Rexy Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 (edited) Contact Information PerksJFP James Perkins https://www.youtube.com/user/perksjfpmusic 20899 Submission Information Final Fantasy VII The Angels One Wing Trail Of Blood JENOVA Those Chosen By The Planet JENOVA COMPLETE (A.K.A JENOVA ABSOLUTE) Birth Of A God One Winged Angel Nobuo Uematsu - Playstation 1 https://ocremix.org/game/7/final-fantasy-vii-ps1 I've always loved OCRemix, so when I redid an old cover of mine I thought I'd take it a step further and combine a few to make a mini story. In essence the idea behind the cover is to have a overarching Sephiroth song. Starting with Those Chosen By The Planet, and going through songs that heavily involve Sephiroth or Jenova within the game. There was some lovely grooves that came out of cutting up the Jenova theme, and there was for sure a challenge moving from each theme and finally ending up with One Winged Angel. Many thanks for checking it out, massive fan of the site for a long time! Edited June 24, 2020 by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Wow, this is a very ambitious fusion of different themes. Your arrangement is really excellent, it moves through a number of different ideas but still manages to segue fairly smoothly between them. Love the 12-string action that leads into the meat of the arrangement. Really, there's a lot of great ideas going on here so please don't take any of my criticism to suggest that I didn't enjoy this. There are, however, a number of production-related things that are holding this back from the OCR quality bar. Overall, my impression of this track is that the sounds don't gel together like they should. I'm all for mixing synths into metal arrangements, but the synth patches are so basic and unprocessed that they sound pasted on top of the rest of the track rather than properly integrated into it. A touch of reverb and level adjustments would go a long way to making these current patches work, but you could also find some more interesting synth sounds, even from freeware plugins, to help massage those parts into the arrangement better. The master as a whole sounds like it needs some compression to help glue everything together. Right now, it often feels like your instruments are all existing in completely different spaces, and the mix lacks cohesion. On a more specific note, it sounds like the high-end bite was scooped out of your guitar tone. Some EQ adjustments ought to fix that up, but it's currently holding your guitar (especially the lead) back from delivering a proper punch. The bass starting at :12 doesn't sit right with me either. The tone is very exposed, and the lively rhythm clashes with the rest of your instrumentation. Once the overdriven guitars come in, I don't have an issue with the bass, but I would strongly consider reworking the use of bass in your intro entirely. I'm also not a fan of the shaker - for one, it feels like it's frequently off-beat, and it's mixed MUCH more prominently than your hi-hat. It certainly doesn't feel like it's coming from the same area of the mix as the rest of your drums. What's going on at 2:19? Sounds like a rendering error or a bit of recording that wasn't properly faded in. I know this is a lot of criticism, but I honestly wouldn't share this level of critique if I didn't feel that there was merit and incredible potential in your arrangement. You just need to bring your production game up to par and you'll be golden! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 Oh man, the arrangement is a belter! In the original post, I listed the sources in appearance order, so it's straightforward to follow. And then there are small sections used as leitmotifs as the track goes along, so along with how well the themes fit in organically, it's a clear example of a medley that doesn't sound like one. It has a dynamic framework, steady movement from one source to another, and keeping this story-telling vibe going through to the end—very thoughtful stuff. However, I concur with a fair chunk of Wes's production issues. The lack of crunch on the guitar tone makes it feel empty when it's not doubled up with a synth, the shaker is too loud in the mix, and it's interesting to see compression brought up because this track clips at 0.3dB, dominantly in the last 90 seconds. It all adds up for the mixdown to get redone and see if a master chain can get set up if there isn't one already. The synth tone didn't concern me so much as it's not a dominant instrument in the grand scheme of things, but it would be nice to add another layer to the one you already have - and is worth seeing if you can do the same to the bass in the intro to ease its exposure. It's a stable arrangement - compelling in the grand scheme of things. But before I can see it get posted, I'm in favor of a mixdown revision, potentially with some added layers. Keep going - I want those production values to melt my face off as it did with the writing! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 ooh, there's some really great themes in this arrangement. overall i agree with the other judges that this sounds like a great first pass, but not finished. a great example is the section at 2:18. this is such a great build, and it's a fun take on it, but the leads sound dull, the organ synth is kind of shrill, and the backing parts need like ten more takes to get that wall-of-sound at 2:47 that you're going for and really do that part justice. the riff at 3:03 and backing entrance at 3:08 gave me chills. there's so many fun ideas in this arrangement, it's just not really done to the same level throughout. something that'd help throughout would be beefing up your backgrounds so it's not just clearly a guitar in each ear and the bass/drums/synth combo. some more body and double-tracking will help a lot with keeping it feel as big and epic as you want it to. a critical aspect of medleys like this is that they need to feel organically combined, and that's not always the case here. something that'll help a lot is a total mastering pass to get some serious compression on the track as a whole. the bass tone is ok but it feels pretty small and dull. guitars all feel really scooped out of the highs so there's no sparkle to them. drums sound decent but i wouldn't mind some more attention paid to the kick especially. overall this track needs some significant EQ and mastering love to bring out the best of what you've got going on, and some more body to most of the backing parts. it is a great first take though and i can't wait to hear a bigger, badder, meaner, more complete shot at this. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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