OCR04799 - *YES* Final Fantasy 6 & Chrono Trigger "Implements of War"

[prophetik music]

previous decision

I wrote this song for an 8Bit Music Theory discord weekly challenge to "make a mash-up arrangement from at least two SNES songs." I thought it would be kind of funny to go for two of the most widely-remixed SNES songs I could think of, Schala's Theme from Chrono Trigger and Terra's Theme from FFVI. 

Thinking about it, mashing up these songs felt appropriate—both Schala and Terra were women possessing vast magical talents, both used by powerful countries as weapons—Terra as a slave for the Gestahlian Empire, and Schala to power Zeal's Mammon Machine. 

I wanted each melody to get the spotlight, while still twining together underlying parts of each song throughout the piece. I transposed the songs into the same key so it would be easier to meld them together. I was feeling synths and a trap beat for this piece (idk why, vibes?), and I ended up experimenting with some new sounds and production techniques to fill out the arrangement. After a failed pass through the panel, I focused on making the piece my own, adding in some new parts and some vocals to break up the sameness. I also redid the drums to bring in more variety, and added some mechanical noises to the background. Finally, I sought out mixing and mastering feedback from the community to help polish the piece.

Thanks ZackParrish, hemophiliac, and the amazing OCR discord community for ongoing feedback and support on this mix!

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Games & Sources

Chrono Trigger: Schala's Theme by Yasunori Mitsuda. 
    - Melody used 0:00–1:00, 2:30–3:03, 3:50–end
    - Accompaniment used throughout

FFVI: Terra's Theme by Nobuo Uematsu.
    - Melody used 1:06–2:30, 3:03—3:51
    - Accompaniment used throughout

[prophetik music]

my previous vote on this primarily focused around the mastering issues and that there wasn't enough unique perspective on each track (ie. the focus was more on the original's positives instead of the arrangement's positives). i don't remember how the piece sounded though, it was too long ago.

opens with filtered arps coming in - i like the wind sounds coming in here. the bass comes in with a martial feel around 0:12, and i think that the lead and countermelodic instrument have some nice movement on them. i can hear the schala arp behind it too which is a fun precursor. drums and other stuff that comes in at 0:36 is also neat. the hornet-adjacent lead add is a neat idea - having it have such a short sustain is a positive so it doesn't take up the entire soundscape. there's some subtle gating that starts 0:53 that i think is intentional and not limiter pumping - if so it should be a bit more obvious so that it's clear it's not unintentional. it's a cool effect.

there's a break right at the 1:00 minute mark that functions as a nice dovetail. schala theme comes in at 1:18. the beat here is nice and reminiscent of the ethnic percs that are throughout CT's soundtrack, and the constant varying of elements helps the slower tempo and schala's slower pace of the melody. there's another cool transition involving gating, and we're into some VO stuff.

2:30 is the return of the Terra b theme, this section felt a little lacking in direction. i didn't like all of the countermelodic elements (some are not quite voiced well enough to feel normal), and the turbo-pan thing going on was a little much on headphones. i also felt it was lacking energy coming out of the VO break, at least partially because the bass was often not on the root. 3:03 brings back schala (and the iconic ascending harp scale) - initially pretty low energy still, but quickly escalating via a variety of percussive and synth elements. i don't know if stacking the bass with the melody works in this section, but it's an interesting change.

after this is the outro, which wanders a bit through the schala arp until it hits the final notes, and then it's done.

this is a vast improvement over the last version. there's a ton of variety and added content here from when i last heard it, and the mix is a lot better too. i think it lacks a bit of energy in the back half and wanders a bit more, but i love the feel of the first half and the overall track does a great job navigating these two monumental originals. great work.

 

 

YES

[Chimpazilla]

The drum beat is still repetitive, but it is mixed better so the trap hats aren't so loud and prominent.  The drum beat itself sounds groovier with the extra kick hits added.  The balancing of instruments is much better here, and the sound design is improved quite a bit, this soundscape sounds full and luscious. I love the vocal clips in the breakdown section, nice addition, it adds emotion to the piece (I'm a sucker for well-used vocal clips).  There is a wash of distortion over the soundscape during a good portion of this mix that I'm not a fan of, but it adds movement to the atmosphere of the piece, and it is not a dealbreaker for me (I predict Larry will complain about this!).  The mixing still isn't perfect, but this is a significant improvement and I'm happy to pass it now.

YES

[Emunator]

Much improved Mel! This has a lot more of your personality cutting through in all the details and texture, I have no reservations now. Your arrangement always took two sources that were a natural fit and gave them space to bounce off of each other, but now the sound design and detail work makes it feel all the more special and cared for.

YES