*NO* Final Fantasy 7 "Reggae of the Oppressed People"

[Rexy]

Hello, I am a composer and arranger from France, and I would like to propose a first arrangement to OCremix.

 

Contact informations: 

 

-Remixer Name: Burmecia Dragon

-Real name: Vannick EYMERY

-Website: https://soundcloud.com/vannickeymery

-UserID: 36724

 

Submission information: 

 

-Name of game arranged: Final Fantasy VII

-Name of arrangement: Reggae of the oppressed people

-Name of song arranged: Oppressed people by Nobuo Uematsu
 

 

-This song was made in tribute to Nobuo uematsu and to Final Fantasy 7, which made me start learning, playing, and composing music.

I wanted to cover a song that is not a "Highlight" song from this game: just a great funny tune, with a strong personality and a Reggae flow that I wanted to maximize

 

 

Thank you, 

 

Regards

 

Vannick 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Emunator

[Emunator]

Oh man, what a lush selection of instruments! The interplay between the rhodes and the organ are doing some wonderful things to my ears. When the brass and vocal layers build up, it's sheer bliss. And that organ solo rips. Damn. 

This admittedly sticks very close to the structure of the original tune, but there's a substantial level of expansion simply through the organ solo and the increase in instrumental fidelity, additional vocal harmonies and countermelodies. I thought the delay effect on the bass during sections like 1:00-1:17 felt more awkward in your version than the original, but I see how you got there and it's not a dealbreaker for me by any means.

Love this so much, excellent work!

YES

Edited September 16, 2020 by Emunator

[prophetik music]

one of my favorites from the original sound track. looking forward to this.

this has so many fun ideas going on. i like the transition to more of a gospel/house band style, and obviously that's a fun organ solo (side note: it's just the slightest bit ahead of the beat! sequenced or not, sit back on the beat for this style to make it pop more). the brass sound solid although to me at least it's pretty clear they're sequenced, and i liked the vocalizations and how they're used.

that said, this is not enough arrangement to pass the guidelines. i'll post a whole bunch of it here to clarify why.

Quote

 Your arrangement must be substantial and original.

• Submissions must be different enough from the source material to clearly illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. Acceptable arrangement often involves more than one of the following techniques:

• Modifying the genre, chord progression, instrumentation, rhythms, dynamics, tempo, or overall composition of the source material
• Adding original solos, transitions, harmonies, counter-melodies, lyrics, or vocals to the source material

so, first off, the track is about 2:35 long. it runs through the original chord structure at the same tempo with mostly the same instruments in the same order twice, and then ends with the loop point played at the end and everything. now, it sounds boss while it's doing that - don't get me wrong! but the only arrangement being done here is changing some instrumentation (melody to keyboards, strings to brass) and the (super-slick) solo. now, yes, solos are listed above, but it's supposed to be a combination of those elements, and having a third of the song be a solo isn't enough.

from a mastering perspective, i liked the sound but felt the drums were a bit too loud throughout. i didn't mind the delay bass at all as a shout-out to the original, but maybe add some filter to the high end of the delay to give it a different timbre than the original and make it clearer which is which.

overall i love the idea here but i can't pass it. there's simply nowhere near enough arrangement to get it over the bar. adding in some interpretation in the melodic content, some harmonies that weren't there before, some more creative chord choices...anything would add a lot to this. right now it's a cover, and we unfortunately don't accept covers here.

 

 

NO

Edited August 27, 2020 by prophetik music

[Rexy]

Arrangement-wise, it doesn't re-invent the wheel - two run-throughs with modifications when necessary.  The first one went through the source straight, and the second one replaced the entire A section with a rad organ solo.  And there are textural modifications in the background, too.  The first repetition had the A section's melody with harmonies in fifths; the brass and vocals provided more countermelody and padding support beyond the simple strings in the original; and those textures are unique between both B section run-through.  It would've been nice to have heard some more extensive treatment to the bass as well since that is one of the driving elements in the source - but with the amount of detail in there, I'll be okay with it taking more of a backseat.

It shines more in its presentation - outstanding balance, no instruments sticking out, and the brass has some great humanization going on.  I'm not too worried about the organ solo's position, as there's a good handful of times where it'll hit a notation on the 8th triplet note immediately before the next bar and overlap it - a cool syncopation technique.  However, I do think the bass echo in the B section could've had a more distinctive EQ rather than just being made quieter and panned hard-right just like in the source - something to prevent any tonal overlap between that and the central bass.

I feel the presentation is easily over the bar in the bigger picture, but the arrangement barely made the jump.  I can see this track being a considerable debate among the rest of the panel - but whatever happens, Vannick, I see great potential with you.  Good luck!

YES (borderline)

[Chimpazilla]

This is a well crafted track.  For the first half of my listen, I was planning to say NO because it is a straight cover.  Rad organ solo and vocals for the win.  The brass sounds quite good.  I wish the first half had more personalization, but the second half seals the deal.  I wish the drums didn't sound so rigid and quantized.  The drums and the bass are verbatim to the source material, which is disappointing.  Still, let's do this.

YES

[Jivemaster]

In the initial stages, it feels like cover territory. Brass has nice stereo separation. Production wise, things are very dry making things feel unnatural. The progression of the arrangement borrows a lot from the original, even down to the stereo bouncing of the bass line. I also don’t think the chosen vocal samples fit this well, something more reggae inspired would’ve made far more sense. As things begin to wind up, I don’t feel this evolved enough throughout the arrangement to hit the mark personally, particularly with the relatively short 2:38 duration, not a lot of time was left for original material. While the upgraded instrumentation sounds nice, there is a distinct lack of difference from the original here which ultimately makes this fall short. It’s a great concept that I think needs expansion.

NO

[DragonAvenger]

I'm on the fence here too, and I think I slide just barely into YES territory with that kickin' solo. Next submission change things up a little more in the melody/structure earlier on and you'll be golden.

YES (borderline)

[Liontamer]

Smaller issue, but very thin/flat brass samples from :32-:49.

I thought this was structurally and tonally extremely close to the original until 1:13, which was practically half of the track, and even after that it's (well-performed) supplementary writing over the top of what remains a super-close cover. It could even be a glorified MIDI rip. Super flat ending for such a brief, slow-tempo'ed piece as well.

I'm legit shocked this closely structured cover is getting all these YES votes. It's enjoyable, but not nearly personalized enough of an arrangement to distinctly stand apart from the source tune, particularly when the first half is so, so close to the sound, tempo, and original feel of the source. It's not inherently substantive and personalized enough to merely add some things. Needs further personalization in the writing and/or instrumentation.

NO

[MindWanderer]

There's a debate going on over whether this is in fact a MIDI rip, but for fun I played this and the source at the same time, periodically fading one or the other out to compare.  And yeah.  There are a few little riffs added but mostly calling it a close cover is an understatement, until the solo at 1:13.  However!  The second half opens up with a pretty solid solo, and then when the source melody comes back in, it does add enough to make it more than just a straight cover.

We historically pass a lot of remixes with a very similar structure--too-conservative first half, original third quarter, suitably arranged final quarter.  We have some remixers known for doing exactly that more often than not.  What makes this a problem is that the first half is so very, very close to the source, with just a couple of instrument swaps and some very brief and minor additions.  The drums and bass in particular are a 1:1 copy, even through the solo.

I definitely disagree with the votes that say this is nowhere near personalized enough.  We pass things with not much more personalization than this.  But I do think we ask for more, especially with such a short arrangement.  Expand on what that final 48 seconds are doing and I think that would probably be good enough, but more interpretation in the first half would be much, much better.

NO (resubmit)

[Gario]

A little tougher to evaluate than I initially thought; while I would love to just say this is a MIDI rip with a solo on top, there are some differences from the source that pulls this a little away from that (added harmonies, textures, solo, etc.). It's a close case, and it's definitely conservative, but I think it's *just* different enough to squeak by on that front.

The instrument quality is good, but there really does need to be some post production effects on this to really tie everything together (reverb, stereo separation, etc.); right now the track sounds raw and dry, as if the instruments are playing from a sampler rather than having a performance (which, I mean, they are, but the whole point is to make it sound like they're not). The ending is also pretty abrupt, like the arranger wasn't sure on how to end the song.

This is a much closer call than I thought, but I do think that the instruments should have more post production to help create a more realistic sounding arrangement, and that ending definitely needs to sound like an ending rather than the end of a looping track. Good stuff, almost there but not quite there in my book.

NO

[djpretzel]

Because the tempo, structure, and imo genre of the source are all so close, I tend to agree with the judges who don't think the solo & instrumentation tweaks are enough. A couple other things... that organ solo is the type of thing I'd write... but I don't *necessarily* mean that as praise... OR as a criticism. I would expect to get criticized by more professional organ players, of course... leans on ending slides a bit, perhaps? The delay on the bassline is odd; I think it should be EQ'd or otherwise processed to differentiate more with the original signal, because it almost sounds like a sequenced delay as opposed to DSP. There was enough reggae in the original that this isn't really a genre transformation, and the other changes aren't enough to differentiate it... plus some of the above production critiques ring true, to me. Certainly not bad, and you know I love reggae and would love to post more, but for me it's a...

NO

 

[DarkSim]

I don’t listen to enough reggae. There’s a digital radio station I can get on my TV called Reggae Starz, and whenever I put it on there are always some bangers. More reggae on OCR can only be a good thing! Of course, when the song has ‘Reggae’ in the title, I’m expecting a few things. It’s gotta have a good off-beat rhythm, plenty of delay feedback on the percussion hits/fills, and hopefully some vocals!

We get off to a pretty lacklustre start - those hi-hats are really thin, establishing the groove but not really carrying it all that well. The volume is also pretty high, considering it’s such high frequency, which is exposing it when the other instrumentation comes in. Adding the off-beat rhythm is an organ, which works for me and starts to fill out the soundscape. It’s not until the brass comes in at 0:32 that the groove really feels good and the track starts to get going. Honestly I would have probably started the track here and not missed the first 30 seconds. The addition of vocal textures is a great choice, and just when I thought some lead vocals might come in, the energy drops right back down to a strange bass section.

The bass interplay from 0:53-1:14 was very strange when listening on headphones. I didn’t understand your choice to hard-pan one of the basses to the right while the other is in the middle, however listening to the source after the ReMix made everything become clear: it’s a direct copy of the source. The subtle velocity decrease throughout this section indicates to me that you’ve probably used a MIDI to base your track around, which is fine, but you have to take a more critical approach when rearranging a track from a MIDI. Why has the original composer done it this way? How could I improve it and put my stamp on it? This section doesn’t work in your ReMix for 2 reasons: the first is the hard-panning of the bass. I don’t know why Nobuo Uematsu chose to hard-pan one of his basses in this section, and who am I to question him, but there’s a reason it’s rarely done, especially in reggae. The bass is anchoring your downbeat, so on the off-beat you want the rhythm. Panning this ‘rhythm bass’ to the right throws off not only the balance of the track, but also the groove, which is the primary factor you want to emphasise in reggae. I think it would have been a great opportunity to switch up the off-beat section here with some staccato guitar chords dripping in reverb and a long decay on the delay, as is common in the genre.

The other reason this bass break doesn’t work is the attack and release on the bass. They’re too long, so the notes are bleeding into each other. If you play this section in mono, the issue presents itself very easily. Listen to the original and hear how the attack is much shorter, allowing for the bass rhythm to be heard more clearly.

Actually, listening in mono helped me to identify a 3rd major issue with this section, and that’s a strange low-frequency artefact that sounds like someone bouncing a basketball. It’s possibly some delay on the bass in the centre that’s playing off-beat and becomes very discordant - generally you don’t want delay on your bass because it can bleed into other notes where you don’t want it and cause clashes.

Moving on from the bass break, we get into the real meat and potatoes of the track. I gotta say, I love this part! The vocal “Heyyyyy!” sounds great, and it leads into an awesome organ solo. The section from 1:51-2:11 is my favourite, with those filtered vocals. The soundscape is filled out nicely, and it sounds like a great base for a reggae track!

Unfortunately, it’s over all too soon and we get a copy-paste rerun of the bass break at 2:12 until the end of the track. There’s a nice percussion fill at 2:32 that sounds very reggae-ish, and although it’s also in at 1:14, I’d have liked to hear more fills of this sort, perhaps with some more delay feedback to let it ring through a bar.

At such a short length, with the same tempo and ABAB structure as the source, I’d expect significant upgrades throughout the track for this one, and sadly only half the track is up to scratch. The bass sections seem like a straight MIDI rip and aren’t up to standard when it comes to production. They’d need a significant rework if you were going to keep them as B sections. There’s some real quality here in that 1:14-2:11 section, however, which is a good foundation to revisit this track from. I’d love to hear some vocals in the A sections as it’s a reggae track, or maybe you could go in a slightly different direction and take inspiration from a track like Voodoo, Roots ’n Grog and crack out some more epic solos on different instruments to match your organ one.
I hope to hear a rework of this again, if you’re prepared to revamp the troublesome parts.

NO