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progressive

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Posts posted by progressive

  1. Finally, the update you've all been waiting for! :wink: Yeah right, huh?

    I took several people's advice, and ended up changing just about everything but the lead instrument sample.

    Rozovian, I think you were right about it sounding like a weird mix of electronica and orchestral sounds. Some of it worked, and some didn't. I hope I took out what didn't and not what did. :wink: I've tried to push it toward the electronica side by taking out the taiko drum and some other various instruments and adding a drum beat I made myself (I'll vary it up a bit later).

    I've also slowed it way down to allow for a bit more flexibility with the melodies and background noises. Consequently, I've lost some of the forward movement but gained a head-nodding groove that I think I like better.

    Everything else has changed so much that I won't bother to comment on it all. Just have a listen!

    exur

  2. Man, I can listen to any version of this song thrown at me, it's practically gold as source material.

    I like how you slowed it down and turned it into a nice piano ballad. I do think you need to record your piano track because there's just too many notes to try to humanize it all and you don't combine the piano with any essential effects, so.

    I don't like how you tried to get more mileage out of the melody by simply changing the lead instrument and adding modulation (which was annoying after the nice piano section). This song's been done so many times that you'll have to come up with some original notes for it to stand a chance.

    Otherwise, nice work so far.

  3. Great source, first off.

    The piano seems to get stuck in the back with the more atmospheric sounds, though, which is a shame, since it really defines the movement of the song. The bass violin sounds a bit unnatural. It would really be great if you could get a live recording for this and the piano. Together they could really take this remix places. Just let your atmospheric noises build and have fun with some original bantering back and forth (and then together) from the piano and bass. You get the formula right at the very end, but that's too late imo. I'd do this in your second half (which is pretty boring) and try to incorporate the melody from the source somewhere and not just the chord progressions.

    All in all, sounds good so far!

  4. Ballad of the Wind Fish meets Pocket Tanks! Heh. I think you're definitely on the right track here. The synth melody is really your meat and potatoes---I would expand on it. I realize you're going after the original instruments in the song, but some of them could use tweaking. The pads coming in at 0:11 are a bit loud to be panned so far. And the snare sounds a bit out of place where it is, like Roz said. Have you tried killing the drums at 2:00 instead of 2:18? Ending was great, I don't even think you need the nature sounds afterwards.

  5. Alright, here's a minor update, mainly to fix the EQ and balancing issues I talked about. I also slowed it down by about 10 bpm, added reverb where needed, panned some instruments, and replaced the pizzicato strings and piano with (hopefully) better samples. Drums are also louder now. I'm working on a middle section, but it might take a bit with work and all.

    As for the non-game music issue, I'll have to look into what's considered "minor." I only used four measures. Hey, Vanilla Ice got away with it. ;)

    rolt

  6. Alright I went out and bought myself a nice new pair of headphones and the comments were pretty spot on. The ocarina (which I've purposely kept similar to the original, for better or for worse) is actually a bit piercing. I'll tone it down. The drums are not near as punchy as they were with my sub, so I'll fix that. I promise they really sound good at the right volume level! :) Piano was a bit loud. I also need to tweak some of the instruments. And thanks for the rundown, blue.nocturne, I'll check on those inconsistencies.

    I'll try to post an update soon.

  7. Sounds great to me. I looked for the source track at vgmusic and I couldn't find anything about an intro scene. That said, I think the mix becomes very good very quickly, but the strings in the beginning sound pretty synthy against your lush pizzicato strings until the drums and 8-bit bleeps and blips come in. After that, things mesh really well. The arpeggiating square wave that comes in about halfway through seems a bit piercing. Maybe cutting it in and out would add some interest and tone it down? Tempo change near the end was nicely done. Overall, really great stuff.

  8. Hey everyone.

    This is actually the first WIP I've posted. In it I sampled some of Daft Punk's Aerodynamic, which you'll hear from the start. It just hit me one day while I was driving that the battle music with Molgera from Wind Waker would fit perfectly with some Daft Punk electronica. I've lost my one good pair of headphones and I'm using a sub with monitor speakers (!), so I'm sure the EQ is all over the place.

    It's sitting at 3 minutes right now, but I'd actually like to slow it down towards the middle and morph the bass I'm sampling Aerodynamic with into an original melody. I thought I'd get some opinions on what I've got right now first, though. Please be honest and let me know what you think!

    Major UPDATE! 6.18.08

    exur

  9. Ummm. Well, the ambient sounds were pretty interesting, but this mix goes nowhere. It needs a ton of work, but there's potential. Try adding some melodies (or at least counter-melodies) of your own, and change it up from time to time. I don't think you can do this with only one instrument and a pad. A good rule of thumb is that if someone skips from 1/4 into the song to 3/4 in, it should should sound distinctly different or at least more developed. So good luck!

  10. I feel like there's alot of talent working behind the scenes on this one. I really like how you brought the Space Peace melody in (although the same sample is used in Star Festival), but maybe a bit too early? Also it sounds fairly close to the original, which was fully orchestrated, so it's going to be hard to sound comparable without taking the style in a different direction. I like the playful stuff at 0:35... more of that would be great.

    As for a transition to Gusty Garden, the best I could come up with would be to continue your staccato bass after 0:48 (ends on f-sharp) to g, a, and b. You might recognize part of the Mario theme in this, which would be useful to you. At that point a harp glissando would be nice and you could start the Gusty Garden melody on b several octaves higher or the "second melody" on c-sharp.

  11. http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01420/

    Great minds think alike? :) Yours and Ty's rock interpretations come eerily close. I'm almost sure the judges will mention it.

    Luckily the clubbish section at 1:15 takes it in a bit of a different direction. If you took out the base thump in the first part, I think this section could be great, because as is, it sounds really corny. Also, when you filter cut everything at 2:03, the melody needs to be louder to justify it. Otherwise, the impression is, "Oh, there it is, the obligatory dance mix cut."

    Also, I like both sections, but the transition doesn't particularly work for me. Again, I think it's that base thump that rubs me the wrong way.

    And I guess I'll mention it: are we supposed to ignore the beats at 2:48 onward?

    Overall, great stuff. I'd say a definite yes if you can iron out some details and make it a bit more your own.

  12. I love Tal Tal Heights and I always appreciate new mixes of it. This is a really fresh take, but I'd personally like to see the melody come out of its shell once or twice, if even for 10 seconds. I get that the song is inverted, but having a section in the middle where the melody and drums show their true colors would not only give the song more movement but also make the song seem a bit longer.

    And is that the real ending? If so, I like cut offs, reminds me of Beej's Fragments of Gold (which used the Dark World theme) but I'm not sure I like where it cuts off.

  13. This piece had me pretty conflicted. As I was listening I kept going, "Wow, I LOVE that, oh man, wait, NO NO NO, oh but that's really good..." and so on. So instead of being even more vague, let's dissect:

    -I'm with OA on the mallet stuff in the beginning, it's nice and playful, but the rest of the intro is a little muddy and unfocused.

    -The plucked strings at 0:19 and beyond are nice and convincing. The legato ones not so much.

    -At 0:45 we really get into the meat here. Nice.

    -Recorder at 1:05 blew me away it was so clear and welcoming. My first thought was, wish it had sounded this way in the game.

    -Brass at 1:40 clashed pretty badly. Not sure if you were going for some dissonance, but even if so, I'd give this section some major attention. Perhaps you could find some lighter instruments that would give some contrast to the recorder but not clash so much with it. Also, the harp is too loud and repetitive here.

    -2:17 Ahhh, that's better. Back to basics. Perhaps you could experiment with a sitar here to fill in the sound here. That seems to be Nintendo's take on remixing... give it some exotic flare.

    -3:00 Strings sound better here but the trumpet blows (literally). Guitar is superb, though. See how conflicting the sample qualities of your instruments are?

    -4:00 and on, I like the way you tied in the mallet part to the beginning, but the fade out is a little uninspiring. Anything else you could do?

    Overall, I'm liking it, and I think you can still make it your own. As others have said, though, it does need to go somewhere, which is a bit unfair since the source doesn't, but I'm sure you can do it.

  14. Let's see here... intro up until 1:00 is pretty blah and incoherent. Sounds too much like a cutscene. Cut all that out and you'd have a pretty solid 20 second intro (without the early strings). Drums at 2:17 are a little annoying, I'd change them up or at least drop them back and let the piano here really let it do its thing because as it is this section serves no real purpose right now.

    Lots of potential, though. I really like the overall sound you deliver from 1:00 to 2:17.

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