SplinterOfChaos

In my opinion, your song is interesting enough that people will want to listen, but not interesting enough they'll want to rip it from the game. But then again, if you want my opinion, immersion (into the game, from the music) can come from the theme of the song, or the player can be enjoying the song a hell of a lot and will be hooked onto the game as an interactive visual of the song, and vice versa. But that's my opinion. I seem to be a minority among people actually involved in making games. I think you perfectly completed your goal in terms of involving without being detracting. As for the sound fonts, they are just very familiar. Whether they, or similar ones, are used very often, I don't know. They just FEELS like I've heard them, and more than once. Specifically, the violin(?) synths and plucky things. Even if you don't want your song to be distraction, using an instrument that is found especially (or bonus points for only) in the environment of the game might make the song itself neater. Or, you could say you're already done. It's hard for me to talk more, again, because any farther gets into taste.

A few of the synths (or whatever they are) in the beginning are used very often. In my opinion, way too often. Changing them would give your song a less familiar feel. It's very soft on the ears. I don't know what the game is, so judging the song in context would be impossible, but it reminds me of going through the menu on one of those casual MSN games my mom plays, but with a little more varied tastes. Nothing too rough or detracting from the game itself--although there is a little. I'm not really going to comment beyond that on the subject because then it gets into taste, but if that's what you wanted, goal achieved.

I like to bang my head to music. Well, not physically, but I'd like to think that if I was enthusiastic about a song, that it would have a nice beat for me to bang to. Like Rozovian said, these drums are quiet. You can sort of hear hi hats and cymbals, but the snares barely come in. But I get the feeling that even if you beefed them up, I'd still be yearning for a stronger beat. Maybe a base, or especially load snare hit. The lack of drums especially hurts the beginning. I couldn't tell if it were a build-up, or whether I was supposed to already be hearing the awesome. Also, maybe some softer stuff? More synths, strings, wind? Or maybe keep the ones you have playing longer and cut out slower. I dunno. It's OK. Upbeat and stuff. I'd say with a little work it'll be pretty good. With more...

I think I'm going to restart it. This is a common reoccurring theme in my life: "This program is written in a messy and inefficient manner, restart from scratch, no copying and pasting." "This story is good, but it lacks detail and depth; restart it with a new angle." "This sandwich has rocks in it, make me a new one with peanut butter instead." But the lesson never sticks until I've gone so far down this dirt road that I'm tired enough to consider it never-ending. To be honest, I don't feel like I'm getting more negative feedback, but more in-depth negative feedback. I really appreciate the "You've gotten much better, the track has gotten better..." even if a "but" was attached.So, one thing I was wondering is, is it bad just that the main instrument is the same throughout the song? Is a light change sufficient, or should I shoot for a dramatic shift in the main instrument for a period in the song?

God, it's been so long since I've posted an "any better?" here that I almost didn't care to upload it and ask. But anyway, here it is. I hope it's any better. It's getting really hard to make it any better. Rozovian Yup, EQing is quite hell for me. I don't really even understand where to start with it, and it's been what...half a month? I'm not even really sure what I did is enough to justify how long it took me.

OK, I think I'm definitely done with this song for now. It's not going to get any better than it is right now if I keep hacking away on it. I'll pick it up again at some point, but done for now. Thanks very much for all the critiquing. What I learned, through, has actually helped me out a bit on my original projects as well. I hope I can come back here when I'm more skilled and work this song up some more (after I make more alterations). Thanks again for the feedback.

Well, I've made another. http://www.willhostforfood.com/access.php?fileid=15279 note: There's a little glitch near the beginning, it'll be fixed by the time you listen to this. Better? I don't know if I can do much more with the soundscape. I tried everything on that list 6 posts down, and only was able to change one part. I'm also not sure how much more I can do at my skill level. But I am still willing to try for a while. FL Slayer, POWER Dire Straits. I think that's the one you want. But all the guitars I used are FL with the exception of a nylon, which was sytrus. I'm assuming that most people making generic stuff have been doing this longer, so I find it a compliment seeing as I'm fairly new. Although, the guitar ALWAYS has a melody of its own. Could you point to a specific part of the song where you feel A SPECIFIC guitar (base or secondary melody) is lacking? My main reason for openly disputing advice is either to encourage discussion, or not have you repeat the same advice. The melody that I changed for that one (I think) was just because I was getting sick of it. I really hope no one is getting as sick of this song as I am!

I usually don't submit suggestions because I'm a noob and don't feel I should know better, but I'm fairly sure on this one. The repetitious drums didn't really bother me a lot, except at 1:15. It felt like the music changed momentarily, and the drums were stuck in the past. As little as quieting them temporarily might do. It does keep the song's pace up, but I'd like to see some acknowledgment that something has changed. I loved the original, and this one's pretty catchy too.

It seems I usually like to hear the feedback, fix the song, then post it and see what people think. Well, I came here with a song, and was surprised to see feedback! Well here's the song. A general fix to a lot of different problems with the song, and some new stuff added. A very little bit of more advice followed when I came here and saw the feedback. Another reason I'm posting this now instead of the fixed version is just that that's quite some shopping list you've given me. Most of which, I think might be interesting. I'm almost tempted to make the song do another go-around to accomplish all you suggest (or even just some of it). But, I'm going to be pretty adamant on the repetition thing when it comes to the chorus. It's both the base of the song, and the area that most highlights my faithfulness to the original. At one point, I went and made every part of the chorus unique, but one said it sounded forced, I agreed, and didn't like a lot of it anyway. Now, I want to have at least one repetition of the main theme in the chorus for every one. But fixing the repetition else where, I'm fine with. Making the violins less high pitched made them less central for that part. I'm not actually sure which I like more. I think it just narrows down to "FL has terrible violin synth." BTW: I use the hihat. I was planning on adding a base drum, but actually forgot.

I've made a lot of small improvements, and changed the soundscape for one section, and even liked it!...but I just don't know. I can't take it out because I like it, but I just don't really know about it. I think I'd rather change the soundscape constantly like the latter link in your post, Rozovian. But I don't really know how to go about that seeing as I like what I've done and don't want to destroy it. The reason I was able to change the soundscape at that one point was just because I thought it was weak anyway. EDIT After listening to an older version of my song, I miss the violins, so I'm keeping 'em!

Glass bells actually. OK. I pretty much went through and changed the volumes around independent of the patterns. One big balancing act. So, I hope you guys think the emphasis's work better now. Yesterday, I couldn't tell what was making the song good, and what was making it bad. At the time, I was just confused, but today, I found that the confusion rooted from half of what I was doing being good, half bad. So, today I kept half, lost half, and went a little more back to the original in terms of the chorus. I really like it this way, and I hope you'll all agree. Evfan42: Thanks for the offer. Not sure how I'd extract the beat from FL and hand it over, or whether you could just go by ear and improvisation (which I am fond of). Either way, I'll get back to you later. Thanks again. Rozovian: So, I googled soundscape and I think I get what you mean. The song sounds the same, the whole way through, right? Well, I might agree to a limited extent. On one hand, I think it's the song, on the other, I don't know music, I just do it--so I'm ignorant to what it could be like. Was your suggestion basically to introduce another instrument in an isolated part and take out a heavily used one, or did it have more to do with the mood?

Would you like to do it? Or do you know someone who would for free? I do actually know someone who plays guitar and maybe he'd do me this favor, but how could I guaranty it would sound similar enough? I hadn't actually thought of doing any REAL guitar work, but I don't know it's plausible either. Anyway, a good amount of work in a short time has lead me to this: There was a lot more variety added to the chorus. You might notice a little else where also. The drums have been quited; I haven't added an extra base yet. I've messed around a little with panning and volume, but I might have made things worse. I was thinking of adding another instrument to play for unique occasions, but haven't done that yet either. I'll still leave the original up because frankly, I think I've gone def and I don't know what makes it better or worse at this point. Trying to comply with feedback in a way that I like it more is the only real challenge this project has been. Thanks for all the feedback. I'll try to work a little harder/longer on the next version. Hope to (at least) work on it every day, but it is just a side hobby, my main one being programming, and my priority being student.

Woah, I uploaded the wrong file! Stop downloading that immediately! BBCode: I'll update my original post with the correct download as well.

I'm pretty sure that everyone gets all shivery-back whenever someone does another Final Fantasy remix. So here it is! Version one Version one Version two (supposedly improved) Version three (definitely improved) The I-don't-know-about-the-violence version The I-know-about-the-violins version The I might be calling it quits for a while version http://www.willhostforfood.com/access.php?fileid=15279 I made this as a learning exercise. My songs tend to repeat over and over, and get better and better until the end, but never go anywhere. Listening to other songs didn't help stop this habit. Doing a remix did...unless I start again during my next project. Any way, I really like how this came out. You should note the pitch is higher, I've almost completely ignored what Uematsu did with the background (I'm so ashamed), and I've done some reordering/changing to the melody. I find a lot of remixes try to make a song more ambient, but I much prefer a melodic tune, so I kept it that way. I also noted that the genius of Uematsu is how simple the original (and all of his songs, really) was. I did not feel I could compose with the same simplicity, so I didn't. I feel there are weak points, but I'll leave it to you guys to find them. Although, I am concerned with pitch a few times.

Hi, I'm Splinter of Chaos (or SoC for short), and I'm only really posting here because some forums get itchy if you don't. I don't really know anything about music except that I can make it, and I made a remixed the original Final Fantasy battle theme song as I learning experience, so I thought I'd join here and see if others like it as much as I do. Note: I won't be checking here for replies. I HATE introductory threads, but I'm reading enough that I'm not ignorant while posting.