Emunator Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Credits: Emunator: arrangement, sequencing, piano, mixing Chimpazilla: additional mixing, mastering Name: Infinite Collapse Game: Final Fantasy 8 (primary), Final Fantasy 4 (secondary) Sources: Compression of Time, The Red Wings Comments: This is my round 2 entry for Darkesword's Game Set Mash!! competition. Once again, I had 1 week to take a source of my choosing (in this case, Compression of Time) and create a mashup with a source chosen by the opposing team. I used this as another opportunity to do an arrangement in a style that I've always wanted to tackle; the resulting effort was a direct homage to Jon Hopkins, one of my all-time favorite producers and a huge personal inspiration in the way he approaches sound design. I feel that anything pertaining to Jon Hopkins requires a bit of context, since his music is not the most immediately accessible. Typically, his songs are very long explorations of an extremely simple chord progression, frequently only 1 or 2 chords for the entire duration. Nearly all of the development is accomplished through sound design and subtle evolution as the arrangement progresses. He makes heavy use of distortion and glitch effects juxtaposed with beautiful melodic tones in a way that is paradoxically beautiful and visceral. The two tracks I found myself referencing most during the creation process were "Everything Connected" and "Feel First Life". With these references in mind, I basically threw as much against the wall as I could possibly within the span of 1 week, and I'm extraordinarily proud of the results. While I mostly want to let the arrangement speak for itself (preferably enjoyed on a nice pair of headphones or a big booming subwoofer,) I did want to particularly highlight the transition section from 3:27-4:16, which was a monumental task in and of itself to get to work smoothly. I automated tempo, reverb and delay on the master chain, and even added some random automation to the master swing levels on all sequenced instruments to introduce some off-kilter polyrhythms before diving back into the final chorus. I wanted this transition to feel like being sucked into a black hole and being split apart into atoms, and then being spat out and gradually falling back together again. The whole song is written as an endless loop, starting off with a singular piano note and building up to infinity before collapsing back down to that same singular note. Who knows if any of this will translate to a pleasant listening experience, but everything about this was very deliberate - hopefully you find something to like here! ... or maybe I spoke too soon. In revisiting this with some fresh ears and some outside help from Chimpazilla, it turns out that my original mix/master WAS too heavy on the needless distortion and was pretty painful to listen to. So she helped me get a fresh coat of paint on this one by walking through the project file with me track-by-track, and then helping with some additional mixing and a fresh master that sounds LOADS cleaner without sacrificing any of the grit Reference Tracks: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 (edited) never heard Everything Connected before but i love it. intro is very slow with some sfx and intentional artifacting. the initial riff with the aug 4 from FF8 is in the keys after the first big hit at 0:48, with the subsequent progressions weaving in and out of that pattern. the clock sfx is a nice addition around the time motif. we get a beat at 2:02 after a neat transition that might be a little heavy on highs, but it's still ticking through until it finally hits after some great sidechain action at 2:27. around the 2:50 mark, we finally get the first red wings cameo that i've heard. there's a drop at 3:15 or so, and we start getting some more off-time content which is a neat addition. this entire section from like 3:30 onward is really intense, there's a ton going on but it mostly stays audible throughout. there's the breakdown-rebuild section mentioned above, which is pretty neat, and then we're back into the melodic content at 4:16. this is still mostly compression of time, but there's definitely some red wings content in there. 5:04 is the last big hit (with a touch of distortion, not sure it's intentional). there's some significant falling action after this section. 5:30 or so is a significant shift - it's way slower, the beat is much more plodding intentionally, and the vibe is totally different. 6:07 is kind of the beginning of the end - it's a very clear shift away from tempo sync, with a lot more flexibility as the track finishes out. there's some very languid red wings motivic stuff in here but it's pretty stretchy. i cannot believe you did this in one week. the breadth of complexity is nuts here. there's certainly a bit of crunch in the mastering occasionally, but the quality of content in this track is incredible. you should probably stop doing this kind of stuff for free. YES edit 11/7: no complaints here. this song is a triumph. Edited November 7, 2023 by prophetik music Emunator 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 27, 2023 Share Posted September 27, 2023 (edited) The opening soundscape sounds crunchy from :49-on when it's just meant to sound crystalline. The bowed strings until 2:04 actually felt like they were needlessly crowding the soundscape, so I was glad when they dropped out. 2:26 shifted into an awkward chippy lead, and texture felt too lopsided toward that, feeling pretty empty until 2:54. I'm getting a lot of high-end sizzle, but not clarity and sharpness with these textures. The phasing lines from 3:39 were crowding out other stuff, and the soundscape genuinely felt very messy until around 5:24. I get how it's tied into the track's title and gimmick; it was initially unpleasent listening to the "Compression of Time" melody de-sync for such an extended period of time with the countermelody until 4:10, but I got used to it and appreciate that part of the gimmick. Something about how this is piece is mixed causing the parts to sound abrasive, competing with each other to be heard, and lacking synergy instead of gluing together, and it's apparent for me as early as :54. Very awkward, abrupt addition of beefy kicks & claps at 5:05 that I'm assuming was intentional while feeling like a sloppy mistake. I listened to the reference tracks, but I'm admittedly not understanding where this all connects stylistically. The ending section at 6:07 was a beautiful, extended winddown where you could really bask in the sound design; opening the soundscape back up was a help, and the strings were a highlight there. The loop point was also a nice idea. Obviously, Wes knows how to make good music, and I like the arrangement in a vacuum, so it'll feel like I'm not giving him grace on some stylistic choices. Production-wise, this had some similar mixing issues with his recent DKC submission that he later ended up revising; the levels during the most intense areas were too hot and need to be pulled back, and the overall mixing is actually undermining the writing and textures, IMO. I apologize at my inability to isolate and describe the issues. It may take someone more knowledgeable to articulate what can be done about this in a way that Wes can work with. No matter what, I'm a stickler. Until we receive a more balanced mixing of this that lets the parts breathe and interact with synergy, I be a stickler. [sic] NO (resubmit) EDIT (11/9): Being right can be a curse sometimes. ;-D If I can be a dad or judgevet for a minute, if you can be honest with yourself, it's easier to then be honest with other people. Even though Wes is my friend and colleague, I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of being anything less than honest and forthcoming with my critiques. Mixing's on point now, so let's go! YES Edited November 9, 2023 by Liontamer changed vote from NO (resubmit) to YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted October 15, 2023 Author Share Posted October 15, 2023 Whatever FINE I'm going to fix it. Pls hold on anymore votes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Well, when you're right, you're right! This needed some tweaking. @Liontamer@prophetik music this one has been overhauled on the mixing and should sound a lot better now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 I held off on voting on this one until it could be fixed, and didn't notice until now that it had been. What a strange and interesting way of integrating these sources. Red Wings hardly receives any treatment at all, though it's certainly there (I first spotted it at 1:39), and it's so subtle you could easily miss it completely. I do find it pretty monotonous. The Jon Hopkins pieces that served as inspiration are as well, so it's understandable. There are plenty of textural changes to hold the listener's interest, even if there aren't many melodic ones. It's definitely a showcase of fantastic sound design. So much richer and more vibrant than the Hopkins songs. Absolutely gorgeous soundscape you can get lost in. This one's an easy YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Well this one was easy. Awesome soundscape, love the source usage, and was very internally uncomfortable with the disintegration of the tune right before 4m. Like...maybe it's a little repetitive? It could probably have stood well at about 5:00 instead of 7:30? I felt like the ending probably didn't need to go on for 90 seconds, but I also understand why that choice was made. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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