*NO* Valkyrie Profile & Star Ocean: Second Story 'Yggdrasil Speaks to Me'

Submission by: MeteoXavier (Meteo X)

MeteoX9999@aol.com

Remix: Valkyrie Profile - Yggdrasil Speaks to Me

I am submitting a remix of 2 songs from Valkyrie Profile, and a leitmotif from Star Ocean 2 (Valkyrie Profile is the focus of the mix). I arranged this piece as a Dark Forest theme with heavy inspiration from Yasunori Mitsuda and a few touches from the composer, Motoi Sakuraba (the loud strings and cymbal crashes for example). I was visualizing Lenneth and her Einherjar trying to find Yggdrasil in the aggressively awful forest and getting lost and running into trouble before accidentally stumbling upon Yggdrasil (hence the song change later) and setting up the scene for the next "chapter" of the story (hence leaving the song on a cliffhanger). I purposely made it aggresively and overly dark, with overemphasize on twinkly pianos and high strings, another nod to overemphasis-happy Sakuraba.

I'll be honest with you, although I'm very proud of what I am submitting to you after many, many hours spent tweaking and balancing starting from this time last year, I fully realize there are problems with it. Its not perfect for a couple reasons. One was a lot of differing suggestions from the WIP board which kinda ruined the sound balance. Ultimately I was able to get Darkesword's opinions on the song and I took his advice. The other reason is me. I'm not that good yet.

However, perfection though its not, I still stand behind my decision to submit it to the judge's table. I'm still proud of it and although I'm not expecting miracles, I still believe its worth your time to listen to it and maybe post it. Thank you.

The songs I remixed are:

Epic Poem to Sacred Death

Requiem for a Predicament

Theme of Rena (Star Ocean 2)

probably something else I'm forgetting to mention

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http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/ValkyrieProfile_psf.rar - (101) "Epic Poem to Sacred Death" & (105) "Requiem to a Predicament"

http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/StarOceanSS_psf.rar - (213) "Theme of RENA"

"Epic Poem" is a pretty nice source. Opened up with some mechanical-sounding plucked string work, though I've always been a fan of that sample; it manages to sound pretty serviceable in most situations. Some piano joined in at :28 with the main melody. Arrangement was fairly conservative. Some bowed strings doubled the melody at :51, also sounding a bit mechanical with the note movements, but decent. The mid-range felt a little muddy from :51-1:36 via the bowed strings.

Cool textures though from 1:49-2:24, with some good effects to mitigate the realism issues with the samples. The piano sounded especially nice. Pretty cluttered/muddy from 2:24-2:49. Hopefully the other Js can give some further advice along with DarkeSword's past help to get this sounding a bit cleaner while preserving the ethereal feel you're going for.

The fakeness of the bowed string sequencing there was also a lot more exposed from 2:41-2:47 with some awkward note changes.

I liked the genteel approach with the last section at 2:50, and thought the fadeout close was pulled off alright, so no major qualms there.

I think once you clean up the soundscape and refine the usage of some of these samples to sound more realistic, you'd be in much better shape. Regardless, this was an extremely promising base, Meteo. You're clearly showing you've got some fundamentals down, some of the piano sequencing sounded very nice, and the arrangement was interesting. Better put together than a good 70-80% of what we get. Keep doing what you're doing, and you'll be at the point where you can get something passed, so don't be discouraged at all.

NO (resubmit)

Lot of good things to say here. Atmosphere and instrument blend is great, and I like the way the song starts and unfolds. Good take on these three themes, and you tied them together decently. It's a very easy piece to listen to.

I think almost everything negative I have to say is related to production. The sound is too washed-out, something should be more prominent. I think letting the piano cut through the thickness by reducing any high-end damping on it would be a great start. I also felt that sometimes the string articulations were strange, especially noticeable around 1:30 and 1:50. Feels late in both cases. The first issue is the real killer for me. I just need something to take hold of.

Its not perfect for a couple reasons. One was a lot of differing suggestions from the WIP board which kinda ruined the sound balance.

I think when this is the case, take a break from your song, and come back to it with fresh ears. Try to listen to similar music that you like the sound of. It can help a lot. You definitely have the skills to make this a pass, so I hope that you see it through.

NO (resubmit)

Sweet source-tune choices. While I'm not a Sakuraba-fan you picked some of his best work (except the obvious Baten Kaitos world map music).

I like the instrument choices in the intro but the strings sounds a bit off. Too slow attack and rather fake-sounding samples. The pad is a bit sharp to the ears, either roll of some hi-freq or lower the volume. Overall the remix seems drowned in reverb and mid-frequency content. Try taking away some of the unnecessary frequencies and reverb and toning down the pads to make it cleaner. You should also be able to sequence the strings a bit better or find better samples for that, the attack just sounds off especially when they're exposed at 2:41.

The arrangement was pleasing overall. You did fit the sources together quite nicely and nothing felt out of place. When I was starting to think the arrangement was too conservative I always discovered clever additions and arrangements. The fade-out was well done too.

The production is what's keeping this from being what it could be. Work on separating the instruments, using your samples and making stuff less muddy and you'll have a winner.

NO(resubmit)