*NO* Final Fantasy 7 'Speed Limit' *FT*

The remix is "Speed Limit", covering the Crazy Motorcycle Chase theme from FF7. It's not affiliated with the project.

Title: Speed Limit

Game: Final Fantasy 7

Source Tune: "Crazy Motorcycle Chase"

Original Composer: Nobou Uematsu

Remixer: sephfire

Name: Daniel Floyd

Thanks for your trouble. If the remix hasn't fallen through, I'm sorry to everyone I've been pestering. And sorry to add to that massive "to be judged" cue.

Direct sampling for that popcorn-style motorcycle music. The rest is supportive/additive so far. Some more interpretive stuff from the source comes in after about a minute, the direct sampled stuff takes a leave for half a minute and comes back in. I'd probably have preferred if you'd come up with something to do that popcorn line rather than sampling it from the source in that first half like you did later on in the mix, it makes it difficult to judge.

I like the cinematic feeling the mix has. The production is dirty, which lends to a nice messy sound, the drums are probably a little happy to suit this style of mix. I'd like to have heard some heavy-sounding big-boom kicks in there at some stages along with some more supportive percussion. Creative choices though. As it is, the strings and synths aren't really making up for the direct-sampling and simplistic drums in my book. I think this one could probably do with a bit more work on the percussion and the structuring before it's acceptable. The meat of the mix is thick, but nothing stands out as a re-arrangement of the source so to speak. I can hear the source in there, but it's like you're just paying it lip service by following the chord patterns rather than actually making the song a remix of the source.

It's nice, and it'd probably be great with some more care and attention. Like a turtle.

NO

Alright, I'm gonna have to agree that the amount of direct sampling you use here seems a little iffy. It didn't bother me so much the first few times I heard it, but from 1:42 on where we're already getting into the bulk of the arrangement, there's where you could have taken it a step further. I do like the back-and-forth solos you have going on between the original popcorn line and the lead synth at 1:55, because they give you an actual reason to sample. That contrast is nice. But at 3:40 when the popcorn reenters doubled by a similar (albeit higher register) piano line, why not change the original instrumentaiton as well?

The other issue is that the repeated string riff you've applied is very close to what appears in the Advent Children arrangement. Unfortunately, the rule is that if you're quoting a non-game related source, it can only make up 15%-25% of the mix.

That being said, the percussion is pretty diverse, and I really enjoy the little choral breaks you've inserted from time to time. Particularly good was the percussive section starting at 2:21- well done! The strings sound more like an "outline" than anything else to me, most noticeably around the four minute mark, but there are so many other strong elements in this mix that I think I can let that slide. ^-^

Production sounds great! Seems like you've improved enormously since our GrayLightning collab days... You could've made some bolder choices with the arrangement, but I think it does the job. Only problem is the outside quotage. Touch that up, and I think you're pretty much good to go!

NO (resub plx)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 122 "Crazy Motorcycle"

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children OST - 103 "Beyond the Wasteland"

<zircon> Direct sampling of 0:00 in the source is present from 0:00 in the mix too, the little "blip" synth pattern

<zircon> At :13 in the ReMix you're hearing the riff from 2:28/2:31 in BtW

<zircon> Lots of arrangement in the ReMix is based on :35-:45 in the original track

<zircon> 1:41 and 3:59 in the ReMix are possibly connected to 1:47 in BtW... I'm thinking yes

Sorry about neglecting to fallthrough this last month. No excuse, but shit has been hectic. Cool mix, but...

Submission Instructions & Standards]Any incorporation of non-game music (mainstream, classical, etc.) should be very limited and should never carry significant portions of the mix. For example, a Mega Man mix that used Beethoven's 9th symphony for its chorus, where 15-25% of the mix was not from the game itself, would likely be rejected.

Notwithstanding the direct sampling of a part from "Crazy Motorcycle" for a significant enough portion of the mix (already a negative), the fact that much of the arrangement is based on the non-VGM tune "Beyond the Wasteland" from FF7: Advent Children makes it a loss already to me from a standards perspective. We're definitely in that 15-25% area. There's not enough singular focus on "Crazy Motorcycle" (i.e. the VGM-inspired portion of the arrangement) to give it a pass. Sorry, Dan.

You really did a great job on production relative to your earlier work and are definitely coming into your own on that level. Looking forward to your next submission, bro.

NO

Yeah, Larry basically covered it. This borrows heavily from "Beyond the Wasteland" to the point where I think if you took out that element, and took out the direct sampling from Crazy Motorcycle, you wouldn't be left with a significant arrangement. On the other hand, you DID have some real solid interpretive stuff going on. For example, 2:28 to 3:36 or so was excellent. If you had applied that level of interpretation throughout the track this would have been a lot less questionable, but you kept coming back to that string riff from Beyond the Wasteland. If you changed up that riff to something similar, but not from Advent Children and replaced the direct sampling with some basic arrangement of the theme, you'd be good to go. The production here rocks, and the structure is great. Now, just fit those things into a true OCR arrangement.

NO