*NO* Final Fantasy 7 "Tifa's Theme"

[Rexy]

Hello,

 

Here is my submission for a guitar cover for Tifa's Theme in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

 

• Your ReMixer name: kennyslik
• Your real name: Christian Morte
• Your website: https://www.youtube.com/user/gtdolorz

• Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy 7 Remake
• Name of arrangement: Tifa's Theme
• Name of individual song(s) arranged: Tifa's Theme
   

This guitar cover was inspired by guitarsvd's original cover of the song!

 

Thanks,

Christian
 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Rexy

[Jivemaster]

Guitar is clean, and the performance is mostly good, with only a few slight missteps here and there. The production quality is warm, and mostly consistent. On the arrangement side, this is a bit of a strange one for me as I’ve not judged a submission verbatim based on another performance. If Cecil’s mix was posted, then I imagine this would have to also, provided (1) production is up to scratch, which IMO, seems to be; and (2) it’s within our rules to do so. That said, more original interpretation of the source would’ve been nice to hear, to take the track off into it’s own territory. Interested in what the other judges have to say.

Edit: Thanks @Rexy for clarifying — in that case I do still stand on this Yes, provided the artist has Cecil’s permission to post their rendition of his work.

Edit 2: Given @Rexy's additional analysis, I'm switching over to NO for this one (was initially unaware it was similar to another piece).

NO 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Jivemaster

[Rexy]

5 minutes ago, Jivemaster said:

If Cecil’s mix was posted

Cecil uploaded his original take on his YouTube page, but he didn’t send it here as a submission.  Thought I’d make that a little clearer

Edited November 11, 2020 by Rexy

[Rexy]

I agree with Joel regarding the warm sound on the acoustic guitar.  Solo instruments are never easy to present yourself, but here, the tone and attacks paid off and allowed me to hear each string as they got used.  The recording quality feels clean, and the performance feels raw and human, with only some minor hesitations in your execution.  I would've wanted much smoother transitions in and out of the FF7 main theme at 2:58, particularly with your chord progression, but I understand that was from you following the tab along.

As for the arrangement itself, it's got the theme usage with some playing around with the core melody before the prior FF7 main theme section, and that's all well and nice.  But let me put aside the prospects of you using another person's arrangement, as it also turned out the structure's based on the FF7 Piano Collections version.  The main differences are the main theme cameo replacing a good chunk of the middle development, subtle secondary melodies in the recapitulation, and a reworked ending.  We've had some mixposts here that riffed off official arrangements in the past, but to me, that means more than half of the writing isn't only not your own, but also not Cecil's either.  It feels like a dealbreaker knowing about this revelation, which is shameful as the performance is a delicate and charming one.

Ultimately, the unoriginality of the arrangement sunk the entire thing to me, I'm afraid.  Christian, you've got the charm as an acoustic guitar performer, and I'd like to see you make your way onto the front page at some point - but I do hope it'll be with something that is more your own.  Please, keep at your prowess!

NO

[DragonAvenger]

Yeah, I'm with Rexy here. The performance is lovely, but this is pulling too much from already existing arrangements. Gonna have to be a NO for me, but I'd love to hear some of your own arrangements!

NO