ReMix: Final Fantasy X 'Guardian's Sending'

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Wow... my initial listen to this must have been under weird circumstances, because I don't remember being as impressed. Newcomer Sal gives us a mature, dramatic arrangement from FFX with a big emphasis on dynamics. Most of the arrangement is acoustic guitar, cello, oboe, some piano, and strings. Towards the end there's a large, emphatic brass push w/cymbal crashes which seems a little forced, but the rest of the arrangement flows like butter, and in particular the repeating acoustic guitar riff effectively evokes a classic rock motif being fused with orchestral in a pleasing manner. Stereo imaging is paid attention to, strumming on the guitar is believable, and overall this isn't cookie-cutter orchestral and has some interesting things to say arrangement-wise while not slacking on the sound quality, either. The ReMixer writes:

"This is more of an arrangement than anything else. As the title suggests, it's meant to go along with a scene in the game so i've concentrated much more of the mood of this rather than the technical aspects so intrumentally, it's fairly minimalist. It's meant to be a 'story in music' so it's more of a piece that should get you thinking rather than it just being something to listen to. Whether i've managed to pull it off well, that's what the judging's for. Made with Guitar Pro 3, Cubase, Edirol Super Quartet, Edirol Orchestral & Sound Forge 6."

The Edirol VSTis may not produce jaw-dropping sound quality, but I find their results pleasing and sometimes - esp. when combined by someone with a little know-how - downright impressive. While some judges felt the flow at times wasn't as smooth as it could have been (the dropout at 2'10" is the only good example I can come up with of this), Protricity succinctly summed up his opinion, while disagreeing with the mixer's own self-applied "minimalist" label as well:

"I wouldn't call this minimalistic. There is a lot going on for the most part in every section of the song. Missing percussion, but percussion would lose the feel. Indeed this is a good mix of original and originality so to speak."

Definitely some excellent dynamics work here, and an arrangement that clearly did involve some planning out and coordination. Compelling first submission. Recommended.

― djpretzel