thomas_kresge

I've started a personal project of orchestrated all the music from Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles. I've finished the first two songs and now I'd like to here the opinion of the people at OCRemix. Just to clarify, I'm looking more for comments on the creativeness or effectiveness of orchestrating, as opposed to the actual quality of the sequence, i.e. how super-realistic it sounds. I realize that it probably wouldn't get excepted at OCRemix anyways due to a lack of perfect realism that sequencers obtain; just critique on how good it would sound if an actual orchestra played the song. My goal is more for personal enjoyment (and hopefully actually getting these orchestrated at some point) rather than getting them accepted as remixes, since most of the songs in the project haven't been really "remixed" all that much. Anyways, here are the two songs. I've done a lot more refining on the second song, Water Zones, so the first song, Mystic Cave, hasn't quite received a lot of the tweaks yet. The first song is the Mystic Cave theme from StH2, and the second song is medley including the Labyrinth theme (StH) and the Hydrocity theme (StH3), with the drowning jingle thrown in the middle. Mystic Cave Water Zones I use Garriton Personal Orchestra with Sibelius to obtain these arrangements.

Oh geeze... I don't know what to think. Thank you for the lengthy input, though, I appreciate knowing what I'm doing right, and more importantly, what I'm doing poorly. My problem then would appear to be my lack of knowledge on how to actually mix music... time to go look at the thread on that.

When I mentioned the thing about exporting being able to do it regardless of one's computers' power, I was more saying that to explain the thing, not to explain in any way how that might effect the realism of my music. So can anyone point me to a decent sequencer? Preferably one that isn't TOO expensive but can get me where I need to get to make my music sound like a real performance. And once again I'm going to ask if anyone knows what sound set was used for this song, because it sounds very, very good. And nobodies actually said anything pertaining to this arrangement yet.

Yes, Sibelius 5 can use an virtual instrument set, basically rendering GPO Sib. edition useless. And it also requires extra work to get it to work since GPOSE was made for Sib. 4. However, Sib. 4 pretty much needs the Sibelius edition to work, and there's a lot of people who still only use Sib. 4. Back on topic, I do export straight from Sibelius, but it does it in such a way that it plays back correctly as written regardless of your computer's strenght. But I'm sure I'm also being ignorant. How do sequencers work and how do they end up producing better sounds. I guess I'm hearing good things but I'm really confused on how to really capitalize on GPO's potential. Here is a link to the song that I submitted that got rejected. However, I would have to say that I didn't use a whole lot of variety for the most part throughout the piece. I'm just wondering what exactly could be done to make it sound more acceptable, i.e. what instruments sound poor, or things like that. I've started another song here that I'm going to try to get up. It's another orchestral and I'd like to know so far how well it's going quality-wise. The beginning will probably sound a little bit boring but I'm still working all that out. I'm just curious if the actual sounds passable. Also, what exactly does processing mean on the context of remixing? EDIT: I found this remix and I really want to no what orchestral sound set that is. That is about the best synthesis of an orchestra I have ever heard. The woodwinds and strings sound almost completely real, and the brass, for being synthesized, is VERY impressive.

I use Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO) for all my music that I write and arrange obviously because it sounds so much better than MIDI. A recent score of mine got rejected and one of the reasons was apparently due to sound quality. Garritan sounds really good, and it's even listed as one of the orchestra sound libraries on the "Need a sample, synth, or effect?" thread. I'm wondering if 1.) GPO really isn't good enough for OCRemixes quality standards and if there are really better sound libraries out than GPO or 2.) I'm not using GPO correctly to its potential and somehow or another I could manipulate it to sound better. I'm using GPO Sibelius edition, so it's integrated directly into Sibelius 5. Does anybody have any opinions on GPO?

I recently submitted a remix, an orchestrated version of the Luigi's Mansion theme. It was immedietally shot down for apparently the following reasons: * the arrangement is not different enough (e.g. structure, tempo, instrumentation) from the original game music * the arrangement is too underdeveloped and/or too repetitive * the sound quality (e.g. mixing, processing, sample quality, recording, performance) is poor The second one (arrangement is too underdeveloped and/or too repetitive) I can really understand, but I'm really wondering why it would be shot down for the other two reasons. Normally I probably wouldn't complain, but this other remix that djpretzel held in very high regard is making me wonder heavily about the other two reasons. This said remix is a Kid Icarus remix available here. This is one of the few orchestra-based remixes on the site. So here's what I'm wondering, starting with "the arrangement is not different enough (e.g. structure, tempo, instrumentation) from the original game music". I'm not sure if standards have charged or what, but the Kid Icarus remix is hardly any different from its original. I has really no original parts thrown, it's just an arrangement. Granted, a very well-done arrangement, but still an arrangement (it's debatable weather you might consider an arrangement a remix). My Luigi's Mansion song doesn't really have too many original parts thrown, but it is most diffinetily different from the original. The tempo goes from slow to presto, original harmonies were thrown in, etc. But that's not my biggest concern. The third reason shown was "the sound quality (e.g. mixing, processing, sample quality, recording, performance) is poor". I'm using Garriton Personal Orchestra to obtain the sounds, and they sound no higher or lower quality than the Kid Icarus song. It's highly acredited and sounds a thousand times better than MIDI. The two reasons that were specifically pointed out were the processing and sample quality, and I'm not 100% sure of what either of those means. Because all my ranting is totally uncomparable without my song, here is a link my Luigi's Mansion remix. I would really like to here the input of other people. Luigi's Mansion Kid Icarus (again, for comparison)

Personally, I use Garritan Personal Orchestra, and its brass is plenty acceptable. My biggest complaint for it goes towards its trumpet sound, but ther brass sounds (horns, trombones, tuba, even muted trumpet) sound plenty good. Trumpets aren't even that bad. And the string sounds are definetily decent. I'm not sure exactly how it works standalone... I have a version that's integrated with Sibelius.