Chimpazilla Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 (edited) Hi OCRemix. Here's a link to my remix. I've also attached it to my email in case y'all don't like Soundcloud. ReMixer name: Savino Real name: Will Savino Email address: website: https://soundcloud.com/will-savino/ userid: 53881 name of game: Chrono Trigger name of arrangement: Duet for the End of Time Name of song: Chrono Trigger Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda Everything else: This theme has been so many different ways, thanks largely to its beautiful harmony which works in any style. I like challenging myself, so I decided to completely start over and reharmonize the entire tune in a jazz style. That main opening riff is so malleable that it could fit over a number of different harmonic landscapes. This allowed me to give a much different feel for the first and second statement of the A Section. Once I had the arrangement done, I enlisted the help of my friend and bandmate Jamie Sandel for his expertise on the electric violin. With our very meager DIY studio setup, it was hard to make the violin sound very full, so we just embraced it for its sharp, nasally quality. I thought the duet setting was very appropriate, as it gave a pretty personal tone to the theme, which jives well with the character driven narrative of the game. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks all! ----------------------------- Edited July 29, 2015 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 I'm in love with this arrangement. I'm in love with this piano, in terms of how well it is played, the unique chord structures, the tone, the dynamics, the reverb and the mixing. I'm in love with the violin harmony and writing and soloing. What I don't love is the electric violin tone. I know that you feel your recording setup wasn't optimal and that you ended up compromising on the violin tone, and unfortunately I agree with you, and these two timbres don't go well together. But dang, so much win otherwise. Mastering could be a bit louder. Gonna go with 7/29/15: With a heavy heart, I'm switching from yes to no. What a shame, the recording of the violin just ruins it. Absolutely everything else is dynamite. Sadface. NO (resubmit please if possible) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Source tune usage is pretty obvious, so even if I didn't note a few liberal references, it's certainly dominant in the arrangement, which was 3:59-long: 14.5-1:23, 2:13-2:15.5, 2:30.25-2:41.75, 2:43-3:08.5, 3:10.5-3:37.5, 3:49.5-3:56 = 141.5 seconds or 59.2% overt source usage The lossy sound and hiss both suck. The closest analogy I can think of is Zoltan Vegvari's Mega Man 3 "Intro Jazz," but I would argue that once that one got going, it mainly sounded distant and hiss wasn't a huge problem, unlike this. Oh well. I didn't mind Jamie's e-violin tone, and thought it combined reasonably well with the piano; I see how others may not dig it, but it didn't bother me. Jeez, a skip in the violin at 2:15 that sounds super-awkward. Sucks how the hiss also fades at 2:32 when the violin drops out. Super bootleg recording quality. It might be impossible to reduce the hiss without cutting even more of the highs and making this sound more lossy, but IMO this needs one more pass at everything, if possible, to gain clarity and reduce hiss. The arrangement is awesome, and I hate to make the perfect the enemy of the good. That said, Mega Man 3 "Intro Jazz" feels to me like the the floor as far as recording quality goes with today's bar, and I think the production here, as is, is below the bar. This may pass, but the production's a shame to me given how solid the arrangement is. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Great piece. Your piano and violin play off each other well and keep the arrangement interesting. A nice take on the original source tune. I couldn't pick up the hissing that Larry mentioned, not sure if its a problem with either of our equipment. When listening I felt the violin was kind of muffled throughout the entire mix and I kept wishing the highs were more audible. I also heard some awkward bits around the 2min mark, some slightly off notes on the violin or something, was a bit weird. No problems with arrangement, pacing is solid and keeps the journey going, which is quite hard to achieve with just 2 instruments. I kinda wish that violin was brighter to match the quality of that piano, which feels well produced. I'll go borderline Yes for this because I feel that violin is close to dealbreaker for me in its current state, when coupled with those few weird notes. Otherwise nicely done. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I couldn't pick up the hissing that Larry mentioned, not sure if its a problem with either of our equipment. It's all tied to the e-violin recording, so the hiss starts as soon as the violin arrives at :14. It's one of those things where it's soft at a regular volume, but when you turn up the volume, it's more obvious it's there. It also may be more audible on headphones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Great musicianship. The mix is not great. You've got the piano a lot brighter than the violin, which is pretty much the opposite of what you would want. The violin has a lot of box and body, almost no presence. I'd start by shelving down everything below 800Hz and shelving up everything over 1.5k. seriously. You could do the reverse to the piano, just not as drastically. maybe 1 or 2 db in either direction. Of course all that bullshit I just said was purely for my own benefit, because this is still a YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Oof...really not feeling the recording here. Kills me considering how great the arrangement and performance is. I have to side with Larry on this one though; I hope you're able to revisit your recordings and clean things up. NO, resub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Oof...really not feeling the recording here. Kills me considering how great the arrangement and performance is. I have to side with Larry on this one though; I hope you're able to revisit your recordings and clean things up. NO, resub Agreed; this is a case where the recording quality is truly prohibiting me from enjoying the piece. I always ask myself, "would I include this song on a personal playlist of my own, and if I did, would it stand out in a bad way relative to most other OCR tracks?" The answer in this case is yes; the audible hiss, which is almost made worse by fading noticeably in and out (presumably due to compression or some attempt at noise reduction), is simply too much of an issue to pass the mix. Arrangement and performance are great; some MINOR issues, but nothing that would prevent me from voting yes if the recording issues weren't so significant. As for the violin tone itself, it does sound muffled... this might be the natural tone but it also might be a result of EQing/noise reduction attempts, I'm not sure - ideally, the tone would be EQ'd *UP* a bit to bring out some higher freqs./overtones, as right now it sounds a bit like it's behind a wet blanket. None of this is meant in an insulting manner - it's quite the contrary, I think the whole panel sees the potential here and appreciates the musicianship & style of the arrangement, but we also want to see both done justice. If you've got stems, it's possible someone in the workshop forums can assist with mastering this... otherwise, I REALLY wouldn't abandon the arrangement, but I might try to re-record under more ideal circumstances. NO, resub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Wow, tough one here. The arrangement is obviously a pass with excellent performances and personalization on display here, while never losing sight of the original. The only real question is whether the violin recording quality can hold up. Based on your write-up, I can't help thinking that you may have inadvertently exacerbated the issue with post-production work. You said you were having trouble getting good body from the violin, but the final product here seems to be mainly lacking in high-end. I'm wondering if this one can be rescued through reworking the production EQ, rather than having another go at recording. It think Vig has the right idea, but here's how I'd go about it: -See if you can use a noise removal tool to eliminate the hissing (Audacity is free and has one included. I can help you if you're not familiar with how to use it). Just make sure you do it subtly as to not cause the violin to sound more lossy. -Follow Vig's advice and reduce mid-low/low end body & raise high-end EQ for the violin. Hopefully, it won't add more recording hiss when you boost the high end, since you (hopefully) have that under control now. -This one's optional, but you may want to add some VERY subtle stereo separation to see if you can get the violin to sound wider in the soundfield like the piano does. That said, it's possibly this one could pass as is. If it doesn't however, I'm hoping you can work on the production/recording and bring it back to us. NO resubmit, please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I'd have a very hard time posting this to the site without it feeling wrong... I think we should close it out based on that and hope that a revision can be recorded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Gotta side with the NOs. The recording here is definitely a dealbreaker, in a track where the violin is featured so prominently. It's way too muted and Jesse pointed out how strange it is that the piano is brighter than the violin. It almost sounds like the piano is the lead. Love the arrangement, and I sincerely hope we can get a revision on this. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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