*NO* Final Fantasy 9 'Black Mage Minuet'

[Gario]

RebeccaETripp
Rebecca Tripp

http://www.crystalechosound.com/
ID: 48262

Game(s): Final Fantasy 9
Song Title: Black Mage Minuet

Songs Remixed: Limited Time
Comments: It's one that I meant to send to you guys two years ago

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Gario]

Mmm, I've been chewing on this for a bit. It's a really good idea as to handle the source, and the Rennaisance flavor is oozing from this one. The orchestration is pretty on point, which I've come to expect from your work.

The humanization of the instruments isn't quite up to your usual par, which does impact this track negatively. The dynamics feel much more stale than your later works you've sent, and the articulations sound mechanical (especially on your woodwinds - they all have identical attacks for each note). It makes the instruments sound like they're literally soundfonts from the Playstation era, which is unfortunately below OCR's standards.

Considering the source uses a pretty similar instrumentation, the track overall sound very close to the source. It's borderline too conservative for OCR with those samples sounding close to what was used in the source, though I acknowledge that in many parts there are some parts that are added behind it that gives it a more Rennaisance faire sound to it. I'm going to lean on saying it's also too conservative, though, since the instrumentation really is close, and the themes follow the source pretty directly once the woodwinds come into play.

It's an older track, and I'll say it's a great indicator of just how far you've come in two years. I'm going to turn this down on humanization issues and a conservative arrangement, but all things considered if you were interested in taking this in a similar route using the skills you've aquired over the last two years I'm sure you could give us something that we'd take in a heartbeat. Thanks for sending it our way, though!

NO

[MindWanderer]

I'll echo Gario's comments here.  I wouldn't say all the woodwinds are problematic, but the flute certainly is, and that's an issue given its prominence in the arrangement.  But I'll also ding this on being somewhat static, with basically the same instrumentation and energy level throughout.  There are some variations, but not many; almost everywhere it's flute, oboe, clarinet, usually tambourine, and occasionally harp, with the mandolin just in the intro and conclusion.  It does get pretty fatiguing.  And the conservatism is an issue as well.  So, sorry, but I do look forward to hearing some more recent work from you!

NO

[Liontamer]

The stiffness of the sequencing's almost a take-it-or-leave-it thing, because it really successfully apes the style of the actual FF9 soundtrack, which I immediately noticed as well. That said, a fair amount of the instrumentation sounds so similar to the source, so the arrangement would really have to stand out in some other way, which it doesn't as far as melodic interpretation. The additive original part-writing, while always a positive in your works, isn't enough to carry the day here.

I agree with the others that the track's very static and lacks dynamic contrast, even accounting for a purposefully narrow dynamic curve, so it's dinged on that level, but that may be case where the vision of the artist doesn't fit with the bar here.

As a piece of BGM, it works great, Rebecca; it sounds to me like holding fairly fast to the source tune was likely the point of this one, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But as a transformative arrangement and looking at it from the bar here, it's certainly not there yet as far as the level of interpretation. No harm in submitting this one though, and I always look forward to your future submission. Love your work, and I know we'll hear more great stuff from you. Like Gario said, your older work shows how far you've come.

NO