Reviews for Chant de l'Eveil

[johnfn]

Great! I really liked Links Awakening as a kid and this gives me some definite nostalgia. I liked the vocals a lot and I felt like they added a bit to the song. Although I doubt you did this intentionally, I liked how they weren't in my native tongue. Whenever someone adds vocals to a song that didn't have vocals before I usually end up thinking the lyrics are really dumb. You sidestepped that issue nicely. :-)

I always was a little conflicted about the wind waker melody. The first bits of the melody (the 2 lines that start 'Je sommeille') I always really liked, but the part at 1:14 never made any melodic sense to me (at least if you're keeping the first half of the melody in mind). You do as good as you could, but it's still weird.

One thing you might want to think about is that the volume levels for this song are kind of all over the place. The volume difference between, say, :15 and 2:00 is quite a lot - I turned up my headphones pretty loud at first, but later had to turn them back down. Maybe you did this on purpose, but you should just keep it in mind.

I thought the mixing of the song was well done. At points like 2:00 it feels very well developed.

I found myself really hoping for a section - maybe just a small one - where everything really bursted though. The whole song sorta felt like a build up to a climax that didn't come. The point at 2:00 was closest to what I wanted, but I felt like it needed more somehow. (Or perhaps it should just have come at the end of the song?) I don't know.

This is somewhere between an 8 and a 9. Really awesome work - a reinvention of a classic!

Troisnyx responds:

Cheers, thanks for the review! :D

1) I imagined the climactic finish was in Section II, around 2:59. This is, quite literally, where all the instruments I've used come in (except for the ocarina). My original idea for the video (which is no longer in place) was to have the Instruments of the Sirens show up at various points in the piece depending on which instruments actually played in the song.

That being said, the mixing follows that sequence. If I'm not mistaken, it may be the order in which the instruments appear in a circle on Mt Tamaranch. Panning in a circle was quite tricky, admittedly, and since the first time I handled a sequencer (Logic Pro 8 it was back then), I had never panned in a circle... until recently.

2) Volume levels, you're quite right. The volume starts bursting out at 2:00, I see it in the waveform on Audacity. This is something I must tend to.

3) I wholeheartedly agree about the melody. The last few lines of it, I was thinking, 'Totaka, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?'

4) The thing about the melody is that if we were to go on a purely speechlike basis, English stresses the first syllables in words most of the time, while French stresses either the second or last syllables in words. Given how the melody actually goes in this piece, I thought, French would fit. When I first thought of singing to the melody of the Ballad of the Wind Fish, literally the first line that came to me was "Je sommeille, je sommeille dans cet espace". It wouldn't have fit in English, I doubt it would've, if I were to go with a rough translation of the lyrics at hand.

Once again, thank you so much!

[LazyBucks]

God this was awesome...

[c0rRupt3dblu]

Let me tell you a story...

When I was 3 years old, my uncle bought my cousin and I my very first Gameboy for my birthday and we were allowed to pick 1 game. Unable to really read at the time or have any conception of video games, I didn't know what to pick. The wall of video games were magnificent in size compared to me. But then I saw the Link's Awakening. The golden background with a sword and shield was appealing to me.

For the next year, I had the most difficult time coming around to both reading and understanding what I was suppose to do. But I still enjoyed it on and off again because I imagined I was this boy walking around. I'd walk around in circles for hours and hours. Months went by and I still had no idea what I had in my hands. It wasn't until I finally found the sword on the beach and when the music drastically changed and I suddenly became empowered to slay those monsters.

Suddenly, everything clicked. I was high on adrenalin for the first time in my life.

I ran around the house in bliss and my addiction to video games started. I spent a huge portion of my time (life) playing my Gameboy. I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Maria and what's-his-face. I felt like I was their protector. I would periodically visit them from time to time to see what they were doing. (I learned how to read by then)

And one beautiful day, Maria was outside the house and she was singing. My jaw dropped. I never knew she sang and I literally held my gameboy to my ear for hours just listening to her. It was the first time I've ever been interested in music. It was a beautiful exchange. I would protect them with, and she sang for me.

What you have done here is just that all over again. You've awakened my childhood to the very beginning of my life.

Troisnyx responds:

I'm glad.... thank *you*! Thank *you* for listening.

Despite having owned a Gameboy and an NES I have never played a single Legend of Zelda game before, and much of my exposure to it comes from Chuggaaconroy and MasaeAnela, both of them Let's Players. But this is the kind of chivalry that needs to be inspired in people: we aren't here to do what we want when we want, but to stand up with heroic courage like Link.

Games are immersive -- and it's moved me to read what Link's Awakening has immersed you in. <3

[Nimble]

oh jeez this is great.

The sounds, the mixing, the vocals are all great.
The form of the piece is great.
The panning is weird, but justified.
The overall experience is for the most part, great. Reminds me of a certain MMO.
There are very few errors that were barely noticeable in the first place. This is definitely going into my NG music :)