ReMix:Final Fantasy VIII "Tell Me... Why?" 2:32

H36T slips another quick track past those pesky judges, THE SWINE! Lucky #7 in terms of H36T's featured mixposts this year and not only OCR's second tranquil arrangement of Final Fantasy VIII's "Tell Me" but also OCR's second "Tell Me" ReMix to be titled with a question! I can't tell if H36T had a specific concern with submitting this track, it's escaping me...:

"Well, I think the first thing I should probably address is that, this is more along the lines of a cover and I am not sure it is transformative enough. Tried to expand on it in a few ways but every time I do, I make it worse (in my mind) in one way or another. As a piece for me, the artist, I'm actually fine with that. Not everything has to be... transformative. But as a ReMixer, I wish I had more so I could give this a puncher's chance for submission. Anyway, I think absent any new ideas, I'm ready to send it along its way to the judges and let my journey with this song end.

In fact, I probably wouldn't submit it if I wasn't so happy with how it turned out as is. I decided to add more of a personal touch this time. I've been diving hard into atmospheric pieces and finding my musical voice there. I am glad I was able to get the peaceful feel in the music. I tried going back to it over the past two years to see how I can expand or change things but nothing really ever came to mind. I remember seeing a track by someone recently that had a comment along the lines of "Not everything has to be for OCR, and maybe that's fine." Or something like that. And maybe that's the case here, but I am not a judge and I wanted others opinions to speak for themselves! Anywho...

Some things of note, I submitted another track from FFVIII this year (I promise to one day stop doing so many FFVIII tracks, to try and branch out in 2024, LOL) that incorporated thunder and rain. This is the first track I actually tried experimenting with using it as sort of an instrument or a pad, so to say. I'm imagining the scene this comes from, after the dance and SeeD fiasco, but it's a rainy day and Quistis (mah gurl) just confessing and oof. The beauty of it all. This is probably also where I began using vocal overlays a bit more and sort of using it as a trademark of mine. Sometimes, I'm self-conscious about that but, oh well, I like what I like. This is also rather short, which is problematic from a transformative standpoint, but I liked that I squeezed a bunch of different kinds of sounds that I enjoy in a tight space.

Anyway, sorry for the long post for such a short little piece. I hope you enjoy this take. Hope I can make more like this one day. Again, it's not the most transformative thing I've submitted, but I'm okay with that. As always, I'm just happy to hear back from others and continue to improve. And who knows, maybe, with some more inspiration, I'll find what I need to change this up some more, but, if not, it's been a pleasure, little track of mine."

"Tell Me... Why?" the judges panel would approve something melodically conservative like this?!? Well, it's actually pretty simple when prophetik music articulates it:

"arpeggio is in the piano right off the bat, much slower. really introspective texture initially. melody comes in at 0:31 and is beautifully articulated and realized. the overlapping vocal lines in the background form an interesting pad as they fade in and out, and there's some nice suspensions in there too. the initial runthrough of the melody is done at 1:48, and we get some more three-note snippets until it's done.

the melodic representation here is articulated the same as the original and sounds very close to the original, so the artist is right - this is indeed pretty close to the original, but i don't think i'd call it a cover. the backing elements really flesh out some of the simple beauty of the melody line.

whenever i think of how to handle conservative arrangement, i have to approach it from the perspective of "does this say something different than the original". often covers are just spicy versions of the original track. i don't think that's the case here. think about how Death on the Snowfield feels so different from the original despite being very, very similar to the original's basic structure. in this case, you take a track that is easily described as earnest or hopeful and make a much more introspective, rainymood-ish version of it. while the melodic content and chords aren't different, the significant changes in instrumentation and realization added to the sfx really make for a new work.

this is pretty enjoyable. nice work."

The methods of interpretation allowed and encouraged at OCR are spelled out in our Submissions Standards (read through to see!), yet prophetik's POV was wonderfully said, and worth quoting in full to provide his thoughts on H36T's arrangement approach alongside his broader mode of thinking when voting on melodically similar arrangements. Fellow judge MindWanderer agreed with proph's reference ReMix:

"Death on the Snowfield is a great comparison. Superficially similar to the original, but with changed pacing and instrumentation that alter the entire mood. Sometimes less is more. A lead, an arp, and some tasteful pads and sfx are plenty to convey a mood and transform a theme. It's a little short, but I don't know how you'd lengthen it without it wearing out its welcome. This absolutely does everything it needs to."

We're actually not THAT demanding when you think about it; I mean, is it TRULY that difficult to put your own honorific spin on a piece of music? This was a solid sound upgrade to kick things off, but the verse section wasn't selling me on this being interpretive enough at first. Once it hit the chorus at 1:04......OOOOK, THEN the mood and presentation were meaningfully standing apart from "Tell Me" in a way that put this over the top. Nice, tasteful SFX usage as well with the thunder and water droplets, not to mention the piano, chromatic percussion, and vox. Lovely, lovely, lovely, and another notable instance of H36T makin' the music short & sweet (& substantive) while gettin'er done! :-)