Liontamer Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Remixer Name/Forum Name: Shraker Nops Original Composer: Nobuo Uematsu Game songs remixed: Final Fantasy I - Matoya's Theme Remix Name: My Little Black Mage File: (sometimes link doesnt work, so try again) (also email attchment, just in case) Contact: If you have any questions reguarding this mix you can message my personal email address at (remove this email adress afterwords please) Info: I finally got around to playing this game. It came out before I was born so what can I say? The interesting thing about this song though, is that I actually learnt this song on piano before I really knew anything about the Final Fantasy series. I was searching the net for game midi files for listening to (before I learnt about OCR and chiptunes) and came across this song. I really liked it, and transcribed to piano. Skip forward a year or so and I have Cubase and VSTis galore. So what song do I naturally remix? The song that I can play 4x the original speed on the piano, of course! Little breakdown of the Tracks I used: (The Track Numbers I'm referring to are from the Final Fantasy I chiptune from your site.) === Intro: 0:00 - 0:40 Track 1. Changed chord pattern to that of Track 10s to fit with the rest of the song. === Section A: 0:40 - 2:15 Track 10. === Section B: 2:16 - 2:48 Track 10 is playing, but with a bunch of very liberal melodies from other Final Fantasy leading. In order of appearance: Track 6, Track 3, Track 4, Track 5 === Section C: 2:49 - 3:18 Track 10 === End: 3:19 - 3:26 Track 22 === Additional notes: - The pretty cool intro came when I was practily done the mix and was trying to figure out a way to lengthen the song. - For the longest time I couldn't figure out an ending. Then it hit me. Right when you rest your characters in the inn it played a little song. It fit together with the song pretty well, but unfortunately it makes for a sudden ending. Final words: Enjoy, hope you like it. ------------------------------------------------ The bitrate ceiling is 192kbps, so none of this 224kbps stuffz. Watch the encoding. http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Tracks 1 ("Prelude") & 10 ("Matoya's Theme") Hahaha! You got me interested off that intro, bro. Nice alteration of "Prelude" to lead up to "Matoya's Theme". Interesting lead choice, and I also liked the percussion fading in at :15 and the saw-ish dealie fading in at :24; very interesting textures. Kinda lost it with the cheap cymbals at :31, but not a huge deal. Matoya's came in at :39, but the lead was really shrill along with the harmonies. The drums (first used at :43, more active at :55) were also flimsy and the writing on them was boring. Added a more prominent bassline at 1:12, but it's way too loud vs. the other sounds. You need better separation of the parts here. Those saw-type sounds practically blast one's ears off; tone some of that down. The arrangement of "Matoya's Theme" was noticeably very by-the-numbers and uninterpretive, which was a disappointment after the alteration you did for your "Prelude" intro; figured more interpretation was due, and it didn't happen. 2:16 featured some bubbly lead giving passing references to several different FF themes, mentioned in the sub letter. The concept was OK, but the writing wasn't melodious or interesting and sounded more appropriate for the background rather than the foreground. I'd scrap it entirely anyway, as you honestly can't even recognize the themes you referenced with the rigid timing and monotone lead. And from a production perspective, I also hated the paste-on-top approach of inserting it into the mix. That writing just shows up LOUDLY over the top of the existing music, then when that's done at 2:47, the rest of the music just continues on as if nothing ever happened. So those other FF references aren't integral to the piece and sound like a poor attempt at spicing up a completely retreaded section. Poor resolution at 3:20; too sudden and I-give-up-ish. Even you know this, so don't stick with something like that. You gave details on what you did with the arrangement, and that's cool, but it's still not particularly interpretive at the heart of it, i.e. the "Matoya's Theme" melody. The additional parts and little scratches and embellishments you've added are in the right direction but aren't enough to carry the track. On top of the melodic arrangement being uninterpretive, the track isn't going anywhere dynamically. Look at how you described your sections: "A through E". No, bro, what you should have said was "A through C", because :40-3:18 was basically the same stuff over and over again. You just happened to have that weird crud on top on an iteration of B from 2:16-2:47. Rethink some of the weaker and/or needlessly cluttered sound choices, spice up the percussion writing, and get more interpretive and varied with the arrangement. I may have cut this one down, but don't be discouraged; you show more potential and initial skill than most submitters. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcos Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 Very interesting re-arrangement of the prelude theme. Unfortunately the other theme wasn't re-arranged as much. Some other issues here as well, one is the repetitive nature of the mix, in that it could have really done with a breakdown in the middle of the song to change it up. The section that starts at 2.16 really sounds off - it's simply a section from earlier on with another, louder melody placed on top of the existing one, which doesn't sound good at all. This needs some more work. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 I agree with Malcos; the prelude arrangement is an interesting concept, if underdeveloped. Unfortunately the body of the track is repetitive and rather harsh. the instruments are grating, and the composition is simple and repetitive. I'd keep working with the intro, because that has some real potential. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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