OCR04727 - *YES* Final Fantasy 8 "Beyond the Shores"

[Emunator]

Artist Name: LadyReemz & Marc Papeghin

"Beyond the Shores" is a collaboration between LadyReemz ( known as LadyReemz86 on YouTube) and Marc Papeghin ( same name on YT).

Ladyreemz wrote original lyrics for the song, envisioning a young fisherman's hopes for the future in the town of Fisherman's Horizon. She also sang lead vocals on the track. Marc Papeghin arranged the music, and sang parts during the chorus of the song.

Below are the original lyrics written for the track:

Verse 1

The Ocean calls me wherever I go

I'd even name it my home

I soar I fly, when I float under the sky

Clouds endless shapes pass me by

Verse 2

* Beneath the surface, treasures left unknown

A curious world of its own

I dream a day, where one day I'll no longer wait

Live life free of all constraints

Bridge

Why do I wait what for?

There's so much more to explore

There's no turning back there is just too much to see

Beyond these shores, these shores

Verse 3

* Oh sturdy wood, do not dare fail me now

Father awaits, and we'll make him proud

I must I will, the plates tonight I shall fill

How much I've grown no more doubt

Verse 4

*Oh waves of strength, lull me to sleep

Help me find all dreams deep

When I wake, I'll know where my heart will set sail to

past the horizon with the winds

Bridge x 1

Chorus

The Ocean calls me wherever I go

I'd even name it my home

I soar I fly, when I float under the sky

Clouds endless shapes pass me by

I soar I fly, when I float under the sky

Clouds endless shapes pass me by

---

Games & Sources

"Beyond the Shores" is an original arrangement of Final Fantasy 8's "Fisherman's Horizon". There is also a few seconds pertaining to the "Game Over" music in FF8.

[prophetik music]

some really beautiful winds to start the track. really well-handled part-writing. vocals start at 0:22. there's some room sound here, but the singing is skillful. in general, watch that you don't combine vowels ("I soar I fly" was more "I so rai fly"). there's a bit of phasing on the vocals as well which i think is a combination of pitch correction and the verb chosen, it's kind of a weird effect - watch that you're not removing all pitch drift from a sustain, it can cause some audible artifacts if you do. second verse features some backing vocal elements which is really nicely handled. they're pretty loud and should really be turned down quite a bit, but they're performed well and do a good job of mixing up what'd be a repetitious verse.

bridge was clearly punched in and sounds different. there's a resonant ring to this particular recording as well which is a bit distracting. the range displayed is really impressive though - excellent work keeping good diction all the way down to the bottom of the line. there's again some really nice winds for the transition. around here i realized that the drums are both very, very basic and the piano part is also very, very repetitive. there's little of the fills and unique elements that you'd expect to hear from the piano especially.

the balance in verse 4 is a bit off as the backing organ is pretty loud relative to what's going on in the foreground as is the snare, but it sounds great when the strings come in and the harmonic elements are all firing at 3:23. the octaves sound great here. the big payoff chord at 3:50 is awesome and feels so short - i wanted more! =) there's an instrumental bridge after this with some interesting different new synths. the prelude synth was a fun idea but really needed some room verb on it so it didn't sound so far out of the mix, and there's some strings in the right ear that are panned a little far. overall the solo here is great though and builds nicely into 5:07.

last big run-through of the chorus section at 5:07 is a great payoff chorus and sounds really nice. the pitch correction on the last word at 5:50 was pretty obvious - that might have been an opportunity for a better recording vs. fixing what was there. the rest of the track is outro. i liked the wordless section to finish it but may have wanted that to be a bit quieter, and to have a more consistent cutoff on the notes.

this is a great arrangement! what a fun adaptation of such a timeless, beautiful original. ladyreemz does a great job with all of the various harmonic elements throughout, outside of a few nitpicks. marc, the arrangement is excellent and you do a great job of keeping the arrangement moving and creative throughout, nitpicks aside. what a great addition this will make to the site.

 

 

YES

Edited March 20 by prophetik music

[Liontamer]

Can’t go wrong arranging “Fisherman’s Horizon”. :-) Solid performance and production on Reemz’ vocals. Appreciated the layering of the vocals during the chorus section and the second verse. In the second verse, felt like the snare was too loud and feeling too locked in and metronome-like; pushing up the bass writing would have helped lessen that feel.

The tone of the synth handling the “Game Over” cameo and camping at 4:06 didn’t fit the mood of this at all; I’ll live, but something less wacky-sounding would have had more synergy. No big deal in the big picture when the overall concept and execution are strong; quite the different dimension to the source, going the vocal route.

The closing section after 6:22 was a very cool second resolution on top of the initial resolution around 6:04. A legit viable double ending, very cool, Marc and Reemz. Nice job, y’all! :-)

YES

[Hemophiliac]

Vocal harmony!! I want more vocal harmony in the world, thank you for giving me some here. I not expect it to come from Fisherman's Horizon, awesome :)

There's some minor pitch correction throughout, but nobody is perfect all the time. It's barely there, generally only notice it on the longer held-out notes. Ladyreemz's timbre works very well with the style and fits like a glove.

This arrangement is fantastic and really takes us on a journey with a lot of development and orchestration throughout. I honestly didn't realize this was 7 minutes long until after it was over and saw the time at the end. 4:07-4:20 using the prelude as a background figure was good call and allowed the next section to be prepared by introducing the synth like that.  Was that a tiny racing chocobos - place your bets cameo from FF7 at 4:42-4:44??

The only nitpick I have is with the mixing of the percussion. I feel like we could've beefed up the kick and snare and let them have more presence in the mix later in the track (3:53-5:49). As they seem to sit just under everything else rather then adding more energy.

The final reprise is a great payoff for the track bringing in as many elements as you did including a bigger vocal stack including Marc joining in.

FANTASTIC!

YES

[Emunator]

I'll start off with sweeping compliments for the arrangement, vocal performance, and instrumentation - you really committed to an ambitious concept and saw it through to completion with boldness and bravado. The vocal performance and harmonies are stunning, and it's supported by a wide array of instruments that keep bringing something new to the table. The big climactic statement around the 5 minute mark was massive and perfectly executed. I'll echo the sentiment that this didn't feel like 7 minutes long AT ALL, it breezed by. The synth solo really brings me back to the mid-2000's glory days of OCReMix artists like Jovette Rivera, OceansAndrew, or Star Salzman among many others, and this feels right at home in that pantheon.

The production leaves a bit to be desired in some areas, many of which were already detailed by prophetik. The vocal performances are great, but the processing is less airtight, with noticeable artifacting due to pitch correction and a very strange chorusing effect that I can't tell if it's a creative decision or an attempt to mask a non-ideal room recording setup. Either way, it inhibits the vocals from coming through and really highlighting the qualities of LadyReemz' voice. Additionally, there's some significant balance discrepancies between the harmonies and the lead vocals - the harmonies, again, are fantastically written and performed, but they are almost comically loud when they do come in, and it's a very jarring effect. The drum production also feels lacking in glue (some more compression would probably solve this) and overly loud, as others have noted.

These are things to watch for on future productions, but none of it in any way diminishes the quality of what you've put forth. Really great work!

YES