Gario Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Remix name: Terra: [Magitek Perfect] ReMixer: Oceansandrew Sources: Terra, The Decisive Battle This started as a fun track that was mixed live at one of the OverClocked ReMix panels at MAGfest in 2017, and while I didn't finish the entire thing that day, what I had started felt really cool and dynamic, so I finished it out. It features a drum and bass backing with a Super Audio Cart lead, and some string stabs. Later on I added some classic Uematsu organ backing to really give it a classic Final Fantasy flavor. Initially I was trying to mix Terra's theme with Celes's theme, but it wasn't working like I wanted it to, so instead, I combined it with the FF6 boss battle. Not only did the two themes mesh together well (best example of this is at 2:47), but it also gave the song a different narrative feel. This definitely has a badass fighting feel to it, and you could imagine it being the backing track of an intense FF6 anime fight or something. I hope people get pumped up listening to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Terra is very determined here, which is a fresh take to me on a theme that has been heard a lot of different ways. Having heard this from the inception of the "How to ReMix" panel to final form I can say there was a lot of revision time put into this, including being worked on during our honeymoon cruise! I thought the transition into the Decisive Battle was pretty seamless and helped keep the energy going strong. Similarly, the synth countermelodies on top were neat. The combination of the two themes at the end is really creative (I might have helped there, so I'm biased). The organ runs definitely are a straight call out to Uematsu and made me realize how often he used that effect; I was reminded both FF7 and FF8 battle themes as well in that section. Nice use of SAC too. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 Oh, this is pretty cool - I'm digging this a whole lot. I can totally imagine this being in an alternate FF6 game, where Terra is the enemy and this is her battle theme... and then you get roasted. Along with the other 50 soldiers. Okay, so that actually does happen in FF6, but whatever; this is the battle music they heard, I'm sure. As for the track, the style is exciting and the synths, while kind of 'nilla are well used. Being a fan of making them chips sing myself, I felt their usage was far more interesting in the first half than they were in the second. The 'Terra' portion really had them using slides, gating and all sorts of other interesting effects to really squeeze as much out of those synths as you could, while the Decisive battle had them pretty much playing straight with a little vibrato. It's not a big deal, but it does emphasize the vanilla nature of the synth a bit. The production is solid on this - punchy and strong throughout. The mixing of the theme at 1:05 is a tad too loud, which causes the backing instruments to cut out a bit, and the square at 1:27 is buried, but overall you do a great job with the overall instrument balance, as well. The arrangement is slick, too; playing the themes side-by-side and then layering them together at the end does a great job setting the listener up for the combination. My gripes are relatively minor, and I think this really does kick you into high gear, so great work on this one! YES Edit (08/21): Hmm, well personally between the two versions I far prefer the first. The issues I had with the first one (leads getting drown) is amplified while trying to bring out the texture, and the overall production quality suffers for it. I would put it as borderline at best if the second version were used, in fact; while I'll retain my YES I would much prefer the first version (likely much to Liontamer's dismay). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 I wish the rapid-fire synth countermelody first used from :14-:37 wasn't so obscured, because I liked the writing there. Right now, the arrangement is awesome, but for the opening minute, it felt like all you essentially heard was the lead. At 1:25, the texture felt empty, again with the lead being very upfront, but the backing parts not really filling the back out completely. For example, that rising line from 1:44-1:47 was barely audible and didn't really register. As I'm listening through, there's multiple small sections where the supporting part-writing is there if you listen closely, but it's just pushed back to the point of sounding negligible, for example the warbling/double synth from 2:17-2:29. More relative emptiness from 2:45-3:08 with the background feeling empty outside of the string stabs. Gario alluded to what I'm hearing in some sense with his criticisms, so it's worth going back over them and seeing if this could be tweaked. If Andrew's willing to revise the mixing some more, cool, but this is good to go in any form. The sections that sounded more filled out were the best, IMO. That said, what did come through was strong, and the arrangement was extremely creative, interpretive, and energetic, a lot like a DDR-version of FF6 music would be. Could have been more creative with the synths, but I thought this was strong overall and made good use of the tools. YES EDIT (8/18): Checking out the revised version, this is what I'm talking about. With some added effects to thicken things up, there's a bit of clutter in places, but you didn't have dry/empty-sounding sections anymore, and I can hear the interplay with most of the great backing part-writing that was previously too subtle (1:44-1:47 being one exception). Also forgot to point out how awesome the final orch stabs were from 3:13 until the end; great stuff. Very nice work, man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Andrew sent me an update, hopefully this works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 I'm torn between which of the two versions I like better, actually. The second is indeed significantly more cluttered, but on the other hand, some of the quieter backing elements are much easier to pick up on, and there's a lot of great stuff going on here. I think I'd personally prefer somewhere between the two versions, but I'd pass either one of them anyway. I'm a sucker for interwoven sources regardless, and this is excellently done. The synths did get a little vanilla in places, but those were also the places that were the most complex otherwise--complicating the synths may have been a bit too much. I particularly loved the cameo appearance of the bass line of the classic Final Fantasy battle music at 2:26. Great work! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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