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*NO* Final Fantasy Legend "Door to the Unknown"


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Final Fantasy Legend was one of the first games I ever played. The simple soundtrack to this GB classic was the target of one of my first VG arrangements I ever did, as well - I 'transcribed' the three melodic channels to saxophone parts and got some friends from my school's band to play it =) I haven't listened to this track in over a decade, but I only needed to check one or two notes against the original vs. my memory, surprisingly.

My focus here was to take the original theme (which I always felt was very mournful) and do what i could to keep it in natural minor (as opposed to harmonic minor, with a major V chord) while enjoying the beautiful melodic elements alongside this slightly-altered chord pattern. i got a little bored and switched to a shuffle to give it some more verve halfway through.

I used Omnisphere almost exclusively for this, with some elements coming from Elastik. Thanks to Hemo and ParadiddlesJosh for letting me bounce this off of them and for the actionable feedback where provided.


Games & Sources

Prologue theme from Final Fantasy Legend for the Game Boy. YT is here: 

Edited by Liontamer
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  • 1 month later...

I like the soundscape here, it's simple, easy to listen to, but I feel like we might be lacking a bit in the interpretation department to get this above the bar. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though! That means this piece has more potential, and I hope you have a ton of fun bringing it there. 

Before 1:00 the melody I think needs to come out. It's buried back there, and it probably needs another 2-3 db of volume to really qualify as a lead. 

The section after 1 has a nice groove to it, and I think may be the most full part of the song, except I'm not really getting the sense of anything being a "lead" until 1:40, where we drop back into the melody pretty much exactly as the source is written. 

Your mixing and production is on point, though it's coming out a little soft to me. Even just a quick normalization pass on this would eke another 3db out of the whole track, which I think it needs. 

Overall, though, this is feeling more like a sketch than a finished arrangement to me. We're mostly sticking to the source, particularly the melody, as it was without much interpretation behind changing the vibe a few times. The soundscape sounds a little sparse, like there is room to make some stronger choices to fill the space. I can tell there's absolutely potential here and I would love to see you finish this!

NO (please resubmit) 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I agree with all of XPRT's points here.  The arrangement itself is good, with good arrangement dynamics.  The instrumentation is on the soft side all the way through, which isn't quite working.  For example, from 1:06-1:38 you have a heavy kick and bass along with a shuffley-patterned synth and heavily sidechained pad, all of which sound great, but they never seem to kick into full gear and do anything interesting.  I can hear this in my mind with some varied percussion and sfx, filtered elements coming in and out, and ear candy making that section really memorable, but as it stands it feels very plain and anticlimactic.  Same situation from 1:48-2:21.  The drum pattern never changes, and the simple bell lead takes the energy of those sections way down for me.

XPRT said it well, it feels more like a sketch than a finished piece.  I do think this has a ton of potential though, but the soundscape is very sparse and it just needs more interesting elements especially in the two heavy sections to keep the listener engaged.

The volume balancing is mostly adequate, although leads are too soft and quiet.  The simple percussion in the track is all in mono.  It sounds like no mastering has been done as the track never goes louder than -1.6db peak.  The drumless sections sit around -6 to -8db peak which is very quiet indeed.  The track lacks any highs other than the snare and hats, no synths seem to have any presence in the highs at all, making it sound lifeless.

I would love to hear this again with the sections more fleshed out!

NO (resubmit)

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Ooh, very interesting instrumentation to open things. I disagree with XPRT saying he felt the level of interpretation wasn't enough; to me, this was very transformative.

At :13, it sounds like it has no high-end for some reason, and also sounds relatively thin despite a full soundscape, which feel contradictory to say; Chimpa has a better understanding of what causes a soundscape like this, when there are thumping beats and loud volume, but the track feels like it lacks complexity and sophistication and depth, so I'm aligned with the others there. Beats from 1:06-1:38 & 1:50-2:20 feel very basic and WIP-like, as if that element was more of a proof of concept/placeholder. It feels like the low-end's taking up too much space in the soundscape, but then the lead is mostly lonely. Wow, I hate that I lack the background to properly articulate why this doesn't click yet; the arrangement's interpretive, but it's not yet cohesive. When XPRT calls this a "sketch", that's also the vibe I had, and I agree with him fully on that level.

The ending section at 2:30 was excellent; if it comes after a fuller arrangement, I think the contrast of the softer, warmer tones will hit even better.

Loads of potential here, proph; I really appreciated you working outside your comfort zone here, am I'm VERY interested to hear you refine this further. The source tune's very underrated, so I'd love to hear it repped with another mixpost. Don't drop it! You should join in the Sages' Office Hours to get some feedback on it, it could be a very informative event!

NO (resubmit)

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  • Liontamer changed the title to *NO* Final Fantasy Legend "Door to the Unknown"
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