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*NO* Final Fantasy 7 "Valley of the Fallen Star"


Rexy
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Hi,
Here's my submission of a track from Final Fantasy VII.

Submission information:
Game: Final Fantasy VII
Arrangement Name: Valley of the Fallen Star
Song arranged: Cosmo Canyon

Contact information:
ReMixer name: infinitytone
Real name: Karol Kosacki
Website:  https://www.youtube.com/infinitytone
userid: 34463
 
Hope you have fun listening and have a great week!

Best,

Edited by Rexy
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  • 2 weeks later...

As with your other submission that I recently judged, you have all the bones of a great arrangement but the quality of the guitar samples is bringing this down. With as guitar-driven as this track is, I think you would have to get a live guitarist for at LEAST the lead, but the entire track would benefit. Right now, there's a rigidness to the timing of everything that just doesn't pass as realistic. 

I hate to sound like such a downer, because I can clearly tell that you did put a lot of work into attempting to sequence your lead guitar with expression, but there's only so much you can do with sampled instruments at the end of the day and I don't think this is convincing enough to meet OCR's standards of instrument realism. Arrangement is just fine as-is, but I can't pass this in its current form. Sorry!

NO

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  • Emunator changed the title to 2020/04/13 - (1N) Final Fantasy 7 "Valley of the Fallen Star"

Good arrangement. Production is decent enough, with enough clarity between parts. I agree with Emunator that the guitar sequencing here is causing you some immersion issues. The lead in particular is too broken up note wise, making it sound very blippy. The bass also seems to be affected by this issue. If you run your notes into each other you might be able to make things feel more natural. Humanising would also help, as things feel rigid and thus add to the robotic feel of the performance. I’d also play with velocity more as this will affect the tone and make things feel more natural. Making things believable is always going to be tough for tracks of this nature. Focusing on the characteristics of these instruments and how they’re played in real life will give an insight as to the approach to take.

NO

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Arrangement-wise, you owned it.  You pushed through with two distinct variations with textural and melodic shakeups across both, and the drum writing is very energetic to boot.  The breakdown at 2:11 using the banjo backing in the source is also very welcome and paced itself well for the B section's final use.  The mixdown is also clean - nothing's clashing tonally, and nothing is poking out of place either.

However, I'd have to agree with the gentlemen above regarding the lead guitar's articulation.  I checked your video upload on YouTube for any clues, and I learned that you use Impact Soundworks's Shreddage series for your guitar and bass tones.  You're not wrong - the work gone into engineering said VST is fantastic, and a lot of the key switches available are smart.  But the stiff timing has made transitions from note to note, especially in denser melodic sections, feel more plinky on impact.  Consistent velocities and not much note transition variance have also contributed to this robotic feel.

While it can be possible to remedy it with further humanization and articulation work, all this will boil down to what version of Shreddage you're using, as the more recent releases have a more extensive array of switches to use.  If you feel you can't get enough out of the VST you're using, it's best to ask for a session musician to help you out - and I'm sure there's plenty of them available in the Pixel Mixers Discord server at least.

Nevertheless, if you decide to revise the track, keep the arrangement as it is - but think about what direction to take for that more realistic guitar performance.  It stings to get two panel-based rejections based on production critique alone, but I know you're capable enough to act.  Keep at it.

NO (resubmit)

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  • Rexy changed the title to *NO* Final Fantasy 7 "Valley of the Fallen Star"
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