Sinescape

Hey there, sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. I was on vacation and just recently caught up with things here. The subtle improvements show. Especially the fluctuation in pizzicato volume makes it seem much more natural. The oboe still sounds a little artificial, but I guess there's only so much you can do with the samples you have (that is a general "you", I have similar problems with my samples). I'm running out of specific things to suggest. The overall reverb a bit much in my opinion, but that's a matter of taste really. I'm starting to prefer your rendition to the original due to the nicer samples. That being said, you don't by any chance have plans to, perhaps, do the same with Shadow of the Truth, do you? That's one of my favorites that suffers terribly from sample quality. The piano is more or less the only instrument that sounds convincing there.

Are we at version 7 already? I count only 4. Anyway, I'm glad I can help! The pizzicato sounds way more natural now. The solo violin works better as a de-facto rhythmic instrument at that point. It may fit that role even better if the volume of the few off-beat plucks was lower than of the on-beats. The pitch-bend on the strings @1:09/1:36 is still there, albeit less obvious due to the longer attack time. I'm not a performer myself, but I think they usually don't do that aside from vibrato. I have an idea for the legato oboe that might work here: I don't know Kontakt, but I doubt it comes without adjustable sample start times. You could use that to skip the initial blow of the oboe and start further into the sample. Production: The hiss is history! (badum-tss) Well done. The whole "same room" thing essentially means not having a big damn concert hall reverb on one instrument and a small chamber reverb on the other (speaking in extremes here). The reverb changes you've made for this version have helped in that regard. I have to admit though that I had listened to the last two versions on my portable in-ear plugs. I'm listening on studio-grade headphones now and on those the previous version isn't as bad as I had made it sound. Version 7 is still better though. A second thing the better equipment reveals is that the high strings are a bit loud in comparison to the rest and a little sharp (especially at 1:33). Nitpicking again, but otherwise I can't really find anything that bothers me. Don't let the song become a chore. There's always room for improvement in every song that exists, so at some point you have to decide that the song is finished and then stop fiddling around with it. I know the frustration potential of the difference between what the song sounds like in your head and in reality. The wonderful thing is that as in many other things, perfection in music is boring anyways. The imperfections are part of the soul of a musical piece. That's the reason why I like the clicky-scratchy music box sound so much despite it objectively being non-musical noise. It's not even rhythmical noise, but it adds a tremendous amount of charm to the piece. I bet you didn't have that in mind when you began working on the thing. Long story short and sorry for the rambling: Don't become obsessed with it. It will never be perfect, and that is a good thing really. Also, you did pick one of the most difficult pieces of the entire soundtrack, so you brought this on yourself. "The Student Council" or "Raindrops and Puddles" would have been much easier targets.

Ah, the new version definitely sounds more pleasant, at least to me. I like the new dynamics at 0:33, this doesn't startle me anymore. I'm wondering what makes the pizzicato strings sound so awkward. My best guess is that the sample sounds like a couple of performers plucking the same note with slightly different timing, which sounds good when they play slowly. Once it gets faster, real performers wouldn't have the same timing differences anymore because it gets easier to synchronize when you have more events to synchronize to. Hence, the sample becomes unnatural in these circumstances. The most "emulatory" way to solve this is to record multiple single-instrument takes instead of one multi-instrument take. Alternatively, you could have the faster notes played by only one instrument while the slower notes are played by multiple instruments. That would make a nice variation without straying from the source. You introduced a rather unrealistic pitch-bend at 1:08 and 1:36. I think changing the attack time instead would work better. The oboe(?) going down at 2:17 sounds as if each note is blown separately instead of playing legato. This, I admit, could be difficult to change depending on the available samples. I hope I don't come across as too negative here. This piece is quite beautiful already, and the fact that I have to resort to such minor details should convey that. Orchestra is among the most difficult things to get right, and you're doing a nice job of it so far. On the production side, there also is less and less to quibble about. You took care of the muddy lows well, though I wouldn't mind having a little of the piano lows reintroduced. The hiss is still there, but less pronounced. RoeTaKa's suggestion of using a lowpass filter on the channel causing the hiss could suffice without having to change the EQ. The marimba/vibe change makes the piece sound even more "fragile", which I like quite much. The reverbs would benefit from "unification". At the moment it sounds a little as if the instruments are recorded in different rooms.

This is essentially a cover at the moment. Structure and instrumentation are very very similar to the source. That being said, it is nicely done so far. The samples don't really sound off to me, but then again the source uses cheap samples, so maybe I'm just used to it. Also I don't think the music box sounds cheap at all. The fact that it starts out a little hesitant is perfectly fitting with Hanako's character, so I have no problem with that. The only thing that really stood out for me is that the pizzicato strings are a little mechanical when being played fast due to their small delay. Otherwise the sounds fit together quite well. On the production side, the scarce percussion has too much high-end reverb and the flutes after 1:49 have too much high end themselves (which might be the source of the aforementioned hiss). The low end gets a little muddy when piano and strings play together. Maybe taking a little bass out of the strings would help. But this is all just nitpicking. My main advice for now is: Change it up a little. Minor notes: Is the music box clipping at 2:03? And what is that clicky-scratchy background noise at 1:56 and between 2:07 and 2:15? For some reason, I like it.

That is where I hear Kirby's Dream Land, specifically a slower version of as a backing track. Granted, it's quite generic so it might be unintentional, but it sends a picture of the little sucker to my head every single time. Love it to pieces.

I have never played FF6 or any FF for that matter, so I can't really tell if the "remix" part is done well (I suppose it is). All I can tell is that this is some genuinely outstanding great awesome music! I have yet to listen to each and every track because I keep coming back to "There's Nothing Like Flying" - what a crazy ride, what a delightful genre cocktail, what a chunk of references! So far, apart from the actual source, I've heard Fez, FF7, Kirby's Dream Land, and the end of the Airwolf theme of all things. I'm sure there is a bunch more in that track that I haven't found yet. It has already been said, but this release definitely put XPRTNovice on my watchlist. While other tracks are powerful, pretty, epic, or dreamy, his tracks make me smile and dance around in my office chair, looking all weird and ridiculous. That stuff is so good it should have a NSFW warning.

Ah, thanks for clarifying.

I, too, have nothing but praise for this album, my favorite track being halc's "Human Soldier". However, I think I have found a bug with the last track, Vig's "The God Machine". There are a couple of sound skips at 0:20 and 0:23. They seem vaguely rhythmical, but there is no definitive rhythm established at that point, so I can't imagine they're intentional. The skips are present in the FLAC and MP3 versions in the Bittorrent download and in fact both files decode flawlessly, so I guess it's in the source file. Can anyone verify? I've already redownloaded the whole package, but this persists.

Heheheh, thanks for following my advice so obediently, but the treble boost is indeed overdone. The goal of my words was to accentuate the rhythm of the bass so the notes wouldn't flow together into each other but sort of "tickaticka" at twice the speed of the hi-hats. I guess taking the lows off the guitar has already helped to achieve that, so you can dial down the treble on bass and kick. Although I don't dislike the rattling completely, it's too much. Edit: The "sound I desire" shouldn't concern you even a bit. Instead, I was trying to give advice for you to get to the sound that I figured *you* desired. If you don't like the result, don't do things to your mix just because I (or anyone) said so. I hope I didn't come across bossy, as that was certainly not my intention at all.

Nice call on the clockwork; though a little cliché, they fit the mood nicely. For the 0:29-0:40 slowdown, you should use more elements to make the slowdown more apparent, like a gradually downpitched woosh (or maybe even downpitched strings). I'd also try playing the tick-tock samples slower so they go down in pitch and have a longer decay, like a real clock sound would change if you actually slowed down time. An increasing reverb tail does wonders in that regard, too. You can also go completely bonkers with the clockwork and bells and do it similar to the beginning of this: . There is no slowdown involved, but the numerous different clocks and bells mix quite nicely.The drum section is a tad low on volume and would benefit from more stereo separation. My usual method for that is that I record four takes at a slow tempo (because I'm not in any way qualified to do that on a keyboard in real-time), but without quantization, then pan the individual tracks 50% left, 20% left, 20% right, 50% right. For cymbals I use two opposite-panned takes, the rest stays centered. Of course that's not the be-all-end-all way of doing it, but I found it quite convincing, even with less-than-perfect samples. As for the strings, try using spiccato string samples (if available) for the arpeggiated high notes. They have a sharper attack and won't blend the notes together as much. Apart from that, you should add a mid-range instrument to make it sound a little fuller. That's all I can say for now. Keep working on it, it sounds very promising!

First of all: Nice track so far! I don't know the source, but I like the progression of the track. Especially the mellow part after 1:13 sounds very good already. Two things: I am by no means an expert on drum patterns or those complex progressive metal rhythms, so maybe it is just me – but the off-beat metronome-like ticking and the kicks in the beginning throw me off every single time. I think you need more rhythmic clues there to give the listener a feeling of the beat before all the syncopation. The same happens with the fill at 0:18-0:22. I lose the rhythm at 0:18 and don't find it until the snares at 0:22. I found out by force-counting that it's actually 4/4 all the way through, but the drums try their best to make me doubt myself. As for production, try giving the bass and the kick drum a little treble boost to make them stand out more. The bass notes blend together to one long note. The second thing I think I heard is a small room reverb on the guitars that I don't hear on the drums, making them seem to sit in two different rooms.

1. Abe (Oddworld) 2. Ludwig von Koopa (Mario) 3. Sieg Wahrheit (Chaos Legion) – because of the ridiculous name. Victory Truth?

Seconded. The melody part after 2:30 continually refuses to leave my head, especially with the added bass groove. You should make a 6-minute club mix of this. Awesome stuff!

Purchased the upgrade on Day 1. What strikes me as most useful is the mixing changes, especially the spectrum analyzer with included EQ graph.

I know all of the problems stated to far. As with Kruai, doing remixes gets me out of the work of writing a melody, which I'm really not good at. My melodies usually become too complicated and hard to remember. The other problems are more often than not a matter of just sitting down and getting started. I've learned that for me to get out of the 16-bar rut, I need to forcibly give it some sort of rudimentary structure (Build-up, Break-down, Finale etc.) out of the awesome 16 bars and then add stuff, remove stuff, move other stuff around and tinker with the results. That always sparks new creativity. However, my main problem is production. The music almost always ends up sounding too thin and lacking midrange content. Recently I've learned how to remedy muddy bass with EQing, but I seem to constantly forget to fill the 500-1000 Hz range.