RPGamer's Music Box Presents
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B A L A M B I E N C E
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A Final Fantasy VIII Ambient Mix
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Original Themes by Nobuo Uematsu
Remixed by Gwilym Wogan, aka Vanguard, pka TGMDHD
for the Ultima-Eternity Competition
Completed 19/4/2000
Well - this turned out great, in my opinion. I'm fully content with it.
I've spent ages going through it, fine tuning all the little things I
could find, and now I think it's pretty much perfected.
Not everyone's going to like this as much as I do, so it's doubtful that
it will actually *win*, but hopefully it will raise a few eyebrows. I hope
at the very least that Detra will not regret selecting me to represent the
Music Box.
In case you don't realise, the two tunes present in this mix are "Balamb
Garden" and "Find your Way" (plays in the Fire Cavern, the Tomb of the
Unknown King, and most other temples and caves).
So, how did I come to make this tune? Right from the start, I had decided
that I would make either a really ambient/beautiful tune, or a really
powerful one. A friend mentioned that an ambient mix would probably be
more impressive than a powerful one, and after some consideration I
agreed.
It didn't take me long to decide to do FF8, as it hadn't had many mixes
done yet, and I wanted to prove to people that the FF8 music was good
(it's unfairly shunned as being a crap FF soundtrack). I hope I succeeded.
As soon as I chose FF8, I knew I'd be doing Balamb Garden in some form
or another. My first idea included doing Balamb Garden, followed by
Blue Fields (the overworld theme) and finishing up with Find your Way.
I figured doing Blue Fields would be both challenging and fun, because I'd
be converting a 3/4 tune to a 4/4 timing. That idea died pretty fast.
I tracked the Balamb Garden part anyway, and when I got to the ending of
that section, I considered how to continue. One idea that I convinced
myself to run with was continuing the tune into a variation of either Ami
or Where I Belong (two similar themes). I was all set to do this, when
suddenly I put in the first few notes of Find your Way.
And it sounded good, so I did the whole section. After tracking most of
this section, I was still under the impression that I was going to do a
third section, but I realised that the tune had gone over the five minute
mark (the unwritten UE time limit) about halfway through the Find your Way
section, and that it was much easier to put an ending to the Find your Way
section than to make it turn into another tune. The tune seemed complete
enough anyway.
Then, after tracking the whole thing, I went through the laborious task of
adding in panning and stereo. I really hope you appreciate all of the
panning detail I put in, because it took absolutely ages, and was very
tedious. I think it was worth it, though.
Samples, now. Most of them are by me, as you can see in the instrument
list. As you can also see, some are not.
Instrument 02, the Harp, is from an XM by Disturbed called TOWN2.XM. I
doubt he sampled it though, so I don't know who to credit.
Instrument 06, the Reversed Hihat, was recorded by TSSF, but I modified
and reversed it. Credit him if you use it.
Instrument 08, the Synth Bass, is one of my random samples from my old
set, and I have no idea where it came from.
Instrument 12, the Snare Drum-with-attached-"achicka" was taken from
altima and dragoon-kun(now skyline)'s FF3j acoustic/symphonic mix. I
don't know if either of them made it, but there's the source.
Instrument 14, the Low Strings is another random sample that just
appeared one day. I don't remember where I got it.
Instrument 15, the Low Piano, was taken from Necros' Orchard Street. I
don't know if he made it, but he probably did. Incidentally, if you've
also read the text file included in this IT, you'll see that I said "the
only Necros tune that I actually like" when referring to Orchard Street.
Well, I've been turned around. I now know he does more than just crap
demo/cheese tunes. I particularly like River Boat, Mechanism 8, and his
Paranoid Android mix. Dirty Walk, Dreaming in Green and Amber Poison are
also very good. So why is it that only his crap demo/cheese tunes are
available on TiS? They ruined him for me (at least temporarily).
Instrument 16, the Electrical Synth, is that brilliant sample that has
snuck its way into just about all of my recent tunes. I first got it in a
#traxinspace OHC sample pack (the compo in which I entered The Mars
Face), so I don't know of its true origin. Thanks, whoever you are.
If you use any of my samples, be sure to credit me. I'd also appreciate
hearing any tunes that are made using them, but that's not a requirement
of your using them.
Generally, they were recorded from one of a few Korg or Proteus sound
banks. Now I know I just recorded the samples straight from them, but I
had to spend ages recording them, tuning them, looping them, keeping the
filesize down, etc. I think that warrants me being credited for them. So
do so.
Greets: SHattY - You're back on the net, so quickly, throw together an
entry! Even just for the sake of entering. You'd be
kicking yourself if you missed out on this compo.
Detrafilia - I'd like to thank you for selecting me to
represent the Music Box. I hope I have done the
Box justice. I also can't thank you enough for
starting this compo in the first place. I envisage
months of gradually downloading all the entries...
Man, in a way it makes me want to get a low score.
That would mean there'd be more tunes for me
to listen to that are better than this.
Khadgar - I'm sure you can survive without me. I'd like to keep
helping you with Dark Phantasy, but...Balk Hammerim?!
Come on! That type of name belongs exclusively in
Terry Pratchett books in this day and age! Oh well.
Megan Crewe - I'll get something done for you soon! New
obstacle now, though: my mouse is broken. My
punishment for trying to fix it with violence.
Seriously, the left mouse button was playing up,
and because the mouse is glued shut, I decided my
best bet was to beat it frantically against the
corner of my desk. Didn't work. Maybe God just
doesn't want me to do music for you...that would
mean he also doesn't want me to complete the
tracked part of my live UE entry as well...and
that song for Alex's friend...or maybe he (God)
just wants me to learn Impulse Tracker...
Quick Greets: Mathew, Alex, Khalal, melvyl, skyline, JChance, M_Walker,
Opoggo, anyone I've forgotten to remember...
Anyway, I'm almost out of song message space (pity, I have more to say).
- Gwilym Wogan (Vanguard)
P.S.
E-mail me for absolutely any reason, at vanguard_gw@hotmail.com
And make sure to check out my website:
(vanguard.zerion.com)
You can get songs, comics, cartoons (yes, cartoons), heaps of other stuff
by me, and as soon as I've updated it there'll be information on my
hopefully upcoming semi-demi-RPG (it's definitely not a classic RPG, not
in storyline and content anyway).
Plus, take a peek at my Trax in Space account:
(artists.traxinspace.com/Vanguard)
Be sure to post public reviews on tunes you like.
