Liontamer Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Hello dare! This here tracks from Summoning of Spirits: a Tales of Phantasia Arrangement project. So, if it gets accepted (& I'm fairly certain it will, as I've been doing rain dances for about a week), don't release it until the project gets released. Link: CONTACT INFO Remixer: The Joker Real ID: David L. Puga Emails: Jtown_music (at) yahoo (dot) com Websters: I have no website User ID: 8669 REMIX INFO Game: Tales of Phantasia OG Song: Freeze Comments: I wanted to remix this song because it had a really terrific melody, it was the tops! I wanted to go for a lonely feeling, but make it epic as well. I basically wanted to contrast the 2, so I used a minimalist, moody approach, with sections that were fuller & livelier. Also, I wanted to maintain the, cold, frigid feeling that was in the original song, using synths & a filtered cymbal to convey the sounds you'd hear in a frosty cave. Also, my favorite part of this is the piano melody at 1:26! Yay! Later lates, David L. Puga, aka. The Joker, aka. Zorro (but not really). ------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=top - "Freeze" (top-109.spc) Pretty soft opening already arranging the source; vox was a little thin and fakey with the note movements, but the atmosphere was alright. Low strings at :23 were also thin, IMO; probably should have resonated more. Pretty subdued arrangement until it picked up a little more from 1:24-1:47. The harmonies from 1:59-2:25 seemed a bit awkward, the low string and the piano writing; could just be me, but I felt it left the section sounding directionless. Picked up into the chorus at 2:26, though it was very short lived, until 2:43. Shifted over into some woodwind work at 2:43; everything seems fine on the production side, but again the writing is very meandering and doesn't have any direction. Kind of wandered around until the end. Conceptually, this was pretty interesting. Aside from a few brief moments, there's not much focus on the source melody, but rather basing the arrangement on the supporting instrumentation of the source. When all was said and done though, it kind of left me in the same place as "Chronometrical". You've got good concepts, but the writing doesn't sound focused enough for the last half, undermining a lot of the otherwise good dynamic changes here. The first couple of minutes sounded fine, but from 1:47-on (aside from the quick chorus) things really just roam around without enough direction. NO (rework/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 As Larry said, this remix places more focus on the supporting instrumentals of the original than its melody. I was actually pleased to hear that, for the most part, because you were able to bring in a lot of interesting variations while still maintaining a strong connection to the source. The arrangement doesn't go very far harmonically, but it demonstrates a lot of musical sensitivity through those subtle variations. I do feel like it's missing some sort of main melody, however; even something very simple could make a big difference. The piece as it stands works well for ambience, but it doesn't carry a lot of power as a stand-alone arrangement, and that will probably hurt your chances of passing. The soundscape doesn't fill out until around 1:25, but I don't think I'd mind so much had the harp and piano sequencing been a little smoother. I hear a lot of Wingless in here, and also a little bit of GrayLightning. Pretty borderline for me, but I guess I can't help that New Age bias... YES Judges: give it a few listens before you make up your mind! This one grows on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted April 8, 2007 Share Posted April 8, 2007 Once again I find myself kind of in the middle on another one of your mixes, David. I still love the original Chronometrical, and listen to it from time to time. This mix lives up to the expectations I had as far as having some hauntingly beautiful vibes, so that was good to hear. I guess I'm probably more inclined to agree with pretty much everything Larry had to say, for the most part. Primarily, I think there are a few things that could have been executed a little better to really push this one from "well, it's ALMOST there" to "yeah, this is DEFINITELY there." The beginning was indeed very pretty. I felt when the piano does show up at 1:25, it was a little too loud and invasive... The low strings that chime in around 1:49 or so don't really fit as well as I think they should. I think a sample with a less legato attack would have sat a little better with the piano. When the melody does kick in at 2:25, I was a little disappointed in the strings. The string part writing in Chronometrical was absolutely stunningly beautiful. Don't know how to put this, but they were really really dull under the piano. I think they really could have been spruced up with a little more movement and not sat so lazily on each bar. I did like the oboe that kicked in right after that section. I actually really liked from 3:20 on, where it's just the chimes and piano. To sum it up as shortly as I can, there's a lot of good ideas in the track. Overall, the setup you've got in terms of instrumentation is fairly solid. I think it could have used a little more melodic and countermelodic content. I would have liked for the main melody to make a little bit more lasting appearance as well. Main thing that would boost this tracks EXP and bump it to the next level would be to give those low strings something to do. So close, and I genuinely hate it that I feel the need to vote this way, but I hate to try to rationalize a YES when I feel like this isn't as good as it could or should be. So I hope you don't get discouraged and just realize that your tracks still have some unrealized potential on top of a really solid foundation. Keep at it, bro. Seriously. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 Pretty nice ambiance, but I don't know why everything is so quiet. Seems like 5-10db softer than it has to be for much of the first part of the mix. 2:26 is sort of anti-climactic and there's no realy transition to it. I don't know if it was supposed to be epic or what but it didn't feel particularly powerful. Then things went back to soft & quiet again which seemed kind of weird - it's like the mix peaked at 2:20 and the rest was just an outtro. I don't get it. I'm all for atmospheric, ambient mixes but I don't think this one was executed too well. The structure & pacing were off in that the mix really only picks up at the middle, and then only for a few bars, before jumping to the outtro. The texture is dynamic enough but a lot of the sounds aren't so hot to begin with in terms of realism & sequencing. Lack of any percussive parts kind of hurt too IMO. I felt you could have had more pad parts to fill out the mix as a whole, too. I didn't like that you didn't use the whole source tune. Feels like you could have condensed what you have to 2 minutes and then spent the rest of the time focusing on other sections of the source. Otherwise, the arrangement you do have is good, though it needs more direction as Larry pointed out. Getting there, but keep at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 8, 2007 Author Share Posted May 8, 2007 vote On It, It"s Old! C"mon< Be A Pal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcos Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 This is a difficult one for me. As most of the other judges have picked out, this song peaks and then just ebbs away until it's done. The section at 1.24 - 1.48. sounded beautiful. Apart from that section, this mix needs some work in terms of getting that rich ambient sound that I think it was going for, as those sections didn't hold my attention as much. The source had lots of other parts to it, and I admire the remixer for taking a different direction to what the source could have dictated, however, I don't think that this is past the bar in it's present state. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Lots of potential. Like everyone else, i'm close on this one. The second minute of the track is fantastic, but the rest is missing something. Don't know if I have anything else to say. I'd like to hear this one again, with a bit more going on. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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