OCR04774 - *YES* Genshin Impact "Thunderbird Rising"

[Emunator]

Artist Name: OceansAndrew

A thematic remix combining several of the Inazuma area themes, specifically from Tsurumi island. When you encounter the island in the story, it is millennia after a cataclysmic event where the island was laid to waste, and ever since, it has been lost in a deep fog. 

The original themes are very sparse and mournful, signifying that even after thousands of years, the despair remained. I wanted to reimagine the themes as a more immediate arrangement, going back thousands of years where the majesty of an unstoppable destructive force turns it's wrathful gaze upon the island.

 

The music in this game is so good and i'm already working on a few other arrangements from different in-game nations. Who knows? Maybe i'll even finish a world tour someday.

 

source 1: Misty Truth

 

source 2: Sorrow of Strays

 

source 3: Fading Memories

[prophetik music]

nice percussive muted plectral instrument to start with a slower version of the intro of misty truth. this flows well into the first few chords of sorrows of strays. the guitars and beat come in at 0:45, and while there is some other stuff going on, the drums and guitars are the majority of what you can hear. i think the rhythm guitars here are too loud relative to everything else.

there's a big drop at 1:36, and we get more of the plectral instrument and some orchestral elements. there's some conflicting notes at 1:51 where it sounds like you go to a borrowed chord in some but not all harmonic elements. the synths at 2:02 are a neat idea to again combine rock elements with the existing orchestral ensemble to build to a bigger hit at 2:24. the rhythm guitars here are again really loud and it's hard to hear the lead or other backing elements besides the drums.

this builds for a bit before we get to a transition that leads to fading memories at 3:02. lots of lush sustains and some really nice acoustic guitar. this is mostly led by piano, and there's some rolling arpeggiated elements in the left hand. it sounds like there's some repeated notes in the arpeggios which is a little weird to my ear, but that's a nitpick. this flows through to a sustain for an ending.

i think this is pretty nice! there's some balance stuff and a few weird note selections, but as a whole this does a great job highlighting the beautiful originals in a few different ways. nice work.

 

 

YES

Edited December 4, 2023 by prophetik music

[MindWanderer]

I was going to say virtually the same thing as Brad. Epic, engaging, and diverse. A little muddy in the busier sections, notably with the rhythm guitar eating up all the space that the orchestral instruments need to breathe. And there are some sections where the melody and the accompaniment don't seem to be on the same page about what they should be doing. These are small issues, though, and don't stop this from being a

YES

[Liontamer]

Arrangement's a nice progression of these 3 themes. The mixing's muddier than it should be, so I wouldn't mind another pass. That said, I wouldn't want to hear :47-1:36's bowed string samples being more exposed, so I guess it'll do. Didn't think the snare tone at :45 fit well either. Nice dynamic shift in the energy at 1:35. The timing of the synth from 1:59-2:22 felt too rigid when a more fluid sound could have clicked more, but the pacing's meant to be deliberate.

Nice pensive sound at 2:51 with the shift into "Fading Memories", and the bowed string writing sounded stronger there as well. Though the piano timing was stilted to me, I really dig the interplay of all of the elements for the 3:37 section as well; there were a lot of good areas that could be focused in on, and I found myself rewinding things back to pay closer attention to each element. Nice choice of sources by OA that connected well together. It'll sound like I'm saying the rock aspect was a weak link; the introduction up to :45 was such cool stuff from OA that I'd love to hear a lot more from him in that style without the rock, because it was a stylish new wrinkle in his game.

YES

[Emunator]

Gorgeous plucked textures and orchestra to start, this feels like a significant departure from your usual work - I wonder if these are the same sounds you've been exploring on Flowstone Saga. Only time will tell, I suppose. From there, we go into more traditional OceansAndrew fare - soaring lead lines, thick rhythm guitars, and a variety of synths, which is just as gratifying now as it always has been. The extra symphonic embellishments go a long way in keeping things dynamic and enjoyable.

I will say that the mixing here feels sub-par in a couple of ways. The lead guitar EQ curve feels strange, for lack of a more specific term, and it doesn't blend nicely with the rhythm guitars, which often overpower it. There's a huge impact at just before the 3 minute mark that seems to distort due to how loud it is, which just feels like an oversight. In fact, a lot of the sounds in here feel like they're pushing against the limiter needlessly, which is causing pumping and a general feeling of overcompression. Not the end of the world - everything is more or less audible and the compression falls just short of distracting, but the mixdown ultimately feels like a first pass instead of a final product. C'est la vie, the rest of the track is so solid that I can't imagine a world where this doesn't pass as-is.

YES