Final Fantasy VII - Birth of a God (EBM, Hardbass)

[Databeast]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cK1xmW2rumTvvCRD0uPjhBikSf6eJNdY/view?usp=drivesdk

Hello all. First post, but multiple decades of lurking under my belt. 

This is a (mostly) done remix of Birth of a God from FF7. I'm still balancing out the mix a bit. I come from a mostly Industrial, EBM and Darkwave background, so I'm sure much of that has leaked into the general influences. Although, I ironically started listening to enough Hardbass where the irony wore off and I found myself enjoying the Punk simplicity of it. 

There are many nods to the original, but it veers off in the pacing and structure in areas. I did change some of the melodic elements by curtailing some of the dissonant chords. It's fairly busy. The project file has somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 channels. On a technical side, the synths used are:

Korg Minilogue XD

Neutron

Osirus (Access Virus Emulator)

And some go-to VSTi instruments - VITAL, Serum.

I'm curious what you think!

 

 

[Ronald Poe]

I listened to your remix and most of it is great. The sound design is quite impressive (definitely captures that mixture of Industrial EBM and Hardbass). The overall arrangement is solid and fits the piece to this style well. I also think "Birth of a God" is slightly underrated due to being followed up by one of the most iconic boss themes in gaming history, "One Winged Angel", and overshadowed by the latter. I can tell you put a lot of work into this remix.

However there is one major flaw I noticed, the intro is too long and monotonous (even for me). It sounds like a 5 second loop expanded to a minute and a half with minimal variation. The original's intro has some repetition but is much shorter and more varied. I feel the remix would benefit from making said intro about 20 seconds long. Sorry if I sound harsh, the rest of the remix is awesome. 

Also I haven't gotten a remix on the site before so I'm probably not the best person to critique a track. Still I feel this remix has a lot of potential and might actually pass with some slight adjustments. 

[Databeast]

8 hours ago, Ronald Poe said:

I listened to your remix and most of it is great. The sound design is quite impressive (definitely captures that mixture of Industrial EBM and Hardbass). The overall arrangement is solid and fits the piece to this style well. I also think "Birth of a God" is slightly underrated due to being followed up by one of the most iconic boss themes in gaming history, "One Winged Angel", and overshadowed by the latter. I can tell you put a lot of work into this remix.

However there is one major flaw I noticed, the intro is too long and monotonous (even for me). It sounds like a 5 second loop expanded to a minute and a half with minimal variation. The original's intro has some repetition but is much shorter and more varied. I feel the remix would benefit from making said intro about 20 seconds long. Sorry if I sound harsh, the rest of the remix is awesome. 

Also I haven't gotten a remix on the site before so I'm probably not the best person to critique a track. Still I feel this remix has a lot of potential and might actually pass with some slight adjustments. 

That's great feedback - thanks! I was wondering myself if the intro was dragging a bit. Listening to something 1,000 times over, objectivity becomes a rare commodity. 

[Hemophiliac]

Would be cool to hear either more modulation on the synths or exaggerate the modulation that's there now, because at times the synths do feel stagnant.  Taking 1:30 to get a fuller sound isn't quick and could potentially lose some listeners.  Feels normal for the genre to have long builds like that though.  The problem is now at 1:55 it's back to a pared back section with less going on.  If you're gonna take 1:30 to build up to full, at least give more time in the full section to balance it out.

The same goes for the end section (4:31-5:40), feels long and drawn out and doesn't really go anywhere or it's just an incomplete and unwritten section.

I dig the idea overall, just needs refinement and work.  Definitely workable!

[Databeast]

On 10/25/2023 at 8:17 PM, Hemophiliac said:

Would be cool to hear either more modulation on the synths or exaggerate the modulation that's there now, because at times the synths do feel stagnant.  Taking 1:30 to get a fuller sound isn't quick and could potentially lose some listeners.  Feels normal for the genre to have long builds like that though.  The problem is now at 1:55 it's back to a pared back section with less going on.  If you're gonna take 1:30 to build up to full, at least give more time in the full section to balance it out.

The same goes for the end section (4:31-5:40), feels long and drawn out and doesn't really go anywhere or it's just an incomplete and unwritten section.

I dig the idea overall, just needs refinement and work.  Definitely workable!

Thank you very much! I knew that there were a few problem areas, and I think the overall flow and dynamics feel much more fluid. 

A little side-note. I tend to get mildly engrossed with whatever I'm working on and reinstalled FF7,  then subsequently spent the past few weeks learning how to extract and convert assets to use in Blender. I've been making a neat visualizer with what I've pulled from the game files.

Next version should be final - just tying up a few loose ends. Thanks again!