The Legendary Zoltan

It's not a metalzone but it is a direct line in thing. Sounds like hell, I know. T_T

Thanks for saving the panel some time. Hahaha. I definitely appreciate the comments, although I don't think you read my post yo. I do know that everything related to production sounds like crap right now and that because I just used the stuff I have in my own home. Unfortunately for me, if I wanna get a good sound, I'm gonna have to go out and record it at a practice studio with, not the best recording mics in the world, but much much better ones than I've got. I just wanted to get comments on the arrangement before going out for a polished up production job, since I can't record it any better than this at my own home. So anyway, after hearing you say that it's relentless and straight-forward, Tensei san say that it's good, Avaris say that it's a little disjointed, and Snappleman say that it's got no musical merit (That was a good one!), I've realized that the arrangement only needs to have the transitions smoothed out and then it's on to production. I know a lot about death metal, and believe me, this song is hardly straight forward as far as amount, and arrangement of riffs goes. Once again, thanks for all that great advice. How many of those pointers you gave me can I actually accomplish? Unfortunately none of them, except for getting (well, using) a better recording interface, amps, and mics. Don't worry Trenthian. I'll make you proud when this is all over.

Not that I'm all that caught up on my Vivaldi in the first place, but can we really tell what song that is from just three chords? Hahaha. Just like McDonald's french fries, "I'm lovin' it." The harpsichord solo that is.

Thanks for the comments man. Yeah, indeed, I'm gonna have to get really freaking careful about the production after this. I recorded the guitars directly from my effects pedal to my sampler and then transferred that to my computer. So there were no mics. No "air" in the recording. Everything was done with direct lines. which I've just learned, sounds really unclean. I was thinking that for my voice, once thing I should do is record the entire vocal part twice and layer them. on some areas. I'm thinking that if I can get a friend to play drums with me that I could just go into the recording studio and then everything would be taken care of, but that'll cost 100 bucks for sure, so I can't do that now. So I'm thinking of going the practice studio which will only cost 20 bucks for 2 hours and recording the guitars and bass on their nice amps and nice mics. Hopefully that will make things much cleaner. God I hate producing crap, but since we're not talking about the production of electronically generated sounds, I ought to be able to learn this. So will definitely look it up on the net before going out to record it again. I gotta practice it some more too.

Ok, I got a version with crappily played and crappily recorded guitars here for everyone. It also has my crappily sung and crappily recorded vocals too. http://chipp_damage.sitesled.com/Music/ValkyriemixMP1.mp3 Once again I just wanted to get a final WIP up for comments before starting recording of the whole thing. So there are lots of mistakes and parts that aren't played very cleanly and all kinds of things like that, so I don't need anyone to tell me, "You gotta play that cleaner" or "You gotta record this better," cause I know that already. Just looking for comments on the arrangement aspect. I used some effects on the vocals on a couple of places. I would also like to hear about what you thought about that usage. There's no way most people will be able to tell what I'm singing about since this is death metal, so I'll post the lyrics right here. I hope you enjoy them. Jun, sharpen the katanas. Suo, bring the armor. Shiho, sing your song of courage. Yumei, raise the lapis high. The war of 9 worlds has begun and we are outnumbered 10 to 1. Nanami takes the odds and evens them. Tenchu raining down from heaven. Ragnarok is unleashed across these worlds. I choose to fight in Hai lan. Battle screams sound faster than Heimdal's horn. An arrow hits my shield. A cloud of Weeping Lilly pollen is unleashed. I fall to my knees but there is no valkyrie. I must journey across the rainbow bridge alone. Skuld! Where are the Einherjar? This is Ragnarok. Even the dead can't rest. You have been chosen by Odin to turn the tide of Ragnarok. Your deeds on Midgard are known to us, a warrior of legend to the Einherjar. You must fight for the all-father or the Yggdrasil will fall to the flames of Nifleheim. So take the Bahamut's Tear and take the Shining Bolt. To take your army to Valhall use the Swan Maiden's cloak. And fight like you are Aesir. I thrust my sword though Surtur, piercing his heart of flame. And as I am engulfed in his fire, I see that shining blue armor descend. In this song I place myself into the story. I am Zoltan and I live in Hai lan. When Ragnarok starts, I do battle with along the characters from the game who lived in Hai lan. After I die, when I arrive at Valhalla, there is no one there except for the Norn, Skuld. He gives me 3 items and grants me life again to finish my battle in Hai lan and then help the Aesir fight in other worlds throughout the Yggdrasil. In the end, instead of Surtur being the last survivor and burning the whole world, I kill Surtur before that happens and end up dying in the world's stead. Whew. Enjoy.

Ok, I think I've figured it out. The one that Tensei san said he thinks is from Symphony of the Night was, in fact, not from Symphony of the Night but from a CD that was called "Dracula Battle." I'm pretty sure that Bloody Tears was not in Symphony of the Night because I don't remember it being in that sound test that you could open up at the end of the game. I think the song that SulferChlorate is thinking of is Tragic Prince. Which is ANOTHER bad ass Casltevania guitar song that rocks. I've learned to play it though. It's way easier to play than most of the rock versions of Bloody Tears.

Dude, I don't think this song was in Symphony of the Night. This is Bloody Tears right?

The word from someone who doesn't know what makes a good synth is: "This synth sounds freaking cool to me." There are all these production-centered techniques related to electronically generated sounds that I don't really know about. But it sounds neat to me. And even though it's not a guitar, that fact that it's kind of on the shreddy side is a good thing in my opinion.

Thanks for the comments Tensei san. Yeah, about those drums. I don't know why but for some reason, on just the bass drum, the sound at 1 velocity and the sound at 127 velocity are exactly the same. I totally agree with you that those drums sound bad in that respect. And since my computer doesn't seem to be compatible with soundfonts, I'm gonna have to do a collaboration with someone to produce the drums for me. I just finished recording a (VERY) rough version of the guitars. Lots of mistakes and the quality is not the best, but it's just for the WIP so I can give everyone an example to comment on. As for vocals, there are indeed lyrics. The new version will definitely have rough versions of BOTH recorded guitars and vocals. Just wait a bit for it.

Alright. Thanks guys. For now, I better get a midi version WIP done first so we can make sure my arrangement is up to par first. Then I'll definitely check out those bass players. I've got a crazy idea for the concept for this song. You guys have no idea what you just unleashed! MWAHAHA!

Thanks for allowing me to join the project so late in the process. I'm gonna do my best to make a quality melodic power metal remix of Valley Where the Wind is Born. I think it will kick ass! HOWEVER I AM gonna have to find someone to produce the drums and bass, since those two instruments will be fake, and my computer isn't compatible with Soundfonts. At least that's what it seems like. But don't worry, it's gonna kick ass!

This is indeed a nice take. I, personally would like to hear more variation on the original in place of that one part that gets repeated like 3 times. I can see how you wanted to make this techno at first. It's groovy! But I agree that it makes a really sweet rock tune.

Alright! A fellow metaller. It seems like all of a sudden there are rock/metal mixes abundant in the works. I've got my Valkyrie Profile death metal song underway too. Check it out man. I do like the sound of your guitars. You sound like a pretty good player. I also think that your inclusion of piano and harpsichords and stuff like that will indeed make this epic. My only concern: If you're going metal, you gotta throw a piece of nuts guitar work in there somewhere. Whether it be a crazy solo or a complicated alternate picking riff, whatever. Metal needs that. The way it is now, I could play this live at Tokyo Dome tomorrow morning with total confidence. But maybe that's a good thing. Hahaha.

I definitely like how all these video game players love to post videos of themselves playing VG music on guitar. If I had a webcam, I would love to show the world something nuts with Millia's theme from Guilty Gear!

Hey Snappleman. Thanks for the comments. All over the place, huh? I'll have to think about that one too. As for those MIDI guitars, I said in the first post that I'm going to play all of this on an actual guitar later, but for now, I just wanted to see what people thought about the arrangement. Which means that you posted exactly the kind of comments I wanted to hear. So Thank you. I agree that there are a lot of different parts being thrown at the listener in rapid succession, but I kind of feel like the lyrics bring it all together since I actually wrote each riff to match each part of the story. This means that some of those areas that just seem like random heaviness with no melody or direction are actually supposed to have vocals over them. So let me finish up the lyrics and do another one of these rough recordings, and if you still think it's too crazy, definitely say so again.

Thanks for the opinions guys. Since both of you agree that this changes too abruptly, I'd better think hard about that. I'll see what I can do about that. I'll finish up the lyrics and record a rough one so you can see how the lyrics sound and what exactly the song is about. As for the bass and drums sound. I think I might have to ask for someone to collaborate with me so I can have someone with better drum and bass samples produce it. What do you think? Do these drums sound real enough?

http://chipp_damage.sitesled.com/Music/Valkyriemix2.mp3 There's the link to the updated version. The bass and drums are all there. I went ahead and let the drums be repetative in some places, but don't worry, I'll add some more decorations to it later. I just wanted to hurry up and get it up on this forum.

Yes! Thanks for leaving the first post. The runs at the beginning that you're talking about is that really quick solo-y thing right? Well, I usually try to write whatever I want to hear on the guitar first and then learn to play it afterwards, which can create a lot of challenges, but I THINK I can play that. Hahaha. I've been working pretty fast on this thing. I've already laid out the bass and about 20% of the drums. I'll probably finish the drums and the rest of the lyrics today. I'll put up a new version of it after getting the drums finished. About all the pauses, Although there are a few intentional ones, the bulk of the ones that are all placed close together is where some singing will be. Death Growling baby! I haven't listened to any Einherjar, although I've heard of them. Can you recommend a song or an album for me? Have you heard the most mainstream Viking Metal band Amon Amarth? I recommend them. Their newest album, With Oden On Our Side, is really nice.

Ah yes! The teenage love story that is the eighth Final Fantasy game! I too really liked this games music. Basically all of the songs related to the Sorceress were just for me. I give my support to this project. I hope it goes through with (unlike the game, itself) no drama. Hahaha. I would have liked to get involved with this, but I'm busy with my Valkyrie Profile remix and a remix for the Xenogears Project is about to placed on the schedule. I gotta do my best for those before I get involved with other cool stuff. DO IT MAN!

Hey, CHIPP Damage here. I've made it a personal goal of mine to make the first Valkyrie Profile remix on this site. Any cheers from people are warmly welcomed. Anyway, here's the extremely rough WIP. http://chipp_damage.sitesled.com/Music/Valkyriemix.mp3 This is going to be a Viking Death Metal song. Right now it's just two MIDI guitars. But the overall form of the song will be like this unless some people give me some good advice about doing otherwise. I'm NOT looking for SOUND QUALITY comments, thanks. That will be later. Don't worry, the final result will be ACTUAL recorded guitars played by myself. Drums and bass will also be added later on, of course. So I'm definitely hoping you'll leave comments about the arrangement aspect of this piece for now. Although, there are few people who know as much about Viking Death Metal as I do, I'm definitely going to seriously consider every comment made. よろしくお願いします。 CHIPP Damage EDIT: I'm so dumb, I forgot to mention what songs from the game I'm remixing! It's two songs. The main one being called Irrational Behavior. Arguably the most important song in the game since it plays EVERY time Lenneth meets a newly deceased person. I also used the song, Turn Over a New Leaf in a long instrumental section of my remix. Arguably the 2nd most important song in the game because it plays when Lenneth exchanges a few words with the boss before fighting it at the end of ALMOST EVERY dungeon.

Yeah! I've been a big Shnabubula fan for a long time too. I dig his chip tune stuff. As for this song. Aside from the extremely realistic sounding strings and complexity of the composition, I really like the way that he could make such an original sounding remix of Super Mario Brothers and still keep the whole thing sounding really Mario-ish. It could totally be used for a level in a Super Mario Brothers game!

I too think that this remix SOUNDS really bad ass. The "white boy" style rap is groovy and the sound quality is top-notch, but does anyone else think that this song is greatly lacking in form? The music, while sounding better than the original game's, is practically the exact same format. I don't have the original to listen and check right now. But I'm pretty sure it's the same key, same tempo, and same structure. There's basically just words on it and better sounding instruments. Is that really ok? I'd love to hear what someone like Zircon would say about this remix. PS: I totally do like listening to this remix.

Despite the fact that it's been such a rage out here for so long, (It was on TV last weekend but I missed it!) I still haven't seen this. Just by the sound of the title I thought that it might be some kind of cross between murder mystery and horror. Is that what it really is like? If so, do you think that even a person who totally hates that kind of genre could like this anime? If you tell yes, then I'll check it out yo.

I don't know. I kind of disagree with that. I've always liked the singers who choose to write about completely fictional things. Stepping over to the realm of heavy metal, you can see some bands who like to write all their songs about fantasy stuff like Lord of the Rings or about something like Norse Mythology. Those tend to grab me more than most love or reality based songs. But that's just me. Everybody has a lot of good ideas here. Mine is a little different than the thread title's though. I don't think the reason lots of pop music sucks is because because they like sound quality too much. I think it's because all those producer types think about when make the stuff is how to make a song trendy or easy to understand or whatever it is that makes it Pop music. You know? There's this kind of pop standard or a pop technique that happens to be all that those producers can think of because the goal is the money. And it seems that one of those standards has become the good sound quality. But maybe that's just me. ... ... ... ALL HAIL AMON AMARTH! Hahaha.

It's simple, my friend. Because doing that other stuff, which creates financial comfort also creates stress for those who don't like to do that sort of work. I'm sort of an example. I got married, so I can't quit my high-paying job for a low-paying one now, but if I were still single, I'd totally quit as soon as I got a job at a pizza place. It's because the money doesn't make me happy. And the method of getting the money might not make me happy either, but having a low stress job and the joy of delivering delicious pizza to people does! I guess it's the same with the musicians. Although, they all want to make it big, they'd rather be a poor musician than a salary man. You know what I'm saying? Having said all that, I'm taking the same route as you, Blizihizake.