Liontamer Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Hello there! I've got a submission for overclocked. Yes it's yet another Final Fantasy... sorry about that. CONTACT INFO: ReMixer name: God of Shamisen Email: band@godofshamisen.com Website: www.godofshamisen.com or www.myspace.com/gos REMIX INFO: Game remixed: Final Fantasy 1 (NES) Songs: Medley (Prelude / Main Theme / Battle / Victory!) Comments: Here we have music from Final Fantasy, as we've all heard before, but performed by GOD OF SHAMISEN: one of the only rock bands to feature the traditional Japanese instrument, the Tsguaru-Shamisen. After the guitar intro, this Japanese lute plays the main melody with the full band: rock drums and bass, and, in the case of the battle theme, heavy metal guitars! MP3 found here: --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Tracks 1 (:00-:52), 4 (:54-1:46), 16 (1:49-2:55) & 19 (2:55-3:40) Decent intro via the "Prelude"; slight flub at :33? Moves onto the main theme at :54. Actually, no real need for a play-by-play, I can see what's up. It's basically like you're relying on the shamisen to carry this in terms of being interesting. The harmonies and textures are too simplistic and by-the-numbers. The ending at 3:36 sounded like it didn't even resolve properly, but that could just be me. The writing's gotta get more sophisticated, and the arrangement ideas need to get more expansive and/or interpretive to really personalize the track. What's in place now is quaint but doesn't retain interest. It's just covers of several FF1 themes with no meaningful transitions. Sorry guys, we need more than that. You got some Estradasphere members, and I KNOW y'all can bring it. I'd love to see something with the shamisen on OCR, as you're the go-to guys for outside-the-box shamisen music in this country (I do my research). Add more personal flavor to this and send it on back. You could do some real damage with this one. Attack! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Not to be overly nitpicky, but I'm not sure if the full prelude intro was really necessary here... considering how challenging it is to play, and the slight flubs throughout, it needlessly exposes the solo guitar and since it's just 1:1 with the original, it doesn't add a whole lot. I would consider at least adding some backing pads to make it a bit more interesting. Otherwise, I have to agree with Larry. This is a pretty simple FF1 medley that, while enjoyable in its own right, does not really interpret or arrange the source tunes in the sense of the OCR standards. More expansive and interesting arrangement would be needed for this to pass, as well as better transitions. Also, the production seems a bit plain at times.. if you listen to any live-performance remixes posted here within the last year you'll hear that they generally sound pretty polished. We don't expect everyone to have $50,000 pro studios, but some additional EQ work to fill out the frequency spectrum, compression, and a bit of reverb/delay sweetening would give this extra sparkle that certainly wouldn't hurt. I look forward to hearing a resub of this or other remixes from you guys. Even if this particular sub isn't fit for our guidelines, it's still fun. NO, resub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 Ha! Sweet I'm a huge fan of ethnic instruments, especially plucked ones. Watch me bias all over your shamisen. *BGC bias all over* Alright. Aside from me loving your truly unique setup (congrats on that, btw), I regretfully must take the duty to fairly cast my vote. Definitely seems near coverish a little too much of the time, in spite of your unique instrument setup. A lot of glaring errors in the actual performance, many of which were made without anything to cover for them. Also, the overall mixdown could be cleaner. Andy's right, you don't necessarily need an expensive studio. Just a decent EQ program, and that'll help quite a bit. I know takes can be frustrating, but try to minimize on the wrong notes, in addition to spending more time on the master track and actually providing additional interpretation of the themes, rather than just playing them near-verbatim. Cool stuff. I'd love for y'all to rework this and then resubmit down the road. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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