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*NO* Chrono Trigger 'Cape and a Cup of Coffee'


Gario
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Interesting, liberal take on Magus's theme.  It's almost unidentifiable; up until 1:04 I definitely wouldn't have pegged it without knowing in advance what it was supposed to be.  Then it repeats the main hook twice, and the next section, I'm not sure if it's original or a heavily modified version of some other part of the source.  Lavos's theme starts off with the famous intro, and then it goes off again into an interpretation I can't identify as a part of either source until it returns to Magus's theme.

On the production front, there's some overcompression: it sounds like the kick and crash cymbal are causing some pumping in the other instruments.  Also, the lead guitar is panned right a bit, and some of the cymbals are panned left, creating a distracting imbalance.  You can see it in the waveform, too: there's quite a bit more headroom (about 0.3dB) on the left channel than on the right.  There are some balance issues, too: for instance, in 0:35-1:00, the lead is buried behind the crash cymbals, rhythm guitar, and bass.

There's some creative stuff here which I love, but the production and lack of identifiable source are bringing this down.

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I don't see why MW considers this too liberal. 0:00 - 0:35 is a variation of the opening of Magus' theme, adding an arpeggio to the mix to keep it interesting. I can see where it's going from 0:35 - 1:04 (taking the melody, reharmonizing it, varying the rhythm, etc.), but that's definitely a more tenative connection to the source. The connection is stronger at the reprise at 2:29, since the lead punches through better at that point.

Looking at the timestamps, this is how I would see it:

0:00 - 0:34        Magus (intro)
0:34 - 1:00        Magus (Section A, hard to hear though)
1:04 - 1:26        Magus (Section B )
1:53 - 2:14        Lavos
2:28 - 2:38        Magus (Section A)
2:45 - 3:06        Magus (Section B )

For a 196s track we'd need roughly 98s of recognizable source, and I hear 108s (more like ~120s, if 0:34 - 1:00 is included) - enough source to get on OCR, in my book.

The production does certainly have overcompression issues, though (especially where MW says - the bass and crash), and I feel the reverb between the instruments is a little inconsistently mixed (again, like the guitar in the beginning, like MW said). I'll also add that I feel the reverb is a bit too heavy on this one throughout.

Lighten up on the reverb, and fix the overcompression and I'd be okay with this one. The arrangement is unconventional, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing - I thought it was cleverly arranged.

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Yikes, overcompressed.  It feels like the whole track ducks behind that bassdrum, which would be fine for an electronic track but for something acoustic like this it ends up feeling pretty weird.  For these kind of renditions a more natural and relaxed mixdown works better.  I didn't mind the reverb that much, if it's there to give the track certain ambience, but even then I would agree is a bit too much.  I really liked the performance here, very soothing.  It changes the nature of Magus' theme significantly so kudos for that.

I think this could work very very well with a cleaner mix and better balance overall.  I think the excessive reverb contributes a lot to the track's feel but I feel it bleeds too much into everything.  You have the performance and arrangement chops to make such an interesting adaptation, just need to polish your production up.  So for now,

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