REVIVED! Cave Story Last Battle remix WIP

[warriorness]

Okay, it's been several months since I've last done work on this, but I at last got around to making some changes. If you remember the old version, note that the drum solo has been improved, and there are a few changes in the steel drum track. If not, well, here's a new wip for you to listen to.

http://zenixstudios.com/f_new/f/lastbattle_21b26.mp3

I'm having considerable trouble making it sound less like a MIDI, although to be fair I've been focusing more on the scores than the sound quality. If you're interested in making some changes to improve the sound, you're more than welcome to (of course, simple suggestions are great as well). Here (http://rapidshare.com/files/14491470/lastbattle_21.flp.html) is the FL Studio project file. The soundfonts are all from hammersound.net; a RAR of them (about 9.8 MB, just extract it in FL Studio\Data\Patches\Soundfonts) can be downloaded here (http://zenixstudios.com/f/soundfontsc88.rar).

Old versions:
Version 18 - MP3 (http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle_188df.mp3) FLP (http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle_18ba0.flp)
Version 19 - MP3 (http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle1961f.mp3) FLP (http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle197d6.flp)
Version 20 - MP3 (http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle20f63.mp3) FLP (http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle2015c.flp)

[Jimmy Jazz]

Every time I try to open this, I get this error message:

lastbattle_188df.mp3 does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, or deleted since it was downloaded.

Is anyone else getting this problem?

Nice sig, by the way.

[DrumUltimA]

This is one of my favorite tracks from cave story :D The first thing that i have to say is that i feel like the swing is way too angular. I don't know how you do swing in FL, but if you just wrote everything in triplets that would explain it. If you can tone down the swing so it's not so harsh, it would help make it sound much more realistic. And like you said, it does sound awfully midi. I think this needs a more stable bass line, or at least a fuller bass line other than the trombone. Also, incorporating some more panning will probably help. Try playing with eq settings for each instrument. In general, i think you could stray away from high frequencies and go more towards low. Also, your velocities are basically even from what i can hear, which will also cause it to sound robotic. Raise and lower them based on the melodic contour. Changing velocities will probably help your drums the most.

[warriorness]

DrumUltimA, thanks for the input. I'm not working on that now, but I'll be sure to consider it when I do. I would like to know though, what kind of swing beat would be more appropriate? I originally attempted using 3:1 (3 quarter note, 1 quarter note) and switched to what I'm using now, 2:1 (2 triplet, 1 triplet).

Anyway, here's a new revision. I took out the marimba entirely (you probably didn't even notice it in the first place) and, more noticeably, gave the trumpet a bit more melody parts and switched around a bit in the steel drum and flute tracks. No effort so far in the MIDI department; I think I'll wait until I get the score down to work on the sound quality. As usual, though, anybody is welcome to take the FLP file and toy with it.

http://zenixstudios.com/f/lastbattle1961f.mp3

[SSB]

Considering this is a jazzier piece I think it might be better to make the bass drum less prominent. It just sounds so driving and with a swingy jazz-like style like you have hearing a driving bass drum rhythm just sounds awkward. I'd try changing it to a sexy hat rhythm instead, but that's just me. Vast improvement from the older versions though.

[warriorness]

I didn't make a post for the last update, as it was mainly toning down the bass drum as SSB suggested (although there were some other minor tweaks).

This time I revamped the ending - I've been getting criticism that it's too "sudden", so I added in eight extra measures and did a bit more remixing towards the end for a lead-in to the finale.

Download:
MP3 (http://zenixstudios.com/f_new/f/lastbattle_21b26.mp3)
FLP (http://rapidshare.com/files/14491470/lastbattle_21.flp.html)
(unfortunately I had to use RapidShare because zenixstudios died temporarily, when/if it gets back up I'll fix the links)

EDIT: changed rapidshare mp3 link to direct link