ReMix: Chrono Trigger 'Behind the Sealed Door'
I'm writing this from a hotel room in Pennsylvania, and - for now - it looks like my father's surgery earlier this morning was successful and that there are no issues, which is fantastic. Those of you who've had a loved one in the hospital undergoing a procedure of any signifcance can probably relate to the stress & apprehension; it'll be good when he's back to 100%. Context out of the way, I'd like to thank all of you who had the chance to attend our panel at Otakon 2008 - we feel like it was our best yet, had a blast (and hope you did, too), and welcome the newcomers who were learning about OCR for the first time. Speaking of newcomers, Terence Lee (aka swarmer) interrupts the DQD action with some debut Chrono Trigger. The ReMixer writes:
"An older version of this song was submitted for the Nobou Uematsu Arrangement Competition at SquareSound. It placed 9th. I was not completely satisfied with it when I submitted it; I was under a big time constraint: I finished the song and sent the email out at exactly 12:00am, the time it was due. I knew there were production problems, but I admittedly do not have much experience so I was happy to learn that judging reports with comments would be available. Larry, one of the judges, had some very helpful advice, which was that the drums were largely under par and the vox could have been better quality.
So upon reading all that today, I hurriedly went to go fix it, and here it is. I'm really bad at mastering so my 10-minute-mastering done at 11:45pm for the competition didn't work so well, so I spent most of today redoing that. The drums are the same instrument but I tried to fix the sound quality of it, and tried a bit riskier approach to making it not sound too out of place. I hope it worked!
As for the inspiration, I reallllllly like Chrono Trigger and its music, and was happy to learn that one of my favorite songs, Sealed Door, was a Uematsu song, and therefore I could use it for the competition. I began to notice that it had a lot of structural similarities with the Prelude from Final Fantasy. Specifically, the melody was almost the same (if you looked at it correctly), and the harmony had a lot of similarities. The big difference, however, is that one is minor and one is major. I tried to explore different ways to transit from one to another, and I hope you find them effective."
Actually, I think more than a few people reallllllly like Chrono Trigger and its music - what else could warrant a near-verbatim DS release, right?? The drums still aren't working 100% for me; the sequencing is fine but they feel a little muffled. It might just be the lack of a dominant bass making me feel that way, which is always an unorthodox decision but mostly works here. Vinnie - who performed 'Still Alive' from Portal at Otakon with his gf Amy as well as Andy & Jill - sums up the pros and cons:
"Definitely an underrated song from the Chrono Trigger soundtrack... This was a tough one to make a decision on. I think the piano parts are quite expressive, and at its best, the mood created here is stunning. The acoustic guitar, vocals, and reversed effects add a lot. The switch to Prelude is a revelation in the midst of such darkness; a fantastic addition. The problem is that the flaws with the song really stick out. I don't think the drums are strong enough for the song, and 0:31 really doesn't have nearly the impact it should. A bass section may have added some depth there. I think if there was more reliance on the drums I'd want this redone, but they aren't used that much, so I'll say YES. There's a lot merit in the rest of this song and I think it outweighs the minor though obvious problems it has."
That about sums it up for me as well; the balance between light and dark and the conceptual strength of the arrangement pull the mix up, in spite of a couple flaws. I think Terence should specifically focus on drums and bass, as everything else here is really pretty smooth, production-wise, and he seems to have a good general grasp on EQ, DSP, etc. Sure, it's yet more Chrono Trigger, but it's a more obscure selection from the score, and it'd melded artistically with the FF prelude for some hot Uematsu-on-Uematsu action.
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