Rexy Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 (edited) Contact Information Remixer Username: Audio Mocha Real Name: Daniel Florez User ID: 33297 Name of games arranged:Final Fantasy 3 Name of arrangement: Surfing Fantasy 2 Name of individual songs: Opening Theme Source material: Comments: Back in 2014 before Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call came out, Square Enix was holding a contest called the Legacy of Music campaign. Me being a huge fan of the original Theatrhythm and having been curious about creating game covers, I instantly started working on a submission for the contest. The rules were to make a remix of the Final Fantasy theme that plays in every single game and the winners of the contest would receive prizes but more importantly, the highest ranking entries would be judged by Nobuo Uematsu himself so that alone made me get into the contest. I had recently gotten into surf rock so I had the idea of making a surf rock remix; I knew that since the judges would receive a ton of metal entries so maybe the novelty factor might help me. Since that was one of my very first times ever recording guitar and filling in for the rest of a rock band, I was very much just winging it. I recorded the thing using Audacity and the drums were some loops I made in a Adobe Flash drum sequencer with a pitch dropped guitar filling in as bass. It was definitely a rookie effort but I've always had a soft spot for what I did then and had been wanting to go back and make a better produced remix of the Final Fantasy theme. Fast forward to hearing about the Dod x OCR FF3 event. The moment I saw that the event was asking for an Opening Theme remix, I knew that my time had come. Edited November 14, 2020 by Rexy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 The beginning bar is a bit fumbly/out of time. The following section sounds ok. The intro section at 0.26 is fun and stylistically supports what you’re going for, well done there. The main theme chorus portion works fairly well. At 1:06 we slip back to the previous section with some different lead, which feels less confident in performance than before. At 1:36 we get a solo which doesn’t sound too bad, and covers a bit of territory. As the solo begins to wind up before the transition starting around 2:07 there are a few timing fumbles. Things end fairly well. Arrangement here is ok, with a good variety of sections. Production is quite flat — dynamics could certainly do with more punch overall. This mix has a lot of potential, but I felt the performance was a bit timid in its execution, with some notes not properly hitting their mark. I’d like to hear some retakes and some revisited mixing on this as it shows a lot of potential. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 agree with jive that the first couple bars of band sound are messy. the track quickly finds its footing and gets into a fun driving feel with some good lead playing. i thought the solo was pretty good and liked the feel that the performer had throughout that section. i agree again that at 2:09ish it got messy for a bar or two, but the band quickly found each other and kept it moving. i didn't like the band's sound overall - the lead sound is nice, but the drums are pretty dry and pretty cookie cutter, and the rhythm guitar felt like an afterthought for at least half the track. there was also a lot of mid and not a lot of highs that i noticed, which also hurt the overall package IMO. this is a fun idea, but needs some mastering move. get rid of some of the mess in the mids, fix the timing issues, and vary up and spend some time on the drums (i think a more garage-y sound would work really well here actually, and less hyper-real studio tone), and that'll help the fun arrangement shine through better. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted November 14, 2020 Author Share Posted November 14, 2020 I'm co-signing with Brad regarding the arrangement as a whole - sloppy timing at the beginning and tonality in the final minute, as pointed out. Still, the driving force plowed on with theme runs under various rhythm guitar patterns, which is impressive for surf rock. The solo spot at 1:36 felt tight and worked some synergy with the backing, especially with the transition out into the third repetition. Yet, I'm afraid I have to disagree with Brad on the "cookie-cutter drums." On closer listen, there's plenty of variety in where the snare's ghost notes are and what cymbal got used alongside it - a case of sticking with few parts around the kit and finding ways to utilize them, therefore not making any two grooves sound the same. On the presentation side, the guitar tones are fun with tightly recorded leads, the rhythm guitars are well-textured, and your guitars' volume levels also feel firm. That said, the drums are supposed to provide a beat that punches through everything else, but it's hard to identify when the kick and snare feel masked. Consider either making small notches in your bass and rhythm guitars, respectively, to let them cut through - or raise the drums' volume. Additionally, for having so few instruments to work with, the mixdown feels stuffy - with not a lot going in the high frequencies, as Brad also pointed out. See if you can play with any of your non-bass instruments and find a way to round out that side of the EQ spectrum. Daniel, you know very well that I'll always appreciate your novelty for bringing surf rock to the community at large. Yet, I don't think this is quite ready for the front page either, I'm afraid. If you do decide to resub, I'd personally like to hear a revision that has some re-takes done on the tail ends to mitigate the timing and tone issues, plus another mixdown pass. You've made it onto the site before - and I know that you can do so again. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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