ReMix: Chrono Cross 'To Times Once Forgotten'

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Distant relative of the tenacious Vampire Hunter D (of hand-talking fame and infamous legacy) and blood-brother to Donovan from the Capcom fighter of the same name, Vampire Hunter Dan writes:

"Hello. It's been quite a while since my first/last submission to OCR. I'm writing now to submit an arrangement/remix of mine called "To Times Once Forgotten." This orchestral arrangement borrows a bit from my contributions to the first edition of a certain Yasunori Mitsuda Tribute album, and consists of pieces from Chrono Trigger for the SNES, and Chrono Cross for the PSX, including 'Star-Stealing Girl','Dragonrider', and 'The Brink of Death.'"

I actually just got back from driving home from Delaware through some serious thunderstorms while listening to Zimmer's Gladiator score, and the beginning of this mix resembles some of the more bombastic parts of The Battle, especially the transition at 0'47" - VHD has a knack for cinematic orchestration, without going overboard, and both dynamics/articulations and samples/production are high quality. Mr. Lightning says:

"Arrangement of the several themes are interwoven extremely well. Impressive in that aspect. My favorite part of this though is the interplay between all the different instrumentation. This is textbook orchestratal, and done very well at that. Great sequencing of chromatic percussion. I love all the little subtle performances that really breathe live into this.

Production is amazing, but what impresses me is, I don't think I've ever heard an orchestral mix in this community that use reverb to create such a great soundstage as this mix does. The front to back placement in the stage is amazing. Very authentic."

At 7'22", this is one large mutha', a bonafide humdinger of symphonic stuffs, if you will, and the ReMixer does a good job of packing multiple themes in without things seeming schizophrenic. I think an excellent analogy when talking about medleys is Disney's Epcot - when walking around its waterous, fountained epicenter, you abruptly change from one localized pavillion to the next, moving from a Japanese themed area to German, Canadian, etc. ones - the shift can often be unnerving and frightening to those with heart conditions. But in all seriousness, that's NOT what you wanna shoot for with a medley - better that things be seamless and natural, which have never been respective fortes in the theme park business in general. VHD makes it so, slowly introing with deep ensemble strings and building to a suspenseful melodic phrase at 0'21", as percussion, deep low brass, harp, winds, and strings all converge as integral elements of the same whole. Transition at 1'00" reminds me of a Williams Star Wars segue, and then you even get a bassoon solo to complete that effect, before switching into harpsichord-led coverage of one of CT's more familiar melodies. And that's just the first two minutes, really. Boom-boom Timpanis at 2'42" remind one of Also Sprach Zarathustra or that brief scene in Spaceballs, take your pick - very Roman/imperial, and effective as a transition back into more melodic material covered by strings, before harping into Schala a bit. Brandon didn't quite dig the first harpsichord usage, which I'd tend to agree with, but expresses appreciation for the mix's concluding moments:

"I don’t think that the harpsichord at 1:31-1:45 is strong enough to stand on its own. The sample feels too flat and buzzy for such a great instrument. However, its return as a supporting instrument at 5:56 through the end is delicate and delightful; easily my favorite section of this mix. What a great way to close the mix out."

3'46" is the only transition - out of quite a few - where it felt like the piece just stopped and restarted, and it alone I feel does break up the overall cohesion, and from an arrangement perspective, though quite small per capita, it might be my biggest beef; that probably speaks more to the overall strength of the whole piece. Fans of CT orchestral can't afford to pass this up - it's essentially an overture of some of the more famous themes from a very "overturable" OST, and does an great job at interpreting, resetting, and integrating them as such. Excellent.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.

a little heavy on the medleyitis, but things are nicely arranged and very personalized. This is definitely more than just the tracks strung together, but some of the transitions are so flimsy. :/
The samples are very good, but more importantly, they are utilized very very well. Lots of humanization and velocity changed, some excellent partwriting that plays to the strengths of the samples, and the source tracks are all beautiful. VHD has come a long ways, even from this strong debut, so be sure to check out all of his stuff. :-)

- OA on March 20, 2009

Man, man, man, maaaaan. This is crazy good. Vampire Hunter Dan is GOD of orchestral remixes. That is all. While others contest with some success, they nevertheless succumb to the volatile levels of awesomeness of mixes like this one.
An amazing ballet of intertwining Mitsuda melodies. And always extremely rich and interesting; there's always some sort of background magic happening if you really pay attention, the same as in great classical music.
This mix is one of the most rewarding and beautiful pieces on OCR and Vampire Hunter Dan is one of the most important mixers on the site, in my eyes. Don't EVER overlook this.

- Marmiduke on January 27, 2009

I've had this remix in my playlist for a long time now, and it wasn't until recently that I actually took a good listen to it, and I must say I am highly impressed. The arrangement is very well done with mostly seamless transitions. The layering of instruments is also very good.
I think this remix has taught me that I should probably take the time to give a more thorough listen to other mixes that didn't immediately jump out at me the first couple of listens. There's a lot going on in this piece, and while it may not be the type of song that you might enjoy when your focus is on another task, when you give it your attention it really shines.

- PorscheT1 on November 4, 2008

Isn't the theme "Radical Dreamers" there at the end aswell?
Btw, I can't believe this mix has such a relatively small amount of comments...

- Vidilian on August 28, 2007

Claado Shou;64073 wrote: Excellent piece. Convincing as all get-out. Congrats on making a solid medley arrangement that ACTUALLY brings the games together as opposed to smushing them into the same samplepack. You're an [i]artiste[/i] of a very high caliber.

I really agree with this - really cohesive work! It doesn't feel like a mash-up at all; while all of the pieces were different, you still gave them a feeling that they fit together, which is really epic.
Awesome patches and samples, solid production... yeah! I love this, amazing work!

- siven7 on June 6, 2007

He went a very different route from the last mix of his I reviewed at the start, but he loops back around, and brings the Harpsichord back in for a brief period. It remains throughout, but unlike in Reminiscence of Feelings, it doesn't become the focus of the song. Instead, the brass takes over, giving this mix a Wagnerian feel for a period. It reminds me of the great multi act operas that the great composers used to put together. There's a demarcation between the songs mixed, but not enough to throw of the pacing of the song as whole. Excellent work.

- DragonFireKai on February 25, 2007

Hey! Nice job on the remix!
I love music and it was really cool!
Seriously!

- Princess_Of_Memories on August 16, 2005

good stuff. ^_^

- pixlz on August 15, 2005

Excellent piece. Convincing as all get-out. Congrats on making a solid medley arrangement that ACTUALLY brings the games together as opposed to smushing them into the same samplepack. You're an [i]artiste[/i] of a very high caliber.

- Claado Shou on August 13, 2005

It sounds good,Has a good power in it.i mite jus listen 2 it 1 more time :).It is also long n changes a lot so it feels like the song is tellin a story.Good song indeed.

- AznJake on August 13, 2005

This is some pretty sweet stuff. Kept my attention the whole time. That brass is just sexy.

- Blake on August 12, 2005

beautiful. cant wait to here more

- Ninja-san on August 11, 2005

I know it's a classic way to use those hard-to-use pure tones of the xylophone, but I still contend that said classic way (used at the beginning of the song) sounds really dumb. Still, I like it, I really do!

- Nobbynob Littlun on August 11, 2005

awsome, this one of the best pieces of music I have ever heard. I love it!!

- GNU1516 on August 8, 2005

Now, this is another good orchestral piece. Quality of right shot. I will listen the previous ReMix of this guy.

- Txai on August 8, 2005

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