Merger's Obession FF5+CT+Castlevania?

[FaytxStay]

Since my first wip got ruined... I wanted to start a new one and move on... Now, the deal with this is...

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/images/avatars/games/nintendofzero/fzerox_mightygazelle.gif (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=21613) This guy is most likely gonna ruin my day for many reasons. XD
But, he's a smart and helpful guy, so I'll let him do that...

This mix is in it's beginning stages. It doesn't really have a set game to stick to, but I don't know what to lean for... Lemme post up the source part...

Magus [ Before battle ] from Chrono Trigger ( 1:00 - 1:09/ 3:02 - 3:11 )

Castlevania [ Bloody tears ] ( 1:16 - 1:30 )

Theme of Gilgamesh? [ FF V ] ( 2:31 - 3:02 )

Maybe towards Chrono Trigger and Castlevania... They seem to compliment each other better because they both have a desperate feel... Who knows? I should make it longer...

I expect to be hit with this... XD

Too liberal - not enough connections to the source (too much original writing)
Ouch! - volume too high/too much noise
Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics)
Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range)
And Too much.... Thought...
Heheh... I'm waiting...

http://www.tindeck.com/audio/image/b/gwtj (http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/gwtj/Mergers-Obsession)

[SplinterOfChaos]

You forgot too repetitive. Not in the melody, but in the instrumentations; sound scape.

The Gilgamesh reference felt forced.

The Chrono references are short, I don't know if I'd catch them if I DID know the sources.

I thought the Bloody Tears section worked really well.

[Rozovian]

No source links, so let's see what I recognize and remember.

Let's have a look at your own crits first...

Too liberal - well, I recognized the magus battle, but you're probably right.
Ouch! - just the noise, and a shrill lead at 2:05.
Overcompressed - a little.
Mixing is muddy - kind'a.
And Too much.... Thought... - No. What? Why?

Okay, lets talk about this. You knew this was coming...

Harpsi in the intro is pretty cool, but it's got a lot of competition, EQ the tracks so they're separate enough.

One of your guitars is terribly noisy and distorted. Could probably work just as well with aggressive staccato strings, there's nothing inherently guitar-y int he writing. And nothing says you can't distort orchestral samples. :P

I'm with Splinter on the repetitive soundscape, needs more change, needs more dynamics too. Make a softer section in there somewhere, fading in the rhythm guitar would make an excellent outro from a soft section. There's also some unnecessary repetition in the writing, that you could either vary or just cut out.

Piano has way to much reverb, even for that high-range reverbed sound. It just turns into high-range mud, especially with the reflections from the harpsi in the intro.

Also, need more source. Is there really no source during the first minute? Needs source there too.

Gah, I saved this for last in the wip run, and now I'm too tired to focus, youm might notice a slight lack of direction in the crits. I'll be back when it's updated and ruin another day. :P Funny thing that you expect me to ruin your day, cuz that just made my day. :D

[z130]

All I can say is I feel like my ears are being assaulted by noise, which isn't something musicians usually go for.
The main cause is the evil guitar that comes in at :30 (how can you call it a guitar after all the distortion?) It doesn't really add much musically, and it's covering up some really cool parts.
The noise problem also comes from some of the synths, especially in the higher ranges (2:02!). I really like the intro and outro, even if they are a little repetitive.

Clean up the noise! The piece will be better for it!