ReMix:Final Fantasy IX "Be Still, My Wicked Heart" 4:28

A sublime, rich, & complex orchestral FF9 medley from Rebecca E. Tripp, off of Final Fantasy IX: Beyond the Mist:

"This arrangement was created for a Pixel Mixers Final Fantasy 9 album, Beyond the Mist. I highly recommend that you check out the rest of it.

This is an epic orchestral mini-medley of Final Fantasy 9. I included 4 themes, including "Footsteps of Desire" AKA "Devil's Ambition," "Slew of Love Letters" AKA "Foolproof Love Letter Scheme," "Black Waltz," and "Feel My Blade" AKA "Sword of Fury."

FF9 (originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu) has over 80 tracks, and they range from "good" to" tear-jerking masterpiece"! I wanted this track to sound theatrical and mischievous. It was sort of inspired by the opera scenes in FF6 (as well as the play shenanigans in FF9!). I'm hoping that my renditions of all of these themes have a sense of intrigue and melodrama about them."

To be honest, I get a more sinister/malevolent vibe than mischief/shenanigans, but either way, this is absolutely one of Rebecca's most ambitious & dramatic arrangements, with a gothic/romantic aesthetic and intense vocalizing over moody, dark symphonic elements. There's a bit of a story here - judges approved this late last year, but Rexy *very* astutely noticed a couple audio glitches in the render. We both love the arrangement and decided to work w/ Rebecca on the necessary fixes; she was kind enough to provide two renders, along with the Ableton project, and using a combination of splicing & iZotope RX de-noise/de-click, we finally landed on a WAV that's a bit cleaner than the original. Since the mix has some exposed part-writing and a very enveloping, pervasive atmosphere, it was important to me to address these issues - small as they were - to sustain the listener's immersion into the world Rebecca's created. And what a world it is! MindWanderer sums it up nicely:

"This is one of Rebecca's best arrangements so far, and that's out of a massive library she's produced over the last few years! It doesn't sound a thing like a medley despite using four sources, and the orchestration is delicious."

Sir_NutS adds:

"Pretty ambitious stuff here. Definitely one of Rebecca's best, as I have barely anything to nitpick here production-wise. The use of the female singer is awesome here, handled with a lot of subtlety and definitely a highlight of the arrangement. Another highlight with this one is how well the themes blended together. It doesn't sound like a cheap medley but like a complete song."

So to reiterate: I agree with my esteemed colleagues that this is one of Rebecca's best, most compelling pieces, and I'm glad we could help clean up a couple minor issues with the render. Gave me an excuse to use RX on something, and I think it worked quite well. With or without the tweaks, this stands out in the artist's oeuvre as a work of distinct scope & vision, the lead female vocalizing casts a very effective spell, and I think FF fans & connoisseurs of fantastic orchestral arrangements will fall in love. Highly recommended!