Rexy Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Remixer name: Bluelighter (arranger) (ID 21840) ; Bowlerhat (ID 30366); Chris | Amaterasu (ID 23512) Real Name: Guillaume SAUMANDE; Jorik BERGMAN; Chris WOO Mail: Game & Songs: Final Fantasy 9 – Cleyra and One Danger Put Behind Us Composer: Nobuo UEMATSU Interpreter: Bowlerhat: Flute Chris | Amaterasu: Violin Hi OCR, Here is an orchestra arrangement of "Cleyra's Theme" from ff9 (and a little of "One Danger Put Behind Us"). I've started this some years ago, but I let it in stand-by to work on my Treno remix. Two instrument players have collaborated with me: Bowerhat for the flute and Chris | Amaterasu for the violin. I'm really grateful for that! Their recordings give to my arrangement a new dimension. At the beginning, this arrangement was thought only for Cleyra's Theme (without the middle parts of this mix). But I founded interesting to introduce also "One Danger Put Behind Us" into the arrangement. I had several influences for this one: Celtic, movie, march band… I came where I wanted, following my inspiration and my mood of the moment. With the title, I tried to summarize all this. I liked the idea of a tournament, like there was in Middle-Ages. I imagine the princess in the soft parts of the beginning, the knight's arrival (at pt5), the heroic fight (at pt6), the celebration of the winner who marry the princess at the end Nothing to do with the original story. It's another vision of Cleyra! In the whole, original sources are easily recognizable. Maybe the part 6 sounds strange. Two melodic lines and tonalities of the two original tracks overlap. Even if "One Danger Put Behind Us" is brought out in this part, notes of Cleyra reminds the place of the scene and allow me to return to the center melody at the next part. Enjoy! BREAKDOWN Originals Cleyra : 0'00 Melodic Line 1 0'36 ML2 0'56… repeated One Danger Put Behind Us 0'20 ML3 0'42 ML4 1'03 unused 1'35… repeated Arrangement 1- 0'00 intro (Celtic Style) 2- 0'10 ML1 (Celtic) 3- 0'43 ML2 (Celtic/Funny -> March Band) 4- 1'04 ML1 (March Band) 5- 1'25 ML3 (March Band) 6- 1'56 ML4 and ML1 together (Heroic) 7- 2'40 ML1 (A little March Band, soft instrumentation) 8- 2'58 ML2 (March Band) 9- 3'37 Outro (Celtic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 (edited) This open up with flutes, which sound great. Things begin to pick up at 0:44. The transition at 1:25 was quite good. The violin sounded nice there. The change at 1:57 had a nice feel to it too. You’ve certainly hit the Celtic feel you were going for. The drums do tend to boom quite a lot. The lead instruments here in this section could certainly do with being louder. The transition at 2:44 was quite surprising, and a playful departure from what came before. Violin comes back in soon after to help lead things out, with the flute coming back for the final bars. Production is mostly decent, apart from the aforementioned mixing issues. Arrangement has a lot of variety and adds upon the originals in a creative way. I’d love to hear the leads get boosted but I think it’s ok as is. YES Edited October 31, 2020 by Jivemaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 What a quirky match-up of sources! They both have their distinct moods, but believe it or not, they both relate to each other thanks to the Burmecian species in the game - so I can imagine an honorary showdown here just like you. It's a lovely stretch of story-telling while also enhancing the sources with how you see fit. Bowlerhat's flute worked beautifully well for the introduction, with the buildup in layers and mood while going through "Cleyra" straight for a loop and a half. Then, when you added "One Danger Put Behind Us" at 1:25, instead of going into the direct minor key, you shifted into a completely different one and adapted the melodies into 5/8, only going back into 6/8 near the end of each set of 8 bars. And you kept going with that experimentation with an 11/8 section that blends the two sources at 1:56 - just in time to let "Cleyra" take center stage for a defined finisher from 2:40. There's a lot to love with how you treated the source material and created your own thing, for sure - but if there's anything I'd change, the transition to the 2:40 section feels abrupt. Hence, I would've wanted a chord modulation that better bridges the two segments together. But it's a small part in the grand scheme of things, and I'm sure you have your reasoning for that. As expected, Bowlerhat and Chris's contributions are beautifully recorded and synched, and your programming on the rest of the instruments work well with your vision. Yet, I also don't think the orchestra's production values are as polished but for entirely different reasons to Joel - I feel the volume levels for the leads, while quiet, are still identifiable in the mix. I'm more concerned about the master volume being louder than what I usually expect from you. The RMS average is at -11.5dB in the left speaker and -13.5 in the right, making this louder than Youtube's music upload standards, and the master compression hammered down on your percussion hits in the louder parts. So while I would like to hear a slightly quieter master and some instruments re-panned to the right for steadier balance, the track otherwise feels listenable as it is and got more done well with the articulations to make up for it. So while I'm not too thrilled over the presentation this time around, the quirky arrangement idea and execution shines well among the rest of your equally fun marches. The three of you did some nice stuff - best of luck to the rest of the vote. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 this is a fun adaptation that features some unexpected turns. the opening's very light and airy, which is great. the bass drum is quite blatty like jive said, but the rest of the instruments fit well and do a good job balancing with each other. when more of the ensemble comes in at 0:42, it's still pretty nice balance. at 1:03 or so, we get a bigger, more instrumented orchestra, and the flute starts to sound a bit weird since it has a very light timbre and it's somehow singing over everything else, but it's still well-played and sounds pretty. the addition of violin is nice, and the great time change at 1:25 is a good way to keep interest through that section. around here (and a few flourishes before) i noticed how fake the strings sounded on articulations, but i didn't find it keeping me from enjoying what they were playing. 1:57's tone shift continued to be interesting, and i liked the way you shifted to a different source entirely without it feeling weird. there's an odd repeated orchestra hit at 2:36 that sounds intentional but admittedly doesn't make a lot of sense. this entire transition is kind of odd, but it does the job to get us to a new section. 2:58's recap sounds great and features some fun counter-movement in the winds and percussion. there's a fairly well-executed ritardando, and some nice live flute to play us out. from a mastering perspective, i agree that it's very loud, and that there's some compression artifacts / knee noise in the louder sections (notably after 2:58). however i don't think this impinged on enjoyability of the track. this has a great arrangement and is technically sound enough to overcome some minor issues with samples and mastering. nice work! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 The arrangement is just as dynamic and vibrant as I've come to expect from Guillaume, so that aspect is firing on all cylinders as expected. However, the instrumentation is definitely something different than expected. I've always suspected that many of your piano arrangements might function really nicely as a full ensemble, so this validates that theory quite nicely! I will agree that the mixing is overbearing in a lot of places. The flute cuts through nicely, but Chris' violin unfortunately gets almost completely lost in the sauce a lot of the time. The percussion and overall master compression is definitely the culprit, making the end product harsher on the ears than it really needs to be. At the end of the day, I fell in the same camp as my fellow judges that this is carried by the strength of the arrangement. In the future though, a less heavy-handed approach to the final mastering would definitely suit you well! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts