OCR04522 - *YES* Final Fantasy 8 "Into the Singularity" *PROJECT*

[Liontamer]

Howdy,

Remixer name: Sirenstar (feat. Jorito)

 

Real name: Natalie A.

Email: 

Credits: vocals, MIDI piano, arrangement, production

Socials: beacons.ai/sirenstar

 

Jorito:

Real name: Jorrith Schaap

Credits:  mixing, MIDI percussion, production, effects

Socials:  https://linktr.ee/joritomusic

Submission information:

Name of Game(s) Remixed: Final Fantasy 8
Name of Arrangement: Into the Singularity
Names of songs arranged: Compression of Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqjeb-CQvuQ)
Link to the remix: 
Comments about the mix:

Sirenstar:

 

I've been obsessed with this track since FF8's first PS1 release. It's all "f your tonality/harmony, gently place into dumpster while you do a bunch of tritones and parallel fifths (aka crime). But make it fashion." Yeah, sign me up.

So, you may be asking yourself, "What else was Sirenstar doing in 1999?" The answer is, getting into j-rock but also listening to "Adiemus Greatest Hits" on repeat.

Eternally grateful to Jorito for coming on board to mix and help refine the arrangement, all while he's been co-chairing the entire album. He has produced a total of 58328063854784 arrangements though so it was just another day for him XD. If you recall the Terranigma album from a few years ago, he was like yeah I feel like making some synthwave and then suddenly *Miami 1984 sunset grid lines palm trees intensifies*.

Normally I'm a very lyrics-forward composer but for this arrangement, I wanted the song structure to take center stage. I haven't worked with glossolalia much before so I wondered what I was going to "say" exactly. The answer was pretty simple -- "when are you?" Because tbh when is anyone lol.

As for the ending, a gentle reminder from myself and the SeeDs of Pandora album chairs Jorito and Darkflamewolf: please not Compress the Time; nobody wants that and now we have to fix it, no thanks to you.

Jorito:

Natalie has collaborated with me on a few tracks over the past few years, and it was high time I returned the favor. She had an idea for an arrangement of "Compression of Time", and already tried it a few times herself before, but needed a hand to help execute it. So I offered to help her out by mixing it and sprinkling some production magic fairy dust on her track to make her vision come to life.

Somewhere along the line came the idea to add some static to the track, as a kind of compression of time noise. I took that idea and ran with it, adding all kinds of static, distortion, glitching and reverse samples to make one of the weirdest endings of a track I ever did. Fun!

Hope you like it, and I'm stoked that Natalie finally has her vision realized and her track released!

Lyrics:

There are no lyrics, this is my first foray into glossolalia (aka ConLang, constructed language), however the "words" were based on the phrase "when are you?"  

Cheers,
Natalie

[Emunator]

This was one of my early favorites from the FF8 album. As is the case with the source material, everything is constructed essentially from a series of loops, but the vocals absolutely elevate this to the next level. The backing chord progression is so dramatic and supports the vocals perfectly. I found the glitching at the end to be a little more hit or miss in terms of execution; some of the effects felt a little too random, and  I sometimes wished that it fell a LITTLE more in-time with the beat, but I get what you were going for so it's not a big deal in light of all the other amazing things you brought to the table.

YES

[MindWanderer]

This sounds absolutely gorgeous up until 3:14, but I have to say I strongly dislike the glitching effect. It sounds unintentional for a long time. I didn't suspect it might be intentional until 3:30, and wasn't confident it was until 3:37. It took until 3:47 before I really understood where you were going with it. And it just doesn't sound good at all. To me it ruins a really gorgeous piece.

I understand that the glitching is part of the vision here. And I respect it. But Emu nails it here: it's not done in a way that makes it seem like it's part of the music. It detracts from it instead of adding an element of interest.

Everything else here, I love. And I want a version of this track posted, very badly. But I think the glitching needs revision. Focus on sounds that don't sound like production artifacts (especially at the beginning so the listener doesn't assume the worst), and integrate them with the beat somewhat.  The way it's executed right now is a dealbreaker for me.

NO (please resubmit!)

P.S. Glossolalia is "speaking in tongues," i.e. vocalizations that sound like words and sentences but have no meaning. A conlang is created intentionally, and does have meaning, even if that meaning is not widely known.

[Gario]

Literally my favorite track from the album, with a great arrangement, good production (and intentional glitching), and some really beautiful vocals to tie it all together. I can hear what others are saying about the glitching, but I had no problem hearing their intentional nature, especially considering the source and FF8 story it's tied to. Perhaps we should consider whether we account for that in our judgments (since not everyone will be familiar with the source game), but it makes good sense with that in mind and honestly would detract from the intent of the arrangement if removed.

No complaints from me, would be fantastic to see it on the front page.

YES

[Liontamer]

Lovely arrangement, conservatively structured with an expansive instrumentation approach, including the vocals. Anything reminiscent of a Yoko Kanno/Ghost in the Shell style is all good with me.  I could see how the glitching would make someone feel it wasn't necessary, but to me it's a minor and fleeting element, and you can hear the music maintain its integrity while it's happening, so I'm surprised MW would reject it for that. Glitch away, chief!

YES

[prophetik music]

really neat intro, and the first minute or so before the glossolalia sounds super good. layering sustains against the iconic tritone pattern really emphasizes how strange that pattern is.

the initial presentation of the ?lyrics? is a really interesting concatenation of your intentionally un-classical vocal tone (which to me sounds more folky, that is less rigid/within strictures) against the backing style, which to me presents as more rigid and constrained. the slight glides between the upper and lower pitches on the bigger jumps, the very wide vowel tones, and the ethnic choir sound of your voice harmonizing with itself really is a significant juxtaposition against buzz synths and FM bells. i think it's really neat.

2:15 kind of finishes the first part, and starts a different approach for vocals as well. you use a more closed vowel tone here alongside a more traditionally classical approach to your vibrato. there's a few more obvious pitch issues here (understandably, it's harder to pitch-shift tones that are richer in overtones and have heavier vibrato over a very thin pitch with no vibrato). the slide where you stop your vibrato and try to gliss down is probably my least favorite part of the song actually, it is hard to hear that as anything other than just out of tune.

i understand the intent behind the glitching effects - at that point, the track has been doing the same thing for over three minutes with essentially no break in the backing part whatsoever, and the vocal parts although interesting have been doing the same thing too. as a method of mixing it up, this is certainly effective at shifting the style. i don't mind it as strongly as the other judges. i do think though that it exposes just how little there is behind the arrangement overall - there's essentially two chords, and you're either not singing, singing the invented stuff, or singing ahh tones that do roughly the same thing across the board. sometimes a track just needs a cool idea to get it from point A to point B. i found myself wishing this track had more there from an arrangement standpoint ultimately, rather than just being about the same volume with the same backing parts and roughly the same ideas in the melodic content for >4 minutes.

to be clear, this is definitely over the bar. it's a creative approach to a weird source and has some great ideas. i wouldn't have minded it being a minute shorter, or having more development to stop it feeling so samey across the board.

 

 

YES