Emunator ⚖️ Posted June 6 Posted June 6 Trying to dig myself out of a rut by forcing myself to do a DoD entry entirely on my own. I was not expecting to place very high with this entry but managed to nab silver for it anyway. Not much thought went into this track other than trying to smoothly chain different ideas together. Live parts: Fretless acoustic bass, nylon guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano / keys. Games & Sources Final Fantasy VI - Phantom Forest
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted June 10 Posted June 10 good to see you again, zack. opens with some interesting aleatoric bits and some keys and strings into a first real hit at 0:13. acoustic guitar as the lead sounds stellar as expected. strings do a nice job supporting the lead part. there's some really nice pacing with the opening section - the slow build is really handled well. drums come in at 1:09 on the second iteration of the theme. drums might be a bit extra in this early section, and more notably the snare especially seems to be bigger than i'd expect - it cuts through a lot. there's a bit of a break and we get a new lead instrument at 1:47. snare and cymbals continue to feel a bit bright here. the string swell at 2:09 is really nice. there's an extended drop and build after this, and the backing elements at 2:30 really start to come up to play - i love the strings in there at 2:46. we finally get the electric guitar we were all expecting at 2:55 - that's a great payoff. there's a nice guitar solo starting at 3:11 - a few different lead tones in here, and i like them all. we finish up the melody line, and there's a bit of falling action to finish it out. the ending swipe gets cut a bit and i don't know if that's intentional. this is, as expected, a beautiful rendition of a beautiful theme. i love the song's overall structure and how you build towards the big payoff solo section. excellent work. YES
Liontamer ⚖️ Posted June 25 Posted June 25 Lovely stuff from the start. Being able to hear things more closely in my headphones, the bowed strings are in the uncanny valley, but of course still well beyond the quality level we need for a mockup, and it's not like they're a weak link or causing a quality disparity vs. the other sounds. After a genteel intro, the beats were brought in at 1:08 and added good movement here. Snare that cameo'ed at 1:34 was too loud for me, but as a point of contrast, it was a great momentary rise in energy for the drums; all of the drum writing sounds intricate and varied, and these evolving textures are great as the energy level continued to gradually escalate. Nice little dropoff at 2:17 before changing the textures again at 2:30 with beautiful, understated support from the acoustic guitar. Electric guitar joined in at 2:55, then ratcheted things up with some quick soloing at 3:11 before taking over as the melodic lead. It seems like the ending cut out a moment too soon, so we can ask about that. Both the instrumentation and arrangement were very impressive. As a conceptual contrast, very fun to hear Zack go collaboration maximalist with his FF7 DoD entry compared to being a one-man army for this FF6 DoD entry. Talented in whatever musical direction he wants to go in, it's safe to say. :-) YES
Emunator ⚖️ Posted July 1 Author Posted July 1 Dead easy vote, Zack is a professional at many crafts, but when I think about the kind of music where he really excels, it's this sort of thing. Multi-instrumental, guitar-driven, orchestrated, lightly-synthetic, brooding... all of these are words I would use to describe what he's created here. Everything is in its right place in terms of frequency balance and stereo separation, making for an incredibly immersive listening experience. I also hear the snare and the drum kit in general cutting through quite a bit more than I would have personally opted for in this style, it sounds like you mixed the drums around the metal section at the end and left the settings intact for the rest of the song. That's about the only gripe I can find after listening to this many, many times. A well-deserved silver medal, sir! YES
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