Liontamer Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Please include the following links if/when this gets to the Judges' Panel forum (so everyone can have a listen ) Song download link: http://rapidshare.de/files/27229661/Legend_of_Legaia_At_World_s_Rim_OC_ReMix.mp3.html Song stream link: http://media.putfile.com/Legend-of-Legaia-At-Worlds-Rim-OC-Remix Title of song: Legend of Legaia At World's Rim OC ReMix Game remixed: Legend of Legaia Songs remixed: 'Conkram' and 'Rim Elm' Composer: Michiru Ohshima System: Playstation Original soundtrack link (zophar): http://www.zophar.net/psf/LoL_psf.rar Remixed song links (vgmusic): Conkram and Rim Elm Year published: 1998 This song was heavily inspired by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtracks, especially the first. I had always wanted to remix Legend of Legaia (considering the huge esteem I hold for it), and I decided this was as good a time as any to do it. The title is a play both on the suspected title of the third PotC movie, "At World's End", as well as the source tune 'Rim Elm'. The song itself narrates a ship's (and her crew's) journey from the relative comfort of charted waters, then an unexpected passage through strange terrain to a mystical forest-type land inhabited by natives. It continues on its way, eventually meeting with some tribal resistance, more and more frantic, until some strange force seems to overtake the crew and the song comes to an end, reality fading, the vessel no longer in this world. Sorta cheesy, I know, but whatev. Admittedly, a lot of the song is original material, but it's almost all based around the source tunes. Here's a more detailed breakdown of the arrangement, so you don't have to dig through the 5:00 of music a dozen times to figure it out. 0:00-0:22 - the five-note-at-a-time piano portion of 'Conkram' makes up the melody here 0:23-0:45 - the main melody of 'Conkram' is used 0:46-0:57 - the third portion of 'Conkram' comes in 0:58-1:08 - the last three notes of the original five-note-at-a-time portion are extended and played 1:09-1:31 - the same three-note motif continues 1:32-2:28 - almost all original material, though the viola stabs were inspired by the brass underpinning of 'Rim Elm' (revamped, yes, but it's still true) 2:29-3:13 - mostly original material, but the harp line from 'Rim Elm' plays throughout 3:14-3:55 - the main melody of 'Rim Elm' dominates 3:56-4:14 - original material 4:15-4:27 - the harp line from 'Rim Elm' reenters, double-time 4:28-4:47 - the brass portion of 'Rim Elm' is introduced by the low strings, slightly altered 4:48-5:00 - again, original material/ending A lot of the time I see critiques on the panel for not enough interpretation, but I hope you think I haven't given you too much. I guess I should just let the song speak for itself, eh? Hope you enjoy. ~.C.S.~ ---------------------------------------------------- http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/LoL_psf.rar - 041 "Juno's Funeral" & 016 "Rim Elm" Cool soundtrack; should have looked more heavily into it the last time I judged from it. Thanks for the source breakdown, although the originals (IMO) are memorable enough (yay!) where I didn't have much trouble picking up the connections. Ooooh, opening is REALLY rigidly sequenced and doesn't flow smoothly at all. Same with the strings brought in at :26 as well. Good idea layering the woodwind and string, although everything sounds rather inadvertently dry; the space is filled up moderately well, but the background definitely feels empty most of the way through. So yeah, the sample articulation is pretty bad, and the track needs more meat on the existing sounds as well as the addition of something in the back to pad out the piece. Drums from 1:30-2:10 repeated for way too long; probably wouldn't have been a problem if the track had been full enough to keep me from focusing on them. Decent transition at 2:29 into "Rim's End," though the string movements were exposed too many times. I hate to cut the eval short, because the arrangement is fairly interesting and thorough, and is creatively strong enough. But the soundfield feels relatively dry, the sequencing is really inhuman and jerky for the most part, and things don't sound organic at all (the sounds or the performance, the latter being more important). Some instrumentation, like the brass and percussion, sounds markedly better than others, like all of the strings and the female vox. I'm glad, Andrew, that this isn't a case where a creatively bankrupt track has great sounds and an excellent performance. But you've really gotta hone in on these issues, get all the feedback and advice you can from the forums, and use your spare time to bolster your execution. Hope some other Js have more specific suggestions they can offer your way. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 Hey, not bad, Claado! I'm hearing a lot of improvement since your work on Chrono Symphonic. Nice jungley percussion, which you vary up on numerous accounts, liking the off-beat string accents, harp trills are good... I'm gonna have to counter Larry's statement that the beginning is too rigid; to me, it sounds like a completely conscious choice. The strings are nice and marked, and that kind of force works well with the stick-tap percussion. I wish they had more vibrato throughout the piece, though. From 1:32-1:52, I could've used something more than the "dun dadun dadun" strings. That part of the arrangement sounds particularly exposed, although you do fill it out thereafter with the chorus entrance. That leads me to my next remark. The chorus does sound pretty fake. In general, the darker vowel sounds like "oh" and "ooh" are more realistic than the bright "ah"s. Still, it didn't really retract from the sound as a whole. It helps to look at is as a sort of New Agey approach. ^_~ Starting at 3:58 is another section that could have used more oomph. It sounded rather generic and repetitive, and the accelerando really threw me for a loop. Something unnatural about that. I have no beef with your production. It would have been cool if you had mixed the different sections according to how they're seated in a real orchestra, but there's no rule that says you must. Again, I gotta reiterate that this mix *really* makes more sense if you view it more as a New Age arrangement, and less as a strictly symphonic one! The arrangement is solid, and I think you've done a fine job. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 12, 2006 Author Share Posted October 12, 2006 Not getting any younger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Orichalcon Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 Not getting any younger. You're still beautiful, Larry. The wrinkles add character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 Not getting any younger. You're still beautiful, Larry. The wrinkles add character. Hear, hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 the sequencing does sound mechanical, partly because of the, well, sequencing, and partly because of the samples. larry's right, the soundfield is dry and stiff. and thin. the staccato strings in the beginning are bare. some of the other string lines sound akward because the velocity levels on the sample are so starkly different. You have to be careful when there's a velocity cutoff on the sample that changes the sound dramatically. the general stiffness of the instruments is a fairly big problem, but another big problem is the sparseness of the composition. If you take out the percussion, there's very little here. a lot of the time there's only one harmonic instrument playing at once, and there's rarely more than two harmonic voices. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 Vig takes the words out of my mouth. There's an attempt to make everything sound really ominous and epic here, but it ultimately falls flat because there's not enough presence with the instruments. This could actually benefit from reverb from a production standpoint and some moving lines to create tension from a composition standpoint. Needs more added to the texture to really be effective. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 I hate to glib it, but most of my complaints here have been addressed by Darke, Vig, and Larry. The texture is overly sparse here and the samples (while good) are NOT sequenced or processed well. Even looking at it from the new age arrangement perspective. I think more harmony instruments are needed (pads, for example). Not to mention that french horn ensemble at 1:33 and beyond is quite simply... ugly. Gotta refine your sequencing and orchestration. Don't rely on expensive samples to carry things. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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