redtails

Here I have a short orchestral arrange I've been working on for some time now. It's from touhou 6 (東方紅魔郷; Embodiment of Scarlet Devil), Remilia Scarlet's theme - Septette for the Dead Princess. I accept any and all criticism. I'd especially appreciate comments on drumming in the background, Marimba at 2:35 and overall mastering. Original song: Septette arrange: No longer have this on my soundcloud. Alternatively you can see this on youtube: General tips or advice are very much welcome！

YES, finally something I can work with instead of just retributions for checking out other people's work. Thank you kindly for taking the time to respond. You're entirely right on the distribution of loudness, orchestral pieces tend to be fast and loud during intense sections, while quiet sections are calm and restful. I'd have to say you often see it when looking at the waveform. It seems like my arrange ended up being a pile of loud and more loud. I will pay closer attention to this in future arranges. Ｙｏｕ’ｒｅ also correct on reverb. I never paid much attention to the reverb settings and I can't say I know anything of the technical stuff behind it and what makes a full-reverb realistic. Ｉ am not sure what you mean by dynamics, but I'll assume it's the same as the distribution of soundlevel.

Well excuse me for being critical and questioning your arrangement. I will have to ask you to respond more nicely next time you receive critique, even if the critique is 100% wrong.

Thanks again for the helpful feedback. I definitely see where you're coming from if you're calling the lead strings slightly annoying to the ear compared to the rest. I've come up with a solution for it by octaves, I believe. Also many thanks on the instrument-attack feedback, I changed it to hopefully feel more alive. Entire arrange is now linked to in the main post. I'd love feedback on flow and especially the ending. It's not a very long song, so I think start and ending are important to get right

The fixes sound great, always remember it's your arrange!

You need the wah-wahs at 1:55, before that you can try to hide them behind sound or remove them, but they're definitely necessary after 1:55 Oh excuse me for that. Perhaps if you make the harp slightly louder, the character of the harp sound comes forward, otherwise use a different harp yes Much obliged that I could be of help to you

I am quite sure this was made using FL studio's Sakura plugin. Sakura is very bad reproducing harps, they always end up sounding too rough. Well, it's very bad at everything actually. And because hardly anyone ever buys the plugin, there's close to no presets for it. Of course I can't be 100% sure. Up to 1:06min there's some sort of banjo, a harp, pizzicato strings and a bg pad. You'd be far better off using a sampled harp, it would do your remix more justice. The wind/bg pad (and later the 'singing') fits very well. I've been wanting to use some sort of wind sound for ages now, but you show me it really does sound great behind a laid-back song. There's two out-of-key notes at 0:45～0:47. The drumming masks the other instruments too much. Overall, really nice relaxing song. As a side-note, you could have amplified this song at least 6dB. There really is no excuse for not saving a song to its maximum volume

It's odd how I can't seem to remember any music from any of the pokemon games.. Well except for the touhoumon games, those were just pure classy.. First impressions.. background cave noises are alright to start with, you surely got the essence of the song right there. When the piano, drumming and bass comes in the song really does come alive. Not sure if this is real drumming or sequenced, but it's very well done. Background wah-wah that starts at 1:04min is just super annoying. There's an odd moment of silence at 1:26, sounds like one instrument falls out? Melody that starts at 2:34 sounds fresh and new. I'd personally use a sampled harp for that if you have one. Organ that starts at 2:45 could have been a slightly better sample (sounds a bit lo-fi) Pizzicato that starts at 3:38 could be louder Overall, pretty relaxed song. Chiptune breakdown at 5:00 was a new addition.

I'll have to agree with above reaction. I think Outrun generally has good songs and good rhythms, but you're not really good at this right now. Especially after 1:21 this remix goes downhill with the out-of-beat semi-rhythm instruments. I'd especially say you didn't get the essence of the melody into your remix Of course you can improve, but I don't think it'd be wise to use this song to improve. There's potential out there. Start fresh, start anew with a new beat and a new project. It'll clear your mind

The bass-kick clouds your entire song you know. It does fit, but it makes the song feel so hipster-wannabe if that's an English word. If that's your intention, then well done. Organ that starts at 1:01min is pure classy though. That's how an organ is supposed to sound like! Deep flanger and stereo-panning at 1:40min is also classic and well used, reminds me of so many other songs

Due to youtube's recent 96kbit aac, I got the ipod compatible one. Though it still has a cut-off at 14kHz. Do use a better service to host your audio, please. First impression.. background bass is way too loud. It reminds me of DK very much for some reason. The thing with DK music is that it's all about the melody of the song. You seem to have went to great extends to hide the main melody with drum-and-bass sounds. It isn't until 1:01min that the main melody finally gets louder. Oh nostalgia in a fresh coat. The pads fit very well. Overall.. relaxing music, pretty long song for what little melody is actually in there. Ending is not abrupt. I know there's tons who like the pounding bass, but do consider. Mastering is otherwise done nicely, does not sound 'grey' and I did not hear any noticeable sound cracking. Keep up good work!

When I think Resonance of Faith I kind of think metal, but I kept on listening anyway. Could you provide a link to the specific song this is a remix of? Your remix is laid-back music, pretty much drum-and-bass with strings and a synth (bell and a sort of pizzicato) or two backing it up. It was probably done on purpose, though the first 15sec have terrible telephone eq settings. It is most likely only my opinion, though every song needs a main melody; the melody of this song doesn't really stand out very much. Overall, do continue working on this song, you're certainly up to something

Thank you kindly for the input. I've replaced the string sample with a more realistic one. The note was a bit weird, it's gone now. I'm not yet sure what to do about the drumming, but many thanks on the advice. And yes, I'm slightly reluctant about posting the whole song. It's far from finished and doesn't have good flow right now. Though it shouldn't matter, it'll be posted later～ The main post contains a link to wip-2！

This arrange has been sitting around since Summer 2010 and I never really finished it, despite Nuclear Fusion being one of my personal all-time favourite themes. I arrange in FL-studio due to simplicity (so many haters, though). I accept any and all criticism Original theme: The entire arrange is now posted here: Sorry, no longer have this on my soundcloud. Alternatively you can see this on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyQGdwRCG_Y . It was also put into my touhou medley at the very ending: http://soundcloud.com/ravensjig/reiuyi-touhou-medley General tips or advice are very much welcome！

Church bells at beginning produce lots of white noise that could easily be filtered out. It shouldn't be more than a couple minutes of work. It's a greatly original idea though! Organs are nice and all, but if used loudly like this, they'll easily let the sound crack. Which is exactly what happens, there's constant cracking in it. Same with the piano at 1:36, constant cracking cracking and more cracking purely due to loudness. There's only so much a loudness limiter such as maximus or the fruity limiter can filter out, the user does the rest Overall, this is terrible audio quality and should be fixed if possible. The slowness is a great plus. If you've ever heard a church organ before (which I believe you're trying to mimic), you'll realize it needs a lot of stereoseperation

The energetic drumming does fit the song. The drumming is pretty fast and had variation along the duration of the song

If you have a better way to record this, or if you know someone with a midi keyboard, you should try to redo this in somewhat higher quality! It has great potential! As a side-note, I think you slipped a note between 1:48 and 1:49. Also between 2:11 and 2:12. Also at a couple other times too, but heck it's a relaxed arrange when played like this.

Oh wow that's some quality drumming right there Violin sample could be higher quality (perhaps strings/chorus instead of a single violin) Guitar that starts at 1:22 is very nice. The fade-out at 2:20 should also fade-out the violin (in wip2 it gets harder, after which it softens). The ending guitar riff is a good effect Overall a very high-tier song

The snare is a bit too dominant in here, guitar quite frankly does not sound like a guitar. I think the idea to start with one channel is original (don't hear it too much in songs) Bass that starts at 37sec is cool. Strings/pads are poor quality though Oh yeah, and abrupt ending

Several cracking sounds when the bass synth starts at 15.8sec, again around 19sec and a couple other places. I think it's the bass synth in combination with the kick that makes the sound crack Piano that starts at 25sec sounds low-fi compared to other instruments faint background synth that starts at 1min4sec occasionally sounds out of key Overall.. the bass-kick has too much <20hz rumble, it clouds the sound, hi-hats are slightly too loud. Sudden stop (maybe it can be a fade-out instead) The gloomy/melancholic atmosphere was a success. The piano does make it feel more energetic, it was a good choice

I've been lurking this place for 5 years, and I thought it's the perfect time to get a bit involved with the OCremix community. I love nearly all arranges and the sheer talent on this website always amazed me. Now I won't say I can boast with talent or musical experience, but I have been trying to teach myself how to arrange and I hope it's been paying off. In musical terms, I'm an amateur and I'd love to hear some critique on a song I've been working on for a couple of hours per week for months now. No longer have this online, I will finish this song in the future and republish it. Original song: (the arrange made by Alstroemeria Records is not the original)