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OCR04645 - *YES* Final Fantasy 5 & 8 "Into the Horizon"


Liontamer
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Remix is attached below. Thanks as always for listening!

Contact Information
Username: H36T
UserID:37144
Website: https://www.youtube.com/@H36TRemasters

Submission Information
Arrangement Games: Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VIII
Name of Arrangement: Into the Horizon
Song Being Arranged: To the North Mountain, Fisherman's Horizon

This was a song that came from the FF mashup competition. I wish I had some more substantive to say but this really was mostly a creation off the top of my head without any deep thought. The most I can say creation wise is I tried to make the two sources play nicely with each other and I ended up with something that I didn't expect hahaha. I've had people say it sounds like a game intro. I can't say I was going for that...but then again, I wasn't really going for anything in particular! I just hope people enjoy it and that's good enough for me! Go forth, little song. Into the horizon!
 
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intro is fisherman's horizon with some vox pads, and then a quick jump to the north mountain theme. there's a heavy rumbling synth under this section that's pretty muddy. 0:41 has some more stuff enter, and it's pretty off-balance again. there is a lot of low-end rumble and so it's hard to hear what's going on outside the string lead. what i can hear, though, has some neat interweaving of the themes of the two tracks, which is impressive given how different of vibes they are.

1:30 is a significant build again, to a huge peak at 1:43. i'll note that the track just barely makes it to two minutes in duration due to an extended hold on the last note and the 12s or so of intro that's cribbed straight from the start of fisherman's horizon.

this is...probably not enough of a complete work to fit the criteria of a remix. there's a surprising amount of work interweaving the melodic contents of the two songs in such a short time, but the muddiness of the master covers most of that up, and it's just too short for me. this needs another pass on the mastering side and probably more content in the middle before i'd count it.

 

 

NO

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  • prophetik music changed the title to 2023/09/16 - (1N) Final Fantasy 5 & 8 "Into the Horizon"
  • 4 weeks later...

Opens up super conservatively, though with a meaningfully different sound palette. Initially though it was an awkward transition at :11, but I got used to it as I looped this more. I'm enjoying the tradeoffs and combining of the themes. The drums brought in at :40-1:04 were noticeably weak, IMO; not enough heft to them, and the backing felt too sparse as a result; from 1:36-1:43, the drum mixing helped that part feel better integrated compared to the previous section.

Sounded like there was a subtle electric guitar line from :45-1:09 or at least something providing bass activity that was understated but filled out the background well.

I liked the overall orchestration and theme interplay throughout; I was pleasantly surprised at how well the strings were produced to give a pretty full sound. At only 2 minutes long though, everything needs to be firing on all cylinders. To me, it's mainly about getting the percussion working correctly to fill out this track.

Nah, you know what, the weak drums are only 20 seconds, and I'd love to see them thickened up even if it passed as is, but the overall arrangement is extremely creative with no repetition. prophetik argues it's too short, but it's packing a lot of arrangement substance and textural dynamics in the runtime, so I think it gets the job done and I'd rather not short-change that when it sounds like a complete cue. I thought the mixing was generally strong; it would have been easy to let something like this sound too thin; it's not overall muddy to me, just filled in.

YES (borderline)

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2023/09/16 - (1Y/1N) Final Fantasy 5 & 8 "Into the Horizon"

There's definitely some mud around the bass range: the massive reverb on the kettle drums, the bass pad, the low end of the piano, and the bass/cello are all fighting for a fairly narrow range there. If this does get sent back, there's a lot of room for improvement in the clarity there. Some stereo separation would help as well.

As for length, yes, the treatment certainly does lend itself to something larger in scope. There's 44 seconds of build-up and 28 seconds of conclusion, leaving only 52 seconds of epic cinematic meat on a 2:04 piece. It really does feel like it was originally something longer and was trimmed down to trailer length.

All that said, I don't think either issue sinks the piece. It feels too short, but that's a subjective impression and not a standards violation. Production is within tolerance, IMHO. The arrangement is such a smooth use of the two sources that I had to go back and listen to the FFV piece a few times to remind myself that this wasn't all Fisherman's Horizon, and it's definitely not. It's a great orchestration with a great sound. From me, this earns a

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2023/09/16 - Final Fantasy 5 & 8 "Into the Horizon"
  • Liontamer pinned this topic
  • 3 weeks later...

That's a LOT of content in just two minutes.  I expected to be disappointed based on the length alone, but I wasn't; what is here sounds really excellent.  But damn.... that's.... short.  MW said it best, it sounds like a longer piece trimmed down to trailer cue length.  And the intro is really stretched out, as are the few final notes of the outro.... streeeettttccchhhhhhhh and then reverb fade coasting in right at the two-minute mark.  This thing is so epic, it really deserves to be a full-length piece.  The combination of the two sources is creative and seamless, mixing is great (other than the weak drums that Larry mentioned), the arrangement has no repetition.  Let's go with it.  But H36T, don't you dare make anything this good this short ever again!

YES  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I initially said I wouldn't vote on any GSM competition tracks since I participated in it, but this has been sitting here for long enough, let's... do whatever the opposite of putting something out of its misery is! This is a stellar arrangement with serviceable mixing and sample quality across the board. The bass mud is definitely real, and as with some of your previous submissions, the kit drums are a weak link compared to the mixed orchestral percussion, but the arrangement is just stunningly emotive and beautiful. At 2 minutes long, it still feels like it has enough time to say everything it needs to say without dragging on.

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR04645 - *YES* Final Fantasy 5 & 8 "Into the Horizon"
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