Pokémon 'Marching Song' (Considering remaking)

[NikolaosTheDark]

Do me a favor and please read every detail before stating your opinion.

Fair warning: The song has lots of development until it gets to the original melody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=450l7kVnjgg

This is one of my older and the better of my remixes. Although this song isn't of the best quality, I think that the composition still holds true. Now that I'm much more experienced in the fields of finalizing, knob-tweaking and compression, I've considered remaking this song to make it sound a HELL of a lot better and will see about giving it a shot on OCR. However, with the projects I'm doing right now, I don't know if I should delve into remaking this if the community disagrees with me.

So what do you guys think? Should I redo this song?

[jayc4life]

It'd be interesting to see this upgraded to OCR-quality, and any new Pokémon ReMixes would be welcomed by me. I suggest you get in touch with whoever's now in charge of the Pokémon ReMix Album project (The MissingNo Tracks) and get involved from there. With it being in limbo, it could use all the help it can get, and this would be of great help to the project, something to show that it's still worth pushing for completion.

[NikolaosTheDark]

Tell me what you mean by "OCR Quality" and I'll hop right to it.

[jayc4life]

I'm not sure myself, I'm no judge myself and everyone will have their different tastes, but in that state, the track doesn't really seem "complete" to me. I can't put my finger on what it is though, maybe someone with more knowledge of music creation'd know. I'm not the right person to ask really.

[Rozovian]

Let me give you a few pointers on how to improve the track.

Bass drum doesn't have punch, which you can get by a combination of EQ, compression, sidechaining, and a couple of other tricks. The bass drum you have sounds like it could turn out okay with a few tweaks. Give the bass drum track an EQ boost around 150Hz (about 5 dB), and you should be hearing the improvement. If it clips, you'll have to put a limiter after the EQ (or at the end of the channel's effects).

Separate tracks more with EQ. The saw you're using for bass is ok, tho it could get a slight EQ boost around 200-300Hz, and cut below 100Hz. The lead you use throughout could use a bit of an EQ boost in the 800-2000Hz range. The backing keys are okay, but could still use some low cuts, try cutting it under 400Hz with about 10dB. The clap is okay, but the shakers are either missing or way too soft for most of the track. They could also use some stereo presence, so try some delay effects on the hats (be subtle), cut them below 1kHz, and give them a bit of a volume boost, 2-4dB maybe.

While on the topic of stereo placement, give the lead some reverb or stereo delay to spread it more. It'll make it stand out more. Adding a pad with a lot of width is gonna spread the track further (which is a good thing), plus it'll add some harmonic support and emotion to the track. Just don't make it too loud, and make sure to make an EQ cut up to 300Hz.

I'm noticing you're using a lot of saws. This can give the track a very homogenous sound, to the point of being boring. Vary the sound more (tho not to the point of it losing cohesion). Changing chords and rhythms also work, tho you should be a bit conservative with the rhythmconsidering the genre. That's where my pad suggestion comes in again, it'd get you harmonic backing and change the sound significantly without making you have to alter too much of what's already there.

OCR is also very concerned with the interpretation of the source. Adapting it to another genre isn't enough, it requires a lot of creative writing to get the melodies and harmonies different enough. Repetition is a problem with this track, but not as great as the production problems.

On the whole, this track is repetitive. It's the same theme over and over, with some change in what other elements there are. In order to make it more interesting, it should ahve a dynamic curve. Dynamics, in this sense, doesn't just mean volume, but rather intensity, or emotional soundscape. The progression of this track is lacking, it's essentially the same thing over and over with a few variations. Listen to some random OCReMixes, listen to how they progress through the track. There are exceptions (I can only name one tho), but they've been close calls with the J's. Progression is important in all music.

Note that I'm not commenting on the source at all. I'm lazy.

I can't say for sure that the specifics of these suggestions are accurate, but it should get you started on improving the mixing. Honestly, I don't see this getting on OCR in quite a while, but the least you'll get from it is experience and skill.