Zelda ALTTP Overworld

[Rozovian]

Seems like every remix I do is a Zelda one. At least on the WIP boards. Here's the ALttP light world overworld music. It's arranged following the backing instruments rather than the lead melody, for most part. How submittable is this? What did I miss?

A Link to oldest version

A Link to the older version

A Link to the old version

A Link to the newest version I've got online

A Link to midi for reference (403: find the link under the first point or copy-paste the link)

edit: Note that these verisons are kind'a outdated by now, I'm working on the final submittable version now. Thanks for all the feedback ppl!

[Tensei]

Haha, I'm loving the intro, it's VERY Banjo-Kazooie-ish, with the chromatic percussion. Samples sound very nice, though the dulcimer (or whatever the instrument during the faster section after the intro is) sounds kind of fake on the repeated notes. The sitar during the second half is probably meant to sound like it's slightly out of tune, but it is quite distracting nonetheless.

Overall there's some good ideas, a lovely soundscape and some tight instrumentation and sequencing throughout the whole piece, but I can't help but feel that the whole thing needs more cohesion. Especially during the first half it just sounds like you're jumping from section to section with almost no overlapping stuff, sort of weak transitions and a quickly changing tempo. Try to work on that and this will turn out great, I'm sure

[The Legendary Zoltan]

I agree entirely with Tensei on the good and the bad. I like all the different instruments and everything is pretty and sparkly sounding and the multiple interpretations of the source is cool. Putting the ocarina (?) in the ending again was a good idea to show that this is actually just one song. Hahaha. But other than that little move, I'd say that it sort of sounds like one of those medley-itis remixes, except this one's problem is not melodies, but instruments. Maybe in each segment you should think about including some of the instruments from the surrounding segments and maybe bringing back some ocarina solos once in the middle as well as the ending. the tempo changes didn't seem to harsh for me, nor did the sitar tuning. Yeah, this will definitely be some good stuff if you can make it feel more cohesive. Even if you want to keep the whole "lots of different sounding variations" structure going, I think it's possible to make it sound like they all belong together more than they do now.

Like BGC says, "GO FOR THE GOLD!"

[XTREEMMAK]

OK,

I checked out your track. Very well instrumented I must say. Intro kind of threw me for a loop though with the missing notes in the motif but hey you pulled it. The arrangement is great imo. I'm no expert in foreign percussion so I wont be much help there so I will say some choice in percussion was better than others. Implementing your own section would have been nice as well in some areas instead of the same sections over and over again and though you remedy the repetitiveness of the track with alternate instruments, I just think some sort of change that we're all not used to hearing would have been great.

Overall, great track, great mix as far as I can tell, work it out and u have a killer track sir .

Be sure to check my new WIP as well:

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14294

l8r

[Inv1ctus]

i like the loose translation in the intro. it invokes a feeling of lighthearted mischief or something. However, I have to agree with tensei in that there seems to be a loss of logical gear shift in musical thought processes. Each sounds beautiful in its own right, but they do seem different. By the way may i just say that your samples are effing amazing?!?! if that is reason your working in id love to know the sample libraries.

I think one way to vindicate the trouble here is to bring in the flute somewhere further into the piece. I find that if theres no other way to make things cohesive, use the instrument textures to do it.

Arrangement and eq'ing are brilliant.

If your trying to submit this though, you might run into the problem of track "ownership" in that variation in melody is limited. I think the judges would want to see more in that direction.

EDITED: You know, on second run of the song there does seem to be good variation, but as xtreemak said it is essentially the same progression, so not sure how to help you there, since thats the essence of the song. I think your going to have to pull in some completely original ideas into this mix. The best advice i can offer is to come up with a story in your head that you could think of happening in zelda, and then use the song as a tool to build that story.

I would suggest running more with the direction of light playful airy mishief that you introduced with the piece. Its a stylistic variation on the piece that is relevant to zelda imagery (i.e. i can imagine navi up to tricks or something) good work

[Rozovian]

One of the ideas behind it was to show the backing arrangement to the ALttP overworld theme, then I added drums and an original track on santoor and the rest is casual remixing.

Detuning some of the instruments slightly is something I often do to add life, tho in the case of the sitar, heh, I went a little too far. I corrected it right after I heard my own wip, but didn't bother to render a new one.

Dave, if you can use exs instruments in reason, get the world music jam pack from apple. If not, get a mac. That's what I've used. Anyway, I can list some instruments I've used in case you can find samples elsewhere: persian santoor, indian sitar, panpipes, marimba, harp, three different ethno drumkits and an orchestral one. Plus ordinary cello (legato & staccato), and a string ensemble. The only electric sample I have is from a latin baby bass, which I feel still suits the soundscape.

Enough talk. Here's music.

Now I cleared up the drums, threw in a few additional parts for each oisntrument to make it a bit less segmented, less instru-medley-itic. I also remastered it, think I did added a separate reverb bus for the drums, little fixes here and there. Let me know if it's cohesive enough to submit, and what else to fix before submitting.

edit: Note that this verison is kind'a outdated by now, I'm working on the final submittable version now. Thanks for all the feedback ppl!

[Vidilian]

Whoops, I was about to review the wrong version. Anyway, the only problem production wise I can find is the xylophone (or whatever) at 1:49 seems to have too much reverb atleast on my speakers. Thats about my only problem with things. Theres a bit of a strange end though its not a big deal. Good job making things sound better compared to the earlier version.

[HoboKa]

This is awesome-a-power somewhere caught between ambient, experimental and orchestral/acoustic percussion. I'm digging this Rho - keep it up mate

[Liontamer]

[04:30] <Liontamer> anything else

[04:30] <Rozovian> nope

[04:30] <Rozovian> not atm

[04:31] <Liontamer> excellent; sleep soon

[04:31] <Rozovian> unless you got a good name for a zelda remix with some middle-east and indian isntrumentation

[04:31] <Liontamer> depends what it is

[04:31] <Rozovian> alttp overworld theme

[04:33] <Rozovian> nice, thanks

[04:40] <Larry> link to the WIP?

[04:41] <Rozovian> http://filesap.com/r/zalttpswordsmanv3b1.mp3

[04:42] <Rozovian> besides a name, I wouldn't mind hearing if it's submittable or not

[04:44] <Larry> interesting approach in that the melody is very marginalized here

[04:44] <Rozovian> ookay

[04:45] <Larry> picks up at 2:52

[04:45] <Larry> pretty straightforward arrangement there

[04:46] <Rozovian> true

[04:46] <Larry> kind of a pitfall with this theme

[04:46] <Larry> melody is so good, can't help but play it pretty straight

[04:46] <Larry> ok, 3:33 with some different instrumentation

[04:47] <Larry> still the same stuff; that was a good opportunity to change something up in the rhythms or melody compared to the previous iteration, just something to personalize the approach more

[04:48] <Rozovian> so I should rework those sections more

[04:48] <Larry> this is only my singular opinion, but I felt like 2:52-4:42 as is will get some props for the instrumentation, but not for the interpretation being substantive enough/different enough from the progressions of the original

[04:48] <Larry> I would think so

[04:49] <Larry> interrupting that for a second...

[04:49] <Larry> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Sangeet_Vadya

[04:49] <Larry> means "Indian Musical Instruments"; 0 idea what words correspond to what

[04:49] <Larry> but you could always substitute one of the character names from Z3 into it for a title

[04:50] <Rozovian> that's a cool idea

[04:50] <Larry> Bharatiya Agahnim Vadya

[04:50] <Larry> Bharatiya Sahasrahla Vadya

[04:50] <Larry> whatever

[04:50] <Larry> I'd probably try to figure out what the words from that Hindi book specifically mean

[04:51] <Larry> otherwise you could get "Indian Musical Sahasrahla"

[04:51] <Rozovian> heh

[04:51] <Larry> hahaha; maybe that works too

[04:51] <Rozovian> maybe

[04:51] <Rozovian> that's a good one

[04:51] <Larry> Sahasrahla is an aged, learned man who happens to be a descendant of the seven sages, and the elder of Kakariko Village

[04:52] <Rozovian> I know, I played the game

[04:52] <Larry> I haven't

[04:52] <Rozovian> fortunate enough to grow up with a snes

[04:52] <Rozovian>

[04:53] <Larry> just looking into the characters; the old man seems pretty apropo, though you're likely not remixing a theme associated with him; artistic license wins out though

[04:53] <Rozovian> yeah

[04:54] <Larry> lemme see if the rest of the arrangement has any comments

[04:55] <Larry> yeah, I mean, I'm ok with subtraction as a method of arrangement, like you basically have here; first minute is basically some original writing over the chords of the original

[04:56] <Larry> but bookended with the conservative take later, it's not substantive enough

[04:56] <Larry> also

[04:56] <Larry> the approach here with no defined melody all the way until 2:52 is too long without a specific direction; it gets tiresome and lacks dynamic contrast

[04:57] <Rozovian> it started as an experiment to bring up the backing melodies of the track, then I added some original stuff

[04:58] <Larry> right now you have section A of some interpretive writing over the chords, then section B with essentially a sound upgrade of the original; not really any meaningful connection between the two, just a sudden gear switch from A to B

[04:58] <Rozovian> so, more theme earlier

[04:58] <Larry> You'd be better served to try something more like A-B-A-B-A or what have you, rather than simple A-B

[04:58] <Rozovian> hm...

[04:59] <Larry> or A-B-C-A-B, or A-B-C-B-A, with C being something new

[04:59] <Rozovian> yeah

[05:00] <Larry> at nearly 5 mins long, a C breakdown/chageup could keep things fresh

[05:00] <Rozovian> it would

[05:01] <Larry> the sound quality is pretty serviceable; some other Js could offer better insight on that

[05:01] <Larry> this on the WIP forums?

[05:01] <Rozovian> I've had it there, yeah

[05:01] <Larry> link me up

[05:02] <Rozovian> http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14277

[05:02] <Rozovian> tho that was some versions ago

[05:03] <Larry> that's fine

[05:04] <Larry> I'll post there for posterity

[05:04] <Rozovian> do mention it's v3b1 you've heard, not v1b3 which I've linked to

[05:05] <Larry> done

[Rozovian]

Okay, new version ready. Haven't yet gone over all of Larry's remarks, but there's some more deviation from the source now. I also added an instrument, replaced another, moved some parts around...

If I don't scrap this version and restart the remix using the parts I've now done, I'll probably redo the sitar, try to make the transition into the theme on cello a bit smoother, maybe use another instrument there... But other than that, I think this is ready to submit.

Tell me what I missed, what you think, etc..

Oh right, a Link to the Remix.

And as mentioned in my chat with Larry, I need a nice name for it. Swordsman doesn't have enough depth to it.