*NO* Final Fantasy 6 "Temporary Tina"

[prophetik music]

A haunting melody, the SNES really was ahead of it's time for music. The flute is myself sampled in Directwave for FL studio. I used automation of saturation, volume, and transient processing to fake the "articulations" I wish I could use Kontakt to do this, but I cannot get the root key proper at all, and internet searching has proved fruitless. 

I chose the name Temporary Tina, as I believe  the Terra character is named Tina in the Japanese release. 

Remix again, in case it didn't insert properly above after the failure of the file upload.

Again, the consideration is appreciated.

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Games & Sources

The source tune is Forever Rachel from FF6....and we all know who composed it;)

Edited Monday at 04:05 AM by Liontamer
closed decision

[prophetik music]

really beautiful original. it's so simple but it's such a timeless melody.

very long sustained strings to open it. some vocal elements and percussive elements as well. flute part is an interesting case - the tone is great, but there's definitely an uncanny valley in how it's being added into the track. some of the in-between non-chord tones are a little odd and take me out a bit (0:39 is one), and most of those little bits and bobs aren't really in time either which emphasizes them - a more consistent timing would help there. there's a few places where your attacks don't sound realistic (1:18, 1:22 are two), but man that real vibrato is doing work to cover up some of the parts where you don't quite stick the landing. backing elements are simple but work. they don't sound super realistic but they also aren't egregious.

there's a transitional section at 1:34, and i don't know if the vocal element really fits the rest of what's going on so far there. this is followed by some brass. this section is just too loud - everything's getting squashed quickly. i love low trombone as much as everything but the blats are taking over. 2:03's a great example - everything's just too loud despite only playing sustains. the organ's low elements are probably a big part of what's causing that to get too big, as it's even a bit louder than the flute in some places. questionable note in the flute at 2:43. there's one more time through the end of the melodic line, and it resolves on a major chord.

it's not obvious to me why you didn't play the part if you've got such a beautiful tone - you've clearly got some chops! i think this would be right by the passing line if the flute was actually live instead of, like, half-alive half-robot. there's still some notes to clean up and more importantly some dynamic elements to rebalance so that you're not clipping or overwhelming the limiter, but then i think this is there. the arrangement is certainly good enough.

 

 

NO

edit 3/17: the bar isn't where it was 20 years ago, so referencing that is a confusing statement. i listened again on fresh ears today and really am surprised that the flute's uncanny valley representation isn't bothering the other Js as much as me. the beautiful vibrato on the sustains doesn't matter if the other notes are either not in the key or sound robotic. even if it was live, the balance at the end is overwhelmingly off. so i'm sticking with my vote for now.

Edited March 17 by prophetik music

[Liontamer]

Theme finally arrives at :32. The grace notes added into the woodwind lead (:38, :44, 1:08, 1:11, 1:17, 1:21, 2:29, etc.) were awkward, with :38's feeling off-key, but it was just a blip. Even if the melodic personalization sounded a bit ham-fisted/try-hard, in principle, I like what was done there, and it sounds more comfy on repeated listens. The brass swell at 1:43 exposed the samples a lot; not a great sound, but thankfully only a brief moment. I'm not an orchestrator, but should this woodwind lead be so loud over the other orchestration around 1:06? In any case, the woodwind lead was getting tired, but I did like the change at 2:13, redoing the melody in a minor. Minor thing, and I might have missed more of these, but there was a faint pop at 2:45, usually meaning there's a problem with a sample.

To me, this is getting it done on the bread-and-butter level, and I'm cool with that. I agree with proph that the mixing should be better balanced and the levels reined in, but I can actually live with this, and it would have been a shoo-in 20+ years ago. It's not the most fluid, but its earnestness is winning me over as good enough. Because Audiomancer has done/is doing/will do tons of revisions and resubs, it can be easy to take his availability and appetite for redos for granted; what I'm saying here is, if the source files were kaput, I'd rather we post this than not.

YES (borderline)

[Chimpazilla]

I agree with both my fellow Js above on all points.  Those grace notes, including the quick upward run right at the end, are awkward and often not in key, but they are brief.  They add to the not-real feel of the flute lead.  There is also overly-consistent vibrato on the flute, but it doesn't sound egregious since it only triggers on the longer notes.  Other than those issues, the flute sounds pretty good. 

The brass swells are definitely too loud.  Those are the sections that are squared off in the wav because the limiter is having to squash the track at those points.  There are almost certainly low-lows in those sections that could be EQd out, giving you more mastering headroom (in addition to just turning the low brass down a couple of db during those big swells).

The mastering is also heavy handed, with the track hitting a max RMS value of -7.5db which is EDM territory, and is totally unnecessary for a soft orchestral piece.  Shoot for more like -12db RMS, tops.

All that said, this is a lovely arrangement.  I like the bits of vocal, they add a nice flavor.  While not perfect, I think this arrangement passes our bar.  In the case that it doesn't pass, I recommend at least EQing your low and mid instruments to remove unnecessary low-lows and rumble, lower the volume of the low brass, and reduce the final limiter gain on the master.  I'm borderline like Larry is here, due to the right-on-the-cusp mixing issues, but I am still a

YES (borderline)

[jnWake]

Starts with strings on Dm and a voice joins soon after. The voice actually highlights a F# but it doesn't really clash too much. At 0:32 we get a flute playing the first main melody of the source, transposed one tone below. There's some embellishments here and there (which honestly sound more odd than good). For the backing you have strings and a brass (I noticed you changed the bass line, giving it more of a major feel), but it honestly sounds a little empty. Volumes aren't very balanced here (and this will be a running theme): flute is very loud, strings are very low. Around 1:02 we get the second main melody from the source, still on flute. There's more movement now thanks to a string playing bass. Source treatment feels very conservative here, almost 1:1 outside of flute embellishments and bass movement. There's another vocal break before we return to the first melody, now with a big brass backing. Volumes are wild here, brass gets extremely loud at some points. A church organ also joins here and takes the background spotlight on the next section. 2:13 has a repeat of the second melody, but there's more reinterpretation this time. There's a final repetition and we're done.

Arrangement is fairly conservative, source treatment is almost 1:1 outside of some bass variations and flute embellishments. There's, of course, the voice adding some originality. Anyway, I like how you change the instruments playing the backing, it's a nice touch considering the lead stays constant on flute. That said, the backings themselves tend to be very simple, which isn't a dealbreaker but it'd be nice to have some extra attention to detail there (the bass on the 1:02 repeat is an example of where you nailed adding a more "complex" element on the background).

I have more issues with production though. First, volume balancing is off, sometimes the backing is too low, other times way too loud. Parts like 1:48 and 2:03 are good examples, as is the whole church organ section. Second, there's the "flute issue". Vibrato gives it life but it generally sounds so uncanny valley that it's quite distracting, especially on more complex articulations like the one right at the end.

Overall, nice cover of a pretty source. Production definitely needs a second pass though, especially the volume issues. Not sure how much of the flute is fixable without completely redoing everything but I think that, at least, the weird passing notes and some of the worse sounding articulations can be modified.

NO

[Emunator]

This is not at ALL what I was expecting after what I've heard from your other submissions - I'm impressed to hear you step out of your comfort zone like this and execute so well on the first pass. Overall, this was a solid effort and I can see why this has split the panel.

This starts off with some very immersive orchestral string swells and a well-used vocal sample to draw the listener in. No issues so far, this sounds great. To touch briefly on the arrangement, I think jnWake correctly identified that it's close to the source, though I don't think I would have immediately noticed that myself because of how much you transformed the original through different instrumentation and flourishes. I think this is a definite pass on the arrangement front.

The elephant in the room is the flute - sampling yourself into a virtual instrument is a bold choice, and although it certainly lends this piece a certain "vintage rompler" quality (I've affectionately referred to this as "Playstation 1 orchestra" in the past) there's an uncanny valley feeling that we're left with that unfortunately takes me out of the experience. It's not quite synthetic enough to feel intentional, but not hitting the mark for realism on the faster runs and embellishments, or the vibrato, to pass as realistic. I could forgive the vibrato, but honestly, the grace notes sound really awkward and immersion-breaking. Would it be within your capability to record those runs directly from your flute so it captures the natural legato between notes that help blend those effects more smoothly? I think even if you went for the sampled approach for the lead instruments, patching those runs in with a live-performed sample would be a huge improvement.

The mixing is also a concern - there's no MAJOR missteps, but there's some consistent volume imbalances that, if dialed in by a decibel or two, would blend the piece a lot better. The flute is loud, and I think there's probably some of the saturation automation you mentioned that's causing the flute to crunch even harder. The end result is that the flute feels abrasive in the mix when it should be feeling more smooth, so I would ease up on that effect slightly. Other than that, I agree with the balance suggestions jnWake called out.

This is really close, but because the flute takes such a central role in the piece, the rest of the track would need to be really ironclad to make me willing to forgive the issues present with the flute, and it's unfortunately not tight enough to tip the scales for me. Really cool approach though, and it was great to hear you try something so different from your usual fare!

NO (borderline/resubmit)

 

[XPRTNovice]

This opening is legit. Haunting and beautiful. Vocal line is well done. 

The flute sample really stands in stark contrast to the rest of it, as its not well humanized and of not great quality. Attacks and releases of this sample are really abrupt and stick out really far in the mix because of it. Especially when you have this very clean vocal line, the flute really tanks the feeling. I hear a lot more care taken to humanize and blend the strings in the background, but the lead instrument of the piece doesn't seem to get the same attention and it makes for a sort of anxious, stuttering performance that doesn't allow me to enjoy this otherwise very nice soundscape.

I have some similar concerns to what I think are the french horns in the background, where they sort of explode randomly into and out of existence as though the modulation automation had an unnatural spike. The attacks/releases 

Arrangement wise, I'm also going to say that I don't know if we're passing the bar for interpretation here. Other than the intro and a few embellishments in the flute, we essentially have a 1:1 cover here. I'm sure that an argument could be made subjectively on that point. We have a little key doodling at 1:45 and 2:14 but for the most part this feels very much like the original to me. 

This would be a really amazing opportunity to reach out to the incredible community of musicians we have at OCR just waiting for someone to hand them a tasty flute part. I would be more inclined to pass this with a better main instrument performance, even considering the weaker interpretation score, but right now for me I can't pass this one.

 

NO

[Hemophiliac]

This opening sounds lovely and really got my expectations up to get things started. We then get to 0:32 and the sampled flute is introduced. The tone on flute is great and I like that, but there's other issues about it that cause problems. First off, it's placement in the mix is very forward and loud. I'd recommend to shoot for pushing it back in the mix so that it feels at a similar placement as the solo vocalist in the intro. You should be able to achieve that with careful application of the wet/dry levels on the reverb as well as some reduction of volume.

Next with the flute, we come to articulation. And well, there is no legato, it's all detached. Whenever a more agile line is played (such as any of the chromatic passing tones like 0:38; I'll come back to this later) you can hear the separation between all of the attacks as well as times where the attack is too slow to keep up and the note barely sounds before being cut off by the next one. If you're able to, I'd recommend to try to record yourself playing the line.

The arrangement itself is pretty conservative with a few small places were things were added, the intro is great, and the middle bridge 1:34-1:46 was nice. The melodic embellishment with chromatic passing tones in the melody are a form of personalization. I didn't necessarily agree with the chromatic notes because they do sound awkward in context, but they are making it your own thing and that is a step in the right direction.

The texture is mostly homophonic throughout with a few other part having movement is the pizzicato, harp, and horns in different spots. Some of those were buried in the mix and not easily noticeable. Now that's not necessary to get a pass, but could help when thinking about future arrangements to keep the listener's interest going.

The number one issue here is the balance between parts. As others have already said before me, the brass gets very big at times, and as I pointed out already the flute is very forward to cut through everything. In reality for a solo flute to cut through in an orchestral setting the backing parts would likely need to be playing softer than the flute for it to be able to project and carry out. In a digital context it's easy to just turn the volume up, but when you do that it just sounds unnatural.

With all that said, it's going to sound like I hate this. That's not the case, I feel like there is space for this, but in it's current form it's not ready yet.

NO