Slimy

Oh man, that Rhodes piano at the beginning is gorgeous! Great transition with the guitar as well.

I was under the impression that you were trying to emulate the mood of the original song. Except, compared to the original, this lacks energy. The soundscape feels empty, thin, and boring, even when more instruments came in later. The FF7 battle theme always got me really excited. It made every random would-be-boring battle exciting. The orchestra, however fake, seemed excited to be playing it. Every single note is filled with energy, nothing is wasted. Those orchestra "hits" that play throughout the song are loud for a reason. They're loud because they're exciting. They drive the song forward. The new electronic elements are not "punchier and more powerful," they're just there. Everything is just there, playing, but not really mattering. 6:46 got a bit better, but it sounds like it should be the more laid back bit in the middle where the guitars and piano can finally shine, not the part where the song only just starts to get interesting. Add more instruments, add more chords, put accents on your notes. Don't waste a single second building the song up, being boring. Let the song excite me from start to finish. https://youtu.be/VsZgc0uTYU4?t=365 Doesn't this orchestra sound like they're having fun? Every time that chord builds up it's like they can't even contain themselves.

I would agree - that sounds ridiculous and borderline impossible. But apparently FL is inconsistent.

...Like I said, I've never had any problems using Audacity.

Perhaps, but I've never had any clicking/loop-is-not-quite-seamless problems using Audacity. That sounds like an arrangement problem, not a problem with the looping itself.

Pffft. I make seamless loops all the time. 1: Export your song loop as a wav - don't cut off any reverb at the end. 2: Throw your wav into Audacity. 3: Duplicate the track. 4: Drag the second track to the end of the first one so that it loops - the two tracks should overlap a bit. 5: Copy the overlapping bit, and paste it at the end of the second track. 6: Delete that bit on both tracks. 7: Selects the part of the first track that doesn't overlap the second track 6: Delete that too. 7: Export as a wav, ogg, whatever. You're done. Basically, you just took the reverb from the end of the loop, cut it out and slapped it on the beginning, and used it as a measuring stick so that it loops seamlessly.

Yeah, I've heard jazz that was way less coherent than this. The parts where the song "broke down" still felt under control and made some melodic sense.

Right now EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Silver is on sale for $97.50, + an iLok for $49.95, adding up to $147.45. It's basically a stripped down version of the Gold version, but there's an upgrade option for when you have more money. You can listen to pretty much any song on my soundcloud page to see how it sounds. If you don't mind subscription payments, you can subscribe to the Composer Cloud for $29.99 a month and get 7 libraries.

Cheapest and easiest to use, compared to FL studio and Reaper IMO. (I won't by trying the demos of any other DAW's until I have cash for them.) Although a few design choices baffle me - for example - I can't edit midi controllers using an automation track, nor can I apply automation for effects over a SubMix track. I've complained about it on the forms though - fingers crossed for a greatly improved Mixcraft 8? Admittedly, I'm fairly inexperienced when it comes to mastering, but: The EZQ Equalizer that comes with Mixcraft is a godsend for simple tone adjustment. I really like the Parametric EQ 2 that comes with the FL Juice Pack, but there's some free alternatives you can use, like Blue Cat Audio's Triple EQ - only 3 bands though. LoudMax is a simple limiter that you can get for free. (It has more than 1 knob! It has 2!)

Everything I've written so far was made with a version of Mixcraft. (version 7 now) You'll be fine. I do use 3rd party plugins and instruments, but Mixcraft is my main DAW that holds it all together.

Well, I'm not 100% confident in the time on my side either, so if anyone else wants to try to, go right ahead. The world won't be hurt by more remixes. Chandeliers is an awesome song, so I jumped at the opportunity. I'm probably going to go for a conservative remix, because I love the style of the original.

When I used MIDI/free sounds, if I didn't like the sounds I had, sometimes I'd try to "cheat." For example, by putting a trombone sound in the range of a trumpet, to get a softer "trumpet" sound. Or EQing them to get the right sound. ToneBoosters used to have a free equalizer that was basically a godsend for simple tone adjustment. I can send it to you if you PM me. For percussion, you should alternate between different velocities to avoid the machine gun effect. Put accents at different places to give it some personality. And you'll probably have to add some extra reberb, but try not to overdo it. You can study orchestral seating arrangements to see how much each section should get. (Strings < Woodwinds < Brass < Percussion)

Are you sure that song was appropriate to connect to that statement? The volume in that song is yikes.

I slapped some samples on a midi of it, and it doesn't sound half bad. I'm not sure how I'd actually remix it though.

Well, for Grand Finale Remastered, it sounds like the timpani is playing an octave too high. And you could put a crescendo at 0:40, a fortepiano at 0:43, then crescendo at 0:48. For dynamics sake. Same at 1:16. And you could crescendo some more from 1:32 to the end. The snare drum in The Gestahl Empire Remastered seems awfully bright. You should really listen to some real orchestras. Maybe even in person, to get a taste for instrument ranges and dyamics. Try looking for Gustav Holst - The Planets Suite. (It's one of my favorites.) Or maybe the 2012 Final Fantasy Orchestral Album will be more to your tastes. And I would definitely recommend investing in a sample library.

If you're going to emulate it on PC, I'd probably recommend the PCSXR emulator over ePSXe, because it was easier to set up. The Steam version came with terrible, terrible midi music that they hadn't replaced since the PC version of FF7 first came out in 1998. But they may have fixed it by now.

I've recently tried my hand at some ambient music. I'd appreciate if someone more experienced at it than I am could tell me if there's anything I could improve. Thanks! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/a6ayh1vc3rhjsvf/Ambiance%201.mp3 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/gprs65fe8iehl3q/Derelict%20Ship.mp3 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/drfp2el5osjnn5l/Dark%20Corridors.mp3

I thought the intro was rather slow and boring - even for an atmospheric piece. The first 29 seconds are just the original chords! I think it would be improved if you added more instruments to it and made it more complex, (while still keeping it subdued so that you can build it up,) and/or changed the chord structure a bit. I rather liked what you have going toward the middle and end of the end of the song, despite it's WIPness. The slightly Metroid Prime style original melody over everything was a nice touch. I also like how the song got more ominous at 3:23 - it suits that part of the original song very well, though you could add more to it.

I really like the sounds and style you're going for, aside from the ending.... not really sure what that's all about.... is it supposed to sound hopeful? It's rather awkward. Despite my love for the rest of this arrangement, it could probably do with some more original elements if you pan to submit it. Maybe you could break the arrangement up into sections with some variations or original parts in between?

Soundscape feels veeery empty overall. Especially because this is an orchestra arrangement. You need to add some more instruments and thicker chords. The buildup at the beginning isn't bad, but 0:52- onward feels very empty. Especially at 1:43. The pizzicato violins at the beginning could use a pass of humanization and reverb. Real violins playing pizzicato tend not to sound perfectly accurate. At 0:52, the pizzicato violins seemed to be out of sync? The xylophone and piano could use a pass of humanization too. I feel like the brass that plays at 1:43 would match the style better if if sounded smoother. You could achieve this by lowering the velocity and raising the volume to compensate, or putting it an octave higher. Your solo/melody instruments don't seem to play very strong in general. Since the orchestration is generally empty, the focus is mostly on them, and because they're just as quiet as everything else the whole song kinda lacks energy. Leading up to 2:14, there could have been a crescendo. And despite you not wanting arrangement advice: Is this supposed to be a different take on the original song, or is it supposed to keep the same style? Because if this is the latter, I think the song would sound much better with a guitar bass or solo double bass/vibes combo at the beginning. your version seems to loose all the awesome jazzy bassiness of the original, but if this is what you're going for, the violin pizzicato isn't as bad, (especially if you're going for a big orchestra effect, though the emptiness of the arrangement kinda contradicts that,) though I would really prefer a stronger bassline.

This is off topic, but what don't you like about Hollywood Orchestra?

I'm well aware. (Believe me, EastWest's installation process makes sure of that.) Regardless, I paid once, and now I own (the license to use) my libraries. Whereas if I were using composer's cloud, I could never stop paying, or I'd loose the license, which leads us to: Indeed. I disagree. Well then, let's pull some numbers out of our ass then! (No personal offense intended.) Yep. Emphasis on "upfront cost" though.

I'm not the biggest fan of subscriptions - I'd rather pay once and own something forever than fork over more money every month. After a few months worth of paying, I could own a library, and not have to pay anything extra! But then again, for $50 a month you're getting everything. That's a lot.

Ok, last update hopefully. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/zd91uqw4abrty6s/Footprints%20on%20Zebes.mp3?dl=0 I used a master limiter to get a volume boost, but I tried to keep all the dynamics. I don't use master limiters much, so if I've failed at something, I'd appreciate help.