Rexy Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 (edited) RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): FF6 Song Title: Shadow Mood Songs Remixed: Shadow’s Theme I recently got some slightly more modern software! I hope the humanization will sound okay to y’all! Edited February 19, 2021 by Rexy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Piano sounds decent, with a good amount of low end. Solid emotive arrangement all round. Things keep a fairly consistent pace throughout, with a few interludes to break things up. Some sections sound similar to each other at times but carry different dynamics and articulations to separate them. Things close out softly. Dynamic expression overall is pretty good. Track volume is a bit quiet but serviceable. It would have been nice to hear a bit more evolution of the track, but what is here sounds good. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) the opening piano has a lot of uncanny-valley playing. there's a lot of attention paid to dynamics, but it sounds like there's no pedal used at all (0:19 is a good example, the left hand is very non-idiomatic for a piano) for some parts, and then too much sustained in other parts (the sustained left hand at 0:27 in what sounds like another piano just sits there and muds everything up). another thing i noticed is that on most rolled chords (ie. 1:00), the roll starts on the downbeat instead of leading to the downbeat, which causes it to sound strangely out of time when the rest of it is overly mechanical with no nuance in tempo. there's some attention to tempo at 1:08ish, but the subsequent lack of pedal and dramatic range difference between the hands result in what is again pretty uncanny-valley writing. this continues for a while - lots of 2+ octave differences between the hands resulting in a disjointed arrangement featuring a lot of muddy left hand blocks (1:39 is particularly egregious) with no clear reason or thematic idea being portrayed by that choice. the shift in style at 2:09 was welcome, although i again found the rolled chords starting on the beat rather than resolving there to be problematic (more so when the melody came back in). the tempo shifts around 2:45 were real nice when coupled with the dynamics, but i found the left hand to be too strong at 2:53 when it comes in again. the low Bb at 3:02 doesn't sound good at all - too low, too many higher partials causing it to sound out of tune. and the ending, featuring the second piano, just shows off how oddly-mastered that one is - you can barely hear it throughout until suddenly it's right there, and there's no body to it. i'm being pretty harsh about this track and i recognize that. i think there's some interesting arrangement ideas here, and i like the concept (adapting this piece to piano). i do not like the implementation at all. it's heavily robotic from a tempo perspective, the piano you chose has nowhere near enough sampling cutoffs or dynamic variability to handle a work so clearly designed around dynamic contrast, the second piano you chose is unable to be heard for 80% of the track and doesn't sound good when you can hear it, the part writing is so often very far apart causing the left hand to be muddled and the right hand to be octaves above the supporting parts, and the lack of traditional pedal usage - even simulating it via note durations - lends itself to a very odd listening experience. this one needs some significant work on the implementation - or, more likely, a rework to fit into real hands and then a live player - to hit what i believe you're going for. NO Edited February 4, 2021 by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Brad hit the nail on the head here - the lack of sustain and some very unconventional/unrealistic arrangement choices with multiple pianos in the low registers are causing this to sound very stilted and uncomfortable. There's not much I have to add to the feedback he left other than give it a strong cosign. There's plenty of promise in the arrangement and concept, but I just don't think this execution is doing it NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Brad definitely has this. Nothing I can add here, he summed it up perfectly. I think this is a great piece to really get some solid production practice in on, especially in regards to adding the humanization/pedal in to get a stronger performance aspect. Good luck. NO (resumbit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 For some reason, this arrangement feels very flat emotionally, which is weird coming from such an emotionally-charged song. I believe this is due to the piano not being performed properly, things like cadence and humanization are very spotty. Some left hand choices I don't feel like they are going along with the current expression or theme, i.e. hard chords at 1:39, which segues directly into some playful sequence giving you a bit of whiplash. This adaptation makes a lot of sense in paper, as I think a piano is perfect for carrying everything the original song wants to say, but the execution here is not there yet. I was wondering why the left hand sounded robotic and the bottom end lacking until I read the other Js pointing out the lack of sustain pedal, which makes sense. I just don't feel some of the arrangement choices work, they feel very stilted/forced at times. This needs more work, making a piano solo track is deceivingly hard. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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