Liontamer Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 It's been a while since I've submitted anything, year and a half i think. My sub is a project track. Note: I'm not sure if it came through or not but the title is supposed to have an ampersand in it to appear as such: Tales & Trials. * Your ReMixer name : Hemophiliac * Your real name: Chris Roman * Your email address: romantaker@yahoo.com * Your userid : http://www.ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=4862 * Name of game arranged: Tales of Symphonia * Name of individual song arranged: Tales of Symphonia (i think) * Composed by Motoi Sakuraba * Link to the original song: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 The articulations on your moving lines are very weak, which lends the piece an anemic quality. No pun intended. Samples just don't seem to be balanced right; there are a lot of sections where the strings seem too loud, or the percussion is too quiet, or the bells stick out too much, etc etc. Not really sure about the adaptation, to be honest. The instrumentation is really similar to the original, but the samples aren't as good. The melody never really catches my attention, and this piece just feels like it's going through the motions. It's interpretive, no doubt, but not really all that interesting. There are also some harmonic ideas that I don't think really work, like the transition at 2:24. Not really sure what you could do with this one. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 24, 2007 Author Share Posted November 24, 2007 Tales of Symphonia Original Soundtrack - (101) "Tales of Symphonia" Nice source tune, albeit brief. CHz would poop on it, due to massive Sakuraba-bias. We mourn 'Ili's passing from lack of taste. Track starts off really quietly, so I'm hoping there's some sort of dynamic build to justify it. The sequencing was fairly good, though there's some rigidness to it. I do the so-so hand sign. The source tune definitely sounds a lot smoother in terms of humanization, which hurts a track like this hoping to break out in the same genre. Volume picked up around :45 to some pretty good levels. The brass and woodwind were pretty fake-sounding and fairly exposed to me, especially the woodwind. The brass reminded me of a higher-quality Super Mario 64's samples, i.e. serviceable, but ain't gonna fool anyone. 1:28's section was spartan for some good contrast, but all the samples felt exposed and the mechanical feel of the composition was only more exposed. Not sure of the writing from 2:22-2:24 working well; there could have been a transition that didn't sound jarring. The more verbatim-level playthrough of the source from 2:42-3:01 sounded fairly decent. The arrangement was definitely hindered by the execution, which explains a bit why DS wasn't feeling this. The arrangement was interpretive but could do more to stand apart from the source, given the same genre. Further interpretation would help this feel different enough from a slightly militarized version of the original, but this was clearly in the right direction. There's some, but IMO the sample articulations lacked enough finesse. I'm sure you approached this in the right way, but to me, the quieter areas weren't effective enough. I could hear what you were going for though. Definitely agreed with DarkeSword on his articulation and balance criticisms, which explains why the dynamic contrast you went for sounded so awkward. More finesse and balance with these samples, and I'd more likely be down. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Nice source tune, albeit brief. CHz would poop on it, due to massive Sakuraba-bias. We mourn 'Ili's passing from lack of taste. Hey now, I never said that Sakuraba writes bad music. I just liked this song better in the other ten games I heard it in, that's all. I thought the adaptation of the theme was decent. Good job in expanding the short original; your mix really sounds like an extended version of the original piece. The original material works well, and the source definitely gets a workout, being used in a bunch of different ways here and there. The melody wasn't really changed that much, and that combined with the similar instrumentation could be a bit problematic, because as I said, this feels a lot like an extended version of the source instead of a new piece. Everything else I'd say would pretty much echo DS and LT. Sample quality is nothing to write home about, and it really does show off in a few places, most notably 1:29-1:56. Humanization could use a bump. The biggest offender to me was 1:56-2:21; that build feels incredibly lifeless. It should have some power, since it's an important part leading from the soft break to the climax. 2:21-2:24 is kind of weird, and kind of works; I don't think I mind it as much as the other judges, but it does sound a bit out of place. Pretty close, but there's too much holding this one back to pass it. Although adding in more interpretation of the source would certainly help, my problems are more on the production side. The overall care to the sounds is a bit slapdash. More TLC would get this over the bar. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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