prophetik music ⚖️ Posted March 25 Posted March 25 This is the middle part of my Zelda sky themes medley! As before, the wind parts were performed by Brooke Ferd, Gamer of the Winds, and Steven Higbee. :) Games & Sources 0:00 Vah Medoh 2 Terminals (BotW) 1:13 Eagle's Tower (LA) 2:12 City in the Sky (TP) 3:27 Astral Observatory (MM) 4:13 Revali’s Theme (BotW) 5:12 Rito Village (BotW) 6:04 Crimson Loftwing (SS)
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted March 25 Author Posted March 25 opens with some very quiet sfx and strings in the right ear. they don't sound particularly realistic at this volume and the right ear is really heavy here, so this is not the greatest representation. the flute and clarinet handoffs here are obviously something that'd be really hard to coordinate, but they get off a few times in the flute part (ie. the part that one person can control), notably every time there's a rising line the upper flute part rushes. the little picc and ocarina flutters in here are really nice though as we get into the eagle's tower section, and i like the shift in tempo and time signature through this. city in the sky's opening is nonsense, so it's fun hearing it realized here at 2:28. this section is a much broader realization than the prior song in this medley, and it's pretty without being overwhelming. i will note that i didn't get the hard stops in the realization (2:57 and 3:04, and often following), even more so because there's sustain in the harp and bells in those areas - it didn't make much sense to me what those were there for and why they weren't complete. moving into something as traditional as astral observatory right after that is a significant change, and i thought it was handled pretty well. it's a pretty short cameo for the theme though, which is a bummer since it's such a nice original. revali's theme right after it though is also a strong melody, so that's a nice one to embellish more. this is easily some of the most lush orchestration in the entire work. the violin lead at just before the five minute mark isn't particularly realistic (especially when compared to some of the live instrumentation) - it would have been nice to hear an oboe there, for example, given the original. rito village comes in soon after and has some nice settling action before again building up some energy with sfx and some nice flourishes in the flutes. the last source, crimson loftwing, is represented in some beautiful oboe work and then english horn - what a beautiful tone! i wish it was used more in this, it's such a resonant and rich sound. there's a slighly sour note at 6:57 in the ehorn (sounds like a chord isn't done behind it when it plays that descending line). there's some wind fish cameo at the very end, and it's done. this does what it says on the tin, as we'd expect. the transitions are solid, each theme is represented nicely, and the overall package is enjoyable. it doesn't push any boundaries, but what's here is above the bar. YES
Chimpazilla ⚖️ Posted May 15 Posted May 15 I just voted on the lovely Part 1 of this Sky Medley so here I am for Part 2 which is equally lovely. This one is pretty sparse at some points! Again there is the heavy panning of elements which I am definitely not a fan of, especially heavier elements like a full choir I hear only on the right, my brain expects to hear the choir centered and in the back. This extensive panning feels very unnatural to me. The transition into City in the Sky is super smooth! That is a really weird tune, I love it but I have not found a way to remix it myself. I really like this version of it. Like Part 1, this is a beautiful and delicate medley of these themes, and it is very well executed and arranged even if I'm not a fan of the severe panning. YES
jnWake ⚖️ Posted May 17 Posted May 17 I voted on part 1 yesterday, so it feels right to vote on part 2 now! Anyway, we begin with Vah Medoh, this section is calm and has a slow build-up. There's some Ballad of the Windfish cameos I think? We transition to the next tune pretty smoothly, but the 2 sections feel very disconnected still. At 2:12 you begin doing the transition to City of the Sky with some cameos of another tune from Link's Awakening and arpeggios quite reminiscent of the Final Fantasy prelude. It's a pretty cool transition to a source that's basically just chords. After a while we move to Astral Observatory (kinda reaching with the sky connection here), with kind of a non-transition to be honest. A cute flute transition leads to the Rito themes which are beautifully played Honestly, I think most of my comments from part 1 apply here. Every section is beautifully performed, but I wish there was more of a connective tissue between sections. It doesn't feel there's any overaching structure in the arrangement, we simply move from one source to the next, there's no tension/release or anything of the sort. Vah Medoh feels like a build-up but there's no pay-off. I understand this is a medley but I wish there was a bit more to it. That said, it does conform to OCR's standards since the transitions are great for the most part. Production is still awesome, everything sounds beautiful. Just like on the previous section, the exaggerated panning can be odd. Overall, another easy pass! YES
Liontamer ⚖️ Posted August 10 Posted August 10 Adding composer credits here for posterity: 0:00 "Vah Medoh 2 Terminals" (BotW) Yasuaki Iwata 1:13 "Eagle's Tower" (LA) Minako Hamano 2:12 "City in the Sky" (TP) Toru Minegishi 3:27 "Astral Observatory" (MM) Koji Kondo 4:13 "Revali's Theme" (BotW) Yasuaki Iwata 5:12 "Rito Village" (BotW) Yasuaki Iwata 6:04 "Crimson Loftwing" (SS) Mahito Yokota
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