Zelda: Oracle of Ages 'Essence of Lime' [See community board]

[JH Sounds]

nobody posting anything at all since my last post

Welcome to my world.

[Eino Keskitalo]

Cool project. Got a nice chiplead sound going on. I like Ripples of Time the most so far, I'll say more about that a bit later.

Last-minute Essence of Lime comments:

Enjoyable track overall, my second favourite from these four.

Keyboard strings sound a little - just a little - exposed right in the beginning (the very first chord). They sound fine later on. The brass sounds very nice in the intro, which amends the situation. I was thinking you could fade the first chord in from maybe 66% to 100%.. that might divert the attention to the brass. Or it might not work at all. In any case, it's not a big tweak!

There's a lot going on, so a little extra breathing space before the final part (begins at 02:52) would in my opinion do the whole good. I was thinking maybe a bar's worth of drums only, that sort of thing.

Other than those two quite minor things, the track is sold and enjoyable. Good work so far!

--Eino

[JH Sounds]

For a moment I thought I'd highlighted your sig, Hylian.

[Kreios]

nice. As for me I used to play seasons after hours so I like that one better. Due to certain things though I've never had them both at the same time and am now playing ages. Great job and keep it up!

[Lemonectric]

For a moment I thought I'd highlighted your sig, Hylian.

Yes, I changed it to match the new album art. I'm going to have to print it eventually, and my printer completely butchers dark stuff, so I decided to make a light alternate. XD

Anyway, thanks for the comments/critique, Vctrx/evktalo. I started to work on Essence of Lime with the few minutes of freedom I had last night, and the string-fading-in seems to work well. I'm in the process of adding a breath before the last section, so I'll get around to posting it whenever I'm done (soon).

[Lemonectric]

All right, [link removed] has been updated.

The first chord of strings now fades in more, and I've added a less busy section before the final part.

[Rozovian]

Just four tracks. Oh good, then I can get them all done at once.

Haven't played the game, and am too lazy to listen to source.

Ricochet. Sounds like Zelda... uh, at least the melodies. One of your early hihat samples is a bit too loud. You've got strangely few high frequencies. Around 2:30 it starts having something of a latino sound, then goes into something more like jazz. All without breaking the overall style. Good work. Ending was executed well.

Ripples of Time. Starts off with the promise of being epic. Doesn't quite progress the way I would have wanted, but it turns into something nice and groovy. There's a weird blurp-ish sound in there that I'd get rid of if I were you. A style like this would be awesome for an sd3 track that we need. I'll get you the details in a pm. After 2 mins it starts sounding familiar. Probbaly from a remix, tho could be from a previous wip, could have been used in another Zelda game. Anyway, ending felt sudden, so you either gotta let it unwind for longer or let it crash into a bigger finale.

Bipolar Bird. PIano intro feels very unpolished. Too much reverb, too long release, idunno. Piano could lose some high mids. Progression certainly fits what you said about the source, mostly. Transition into electronic around 1:33 didn't quite work, imo. At 2:07 it takes another cool turn, somewhat reminiscent of a part of the castle theme from SMW. Then it turns into lofi chiptune sounds, and that didn't feel appropriate. Work on the transitions and blend them together more. I'd rather not have the chippy ending, but it's your track. There was a lot of really cool bits and pieces in this, but it becomes medleyitic... too much so even for this track.

Essence of Lime. Strings feel pad-ish. If you'd make that more obvious, you could get away with it more easily. Primitive waveform leads work in this track, tho I'd give them a few overtones, they sound too primitive. The reverse rhythm thing you've got about half way through works well, but I was expecting a stronger bass drum to come in somewhere around there. You've got a few pretty cool sections in here, and the transitions were interesting. Ending was funny.

Overall, this sounds promising. Good stuff, man.

[Chickenwarlord]

J

Bipolar Bird. PIano intro feels very unpolished. Too much reverb, too long release, idunno. Piano could lose some high mids. Progression certainly fits what you said about the source, mostly. Transition into electronic around 1:33 didn't quite work, imo. At 2:07 it takes another cool turn, somewhat reminiscent of a part of the castle theme from SMW. Then it turns into lofi chiptune sounds, and that didn't feel appropriate. Work on the transitions and blend them together more. I'd rather not have the chippy ending, but it's your track. There was a lot of really cool bits and pieces in this, but it becomes medleyitic... too much so even for this track.

Almost everything you complain about was on my end. I'll have to go back and work on that then.

[Lemonectric]

I will never understand how Rozovian manages to give heaps of good critique all over the board without breaking a sweat. XD

These comments will definitely be taken into account when I find the time to work. This is one of the many reasons I should get my own computer that can handle FL Studio.

Almost everything you complain about was on my end. I'll have to go back and work on that then.

You're taking too much blame for yourself. I did the quick transitions and applied all that reverb on the intro.

[Rozovian]

I will never understand how Rozovian manages to give heaps of good critique all over the board without breaking a sweat. XD

Thanks man. It's nice to know I'm appreciated. Some credit for this feedback goes to just64, he's the one that told me to critique the projects here. Yours was shorter, so I finished it before his. Anyway, I'm surprised the J's aren't on wip board, considering how important they repeatedly say it is.

Chick, please take the time to answer the questions in this post.

[Eino Keskitalo]

Long-due Ripples of Time feedback. For some strange reason YouTube isn't working for me right now, so no comment on source use/variation etc.

I like this a lot, especially the part with the rhythm/time signature change towards the end. Wonderful! It even has a modulation that really works. (I often hate those.) Like Roz, though, I feel that given how much, hmm, "epicness" this track seems to promise, it doesn't quite blow it through the roof. It either needs something that would really tear the sky above it into little shreds, or you could dial it into the other direction, make it an understated piece with less big sounds, less reverb and strings that sound like a smaller section. I'm thinking this arrangement could be really effective and emotive with more intimate instrumentation.

I don't like the bass during the first half, those continuous notes with the simple instrument don't server the piece as well as a bassline can. Later on it's not continuous notes anymore, which is much more effective and nice. I'm thinking the bass could be used to evoke water-like movement, like waves or the tide or even drops, a flow.. Could be really fitting, and I think you have a knack for telling a story with the music, so right now you're underutilizing the bass.

--Eino

[Gust Man]

Just wondering if this project is still going strong?

[Lemonectric]

I wouldn't say it's going strong, but it's still...alive. It's just in hibernation at the moment. I have no intentions of abandoning it. It's been hard to come across good remixing time lately.

Once I finish tweaking the current tracks (maybe before they're all done) I can work some more on the next tracks. Chickenwarlord and I have a skeleton of a House/Maku Road remix that needs to be fleshed out, and I'm about halfway through an Under the Sea/Zora Village remix. Those will most likely be the next releases, although I can't guarantee anything.

[Zombie]

Just came across this and it made my night. Oracle of Ages was among my favorite gameboy games as well. I can't wait until this is finished.

Keep it up mr. hylian lemon.

[friendlyHunter]

I'm not much of a remixer (my chance of getting on this site any time soon is.... rather small), but I loved Oracle of Ages and I just found out about this project (from your sig!)

I haven't found the time to make any music in a while now, but I may consider contributing one of these months, if you'd like.

Also, bump!

[Lemonectric]

Well, the project is open to contributions from anyone. Whenever you have a song choice in mind, send me a private message (and if I don't respond within a week, I probably didn't get it, so send it again). I'm glad multiple people are interested, because Ages definitely deserves some more love!

In other news, I finally got around to working with Ripples of Time.

[link removed]

-Bass is more broken up at the beginning

-Ending is [hopefully] more epic?

I might be able to crank out another track (or another update) over Christmas break. We'll see.

[SLyGeN]

Is BiPolar Bird still up for critique? I feel that the strings that come in around 0:28 should flow into the next note, rather than being staccato. The strings have a breif fade-in, then a breif fade-out, and then the next note does the same. It feels hard on my ears, and it kinda reminds me of compression issues (although I can tell it's not).

I love the section with the sitar.

I'm not personally fond of in-game samples. However, I do like the idea of using the enemy-death effect. It feels like percussion. The other ones feel out of place to me. The low-health warning was alright too. Perhaps you could edit it so that you can use it like accompaniment.. maybe a short riff could play behind the rest of the instruments.. crawl up the scale for whichever key you're in or something.

Upon hearing this, I can tell that this is going to be a great project. When it comes out, I will definitely ask you for lossless copies of my favorites.

I'm still looking forward to Ambi's Tower. If you don't feel like I'm stepping on your toes by critiquing without actually being a remixer, I'd be more than happy to provide my opinion on others.

[Lemonectric]

Yeah, at this point everything's open to critique. Don't feel like you need to be some kind of "official" remixer to comment; I'm happy to hear anyone's thoughts. So go ahead and post any other critique you have.

And thanks for the compliments. I can't guarantee Ambi's Tower will show up any time soon, but if I need something new to work on, I'll look into that (are you talking about Ambi's Palace or the Black Tower?).

[SLyGeN]

Pretty sure I'm talking about The Black Tower. It's the one that's under construction in the past.

I haven't played it in so long, I thought that was the only building related to Ambi. Don't worry about rushing to finish it; I don't mind waiting for you to work at your leisure.

This one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wq5mTW-46k

I'm glad we both love the Skull Dungeon theme. I'm sure that will turn out great.

[WindGuru]

AWESOME TO SEE THS STILL UP!

The new version of Ripples of Time has a sorta...forced ending though. The drum beats don't seem right somehow. Sorry XD.

Any chance of an epic Ralph/Nayru theme soon?

[Lemonectric]

All right, I can try it without the new drums.

As for Nayru and Ralph, I'll obviously be doing those at some point, but I'm afraid it won't be soon...sorry.

But I do have some good news...

There's a new track! Whooooo

[link removed] (Sea Bottom, Zora Village)

Basically I went for a sort of mysterious, sparkly, peaceful mood. The Zora Village sections are pretty similar to the source, but the Sea Bottom had to go through some bigger changes. You might recognize the first minute or so; I had posted an earlier WIP a long time ago.

Sources:

Sea Bottom/Beneath the Waves/whatever

Zora Village

[Lemonectric]

Ok then...I have an updated Ripples of Time. Better or worse?

[links removed] (differences start around 2:30)

[prophetik music]

if you need a sax player or vocalist, i'm game (if i like the track) once my preamp gets fixed.

[Lemonectric]

Thanks, I appreciate the offer. A sax would actually work pretty well in something I just started; I'll let you know when that's done so you can decide if you want to play for it. How do you typically do your sax collabs?

[prophetik music]

you do everything, i record and send you the rest.