This is my remix of Chrono Trigger's "Secret of the Forest" theme. I have titled it "The Depetrification of the Submerged Forest."  I think it has a very underwatery feel and I think it is the equivalent of taking a chill pill as well!

Chrono Trigger is arguably one of the greatest RPG's of all time. Not only does it boast one of the best plotlines, but it also has one of the best soundtracks ever created, in my opinion. The score was mostly written by Yasunori Mitsuda, along with a few tracks being written by Nobuo Uematsu. The source material for this one (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_QxGtXSa9E) is extremely well known and has been remixed hundreds, if not thousands, of times. It is a really relaxing, memorable, and soothing melody. I thought I'd brush up on my remixing chops and steer this into a more ambient mix. I wasn't planning on having this turn into a 10 minute piece, but the most important focus for this one was to create a soundscape that was very lush, and I quickly realized in order to fully explore my idea for this song, it'd take some time to develop the sound. I never really did a piece in this style before. It gets frantic early on and then mellows out about halfway through with some laid-back drums, and finally finishes off kind of edgy. 

The other issue I wanted to learn about and explore more was instrument development, and I tinkered for many hours to tweak the sounds, using effects such as delay, reverb, distortion, EQ, flangers, arpeggiators, envelope shapers, filters, compressors, panning, and quite a few more. I also developed sounds in Halion 5 from scratch and honed them to my liking using a zillion different knobs and automating controls such as volume and send effects. I cut down on my total instruments from my last video game remix from 205 down to only 64 for this one. I kind of realized my Wizards and Warriors mix was a bit chaotic and had too many different instruments and too much activity, ideas, and effects going on all at once, so I wanted to it be more cohesive this time around. 

I utilized virtual instrument plug-ins including pianos, an ocarina, orchestral harps, flamenco guitars, and mostly a ton of "world" and ethnic instruments to give it a more earthy feel. Some of those include a balalaika, pan flutes, a canapa, a balafon kalimba, a Celtic Harp, Himalayan Chimes, a Ney, and a few more. These were rounded off by more traditional instruments such as strings, but with surreal effects added so that they complimented the ethnic instruments, and also the inclusion of various pads for texture and character. 

I had a lot of fun making this one, it's probably a much different spin on the source material than what most are used to, but that was my intent, as I felt the song greatly lended itself to a subdued vibe that I wanted to experiment with, rather than just throw some beats and effects together. I'm pleased with the result and hope this song takes you away on a blissful reminiscience of the glory days of the SNES, traveling through time with Crono and Co!

Special shout-out to Joel Rivera who basically had to force me to play this game!

Chrono Trigger - "The Depetrification Of The Submerged Forest"  - 'Secret of the Forest' Remix

Description
I am a classically trained pianist turned amateur music producer in 2014. I enjoy infusing piano elements with mellow beats, electronica, and quirky synths in my music. I was first inspired musically to make video game remixes (and still love to), but I also create original content and write excessively long descriptions for my songs. Most of my sound has electronic elements and an overall chilled, ambient vibe. I hope to one day have a career in video game, television, movie, or solo music production. Some of my music can be found on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Google Play Music, Amazon, and a few others, so be sure to look me up on your favorite musical app! I have also been featured on OverClocked ReMix - my handle is ZiSotto there. Let me know if you have any requests or would like to work with me. Thank you for listening and subscribing! :)

Gear:
Kawai ES7 Digital Piano
Novation Launchkey 61
Scarlet FocusRite Audio Interface
KRK Rokit Studio Monitors
Cubase 8.0

Am learning generative music systems en route to a longform piece. Demos of interesting sounds I hear along the way will be uploaded here.

Chrono Trigger - "The Depetrification Of The Submerged Forest" - 'Secret of the Forest' Remix

Zack Sottolano