djpretzel Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 Rel. conservative but some changes, would need new title. - djp --- Remixer Name: Ithirial Real Name: Brian Edwards Website: https://soundcloud.com/ithirial Userid: 33362 Arrangement: Dragonborn Theme (Metal cover) from TESV: Skyrim Original composer: Jeremy Soule I know everyone and their grandmothers have made a metal cover of Skyrim's theme by now but my arrangement, although changing very little from the original source, has a rhythmic difference which stands out from the standard "power metal" type drum pattern so many are keen to add. My favorite part especially is the slight change I made from around the one-minute mark 3/4 to 4/4. Sounds like Stormcloaks on the march! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 First and foremost, yeah, this track is arranged very often, but let's face it - it's a great source. The arrangement focuses on the real guts of the source (at least, the most recognizable part) before exploring the other elements present. It's a good idea, and a good way of putting your own spin on something like this. The guitar playing and drum work is spot on in this, but the other instruments sound pretty mechanical. The piano doesn't utilize any dynamic range from what I hear, which is atypical for that instrument. The strings, on the other hand, have the same attack swell for every note, the vibrato is ever present (string players will only use vibrato for longer notes), and are also pretty dynamically stagnant, like the piano part. When sequencing "real" instruments, it's always important to make them sound as close to a real performance as possible. Very often, the strings carry the theme, but it gets lost behind the attack swell every attack it has. This issue is compounded by the fact that the string part holds the same range as the guitar part, so it gets a little lost in the mix, as well. When everything is going all at once, it's wise to avoid having many instruments doing something in the same range - the violin part would be easier to pull out of the mix if it were playing at a higher range than the accompanying guitar. The Fus-Ro-Dah part at 2:24 gets drown out by whatever other sound effect you have there, as well as by the other instruments present. It would have a better impact if it were mixed closer to the front of the mix at that point. It's not bad, but I think it needs some real TLC involving the humanization of the instruments. The violin part especially needs some attention, as it often carries the theme. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Right from the get-go, the lack of humanization with the instruments is apparent, both the drums and the piano. What seemed like lead instruments at :26 were very drowned out, which was more obvious at :39 when the melody came in; right now, the guitar chugs are drowning out the leads. I did like the electric guitar handling melody at 1:01 sounding more upfront, but that doesn't account for the other instrumentation being very imbalanced. There was a dropoff from 1:24-1:50, but then the energy level and density at 1:50 felt practically the same as at :39; there's not enough dynamic contrast in the final minute with the opening minute. Also, the energy of the sequenced strings was very flat and undermined the emotion of the arrangement. Gario pretty much had it right with his call. It's all a matter of learning how to humanize your samples' articulations, so you should focus your learning on that and use places like our Workshop to ask production questions and get further feedback on your tracks.NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Who doesn't like some dragonborn? it's popular for a reason. I liked your approach a lot, but I will have to agree with the votes above, humanization is something that needs a lot of work, in a track where you have this many performances it's very important to make them sound fairly realistic, and I think there's quite some room for improvement here. I also think the mix balance isn't quite there, as the rhythm guitars sometimes take more space than they should and the instruments that should be leading suffer because of this. I think you have a pretty good start here and I think this could work if there's more attention to detail put into the performances and articulations of the instruments.NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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