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OCR04007 - *YES* Xenogears "Wavering Reflection"


Gario
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • Liontamer changed the title to (2018/04/02) - (2Y) Xenogears 'Wavering Reflection'
  • 4 weeks later...

this is a very ethereal original, and the approach with light winds and harp is a good way to represent it. i found the flute's slow vibrato to be notable but acceptable with the style, but the (truthfully far too) low scoring of the piccolo combined with that slow vibrato to be uncomfortably approaching tuning problems. it doesn't help that the picc's pretty loud - nothing can cover a piccolo to begin with, so having it so far in the front with little room verb is tough to hear. when the flute and picc play together the slow vibrato issue is exacerbated due to the performer not varying their vibrato depth or speed between instruments as expected, and then at :53 the intonation is real notable. further intonation issues exist in the clarinet at 1:03. 

these are, to be honest, all nitpicks and not enough on their own to really sway my vote. all of these issues described are scoring-related for real-world instruments - for example, at 1:03, you've got an exposed clarinet playing a concert G (A is fully open with the flutter key open, and is moderately sharp). meanwhile, the bassoon's B is naturally flat there. this is intended mainly as an example - while live instruments certainly add a beautiful spark to open soundscapes like this, you have to take extra time to focus on the real-world tonalities of the instrument, vs. what you'd hear in a perfectly-recorded sample pack, and score around those natural tendencies (or ensure that your performers are adjusting for them). all that said, the performances together as a whole are good enough.

it's important that i don't take away from the overall great job transforming the source here. you stayed safe but did a nice job translating the melodic portions to different voices without making it sound like a summer band pop song. the harpsichord parts are really touching, and they're well balanced in the mix - it would have been so easy to let something without dynamics like a harpsichord stick way out and you didn't let it. what's more, the overall mastering of the work is clean and clear, if a bit heavy on the picc as noted above.

as a whole, this is a beautiful arrangement that suffers a bit from some of the natural implications of working with live performers. despite how i may have sounded above, i do believe that the quality of arrangement and careful attention to keeping the melody moving through the instruments more than balances out the few missteps by your performers.

YES

Edited by prophetik music
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  • 2 weeks later...

This arrangement is gorgeous - full of subtractive interpretation thanks to additional harmonies and counter-melodies, along with some strong coordination between all five woodwind parts.  Even the harp and harpsichord both sound lush and sublime and served as a great foundation to carry the recorded parts forward.

Recording quality across the parts are clear as a collective, but one instrument does stick out for me, and that is the piccolo part from Gamer of the Winds.  The writing isn't a problem for me thanks to the flute and clarinet parts sounding fine, but I do hear a lot more of the wind noise rather than its body - something that is not present on any other instrument.  This issue isn't a dealbreaker by any means, as you worked well with what you got and cemented its position in the mix - and piccolos are known for being difficult to record to one's liking.

That said, here's some advice for Gamer of the Winds regarding piccolo parts in the future - I suggest you experiment with different positions away from the microphone and see which one will capture the sound of that instrument more effectively for different situations.

Regardless, the arrangement is sublime, the ensemble gelled together like glue and the soundscape is clean.  It's also one of those cases where I do hear pops like Larry pointed out, but see them as too minor and insignificant in the larger picture to mark my vote as a conditional one.  It'll be a bonus if we get a render that fixes it though, but for now, I am all for seeing this on the front page - good work!

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR04007 - *YES* Xenogears "Wavering Reflection"
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