Julien Mulard

Hi!
If by strings you meant the stab synth (which sound more like brass than strings IMHO), I think you have a good start by using a saw (not detuned) with an almost open filter, and maybe a really short enveloppe on the cutoff of a lowpass filter  (fast attack, from everything cut to almost nothing cut).
For the bells, try a square in high pitch with a "percussive" volume enveloppe (i.e. instant attack, long decay and release, no sustain). Add delay and/or reverb and play with the filters to adjust your sound (keep in mind you want a brillant sound so try not to touch the highs). You may or may not want to add a saw or a triangle in the mix to add some spectral information (but mixed lower).
You seem to struggle with sound design, which is a difficult and critical part of music creation (making the perfect sound from scratch, or just copying an existing sound). If you want to learn more about synth sound design, may I suggest you try Syntorial? The software itself is rather costly (around $130), but the free demo (including a lot of lessons) may give you some basic understanding of the key parts of a classic substractive synth (oscillators, filters, enveloppes, etc..). I found this software to be really interesting. I did not buy it though, so I don't know exactly how much you can learn if you do spend some money for it. 
I hope I could be of some help! And sorry for the bad english, it's not my mother tongue.
Edit: Typo

Hi everyone!
Just posting here because The Nikanoru extorted a WIP from me, and I thought it would be fair to share it with everyone
Enjoy the systematic slaughter of everything moving under the sea on Aquas! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0QpOgRYCqN3VmxCa3hqLXlheFE
If you fancy the second part of the mix, I suggest you check one of my favorite artist of all time (a fellow frech guy) going by the name of The Algorithm. I really wanted to imitate his style for a long time, and this ReMix seemed to me like a good occasion to try a lot of new things.
EDIT: The guitar solo at the begining is a placeholder, I am well aware that it contained a lot of mistakes

Hi everyone!
Just posting here because The Nikanoru extorted a WIP from me, and I thought it would be fair to share it with everyone
Enjoy the systematic slaughter of everything moving under the sea on Aquas! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0QpOgRYCqN3VmxCa3hqLXlheFE
If you fancy the second part of the mix, I suggest you check one of my favorite artist of all time (a fellow frech guy) going by the name of The Algorithm. I really wanted to imitate his style for a long time, and this ReMix seemed to me like a good occasion to try a lot of new things.
EDIT: The guitar solo at the begining is a placeholder, I am well aware that it contained a lot of mistakes

Hi everyone!
Just posting here because The Nikanoru extorted a WIP from me, and I thought it would be fair to share it with everyone
Enjoy the systematic slaughter of everything moving under the sea on Aquas! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0QpOgRYCqN3VmxCa3hqLXlheFE
If you fancy the second part of the mix, I suggest you check one of my favorite artist of all time (a fellow frech guy) going by the name of The Algorithm. I really wanted to imitate his style for a long time, and this ReMix seemed to me like a good occasion to try a lot of new things.
EDIT: The guitar solo at the begining is a placeholder, I am well aware that it contained a lot of mistakes

Hi everyone!
Just posting here because The Nikanoru extorted a WIP from me, and I thought it would be fair to share it with everyone
Enjoy the systematic slaughter of everything moving under the sea on Aquas! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0QpOgRYCqN3VmxCa3hqLXlheFE
If you fancy the second part of the mix, I suggest you check one of my favorite artist of all time (a fellow frech guy) going by the name of The Algorithm. I really wanted to imitate his style for a long time, and this ReMix seemed to me like a good occasion to try a lot of new things.
EDIT: The guitar solo at the begining is a placeholder, I am well aware that it contained a lot of mistakes

Hi!
If by strings you meant the stab synth (which sound more like brass than strings IMHO), I think you have a good start by using a saw (not detuned) with an almost open filter, and maybe a really short enveloppe on the cutoff of a lowpass filter  (fast attack, from everything cut to almost nothing cut).
For the bells, try a square in high pitch with a "percussive" volume enveloppe (i.e. instant attack, long decay and release, no sustain). Add delay and/or reverb and play with the filters to adjust your sound (keep in mind you want a brillant sound so try not to touch the highs). You may or may not want to add a saw or a triangle in the mix to add some spectral information (but mixed lower).
You seem to struggle with sound design, which is a difficult and critical part of music creation (making the perfect sound from scratch, or just copying an existing sound). If you want to learn more about synth sound design, may I suggest you try Syntorial? The software itself is rather costly (around $130), but the free demo (including a lot of lessons) may give you some basic understanding of the key parts of a classic substractive synth (oscillators, filters, enveloppes, etc..). I found this software to be really interesting. I did not buy it though, so I don't know exactly how much you can learn if you do spend some money for it. 
I hope I could be of some help! And sorry for the bad english, it's not my mother tongue.
Edit: Typo

What you called a matched EQ is in fact a global EQ. I just moved a lot of things between V4 and V5, and I realized this morning that I had put an EQ on the main track, killing the ultra highs and the super lows.... That was stupid, at least for the highs, so I corrected it after listening to the V4 and V5 one after another. Wait for it in V6!  
For information regarding my guitar tracks, there is 6 guitar tracks (Rhythm L/R, Solo L/R and Clean L/R), each one having their own FX and EQ. There is also a track for both guitar of each type, just for mixing purpose, but not EQ in here!
That was the kind of things I thought about when I read your message, so I changed the EQ of the rhythm guitars, scooping some mids to give a more compact sound (plus the hi boost, it is a rather significant change). I am not sure it was what you were thinking about, but you'll hear and you'll tell me. I love the leads sounds (solo playing guitar sounds), so I won't EQ them if it's possible. I feel changing the sound may break the flow of the sequencing, feeling natural but being just Shreddage
But I may boost them if I manage to find some room! 
Regarding EQing in general, I bought a pair of speakers today. Nothing too fancy, but I heard some bad stuff when I played my track, so I guess it will help regarding the mixing process! 
First, thank you MindWanderer for taking the time to comment my track! I am really glad you like this!
When I compose, I tend to build stories around the tracks I work on, and often think about what would be visually happening if it was a movie soundtrack. This piece is no different, and it tells a story:
First Fear of the Heavens (FotH) is the exposure. Imagine a large view of a antique city, with a huge mountain near it. You start too understand that this world is ruled by cruel gods, and that mankind is enslaved, with images of people living in slums and looking, terrified, to the mountain, with the clouds near the top magically glowing. Something may have crossed their mystical inhabitants. The Dancing Animals is the wrath of the gods falling upon the city, for a probably stupid and arbitrary reason. A lighting strike fall from the mountain setting the city on fire. Panic follows. The city burns.  From the ashes, amidst the causality, a hero rise. He chose to take arms and go challenge the gods all by himself, Kratos style, to free the inhabitants from their malevolent rule. This is FotH, 2nd appearance. The solo guitar symbolizes the hero. He travels to the entrance of the temple at the top of the mountain. The Spirit of the Night djenty part is here to emphasize the increasing feeling of dread of the hero, about to face the greatest opponents ever. The solos are the bloody battle between him and the gods. Before LTfL he is in a rather bad position. But thanks to the power of love and friendship for his fellow villagers, he manage to turn the tide of the battle and finally smash his enemies (LTfL and SotN). Explosion sound from the gods dying under his rightful power. Now the power of the gods are dissipating and the sky brighten while snowflakes (well, more like gods ashes) fall from above. This is the rising arpeggios from FotH. Final sequence, everything is for the better and the hero is now the natural ruler of the city (last FotH). The end! (Quoting my friend right next to me as I wrote this: "Wow, you went really far")
Whatever, the sound design was more about storytelling than quality in audio production. If you think this is bad, I will look into this. In fact, it was a nice excuse for me to have this story behind because I couldn't figure some nice transitions out. So thank you!
But I'll keep the last part. As I said to the Nikanoru, I really like long progressive songs, so this ending is not a problem for me. Plus I really like the arpeggios from Fear of the Heavens and I wanted to ReMix them from the begining.
I'll try the trail off technique at 4:45 and see where it can gets me.
Regarding 2:33, I think I just lack some nice crash hit at the end of the double bass acceleration. I like the old-school trashy feel of the next part, so I'm not certain a sample would work.
Sorry for the very long post and the stupid story-thing. Thank you for your comments. Stay tuned for the V6 (I think I'll post updates more often from now on, as I lack the hear for mixing and will need some feedback)!

Once again, love this track. A couple of things:
-1:12 - not sure that the In the Dead of Night part is working for this section. I get the feel you are creating here, but the triplets you need for the melody is really quiet and (IMO) really conflicts with the support the rhythm guitar is giving here. I'd suggest brightening up the orchestral backdrop to this part, but it may make it sound cluttered. Maybe a different rhythm is needed here because I'm afraid to suggest lowering the volume of that drive and losing the overall feel of the song.
-1:31 - the crash adds a lot of depth and it's a great way to jump into the second Fear section, but that depth suddenly disappears once it ends - you may want to try using this crash a bit more in this section or use a cymbal crash instead so you don't leave us audiophiles hanging. WONDERFUL lead overtop of the rhythm guitar, really brings this part alive!
-2:01 - this spot may be better for In the Dead of Night. I'm hearing a bit of Spirit of the Night, but not enough to make it stand out.
-2:38 - I like the speed-up and solo - worthy of Brian May, Slash, and Keith Richards, and probably James Hetfield and Van Halen too!
-3:19 - FABULOUS lead-in to Leave Time for Love!
-3:40 - THERE's Spirit of the Night! Great place to put it, driving beat and crazy fill only emphasize the melody. Don't touch this part anymore, aside from minor matering - this sounds AWESOME!
-4:45 - Ends very suddenly - leaves me kind of hanging, but better than the progressive fadeout. I still think it's worth bringing the listener back to Fear to bring the listener back to where you started, but this can work as is. It's just sudden, is all.
This is better than I imagined it. Hopefully getting close to where you want to too. Keep the updates coming!

Hello, I'm the Nikanoru, retro gamer extraordinaire. I've been creeping the OC Remix website for a couple of years now, and after I downloaded my 12th remix album, I thought that I had run out of excuses not to say hi.
I am a bit of an audiophile and although I am very musically inclined, I seem to have neither the direction nor the time to pursue music these days, aside from listening to it and dreaming that one day I could play like some of the other artists out there. Speaking of which, I would like to contribute with a few tracks of my own one day - any advice for this noobie composer would be appreciated.
I like any music that invokes thought or feeling, whether it be acoustic, metal, symphonic, ambient, or just plain awesome.
Great to be here!

Big fan of this game and the soundtrack, probably my favorite in terms of feel and originality. 
First of all, let me say I love what you have so far. Most people tend to stick to the soft feel of the original track, but you've taken a big step in another direction here. I really like the dirty, low-tone distortion that you've chosen and the almost tribal tom progression you gave the percussion fits perfectly. The orchestration in the background only supports the overall tone and I love how all the tones match. This sounds GREAT.
What you are feeling is a lack of intro riff. You need a fill after the first four measures, to go along with the bass coming to the table. Something low-tone like the rhythm guitar, but not too fancy, just enough to get the listener into that orchestral bit. Everything else is there, in my opinion.
I like the transition here. Flawless. If you want people to headbang, I have a couple of suggestions: instead of using the main guitar to 'mix up' the melody (second four measures), I would keep the melody by that dirty guitar original and put in another slightly-higher toned guitar fill that plays over top of the melody, then try to get the drums and the rhythm guitar to emphasize the beat together (If you listen to 'Blood Pigs' by Otep, you'll get an idea of what I mean). Not sure the key change fits, but maybe this will sound better with a fill.
LOVE how the rhythm guitar supports the melody here. Very powerful. You might want to consider the 'Fear of the Heavens' riff as a sort of 'chorus' to bring the listener back to when finished with whatever other tracks you have planned here - if that fits with your design.
I like it, especially how the percussion and orchestral parts drop off to let the riff play out. If you choose to go for another round of this track, you may consider some gentle high-hat or light cymbals for the beat instead of actual drums, to help preserve the emotional feel you have laid out here.
I really like what you have here, and I want to hear more. If you are looking for suggestions on where to go next, I say percussion is one of the high points of the SoM soundtrack, so take 'Danger' or 'the Oracle' and see what you can do with it - then finish with 'Fear...' one last time. Stretch it out, epic hair metal ending, worthy of Brian May, Slash, or Keith Richards maybe?
Have fun ... and keep writing!

Hi there!
 
I always found vgm to be somewhat special, and as I've been making music from a few years now, I ended making what I think cool covers/remixes of my favorite tunes. Now I think it is time for me to share some stuff, and I'll be very pleased to get some feedback on my work, as I've never realy exposed it to any other than a few friends and familly members.
 
I'm a keyboardist/producer (as in "I do stuff on FL Studio"), speed/shred/melodic/powerful/stupid oriented, be it in metal, happyhardcore, hardstyle or anything else, with possibly a touch of ukulele and melodica sometimes.
 
Whatever, I'm really happy to join the rank of OCR, and maybe one day (soon?) become a ReMixer! 
 
Nice to meet you!