Chimpazilla Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripphttp://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game: Chrono Cross Song's Remixed: Drowning Valley, Lizard Rock, Hydra's Swamp, Dilemma, Boss Battle Song Title: "Escalating Ordeals" Drowning Valley Chrono Cross Lizard Rock Chrono Cross Hydra Marshes Chrono Cross Dilemma Chrono Cross Boss Battle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 The orchestration is quite good in this, as I'm starting to expect from you. However, this track sounds less like a combination of the sources and more like a slide show of each source. The pacing suddenly changes to match the source that you're arranging. Given how nice the orchestrations are (especially the first one, with a Gailic flavor to it), it's a shame they don't sound more like one piece. The instruments are humanized pretty well in general, but the strings and brass can use a little more TLC in that department. The strings tend to swell for each note they play (stringed instruments only tend to swell like this in the beginning of a phrase), and the piano playing & brass is pretty mechanical. The flute work is great, though, as well as the xylophone parts that you have throughout. It's not bad, but it sounds more like five pieces rather than a single, coherent piece. OCR is looking more for coherent pieces of music rather than a medley of small arrangements, so I'm afraid this won't be accepted. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 OK well, I really like all the individual parts of this, I really do, lovely arrangements of the sources overall, and really sweet ambiance that we usually get from your arrangements, but the issue here is that the connection between the sources is not well done, a lot of the transitions are very sudden or evident and it feels a lot like a medley, we usually discourage these in favor of more natural arrangements where sources segue into each other in smoother ways, or where the different sources' elements are mixed together to create an arrangement that grows from the marrying of those sources. I think with your talent you could easily use just a couple of these themes, and create one beautiful track from them that feels more cohesive and organic, but sadly what we have here is not what we usually look for in OCR.NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 8, 2016 Author Share Posted July 8, 2016 Not much to add to what the two gentlemen above have said. The instrumentation is gorgeous. Continue to work on your humanization skills; each of your submissions is better than the previous one in that regard. After reviewing several of your submissions, I feel that your biggest goal should be to learn to compose complete arrangements that sound like one cohesive track, whether you're working with one source or five, it can be done. As an example, you could use one main source, and another source from the same game (or another game but I prefer same-game) as a breakdown section, then back to the main source before the song ends. When you return to the source you started with, that's what makes your song not a medley! I also like to weave two or more source motifs together as melody and countermelody, that's always fun (I did that here: Wistful). Keep in mind that a good arrangement has dynamics: an intro, first verse and/or chorus, some sort of breakdown (lower intensity, different vibe, which can be achieved easily with a second source), another verse and/or chorus, then an outro. Many of your arrangements have no dynamics as they just move along at the same intensity. So yeah, take your writing skills to the next level with some improved arranging skills, and you'll be getting a new OCR mixpost every week! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 3. Acceptable Source Material 2. Submissions incorporating more than one source are allowed, but are not given special consideration or leniency with regard to the submission standards. Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together. I was expecting this to sound a lot more disjointed and a lot less cohesive based on the votes. I purposefully ignored the sources just to listen to this track as a standalone entity and get a sense of the structure and flow first. The transition at :58 was abrupt, but even then didn't bother me much, and the rest seemed fine in terms of flow, so that wasn't enough to reject this, IMO. Many of these apparent transitions (:33, 2:00 followed by tempo changes, 2:18, 2:50, 3:38) were reasonable to me and made some attempt to bridge from one section or one texture to another. Anyway, the issue with medley-itis to me isn't just a matter of laying out a medley to go source A+B+C+D+E, it's a corresponding lack of flow along with that structure. Clearly the other Js think this is the case here as well, but I didn't agree. Boy, the strings and brass though. I wouldn't be able to articulate the issues I heard, but Gario seems to have caught the "swell" issue that matched up for me, particularly from 3:54-4:15, and I actually felt the "performance" sound of those instruments fell flat. I also felt the brass articulations from 4:15-4:45 sounded inhuman and flat. Nonetheless, the orchestration is decent enough to get by. Listening to all of these Chrono Cross sources, I felt they pieced together with enough of an overall flow that I wasn't put off by the medley structure here. If I didn't know the sources, this felt enough like a relatively singular piece that simply had a number of compositional twists and turns. I will vote in the minority with a YES that's more borderline re: the production and keep this open for at least one more additional vote to close it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 I can see a little of what Larry is saying in regards to a couple of the transitions, but overall I felt that they were a bit to abrupt overall and hurt the overall flow. I am also surprised the other judges didn't mention that there seems to be a decent amount of reverb, especially in the lower instruments. The track feels a bit washed out and muddy, and I would have liked a cleaner room sound overall. I think the individual sources are treated fine, but I think the combination of these sources isn't working with the transitions that are there. As with some of your earlier pieces I'm going to suggest working with 1-3 sources and work on having them connect more strongly, as well as consider being a little more bold in your arrangement ideas to differentiate from the sources a little more. Each submission is improving, and I love seeing how you've grown each time I listen to a track! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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