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Square Enix Jazz Covers


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Man it's been a while since I've actually posted in here. I'm mainly just a forum lurker absorbing all of your information for my self betterment XD

 

I did a short little project on Sunday (About 10 hours total) and played some jazz covers of the first five square enix tracks that popped into my head and so here you go!

 

All free dls and stuff - bandcamp is linked for HQ stuff.

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hmmm... not sure what to think of this. First thing first, this isn't jazz. It's more kinda like hip hop or some kind of hybrid, but definitely no jazz. Not that it matters, but still kind of important to know i guess. 

I'm not sure if you're actively looking for feedback or just posting this for our enjoyment, so i'm just gonna quickly mention the stuff I noticed while browsing through the multiple tracks. 

- Some harmonic ambiguous stuff happening. Clashing notes which could be easily fixed. Nothing too big.

- It could be my crappy laptop speakers and/or soundcloud, but the balance was a bit of at times. Too loud accompaniments compared to the leads.

- The drums in the first cover don't flow at all. When writing for drums, always think in patterns and fluent motions for each limb. It kinda stops right in the middle, which disrupts the flow. It could work in another context, but the piano is playing swing time, and those drums ain't swinging at all. It all kind of contradict each other which makes it sound very unnatural. 

- At quite some moments the countermelodies are going straight through the frequency of the lead melody. Take care to have a clear distinction between the multiple melodies so that they don't interfere each other.

 

Well, I think there was quite some more stuff, but this is all I can remember. If you want more feedback, some more explanations behind the things mentioned above or something else I can help with, just say so. Then I'll leisurely take the time to closely listen to your tracks.

 

Nice work!!

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Lol I appreciate the feedback but it definitely is jazz. Don't forget that jazz consists of many elements and many sub genres.

Even though it's a partial fusion it's still jazz-whatever fusion it is!

Played big band, combo and full orchestra for many years and I also studied music in my undergrad but I do appreciate you taking the time to listen and give some feedback - just had to push back on one of the greatest things that makes jazz jazz. It's very malleable which is partly what keeps it alive as it adapts but still remains jazz :)

I think a lot of people get stuck on this definition of jazz : 

 

 

to which even though it may be my fav type of jazz it's definitely not the only type

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Ooo, an improve, sudden jazz album, out of the blue! Nice. There's a lot of really awesome saxophone playing throughout, and the e-piano works great with it. The drums are dry and drum-machine-y throughout, but they're not terribly sequenced, either - they could just use some humanizing TLC, overall.

Yeah, I'd call this jazz. It's a very soft jazz, but it still has decent improve over the VG tune base throughout. Like you said, there's many types of jazz out there (not that I'm THAT familiar with it all).

One tiny thing, though - since you're posting this in the WIP boards, you should label this as an album. Otherwise, it looks like you're posting a bunch of individual tracks in the same thread, which is looked down upon (and against the forum rules, even). It seems that this is intended as an album, though, so just put that tag on there and/or make it clear that it's an album on the title.

I enjoyed it, though, for what it was worth. It certainly is rough (Bowler's points are not inaccurate), but for a ten hour investment it's pretty darn good. Nice work!

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Well, I do hear the jazz influences, but I think these are more like... jazz with significant hip hop influence (due to the drums, like the claps and sub kick). There are jazz-based instrument choices, but the mixing seems to be by someone who mainly likes hip hop; not necessarily a bad thing, but it's what I'm hearing.

Mainly what I'd say is that the saxophone is narrow and upfront, particularly in track 1, 2, and 4, making the soundscape feel empty/not full (not in terms of EQ, but space). The piano in track 1 is distant and narrow, which adds to the emptiness. You can help that by increasing the room width on the applied reverb on both instruments and cutting down on the midrange on the sax.

Try listening to other tracks with a fuller stereo field and thinking about how you want to fill out yours, as that's the major mixing issue IMO. Here's an example:

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