*NO* Touhou Fuujinroku: Mountain of Faith 'Temple of the Omnisword' *RESUB*

resub #2

resub #1

original

Contact Information

> ReMixer name: HeavenWraith

> Real name: Antanas Palaitis

> E-mail:

> Website: http://www.heavenwraithmusic.net

> Forum user ID: 50325

Submission Information

> Game: Touhou Fuujinroku: Mountain Of Faith

> ReMix Name: Temple of the Omnisword

> Original Name: Native Faith

> Original Author: ZUN

> Link to the file:

Followed some of the advice from the judges and enhanced clarity in the mix, sharper side-chain compression here and there and went through the mix with an EQ scalpel.

Quoting my original addendum for convenience:

Went for Demetori-style progressive metal, though, I'm sorry, I'm not a godly guitarist like Teramae Masaru, so bare with me. Overall it was a fun work, took a lot of tweaking, but I'm quite satisfied with the result.

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1:02-1:15's pretty distorted. Then again after 1:20, the drums just sound they're just a distorted mess and crowding out the other elements, especially the lead. The guitar in the background just adds a lot of mud alongside the drums. The piano doubling the lead at 1:28 sounds too rigid; I get that the rigid piano's a part of the source's style, but it didn't sound great there either.

Yipes, the most crowded sections are just... I feel like my ears are getting battered with these drums while everything else is pushed behind them; it doesn't make much sense. Dropoff at 2:21, but everything here's pretty murky as well. Can barely hear the chromatic stuff brought in at 2:31, everything in the soundscape's so indistinct. OK, 2:52 was a sudden wake-up call. So many overlapping frequencies here, it's a shame these parts don't have room to breathe.

If this sounded more like 3:41-4:04's section EXCEPT for the drum flourishes that crowded this up, this piece would be great. Sweet ideas from 4:09-4:25 with the transition to piano. And the parts can breathe, hooray! Thought the snare rim shots should have been pulled back, but I'll live.

Man, if you can declutter this production, you'd be golden, because the arrangement's strong. It's not that aggressive arrangements can't pass, but even if you're going balls out with the intensity, the parts can't be spilling over each other like this. Needs way less distortion with the percussion, and WAY more EQ love to clean this up. I wish I could give more accurate & targeted production feedback, but any other Js that can really drill down on how to address what's wrong with the mixing would be great.

NO (resubmit)

I haven't heard the earlier incarnations of this mix, but I largely like what I hear here. You have a ton of energy and some great guitar playing including some tasty riffage. I mostly enjoy your piano runs, they add to the mayhem in a melodic manner.

There are a few things to consider mixing wise:

-I think the track would benefit from less compression overall. Whether that's dialling back the master bus comp a little bit or tweaking each individual track's compression is something to play with, but we want to try and unglue each part a bit more to make them breathe.

-Your drums are quite audible and seem to punch through well, but are a little crunchy. Not really a bad crunch *but* when you have heaps of dirty guitar sections, your distortions will blur together. It's a fine balance to strike for sure. You will get more separation on the individual elements if you dial back some of your drive (guitars are fine IMO). Using some further EQ to avoid frequency overlap may be required but dialling back drive a little will go a long way to helping your mix breathe in the mid section.

-You have a few moments in the track where there are a few too many things going on. You manage these bits surprisingly well considering the amount of stuff going on, but you have to be some kind of wizard to fit the amount of things you have going on in a single section and be able to hear them all. I enjoy your arrangement here - all the melodies and elements you have coming in and out are a strength to this mix, but you will have a lot more success clarity wise if you consider dropping the volume of certain unimportant elements when other things come in *or* even better - consider dropping a part or two altogether when something else enters. This will free up much needed frequency space for the new part to play in.

I actually think this is super close. You biggest problem now is crowding and some overlap of distortion tone.

NO (borderline)

Not sure I can add much more beyond co-signing with the above J's. There is a lot of EQ overlap between the various elements here and quite a high amount of compression that's really muddying up the whole thing. Jive gave some really good specific advice. I'll double-up on the suggestion that the mid-high crunch in the guitars is conflicting with the drums.

Even quiet sections like 2:21 sound really indistinct, due to a lot of mid-range clutter without anything coming through clearly in the higher EQ range.

I'd recommend trying some narrow-band EQ cuts in specific ranges for various instruments. It's hard to be specific without behing hands-on, but here are a few ideas to try:

-Narrow ~2dB-ish cut in guitar and/or drums (try snare, cymbals) around the 2-4khz range

-Look at narrow cut around the 200-500hz range for either kick or rhythm guitars to see if you can clean up the lower end.

The arrangement is fantastic. The performances are fantastic. I should add that it is INCREDIBLY difficult to mix an arrangement like this properly and to a certain extent, I'm giving you a couple shots in the dark to see if they help. I agree with Jive that this really is close. Would love to get this one on the site for sure.

NO resubmit (borderline)