Liontamer ⚖️ Posted April 17 Posted April 17 Artist Name: Tony Dickinson, Joe Newman, Eli Bishop, Dom Palombi Hello OCR, it has been quite a while since I have submitted something to the website, but recently I did a Fire Emblem arrangement that I thought would fit! Most of the time I do heavy metal remixes but every so often I get a jazz or funk itch that I need to scratch. It recently won the GMRA 2025 "Best Jazz" remix which I wasn't expecting, but am very grateful for, especially considering the caliber of musicians that tend to be in that category. I became a massive Fire Emblem fan after playing Three Houses. The soundtrack on that game still blows my mind when I listen to it. So when Fire Emblem: Engage came out years later I was anticipating another fully banger soundtrack. Aaaaaaand... nope. It did not hit nearly to the same degree as Three Houses did. Don't get me wrong, Engage has plenty of really good tracks, but they're a little more hidden, and mostly only occur when it switches from the tamer "planning" version to the "attack" version, for like 6 seconds at best. One more thing I should probably mention about the title: One of the biggest criticisms of "Engage" was its character design and somewhat childish writing, at least compared to the more adult war themes of Three Houses. A lot of people weren't super fond of the extremely brightly colored character designs and thought they all looked like Vtuber designs. And of course "Enrage" being the feeling that it made people feel expecting a Three Houses follow up and receiving some Saturday morning anime instead. But, the sources "Bright Sandstorm" and "Bright, Bold Sandstorm" kinda came out of nowhere in the middle of the game and captured me as soon as I heard them. No surprise, it is written by one of the three incredible composers who put together the Three Houses soundtrack. The sense of harmony and melody blew me away with all of its cheesy Japanese glory. This arrangement was also a fun exercise in trying to start with an incredibly small ensemble, and gradually add more and more instruments as the song goes on. I.e. starting with a string quartet and rhythm section and then by the end it becomes an entire orchestra with jazz brass. For the nerds, I wrote the string arrangement with LA Scoring Strings which has multiple sizes of string ensembles, so as the song went on I would keep increasing the size, like Violin 1 would go from 3 violins, to 6, to 9, to finally 12. But I didn't use just string samples, Eli Bishop recorded the solo violins as well as layering many passes of violin 1, violin 2 and viola to make the strings sound more realistic, so mostly what we hear is Eli's fingers. Definitely took the song to the next level. The saxophones were recorded by Joe Newman and drums by Dom Palombi. A lot of talent in this group of musicians and I was super stoked to have them be a part of it! (P.S. I talked to Larry at VGMCon and I'm wanting to phase out "Prince uf Darkness" in favor of just using my regular name) Games & Sources Game: Fire Emblem: Engage Song: Bright, Bold Sandstorm (there are four versions of this song in the soundtrack, I drew from all of them)
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted April 22 Posted April 22 opens with a fun filtered violin/ebow and keys, and some percussive elements. as the filter gets pulled back, we get some super tight guitars and ensemble percussion. the lead at 0:46 carries the melodic material, and the band starts to fill out more at 1:00. there's a really tight vibe to the entire first section, with the whole band feeling really close and in front, and i love the sound. there's a break at 1:43, and i really liked the lush feel of the strings here. there's some winds as well that start to really hit nicely as well in here as we get more of a jazz orchestra vibe. joe's an outrageously good player so the horns just sound fantastic. 2:40's another pause in the action for a bit. 3:00 starts the Bold version of the track, i think, and we get an electric guitar carrying the melodic material with the entire orchestra trucking along behind to provide backing material. i like the soli feel of the sax parts in here especially. i almost think the lead guitar here could have been a touch louder and more in front - but i love the backing parts so much i don't mind =) 3:42's got a breakdown feel with the tom groove in the drums, and the whole orchestra hitting the lead parts. it's almost too busy in here at this point, but it's right on the edge so it's just really fun instead. there's a really slick bass riff into 4:10's more intense breakdown, and we get some soloing around what sounds like a persian scale for a bit with a ton of intensifying elements behind. i did a stankface on the end of the solo at 4:36, what a riff! coming out of that we get the B theme from the main body of the piece in the strings with a fantastic countermelodic thing in the saxes behind it. this is so dense in here and i'm here for it, it sounds fantastic despite everything going on. 5:10 we are reminded who's playing bass, and there's a great full-ensemble tutti section. i'm running out of superlatives so i'm gonna stop there. joe rips off a fantastic solo at 5:40 that any pro player would be happy with, and we hit the falling action at 6:04. really like the violin solo in here too. there's one last lick in the strings and we're done. this is the best remix i've heard in a year. i can't believe you're giving it to us for free. YES
pixelseph ⚖️ Posted June 5 Posted June 5 From now on, when I tell people that playing and listening to music is supposed to be FUN, this is the track I'm going to reference. It's got everything - dynamically different sections (:00 - 1:42, 2:40 - 3:00, 4:10 - 4:40, 5:10 - end), tasteful key change for the B section introduction (1:43 - 2:10), surprise trill build to the drop(!) (2:11 - 2:15), and every lead voice gets a solo somewhere in the piece! The string elements are a big highlight for me, and the attention on the layering pays big dividends, especially around the 4:40 mark, where they take on the countermelody line behind the sax picking up the lead from the guitar. I can only imagine how amazing a live performance of this piece would be. No question about source usage here. Arrangement and production are pure fire, as established. Get back on the front page, bruh!! YES
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