ReMix:Chrono Trigger "The Dark Defender" 3:10

By Pavos

Arranging the music of one song...

"Magus Confronted"

Primary Game: Chrono Trigger (Square , 1995, SNES), music by Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda

Posted 2016-05-11, evaluated by the judges panel


From BadAss 3, album director pu_freak (Pieter van Os) brings us "Magus Confronted" from CT as a piano-driven, sinister, & super-creepy arrangement in the style of Dexter's "Blood Theme":

"Brooding strings, howling winds, eerie piano, twisted music boxes, and an overall empty and ominous vibe should drive you further insane... This is Magus - Dexter style - and will bring out the evil killer in yourself. Let its evil run through your veins and surrender yourself to the darkness...

For BadAss 3, my aim was to create an album of mixes that make you feel evil, sinister, or twisted. To achieve that, people should either have something bombastic or epic in their mix (like "The Imperial March"), or make it creepy and twisted. I've always used one example for the latter category: the "Blood Theme" from Dexter. To that end, I wanted to make a mix of my own in "Blood Theme"-style.

The mix starts the same as Magus's castle theme, with brooding low strings and howling wind in the background. However, when playing the real Magus theme, I only use the two chords that are present in the "Blood Theme" (two chords that are twisted in itself). In the 0:29-1:20 part, I've used music bells that are very close the the background motif used in "Blood Theme." I couldn't do much else in terms of recreating the "Blood Theme"-vibe, since incorporating non-VGM is unwanted, of course, but I think it's enough to remind people of the "Blood Theme" and to give the same creepy and twisted vibe. To increase the twisted feeling, I've made a dynamic panning and volume for the music bells, and the music box later in the mix. Furthermore, some instruments (most notably the piano at the end) have a chorus effect, making them sound more distorted. Big differences in volume throughout will, hopefully, also instigate an unsettling effect and the mix featured brooding strings throughout. The uses of music bells and music boxes should also add to the creepy feeling. In terms of vibe, this mix combines the feeling of my Pokémon track on OCR and my Gilgamesh mix from BadAss 1."

While not strictly a solo piano arrangement, the piano is the dominant ingredient here, with eery, subdued accompaniment acting to embellish. First off, while he approved it, Larry put forth what I think is the most on-point criticism:

"The timing being so stilted and exposing the piano sample was personally my biggest issue. The production and piano tone could be improved, but what's here is solid enough, with the arrangement carrying things."

1'52" sounds like a timing flub, to me... the rest of the performance has some humanization to it, but I concur that this aspect of the mix isn't perfect. Overall, though, Pieter succeeded in reenvisioning this melody in a completely different & very "darkly dreaming" fashion; Emunator's decision summed up my own thoughts perfectly:

"It was really insightful reading your writeup on this track and making the A-to-B connections from elements from "Blood Theme" that you incorporated into your own mix. Conceptually, I feel like this is a very successful track at creating the foreboding, moody vibe you were going for. I really dug the subtle integration of the bells throughout the track... There's still room for improvement on the sound quality/mixing front but I think this is above the bar, thanks to a pretty solid arrangement and concept that I feel mitigates any of the sound quality issues."

Agreed on all counts; issues aside, this ReMix delivers on the concept of "Magus" as a disturbing, psychological piece of scoring that gets inside your head & stays there.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 4 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
avatar
jnWake
on 2016-05-16 12:02:05

Being honest, I'm not often a big fan of piano solo remixes (weird since I play piano). I often feel they lack dynamics or a clear hook. For this one, dynamics are clearly a high point with many volume and rhytm variations. There's a bit of a hook too with Magus' theme.

What impressed me the most, though, was how you subtly changed Magus' melody to fit the chords. Very often I see people try to adapt the mood of a melody without actually changing the melody and it falls flat. Luckily, it works great here.

My main complaint here is the piano sample. It sounds a bit too much like an E. Piano.

avatar
DimeTower
on 2016-05-13 00:19:30

I really like where this mix went. Maybe it could have been a little deeper or more elaborated upon - I'm not a mix expert - but I know I really appreciated the way this mix turned into a haunting, look-twice-over-your-shoulder walk down Magus Lane. It made 3 minutes fly and was chilling the entire time, particularly with the slightly off-key music box at the end. I call this an eerie success.

avatar
timaeus222
on 2016-05-11 18:44:23

I liked that the piano was front-and-center and relatively easy to discern. The chords were well-chosen to establish what I feel is a sad AND unsettling mood. Nice work!

avatar
Liontamer
on 2016-05-10 12:35:32

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Chrono Trigger (Square , 1995, SNES)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu,Noriko Matsueda,Yasunori Mitsuda
Songs:
"Magus Confronted"

Tags (7)


Genre:
Classical
Mood:
Dark,Spooky
Instrumentation:
Bells,Piano,Strings
Additional:
Usage > Halloween

File Information


Name:
Chrono_Trigger_The_Dark_Defender_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
4,677,491 bytes
MD5:
28de84c79436fbbe05b597013dcc1e02
Bitrate:
193Kbps
Duration:
3:10

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