Chimpazilla Posted September 10, 2023 Share Posted September 10, 2023 (edited) Remixer: Chimpazilla Game: Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Themes remixed: Island Life, File Select Name of arrangement: Let Me Be Your Love --------------------------------------------------------------- I still love Phantom Hourglass after all these years, and I play it often. It is like a light version of Wind Waker; it plays on the Nintendo DS and it has a very special feel as the adventure takes place across islands on a vast ocean. I have always loved the Island Life theme in the game. The song plays during the scene when the whole group is on the beach and Ciela rediscovers her lost memories. Ciela is the primary fairy who accompanies Link through the adventure, although two additional fairies join the party during the story. The Island Life theme is essentially the countermelody in the traditional Fairy Fountain theme, with just a bassline added. While almost every Zelda game features the Fairy Fountain theme, Phantom Hourglass has no actual fairy fountains. The Fairy Fountain theme is used instead as the File Select theme, and it appears again in its simplified form as Island Life during Ciela's memory-restoring scene. As for my remix, I started out with no expectations, I simply enjoyed playing around with the motifs and beats. I felt very inspired and the mix came together in just a few days. The end result of my endeavor is a very upbeat Summer House mix with happy, lovey vocals. Hope it makes you smile! --------------------------------------------------------------- Written, arranged, produced, mixed and mastered by Chimpazilla. Vocal collaborators: Mr. S. Plice, and his lovely wife Ms. V. Ocaloops-Plice --------------------------------------------------------------- Source use: (219/276 seconds, 79% source) 0:00-0:07 Original intro 0:08-0:21 Bassline from Island Life (0:00-0:04 in source) 0:23-0:53 Main motif from File Select 0:54-1:24 Lead from Island Life (aka countermelody in File Select) 1:25-1:39 Bassline from Island Life 1:40-2:10 Original 2:11-2:15 Main motif from File Select 2:18-2:23 Main motif from File Select 2:26-2:56 Original lead solo over main motif from File Select 2:57-4:30 Main motif from File Select Edited September 17, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 I'm reticent for a brief moment because Kris is a friend and it'll come off like I hated this and feel it's not able to be improved. Still though, the dagger goes in. The lyrics don't fit this, IMO, which is a dealbreaker. I can't explain it in theory terms, so maybe someone else can; for me, the lyrics almost never clicked with the instrumental. It's most obvious around 1:03 ("Let me be your love"), but to me it's pretty much anywhere when they're in tandem with the arranged VGM (the original section of 1:25-2:10 was not a big deal with the minimal source usage until 1:39, and I liked "'Cause we're gone" at 2:40). The sampled lines felt very shoehorned in due to not fully following the direction of the source tune. Not sure if you'd can auto-tune them to better harmonize/fit with the melodies of the instrumental. If this doesn't make it as is, it's up to you what direction you'd want to go in, whether that's going instrumental, writing original lyrics and getting vocalists to do something fitting, reducing the amount of these sampled lyrics to limit the awkward textures, or finding other sampled vocals (or just vocal lines) that work better. The arrangement's all good, and the sheen and polish of the sampled vocals sounded very pro. However, the combination isn't working, the synnergy isn't there. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 upbeat intro. there's a bunch of fun effects going on in the beginning that build up nice into the drop at 0:23. there's some voiceover at 0:40 that i wasn't really expecting, but that sounds ok. there's some singing that comes in at 0:53, and i agree that the singing line does not fit the chords going on underneath. the chorus here is Db Ab/C Eb/G Ab, with an F/A at 1:15 as a sparkle chord (secondary dominant, this is a V7/ii which is a clever idea) into ii V as the turnaround. so that's pretty straightforward and has some fun stuff, like stepping from Ab to A to Bb. from a melodic perspective, the first line over Db and Ab is fine because it's F and quickly descends in a scalar fashion to a C, which is fitting with the key (though sitting on the Db over the Ab/C isn't a great sound). it then goes back up to the F over the Eb/G, which doesn't work. This goes down to Eb and Db, and by the time it gets to Db, it's over the Ab again (fourth over a major chord does not work since it conflicts a half step away with the third of the chord, a C). "let me be your love" here works because it's settling on the Eb, which is the fifth. the second time through the chorus, the melodic material again starts on an F, but this time sits on the upper part of that, and does it in an adjacent key. the melody goes F Ab Gb F, which is fine if the key was Db, but being in Ab the Gb and F don't sound right. Gb isn't in Ab, that's the flatted 7 instead, and so it should probably be a G, and then the line resolves with an Ab/C under it on F which isn't part of that chord. it sits on the F over the Ab for a bit and then goes up to the A for the F/A, which would be good but it gets there before the F/A happens so it sounds like an A against an Ab chord. the last part, "let me be your love", is F to Ab which is fine over Bbm, but sounds weird over Eb (since F is the 9th and Ab is the 11th and against the G in the Eb chord). /wordvomit the rest is more of the same. i like the vocal flips that are applied throughout, i just wish they were in a different key entirely. it's even more exacerbated at 2:27 because you've got the highly chromatic melodic material with the lead singing that's not quite in the key again. i won't do an entire breakdown since i don't have time before work, but i'd love to hammer out some concepts with this over a call, kris, since i think there's a dope track here if you just pitch-shifted the entire background up a fourth. not even kidding. the backing parts are excellent and i like the back and forth between the voiceover and singing. i also think that a few slight changes would still keep the melodic material recognizable but maybe hide the chromaticism from the singing elements. this is such a good idea. but i'm on larry's side. the vocals don't fit the track at all, but they could! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 (edited) Alright, guys. *removes Larry's dagger from back* No more voting on this until I decide if it is fixable. I'm going to work with Brad since he's the boss at this stuff. If there's a fix, awesome, and I'll essentially resubmit it. If not, it's gonna be a judge-self-NO-override. ON HOLD (plz no more votes for now) Edit 9-15-23: Brad was kind enough to make some edits to the primary female vocal stem, to bring the notes into the proper key, but unfortunately the pitch-shifting kind of destroyed the melodic contour of the vocal line. Clearly, the vocals will need to be deleted altogether and another idea added in, perhaps something instrumental. Gonna have to think about this while it stays on hold for now. Thank you so much for your efforts, Brad! Edited September 15, 2023 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 17, 2023 Author Share Posted September 17, 2023 Ok so this track will have to be re-imagined as an instrumental in order to fully work. I really loved these sampled vocals and I essentially built the track around them. I thought it worked well enough, as did the three people (all musicians) with whom I shared the track before I paneled it. But if there's any doubt about the vocals working for everyone, I could never be happy having this released. Thanks again Brad for your kindness and your efforts to help me with this. I sure wish it had been an easy fix! At some point I will give this another go as an instrumental. I need a break from it first. Anyone wanting to collab this with me, let me know! But for now, let's clear this out of the queue. judge-self-NO-override Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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