Dancing Mad

Back at the beginning, when I was uploading a lot of classic Final Fantasy tracks to YouTube, many of you told me I should cover Dancing Mad. At that point, I had probably never even heard it. Many of the pieces I was recording at the time were brand new to me, since I never really had a strong connection to Final Fantasy when I was a child, except that my brother played the games and I would watch him sometimes. Eventually I discovered the Distant Worlds performance of Dancing Mad and fell in love, to the point that I would say it’s Uematsu’s greatest achievement.
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Before any recording I do, I have my dad, Keith Comparetto, tune the instrument. This is the single most important thing that needs to happen! This is my sister’s Steinway at her music studio.
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Jimmy setting up the microphones while my dad tunes. We used 6 microphones in various parts of the room. This will give us a lot to play with when editing the finished product.

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So, naturally, I thought I should make a recording. But when I tried the Piano Opera version (basically the only version except for the one from the original sound version, which is pretty puny), I was not thrilled. There are so many inner and outer voices all happening at the same time, it was impossible to make sense of them all on just one instrument!

At the time, I was taking organ lessons, and thought it might be cool to make an arrangement of the piece for both piano and pipe organ, since the organ is such a prominent part of the piece. I’ve never enjoyed writing music, so I knew this was going to be a huge endeavor. But somehow the inspiration came at me and I pulled most of the arrangement together very quickly.

I started asking around about videographers who would be able to film and record the project. I was receiving enough support from my fanbase at that point that I decided I wanted to go big. Not only that, but I wanted to cosplay both Terra and Kefka and make the video appear like a battle between the two instruments — Terra on the piano and Kefka on the organ.

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I finally found someone … and then Covid hit. The church where I was practicing organ closed, and all my plans for the project were put on hold. Eventually, I came to grips with the fact that it may not ever happen the way I had planned. I started thinking of ways to record and film it myself, however crude it might turn out. Soon after, I stumbled upon @jimmyonguitar, who lived in my own state — a photographer who loved Final Fantasy music and was just starting to upload his own guitar covers on YouTube.

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We filmed a project together — Midnight Rendezvous from FF VII. After this, it became apparent that he was the one I should ask to make Dancing Mad happen! He had owned his own recording studio in the past, and had every type of amazing camera you could imagine. We started first with the piano part. We used my sister's studio, which has a Steinway and a larger space. Finding a place to record the organ was a bit trickier, but Jimmy did some asking around and found a place willing to let us use the space if he would shoot some photos of their building.

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We used six microphones throughout the room. I asked Jimmy to explain what they were and how they were used: “The far ones: a pair of Cascade Fat Head ribbon microphones in a horizontal Blumlein configuration and into a Warm Audio WA-412 preamp. These mics provided some room ambience. The close ones: a pair of Rode NT1 cardioid condenser microphones set as a spaced pair at a 45-degree angle in toward the pipes into a Warm Audio WA-412 preamp. These mics gave a closer sound and a bit more aggressive growl and bite. The mid-mics: your pair of Shure KSM141s set to Omni and set as a spaced pair and run into a Warm Audio WA-273 preamp. These gave a more neutral and wide sound with a blend of room and direct sound. Apogee AD16x for conversion. In mixing, I automated the different microphone tracks to bring out either a more aggressive and big sound or something more balanced and smooth.”

The historic pipe organ used to be in Washington DC before it ended up here! You can imagine how thrilled I am to have presented this to you, who are the reason I even do this to begin with. Your constant encouragement and enthusiasm for what I do inspires me to keep playing, keep working hard, keep sharing. I wouldn't be the musician I am today without you, so … thank you. Also thank you to Jimmy for being the mechanism behind this project, and making it happen in a timely manner. I couldn't have done it without him.

With love,
Kara Comparetto

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