Final Fantasy medley 'Crash'

[redshojin]

I'm working on a medley of final fantasy songs. It's my first time remixing a video game song, and first time remixing something without an official source for audio (like multi-tracks.)

So far, Great Warrior (FF 7) is represented, somewhere in there. Other wise it's original for the most part, but I plan to add more. If anyone has any suggestions, ideas, or would like to collaborate, by all means, tell me. I'd love to work with other people. I'm working in FL Studio 8, in case anyone's interested.

Working link: http://www.cagedrabbit.com/crash.mp3

Thanks man.

[FireSlash]

Working link: http://www.cagedrabbit.com/crash.mp3

[SplinterOfChaos]

Neat piece. Not bad.

The whole song has the...overdrive is it called?...way too high. It's cool for a minute or so, but it's like that the whole song.

It seems like a full song should be deeper than this. Maybe more dynamic.

Good luck.

[TheHands]

Cut most of the distortion. It works fine for crunchy chords, but for melody and noodling on a neck, it gets in the way and makes it unsexy.

I want to hear more layering, it sounds too much like a simple skeleton of what should be a decent song.

I hear clipping all over the place, mostly in the intro. Play with the EQ, panning, and velocities until it has volume without losing parts of the sound you want.

The huge amounts of distortion are making it hard to tell how many layers are there, I only hear the drums, a detuned guitar, and a more standard tuning guitar.

I want some more of the source, since Great Warrior was a great song to begin with.

From 1:39ish to the end is COMPLETELY bare, and needs more behind it. The fuzzy detuned guitar isn't strong enough to support the main melody in the way you want it to.

What I'd recommend is adding a bassist into the mix (or if that lower one is bass, then consider making it a guitar, and adding a bassist), and changing the octaves you're playing in. There's too much mud there, and not enough substence.

The drums don't feel lively enough, I'd consider playing with the velocities and panning to make them more real. The structure is interesting enough to keep the listener there while the drums are there, but there isn't enough life in them to make them happy while listening.

It's a start, and you picked a fun source song to work with. You've already taken the time to start figuring out FL (honestly, I'm not much farther ahead than you as far as skill with that program), start toying with other things. Play with other instruments and tones, try out effects on tracks, like chorus, reverb, compression, and especially the EQ options. So far you have a lot of potential in this piece, I'm looking forward to seeing how much of it you play through.

[redshojin]

Cut most of the distortion. It works fine for crunchy chords, but for melody and noodling on a neck, it gets in the way and makes it unsexy.

I see what you're saying. I agree really, and I would, if i find the time to rerecord the guitar.

I want to hear more layering, it sounds too much like a simple skeleton of what should be a decent song.

Thank you for the hope. I will add more. At the time of posting I had been working on the track for about an hour, and hadn't gotten around to any of the good stuff, just getting the base ideas down.

I hear clipping all over the place, mostly in the intro. Play with the EQ, panning, and velocities until it has volume without losing parts of the sound you want.

I was going to wait until the end, but I'll work on it now, rather than later. In any case, I'm already removing a second layered guitar i had under the first that I thought was cool, but in the end it just muddies it up and makes it clip.

The huge amounts of distortion are making it hard to tell how many layers are there, I only hear the drums, a detuned guitar, and a more standard tuning guitar.

That's all there is (except for a small synth part in the beginning. Oh, it's all standard tuning too.

I want some more of the source, since Great Warrior was a great song to begin with.

This song started out as an original, and about halfway into the thinking process I found it cool to do it as a remix. That's why the first minute and a half are "original." As far as adding more, I was planning to.

From 1:39ish to the end is COMPLETELY bare, and needs more behind it. The fuzzy detuned guitar isn't strong enough to support the main melody in the way you want it to.

What I'd recommend is adding a bassist into the mix (or if that lower one is bass, then consider making it a guitar, and adding a bassist), and changing the octaves you're playing in. There's too much mud there, and not enough substence.

I don't have a bass, and wouldn't know how to write a good bass line, or making it sound real enough. I can add a simple one, but no guarantee it'll be any good. If anyone out there would like to do some bass for me, I'm all for it.

The drums don't feel lively enough, I'd consider playing with the velocities and panning to make them more real. The structure is interesting enough to keep the listener there while the drums are there, but there isn't enough life in them to make them happy while listening.

Another thing I falter in. I'm absolutely ignorant at this point in all this drum-wise. I just use something simple for me to play against. I'll try what you suggested, but honestly It'd be better if I get some more in depth consultation on this, or perhaps if someone actually wrote/recorded/programmed it for me.

It's a start, and you picked a fun source song to work with. You've already taken the time to start figuring out FL (honestly, I'm not much farther ahead than you as far as skill with that program), start toying with other things. Play with other instruments and tones, try out effects on tracks, like chorus, reverb, compression, and especially the EQ options. So far you have a lot of potential in this piece, I'm looking forward to seeing how much of it you play through.

Well thank you man. Great feedback, and I'll definitely try to liven it up.

[Rozovian]

No source link, no source comment.

I like the sound this has, but the distorted.. guitar could use some timing fixes. Re-record, and cut together something out of the successful parts.

Bass is relatively simple to write, all you need is a rhythm and a basic melody that you transpose to whichever chord you're in.

As for volume, compression is how to do it. Compress the drums, let the guitar maintain good dynamics -that's where the guitar's punching strength comes from. EQ everything a bit, process everything a bit, but know that you'll have to do the fine tuning of the effects when the arrangement is done and everything's recorded.

Drum writing is relatively easy once you figure it out. Listen to some random music and how the drums are played. Sure, actual drum kits sound better than sampled ones, but when it comes to the drum playing/writing, you can try copying some cool rhythms from your favorite songs and see what works.

Keep in mind that if you're gonna submit this to ocr, you should have at least 50% of the finished piece derived from source, and interpreted (as in not a cover). I'm not familiar with the source so I can't say how well it's interpreted atm, just saying it needs to be.

Sounds like it's worth working on. Good luck with it.

[Spakku]

I can't identify any source tunes. I don't know if its the writing or the...whatever it is you did with those guitars.

The noise of the guitars is overpowering and I can't really hear what is is they're playing. You've gotta clean those up.