Emunator Posted December 9, 2023 Share Posted December 9, 2023 (edited) ReMixer: janet-wallace Name: Janet Wallace Email: User id: 38384 Game: Final Fantasy IX (Square, 2000) Arrangement: Kingdom of Eternal Ran and Sorrow Song Arranged: Burmecia's Theme Composer: Nobuo Uematsu Game system: Playstation 1 Game genre: RPG DAW used: LMMS About the remix: This is a track meant to be appreciated under different states of mind. A set of Rhodes Pianos playing on both left and right channels to create a sense of urgency, followed by a 8-bit synth and a background drone that further accentuates the melancholy in order to create, or in this case, recreate the desolate, oppressive atmosphere of Burmecia, Kingdom of Eternal Rain through sound. My intention with the Rhodes percussion was to make something that sounded like water ripples clashing against the ground, and I was inspired by one of Peter Gabriel's songs, "San Jacinto'', while composing it. Edited January 4 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 the original is so minimalistic - like, the actual meaning of the word, not just 'there's not much going on' - so, i love the idea of a very stripped-down instrumentation to represent it. the rhodes elements appear to be a set of plectral percussion, which would work if they weren't so pitched. there are numerous places that the percussion feels like it's directly competing with a chordal element (0:32 is a good example, as is 1:08 and 2:18). separately, there are numerous times where the organ instrument has direct dissonances in the chorded rhodes (0:18, 1:21, ) that don't sound positive or like they're building stress - they just sound wrong. the track follows the same overall structure and essentially never changes - organ chords navigating through the original chord structure, left hand of the left rhodes on 1, 2, and the an of 3, and then chorded elements on the and of 3 alongside continuous burbling rhodes percussion. this is not an compositional technique that lends itself to personal interpretation or transformative arrangement. there are certainly examples of extreme minimalism used in remixes - we've got a track that apes In C, for example, and my own Animal Counterpoint is built from a heavily minimal original track and apes New York Counterpoint heavily. so it's absolutely doable. this however doesn't demonstrate the same level of transformative arrangement that those do, and what it does do isn't super pleasant to listen to due to the nature of the plectral percussion and the dissonances in the approach. i love the experimental nature of this. i don't think it works, unfortunately. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 The source tune isn't much -- it's a minimalistic 35-second loop -- but for OCR standards, you've gotta have something more substantive and varied with the arrangement going on. The "San Jacinto" influence was a genuinely cool idea that worked here; I'd keep in mind that "San Jacinto" has several textural twists and turns even as that pattern remains in play. Beyond the beep-boopy "San Jacinto"-style countermelody, which was a good addition, as well as some organ with a bit of a low rumble that would, this was just as repetitive as the source tune. We need something that develops and evolves as a standalone piece of music. I'm not saying prophetik's wrong about the off-notes he felt he heard (he's right), but they were quiet enough that they didn't bother me. They should still be addressed, but it wasn't a big deal. If you have any other ideas to vary and evolve the presentation, Janet, e.g. more substantive textural changes, additive writing, changing leads or other instrumentation, then take another crack at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I have to echo the above. The arrangement is just so one-note. Vocal pieces like San Jacinto can get away with having a fairly static backing because the focus is on the singing and the lyrics. But even that song does have some textural development, even ignoring the vocals. I would like to add that I'm impressed you were able to make something with LMMS that didn't get dinged for synthesis or production issues. Free DAWs, especially ones that run on Linux, need more love, but they're a challenge to use. To my knowledge we haven't had an LMMS ReMix get posted yet, but I'd love to see it happen. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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