Liontamer Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Original Decision Resubmission. I switched out the piano for added depth and warmth. Tweaked the reverb. Added a little warmth and reduced some of the brightness from the highs. I asked Chimpazilla for clarification on something she had said in the previous decision and she ended up helping me and asked to let her do a master. Games & Sources: Final Fantasy 6 - Forever Rachel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWfdEj9jHDM (main source) Final Fantasy 7 - Tifa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO_ftxA28Y8 (main source) Final Fantasy 7 - Mako Reactor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZH6coTxDTo (cameo of the intro only) Final Fantasy 6 - Terra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObccgHQdos0 (cameo of the melody) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 20, 2023 Author Share Posted December 20, 2023 Still has lots of sample-exposing moments, like at :15, 1:50 & 1:52, where the highest notes absolutely made me wince, plus the timing still feels too rigid. More attention to the right-hand part in particular not sound as stilted would help. That said, the updated piano sample's thankfully richer and more expressive. Dunno what you did, Chimpa, meddler of meddlers, but whatever secret sauce was added pulled it over the bar. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 i voted NO before, complaining about technical elements. piano is a much richer tone overall that doesn't kill my ears with the upper right hand. i think the room tone of the instrument is better too, but it's not obvious to me if that's just a result of the piano tone being more accessible as it's not like you layered in concert hall spacing. like LT said - it still feels rigid in paces, there's still a few notes that aren't quite what i'd expect, and definitely doesn't feel like an acoustic piano (some of the hard note stops from a pedal lift are just very keyboardy), but this is much more listenable. thank you for taking the time to do some rework. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) Wow, there's some black magic piano production wizardry at work here, this sounds fabulous now! There's a limited number of moments where the piano still falls into the uncanny valley, but at this level of polish, we're just taking minor pitstops into the valley rather than living in it. Much improved, my friends! YES Edited December 20, 2023 by Emunator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Chris said I should recuse myself from voting on this resub, since I stuck my nose so far into the production of it. I will honor that, but if you guys think I can vote, my vote is a hearty YES. I made an error when I listened to his original submission. Cubase decided to be evil and put the wav into "musical mode" without asking or telling me. Having not heard the piece before, I had no way to know that the speed was off. As a result, I heard it too fast, comically so. My comments in the vote reflect this. Listening to the original at the correct speed, my vote would still have been NO, however, but not as strongly so. Chris reached out to me to clarify something I had said in my vote (not even related to my error in playback speed!). We got to talking, and we came up with some ways to improve the sound of his piano and reverb. Doing a fully-sequenced solo piano piece is very difficult to get right, but he persevered with the humanization, which was hugely improved with the new piano patch and revised reverb. He did a great job I think! Then I brute-forced him to let me master it. I think the result is miraculous. The composition of this piece is glorious. I listened to it infinity times while working on it with him, and each time it brought emotional tears to my eyes. He filled the arrangement with such beauty and emotion, and his humanization work pushed it well over the top. The combination of themes is absolutely seamless. It was a joy to help him get this arrangement sounding its best and I appreciate Chris's trust so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 I hate to be a negative Nancy on this, because the faux-performance is fantastic, the production is excellent, and the execution of the individual sections is beyond reproach. But everyone praising the sources flowing together seamlessly or naturally... I don't get it. It's not quite a medley, the transitions aren't as abrupt as all that, but several of them are really abrupt, and there's no integration of them into each other. It just flip-flops the whole time. Rachel, Tifa, Rachel, Tifa, Rachel, (Terra), Tifa, Rachel, Tifa, and then not much of an ending. Now, granted, it's hard to mix two themes together on solo piano, you only have two hands, but you did manage to do it a little bit with the Mako Reactor theme. While I do think that the chopped-up nature of it is a substantial minus, I don't think it outweighs the other strengths. I think it would have been much stronger as an arrangement of one theme or the other, but it is strong enough to pass. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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