• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

OCReMix releases Final Fantasy VI inspired album, Balance and Ruin

E

ExMachina

Unconfirmed Member

Info and Download: http://ff6.ocremix.org/

Press Release: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44288
Review Thread: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44287 (lots of responses from the remixers too!)
Reddit AMA: http://bit.ly/12H99v4 (posted by warmlettuce)

A couple of tracks have been uploaded to Youtube if you want to sample what's on the album before downloading the entire thing:

Tracklist (not including the bonus disc / thanks, shaowebb!)
I1rgIBX.jpg
Click to expand...
 
A

Aru

Member
Man I'm not sure I want to listen to this album. OCRemix is pretty much hit or miss with every track or album release. I didn't like the FFVII remix album.
Usually I find one or two tracks that I really enjoy on each album, with Project Chaos being the one I like the most.
EDIT: I really like Jillian Aversa's songs though, I think I'll give those a listen at least.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Nice to hear virt working with FF6 again. His Dancing Mad was always one of my favorite FF6 arrangements.
 
V

Velinos

Member
Now I wish I would have contributed to the kickstarter and gotten CDs of this album. Way better than I expected.
 
Y

Yasae

Banned
ultron87 said:
Yup. Wow. Will definitely check out the rest of the album.

I dunno if anything can touch their Sonic 3 and Knuckles album, though.
Click to expand...
True. The standouts on that were the more RnB-centric tracks. More improvisation, a greater tapestry of sounds, more melody, something we haven't heard a zillion times before etc.

I'd like rock interpretations more if they could get over their own leads and solos, cause fuck that's getting boring.
 
J

jett

D-Member
CD1 was really good...and then it turned weird with track 4. These people need to learn when to outright reject some of these submissions. Seems quality control will always be an issue with these mega-projects, I wish they would learn one day that less is more.
 
N

Nocturnowl

Member
Whew, this is going to take a while to get through, i've at least listened to the ones in the OP but the rest i'll have to give a listen at some point later on, these grander project undertakings while impressive are perhaps too big.

jett said:
CD1 was really good...and then it turned weird with track 4. These people need to learn when to outright reject some of these submissions. Seems quality control will always be an issue with these mega-projects, I wish they would learn one day that less is more.
Click to expand...

And this is why, I trimmed down the mammoth DKC3 project last year to about 20-25 odd tracks that I really enjoyed, a fantastic batch for sure but that still leaves a huge chunk of them that couldn't stack up to the rest (or of course ones that were still good but I just didn't gel with).
On the other hand at least this way tracks don't get left out, sometimes the strongest remixes come from the more unexpected source material.
I guess I have two trains of thought on this subject.
 
M

MrDaravon

Member
Still salty I was unemployed during the kickstarter and couldn't get a physical copy of this :(.

edit: holy fuck at impresario
 
F

Famassu

Member
Listening to some of these, I'm glad I helped with the Kickstarter and have the Special/Limited Edition CD coming to me.
 
A

Aeris130

Member
The whole thing opens up kinda bland and samey for the first 1½ disc.

Then comes the Impresario, and everything becomes awesome.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Nocturnowl said:
Whew, this is going to take a while to get through, i've at least listened to the ones in the OP but the rest i'll have to give a listen at some point later on, these grander project undertakings while impressive are perhaps too big.



And this is why, I trimmed down the mammoth DKC3 project last year to about 20-25 odd tracks that I really enjoyed, a fantastic batch for sure but that still leaves a huge chunk of them that couldn't stack up to the rest (or of course ones that were still good but I just didn't gel with).
On the other hand at least this way tracks don't get left out, sometimes the strongest remixes come from the more unexpected source material.
I guess I have two trains of thought on this subject.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's fine to go after weird choices, but if it doesn't stack up to the rest it should be cut from the main "roster" and offer it up as a bonus, maybe. For instance, this "Edgar and Sabin" remix is completely unremarkable. And next to it is an interesting, Elfman-inspired take on Kekfa's theme.

Meh. I guess it's all the same since we can sort it out ourselves. :p

edit: La Montaña de los Caballos Jóvenes is really cool.
 
I

irriadin

Member
I've been playing Impresario repeatedly since release :)

EDIT: as far as quality vs quantity... old OCRemix projects (Relics of the Chozo and Kong in Concert, for example) were less monolithic in scope, but made up for it in the sheer quality of the arrangements. While I do love getting HUGE remix albums, there is something to be said about the quality of the older releases.
 
Z

zircon

Neo Member
Wow, forgot I had an account here! Thanks everyone for taking the time to listen to the album. I appreciate it. Everyone has their own vision for what an ideal arrangement or remix might sound like; our goal was to stay true to the spirit and vision of the original tracks while also letting amazing musicians add their own personal touch. I thought everyone did an exceptional job of achieving that goal with really strong arrangements, great production, and clear links to each source tune (I know some folks don't like really liberal arrangements).

I think quality vs. quantity is something of a false choice. You can have both! There was an incredible amount of quality control on this project. Everyone onboard was handpicked by myself and McVaffe. We extended the project 6+ months so that incredible tracks like "The Impresario" could be completed by busy professionals like virt. There are also more live instruments and studio recordings on this project than on any other in the OC ReMix catalog, thanks to the generous support of our Kickstarter backers.

Besides our internal project forum where people reached out to each other for feedback and critique, McVaffe and I personally spent countless hours offering advice and critique to various remixers to ensure each track was the best it could be. I mixed and mastered quite a few of the remixes myself for consistency (with the guidance of the individual arrangers), and also set up lots of collaborations so that sampled instruments could get replaced with live recordings. That's the kind of love that went into this :)

Mentioning Jeff's take on "Locke" as being below the bar is a perfect example of music being a very subjective thing. Jeff and Laura are amazing musicians; Jeff has performed for and arranged on some of the biggest games ever (Gears of War, Mass Effect, League of Legends) and Laura has been touring for Video Games Live for years. I think the remix is absolutely amazing and I listened to it probably about 50 times both before and after completion, also doing a lot of back and forth with Jeff about production / mastering. It's one of my favorite remixes from the project and something about it really calls to mind that cloud of pure nostalgia I had as a kid playing FF6. But hey, to each their own.

I thought the comparison to Kong in Concert was funny on a personal level, since I participated on that back in 2004 and I think my remix there is absolutely amateur compared to things like "Fistful of Nickels", "Full Speed Ahead" or "Till We Meet Again" on FF6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drRUNJ43g5c

Anyway, I'm happy to answer any questions about the project if anyone is curious; otherwise, keep enjoying the music!
 
I

Ixzion

Member
The Impresario blew me completely away. I'm still listening to the album, but that song was the one that made me stop to post about how awesome it was.

Probably the best videogame remix out there. Absolute quality.

Edit: Oh yeah, I should thank zircon and the whole OCR crew for making this thing happen. :D
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
This is absolutely phenomenal.

I couldn't tell by the song titles, but are there any variations on the Celes theme here that I'm not seeing?
 
J

jett

D-Member
Fair post there, zircon. Music is indeed a subjective thing. Congrats on the release, so far it has been really good stuff, mostly. :p
 
B

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Good lord at Impresario.

Neat to see Coin Song and Epitaph featured. Loved those two pieces in the game.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Aeana said:
His Dancing Mad was always one of my favorite FF6 arrangements.
Click to expand...
Well, now I have to hear this. If I haven't unwittingly done so already.

EDIT: Nope, I had never heard his Dancing Mad before. Absolutely amazing and a fairly unique take on it. I dig.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
zircon said:
Wow, forgot I had an account here! Thanks everyone for taking the time to listen to the album. I appreciate it. Everyone has their own vision for what an ideal arrangement or remix might sound like; our goal was to stay true to the spirit and vision of the original tracks while also letting amazing musicians add their own personal touch. I thought everyone did an exceptional job of achieving that goal with really strong arrangements, great production, and clear links to each source tune (I know some folks don't like really liberal arrangements).
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting, and I hope that while you're here you'll take part in other VG music threads as they pop up. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

OCRemix Kickstarter: 4-disc Final Fantasy VI Album: Balance & Ruin
0
2K
Chairhome replied
Top Bottom