Liontamer Posted September 28, 2006 Share Posted September 28, 2006 alright, dave, this is the last time i'm going to attempt to send this file. it seems to have gotten lost the other four times i've sent it, so... Song Name: A World Without Sin Remixer Name: The Prophet of Mephisto Original Song: To Zanarkand, from FFX, by Nobuo Uematsu. When I first heard this song, I was impressed by its overall simplicity, as well as the pure, beautiful sound that it featured the whole way through. I decided to remix the song for full orchestra. After putting it into 4/4 time (which i felt better emphasized the chord structure and subsequent mutilation I did to it), I went through and arranged it first for strings, then for the full group. I really feel that the work that I did with this does the fantastic chord structure and emotive content as a whole justice, as it really is a beautiful song. My school orchestra might be performing this at the end of the year, actually, as part of their student composer series. The original file took seven days to write, with two months of organizing in Reason until I was comfortable with it. It sat for a month, I changed two things, and it sat for another four. Sorry for the delay. This song's been sitting on my desktop for five months, since its been four other times that the file got lost, so far. I'm hoping it doesn't again - I really feel this remix does the piece justice. I used Reason 2.5 (if you couldn't tell from the lackluster string samples), and the only non-Reason samples I used was the Florestan French Horn soundfont, a solo cello sf (same as the one I used in my previous remix here, actually - I believe it's BHCello), and a high flugelhorn sample that makes the high trumpet more bearable. And the single-shot snare drum sample - I'm pretty sure it's from the ken ardency soundfont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcos Posted October 11, 2006 Share Posted October 11, 2006 The first thing I noticed was the unrealistic 3 note run down at 0.05, which a violin player wouldn't really do. We know you're playing it on a keyboard, but still. Superb chord progressions, that is definitely the strong point of this mix. This is a lot of expansion on the original, and I like the dynamics that have been put into it. Composition wise (apart from those 3 notes at the beginning), this is great. The only two main issues for me are the production quality and sounds (which the remixer already pointed out). It's a shame you weren't using Reason 3, as I know the hall string patch would have worked very well here indeed. I also feel that the reverb is a bit on the dry side, although that is personal taste. I'm unsure as to whether this will get 4 yes votes, but here is one. If this doesn't pass, get the school orchestra recording and submit that. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 the intro makes the weakness of the samples painfully obvious. This won't take long... The partwriting in this track is very interesting. VERY interesting. It's certainly the most creative interpretation of this track that we've heard at OCR. I wish I could pass this track on the merits of it's arrangmenent and partwriting, but I cannot get past the samples. Too dry, too harsh, too unnatural. Please please get some better samples and resubmit this track. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 16, 2006 Author Share Posted October 16, 2006 http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 102 "In Zanarkand" I'll be upfront that I was bothered by the lack of realism in the sample usage. Right in the beginning, that exposed string sounds so thin and inhuman. The note-to-note movement sounds decent but still jerky and mechanical. The sequencing is decent overall if you're not demanding (aside from that very impossible run at :05), but I thought the layering and effects sounded very simplistic and didn't create enough depth to the sounds, thereby not working enough to compensate for the tone of the string samples. The samples making this one up got a bit more exposed (i.e. worse) once the brass and drum samples worked their way upfront at 2:16. The change in the supporting instrumentation at 3:15 further exposed the brass pretty badly. Again, nothing meaningful done on the production side to compensate for the crummy samples. Also nothing done on the articulation side to at least give off a realistic performance to the pieces. Everything sounds so thin, jerky, and robotic. Yeah, though a "relatively" conservative arrangement, you did a good job adapting the time signature and personalizing the approach. I don't even think you need better samples. I just believe you need to use your exisiting ones a lot more effectively. Flesh out the sounds more and refine the note-to-note movements and you could pass this with these existing sounds, Brad. I'll take some work, not simply for this mix but for the future, but you've gotten this far. You're capable of even more. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 yikes the instruments are terrible. this is probably my favorite zanarkand arrangement as it is full of worthwhile musical ideas and solid arrangement. some of it seems superfluous at times but overall, it is daring in ways that zanarkand rarely is this needs either better sampling, more attention to the existing waveforms to humanize them or, as malcos suggested, get the school recording. currently feels too stale which is awkward considering the dynamic of the arrangement arrangement is great, the production quality is very short and this needs to be resubmitted NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted October 20, 2006 Share Posted October 20, 2006 this just sounds too fake. hopefully you can get your school orchestra to record this, and get a decent recording of it as well. if that doesn't happen, you're going to need to either step up the samples, or work on the notation and production, especially when the solo strings are exposed. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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