prophetik music ⚖️ Posted July 17 Posted July 17 (Don't publish until the release of Chambers of Time, planned for August 1st) Arrangement, Mixing & Master: Lucas Guimaraes Bassoon & Editing: Andrew Gossett Flute: GameroftheWinds Clarinet: Steven Higbee Alto Sax: prophetik music No track rundown since it's basically all source. These days I'm less likely to join an album project unless I REALLY want to. Just a matter of allocating time and all that. As soon as I saw "Chrono Trigger Chamber Album" I was like "I'm in." Magus' theme was tricky for two reasons. One, it's one of my favorite VGM tunes of all time. Quite possibly my favorite Chrono Trigger theme. Two, I know people usually say they have difficulty working with a bad source. I can usually cobble something with a bad source if there's something I like in it (see Livin' Out Our Last Days where I hated one of the tracks and was neutral to the other) but here I legitimately started off strong with the structure and then... struggled to fill in a lot of parts on my own. When the original already does a perfect job and I don't have a unique structure idea (There's a remix of Aquatic Ambience I performed live with Lucas Guimaraes & The Dunites where I had that structure from the word go) it becomes a huge puzzle for me. That said, this was probably both some of the most fun and biggest annoyances I had with editing. I really tried to hone in on making everything as good as possible. Proph and I bounced around edits back and forth until Andrew told me "yeah, I recorded Bassoon already". The mix doesn't have too much to talk about, but I've been looking for ways to streamline and optimize my mixing workflow. Used the same template as The Castle Whispers. Oh, yeah, you might've noticed Prophetik there. Prophetik's our new saxophonist for WW and I'm so happy and relieved at that change. I definitely don't have the bandwidth to perform for the group and do all the other duties I have, plus having proph on board allows me to pester him for feedback (I jest, I jest). Funny enough, Proph inquired about joining thanks to The Castle Whispers. Working with these four friends is always wonderful and we're always learning so much from each other. Yeah, the arrangement and mix rule, but these performances really shine. Everyone's tone really shines. I was chatting with Thomas Kresge at VGM CON about how I've always been so humbled by The Game Brass's quality, and he said to me something that really stuck: "Keep going and see the jump at your 50th arrangement." - It's really motivated me to keep going with this group. Here's hoping we make it to #50 eventually. Give it a few years. Hope you all enjoy! Games & Sources
Emunator ⚖️ Posted August 5 Posted August 5 Whispy Woodwinds hasn't missed to date, and I have no reason to expect this will start now! The arrangement here is fairly straightforward and recognizable, as I would expect, but there's ample personality injected through just the performances alone. This is a solid group, and the addition of prophetik is immediately felt - I recognized that alto tone from the very first note :) Couldn't have thought of a better fit for this group! Lovely arrangement, tons of really smartly arranged interplay between the performers, there's plenty of space for everyone to shine without anybody stealing the limelight, either. My one gripe here, and this may be a stylistic choice to increase the intimacy of the recording more, is that the instrument noises and breaths feel more pronounced in this mix than in previous WW tracks, and I think it might be largely due to the recording placement on the alto sax. Forgive me if I mess up the terminology, but I'm hearing a lot of presence from the fingering/key clicks and IMO this would be stronger with a bit of attenuation to those non-musical noises. A little bit of their presence helps make it feel like you're listening to a live chamber recording, but here, I think it adds some rhythmic mud to the busier parts of the arrangement. Could just be me, I'm not an expert in this genre, so take this for what it's worth! This is an easy pass in my book, all things said! Keep 'em coming, #50 isn't that far off ;) YES
Liontamer ⚖️ Posted August 8 Posted August 8 Love the shift into the accompaniment’s notes being staggered at 1:41 for a different feel to the second iteration of the main melody. Excellent, intimate performances, with loads of original writing and natural performances dynamics to easily stand apart from the source. Nice work, Whispys! :-) YES
paradiddlesjosh ⚖️ Posted August 9 Posted August 9 Fun and lively little jaunt, y'all! Straightforward source usage aside, the arrangement keeps things fresh by mixing up rhythmic approaches in the accompanying voices: the constant 8th notes at 0:44-1:08 and 1:52-2:20, the syncopation at 1:33-1:41 and again at 3:11-3:35, and the source material's 6/8+3/4 rhythm trade at 2:23-2:47. I felt the performances were solid from everyone, and I'm not particularly bothered by the level of the key noises. I can see a world where they aren't so prominent, but there's an undeniable intimacy they offer in the production. YES
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