*NO* Chrono Trigger 'Last Battle'

[Gario]

Dear OCRemix Team,
In the link below you will find my metal cover of the song 'Last Battle' by Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, from the game Chrono Trigger.


My ReMixer name: infinitytone
Name: Karol Kosacki
Email: 
Website: http://infinitytone.com
userid: 34463

Game: Chrono Trigger
Composers: Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda
Song: Last Battle

I hope you will like what you hear!

Best regards,--

Karol (Charles) Kosacki, Infinity Tone
Mobile: 
Email: 
http://infinitytone.com

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Gario]

Slick metal going down on this one - it definitely sounds like an intense battle. I'm actually surprised I haven't heard too many metal approaches to this source before, considering how well it seems to lend itself to that style, here. While conservative in the beginning, the solos and (short) breaks in energy in the middle and the additional textures sprinkled here and there work to give this track some personality.

The overall production has a few areas that could use improvement. Overall, the mix is quite loud. This being a metal track it's something I could normally overlook, but the rhythm guitars and bass really overpower everything else in this track (synth, drums), even when the other elements have some of the important themes that the guitar texture should be playing against. When the rhythm guitar becomes the soloing lead the overall arrangement hits a sweet spot that sound almost well mixed (considering how fitting it is for the guitar to be that far front then), but overall it leads to an arrangement that sounds unfocused. Balance your guitar work so that the other elements of the arrangement come through better, and tone down the bass a touch to give the mix a little more breathing room.

The synth work in this is well fitting, but the sound design for them is plain, which makes it difficult to make them stand out. It could work as is, but considering there's also the issue of them not standing out enough I suggest trying to make synths that are more than saw pads. They often carry the most notable melodies from the source, so they would make more sense to stand out better.

It's a tough one, since I think the metal approach fits this source like a glove, but I think the issues present take this below the bar. The mixing is the most important aspect to fix, so I hope to hear this with the rhythm guitar and bass mixing adjusted. Best of luck!

NO

[DragonAvenger]

I'm not as bothered by the mixing as Gario is here, though I do agree that the balance would definitely improve the track. I do think that for me this is overall above the bar, though I'd say it's a bit close. The style change is pretty great, and I agree with Greg that it's surprising this hasn't happened before given how easily this fits in.  I would have liked the solos and little extra bits to appear a bit sooner in the track as well, but I understand wanting to really establish the song. Once those parts come in though the track really takes off, and I think the arrangement at that point carries it. 

Curious what the other judges will think. My vote is a bit close, and I might be swayed the other way, but for now this is a 

YES (borderline)

[MindWanderer]

It's a pretty conservative metal approach.  There are enough stylistic changes and flourishes that I think it's interpretive enough, although it suffers by duplicating the source's repetitiveness, especially the lengthy intro.

it is a bit on the loud side, but it is metal, after all.  This source is light on melody, so I don't think it's quite as important that the lead be a lead.  Letting the rhythm guitar come forward isn't as big of a problem here as it would be in most remixes.  However, frequently the instrument that's doing the most interesting thing is difficult to hear.  For instance, there's a cool change in texture at 0:52 that's nearly impossible to pick out, and 1:13-1:34 is chock-full of interesting riffs that I can only catch hints of.  As a result, this sounds a lot more repetitive than it actually is, because the parts that are being switched up are being drowned by the more static elements.

On the one hand, I think the final result is borderline at worst.  On the other, there's a hell of a lot to appreciate here arrangement-wise that can't be heard because of the production.  This can be so, so much better with some balance work.  I'd personally recommend dynamic balance changes that allow different instruments to shine in different places, because what constitutes the most interesting instrument changes frequently, and they all deserve to be heard in their turn.  This has the potential to be amazing, so please make it happen!

NO (resubmit)

[Sir_NutS]

Yeah, the main issue here is mix balance.  The guitars and bass are really overpowering everything, the drums bring almost no energy due to being drowned out, and the synths are very hard to distinguish or even hear at times.  There are sections such as 2:05 where I can faintly hear what sounds like something that wants to be a lead but the guitars are taking over the entire mix.  I also wasn't blown away by the arrangement either, since what we hear is mostly rhythm guitars for the majority of the mix, and it feels like it's missing some lead melodic content or vocals or something else.  We do get some solos, and those feel very good, but for the most part it feels like it's all backing.

This needs more development but most importantly a re-do on the mix balance side.

NO

[Liontamer]

The guitar sequencing didn't sound totally awful, but the timing was nonetheless very robotic and should have been better humanized. Right now, the stiff, overly-quantized timing undermines the energy of the track, and IMO it was dead on arrival from the production side of things already.

Jebus, this was an extremely muddy soundscape throughout. What was the point of the other part-writing behind the guitar starting at :21 if it was barely audible? None of this was mixed/separated properly.

There were different/original guitar chugs in the background at 2:03 , but they didn't harmonize well with the source tune, so it was a mixed bag despite adding something different to the arrangement. Then there was soloing over the top of the source from 2:23-2:46 that was energetic, but again unrealistic-sounding and hampered by the timing being so rigid.

That said, the treatment of the source there was basically conservative and looped, so the track hit a wall in terms of development. There's not much varied in the way of dynamics either.

Well, we all have tracks where we're too lenient, so for DA it's definitely this one. Beyond the adaptation to rock, and some additional notes to the countermelodic writing first used at :21, the arrangement's too limited and repetitive, with the "Last Battle" part of the arrangement looping at 2:03.

I hate to sound like I hated the track, Karol. I didn't, and IMO, it's a decent cover of a great source tune, but for the Standards here, this was underdeveloped and lacks polish, variety, and humanization. Without more development/variation in the arrangement and more realism in the sound, we can't roll with this.

NO