Castlevania Suite - orchestral arrangement

[thomas_kresge]

I arranged a number of songs from the older Castlevania games into this medley. The arrangement is somewhat old, but this version of it is new. I got myself the EWQLSO sounds and decided I wanted to throw this arrangement into them. Anyways, I'm looking for some constructive criticism of the arrangement. I have no intentions on ever submitting it, given that's it's not much of remix, per se, but it's my first major dealing with my new samples, and I'd just like to see what people think of it and what I can improve with it.

Here it is.

I appreciated all comments!

[SoulinEther]

it's not really a comment on your work but i'm realizing how chapel of dissonance from Harmony is a lot like the stage 1 theme from Rondo/Dracula X...

[Dhsu]

Er, why's this in WAV format?

That said, this is actually a very nice arrangement, which is exactly what "ReMix" means at this site. You may have to work on making the transitions more elaborate, since it's seen as a negative if you just string themes together. Alternatively you could cut some themes out and develop the rest more thoroughly.

Otherwise, I'd say this is pretty submittable. You'll have to render it to MP3 of course though (might have to use 160 or 128kbps to get it under 6MB).

Do you have any other stuff, BTW? I'd be interested in hearing it.

[Hemophiliac]

yeah i'm gonna have to second what dhsu said about working on transitions and elaboration...

also much of what you have here sounds rather fake in terms of sequencing, rather rigid performance. the whole thing could use humanization both for rhythm and velocities (velocities aren't as bad though). vary the velocities and try nudging the place where the notes start off the beat ever so slightly...so it's not so machine like.

percussion is kinda exposed a bit, very much in front of the orchestra. in an orchestra context, you'll usually find them in the back...try to see if you can push them back in the space you've created with the reverb.

contrabasson sample at 4:07 is very exposed solo...add something else there too.

there's a lot of good things you have going on here, the issue is the production(realism) and the transitions.

[thomas_kresge]

Thanks for the comments.

It's in WAV format because I forgot to convert it before uploading it and I was too lazy to reupload it.

Sequencing and mixing has always been sort of difficult for me. I actually put this together in Sibelius rather than an actual sequencing program, but I do plan on purchasing Sonar soon so that I can actually tinker with my musics' nuances and such.

Hemophiliac, what do you mean by "nudging the place where the notes start off the beat ever so slightly"? I'm a little confused at what you're advising me to do.

Dhsu, I do have some other stuff, but most of it is incredibly unorganized and kind of old. I just showed this because it's probably my highest quality stuff in terms of sampling, though I do have some other arrangements I could try to scavenge (I actually have a rock arrangement of Dr. Mario's Fever tune I plan on putting up on the forums for critiquing). Finally, I don't really want to submit this piece because I personally don't find it to fit my personal definition of a "remix," especially considering OCR's standards.

With that being said, thanks again for the comments.

[Hemophiliac]

what i'm saying is, humans almost never play EXACTLY on each beat perfectly...it will be slightly off. moving the note so that it starts slightly off helps it sound more human.

[thomas_kresge]

Alright. Thanks.

On a separate matter, what do you mean when you say something's to exposed, like the contrabassoon solo?

[Hemophiliac]

exposed in this context means:

if left alone or bare, it sounds not so good...in your song (the contrabassoon) it sounds unrealistic because it is left solo like that.