pattern, and the constant crash is too loud and too samey. I'm really loving the solo at 4:20. This is the best part of the track yet! But the constant crashes are distracting during this section as well. At 5:15 we are back to the stiff piano, and the beats here are so plain, stiff and quantized, and the kit again doesn't fit this mood, it is too heavy. The lead writing in this section doesn't vary from the earlier section. I feel like there is a lot right with this track, but a few issues are holding it back for me. The piano sample isn't doing justice to this track since there is so much exposed piano throughout, and quite a bit of the piano writing is stiff and fake sounding and also repetitive and uninspired. The drum kit feels too heavy during the softer portions, and the drum writing is very stiff. Also, the pad weirdness in the intro. So, a few things to work on. Love that solo, though! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 The source tune is all about taking that melody and going 6 minutes with lots of changes in what's surrounding it, and I felt this arrangement did a solid job with the same approach, with the textures constantly evolving. Electric guitar soloing at 4:18 was fun; the slowdown at 5:06 was sudden though and could have used a few extra bars to breathe. Minor things, but I felt like the guitar strumming was too loud compared to the actual melody. The escalation at 2:26 was pretty interesting. Though the melody was getting crowded out by the bassline, electric guitar, and percussion, it was reasonably audible enough, IMO. Bassline sounded pretty sweet, always throwing in some new writing ideas there to keep things fresh. Chimpa wasn't quite on board, so I was expecting some sort of noteworthy issues dragging this down, but I heard almost none of that whatsoever. I wasn't bothered by the piano timing and didn't feel the percussion was too simple or repetitive. I agreed with the hats (in particular from 2:27-3:29) being distracting; there's some sizzle to them that doesn't sound right. There may have been some very brief spots where the performance wasn't as tight as it should have been, but IMO it was very brief, enough that I didn't feel compelled to timestamp anything. All in all, this sounded very much like a professional Japanese arrange album piece as far as the concept and presentation. Rejecting this would be pure nitpicking, IMO; the arrangement's a pure pass, and this is definitely cohesive enough. It's not to sound like I'm pressuring anyone who would go NO, but I would argue if I ran it by djp, he'd say there should be no way something like this got rejected. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 All in all, this sounded very much like a professional Japanese arrange album piece as far as the concept and presentation. Rejecting this would be pure nitpicking, IMO; the arrangement's a pure pass, and this is definitely cohesive enough. It's not to sound like I'm pressuring anyone who would go NO, but I would argue if I ran it by djp, he'd say there should be no way something like this got rejected. YES Oh shizz, I've been invoked Larry's basically right - beautiful track, arrangement checks out, only gets better as it goes both in terms of production & the interpretation factor. It's a tad "clean" which maybe we're not as used to hearing, but ain't nothing wrong with that, and yeah, does have that Japanese arrange feel. LOVE THE BASS WRITING. YES... and I'd consider moving to DP, personally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Great arrangement, but I agree with basically all the issues Chimpa pointed out. I'd even say I understand her NO, because the production issues were distracting to me. The instruments never totally gelled; there was always some element like the hats or the EP that stood apart from the others. BTW sounds like the hats are slowed down and there's some weird artifacts there. The solid but not great mixing also contributed to the lack of gel. Some instruments were too loud or too soft. That said, I didn't hear any dealbreakers and I think it should get passed because the arrangement is stellar. But it wasn't a slam dunk to me - there's room for improvement here. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 The arrangement is really a great interpretation of the original song. I really enjoyed your approach here, and I think it fits the original well. The biggest issue to me was the piano sound; I personally felt that it was a detracting feature. I don't think it brings the mix below the bar here, but I definitely would have liked a different sound used. There's plenty to make up for it, though, and I'm glad to have heard it! Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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