ReMix:Final Fantasy Tactics "A Chronicle of Ivalice" 4:06

If you arrange Final Fantasy Tactics' "Trisection" for four saxes, Lucas Guimaraes, aren't you obligated to call it "Quadsection"??? I dunno, maybe he lost a coin flip. Perhaps it's not too late for his saxy collaborators to talk some sense into him:

• Lucas Guimaraes: Arrangement, Soprano Saxophone
• Charles Ritz: Alto Saxophone
• Jess Destramp: Tenor Saxophone
• Thomas Kresge: Baritone Saxophone
• Daniel Caton: Mix

Well, we'll allow the title to stand (magnanimous, I admit), but I just don't know the next time we'll ever have "Trisection" arranged with some sort of number gimmick. :-) Kidding aside, respect to Lucas for creatively stretching his abilities here. As someone who moved away from his hometown decades ago, I also vibe with how Lucas cited Tactics' story and tried to represent an important aspect of it musically:

"For March's Dwelling of Duels, the theme was Spinoff Month. I've always wanted to do my own take on "Trisection". I got a bit out of my comfort zone and arranged a sax quartet. I was very lucky to have pulled this off in the little time we had towards the end of the deadline (about 50% of the month was spent on arranging). My amazing collaborators and I pulled it off. With some nice feedback, we ended up polishing it some more before an official release and OCR submission.

Final Fantasy Tactics represents a game about war, friends (and other loved ones) growing apart and no longer being able to go back to your home. I purposely waited for as long as possible to go directly back to the A section at the very end because I wanted the A section to be felt with a different context. Almost no other section is a 1:1 reprise except that section. Like, the first time I do the B section, I give the melody to the baritone saxophone. Second time? Soprano. So, yes, the notes are the same, but the context they're experienced in is different. It's like visiting your hometown 20 years after moving: yeah, the place is still the same, but so, so much else has changed. No matter how much you want to, you will never be able to return home. It's a bit of a downer, but I hope you all enjoy it."

"Bit of a downer", Lucas is so modest. This has strong performances across the board, with good variations in presenting Sakimoto's source tune's sections. With saxcutioner judge prophetik music on vacation while we voted, we needed a hero and we GOT a hero, or at least a man who plays one in the vidya games, to weigh in. ROOOOOOOOOOOOOFL at Three Houses: Four Saxes performer (and sci-fi author, and parkour practicioner, and mo-cap man, and military veteran, and he did some operatic-style shizz that one time, AND accomplished voice actor)... /runs out of breath... AND OCR submissions judge Joe "XPRTNovice" Zieja pulling a Kool-Aid Man:

"*crashes through the wall*

FFT SAX QUARTET?!

I am honor bound to give some nitpicks, which I will do below.

Soprano had a fairly noticeable flub in the first 10 secs.

Eighth notes at 1:35 between bari and tenor could have been tighter, and probably could still be tightened with some production.

Could have used stronger distiction on Tenor at 2:15 re: triple tonguing or double tonguing. It gets really strong at 2:40 but before then in the lower register it suffers a bit and often sounds like double tonguing instead because that middle note just doesn't come through.

If I wanted to really nitpick, I'd say spend some time in editing taking out things like the key slaps that AREN'T part of the notes. You hear key sticks before the final notes, in the middle of the silence on the Alto part. Some might argue this ads to the realism of the performance, like you're in the audience, but personally it distracted me from whatever else was going on at that moment. Espeically since there's so much reverb in the mix (which I might consider toning down, but also could be your choice for that classical sound), the key slaps/other sax noises carry further than they should anyway.

But these are pieces of feedback from a sax player with sax ears - on the basis of OCR's standards alone, excuse me while I pass the shit out of this one.

Well done."

Normally, we don't delve into smaller issues from the Js when we post things, as no OCR-approved tracks need to be perfect and our writeups aim to focus on their strengths, but XPRTNovice's targeted speciality feedback is a unique occasion to let the full spectrum of comments ride. Constructive notes from a fellow practicioner aside, this main ran (flew?) like a bat of out hell to affirmatively weigh in on this, endorsing a truly risky and remarkable concept that was executed quite, quite brilliantly by Lucas, Charles, Jess & Thomas (with Daniel ensuring the mixing clicked). Folks, y'all can't have done better than locking down the enthusiastic YES vote of a flippy ne'er-do-well with sax credibility like Joe, so that's how we cap this. :-) FFT fans can finally rejoice in the powerful performances of four fantastical sax tacticians!