Sonic Advance 3 - Gleaming Blizzard

[mikeblastdude]

This is a remix of Twinkle Snow from Sonic Advance 3 for the GBA, one of my favorite Sonic games in recent years.

Anyway, before anyone makes any comments, I want to stress that I'm still a beginner at this. This is the third remix that I've done, and I personally think that I'm at least improving from my first mix, which is a good thing. With that in mind, constructive criticism is definitely welcome.

I was inspired to do this after a recent snowstorm in my area. I wanted to give it kind of an "epic" feel to it while making it sound kind of techno at the same time. I changed the main melody up a bit, it came out sounding a bit strange, but I like how it turned out.

Download link here: http://www.taposse.com/gleaming_blizzard.mp3

Enjoy!

[about:blank]

First off, and most importantly IMO, I think something needs to be done with that bass drum. This mix seems to be built around a 4/4 beat, but the bass drum is often being drowned out by the rest of the arrangement. The drums in general are pretty static and repetitive, but I thought the sleigh bell sample was a pretty nice touch that certainly added to the mood of the mix.

The part at 0:41 where the other pads come in sounded really nice at first, but after a few seconds, some of the chords almost sounded kinda dissonant. Not that that dissonant chords are always a bad thing, but there are definitely some heavily dissonant moments in here that I think kinda distract from the nice, cheery, winter feel that was intended for the mix, at least I'm assuming that's what your intent was. That, and some of the samples sound kinda fake, namely the trumpets. The trumpets might not sound as bad if they were maybe playing the chord progression (layered on top of some other samples) as opposed to the lead parts, where they really stick out like a sore thumb.

Also, this is lacking a good bassline. The steady 4/4 beat you're using is practically begging for a good bassline to go along with it. Then again, some mixes sound great without a bassline. A good example of this is a Mega Man 8 mix on the site called 'frostydelight' by DjChako. Like this, it has a wintery theme, and the lack of a bassline makes it very cold and barren sounding, which may or may not be the type of sound you're going for. But IMO it's a good example of a mix that can kick ass even without a bassline. So, I guess the whole bassline thing is up to you.

I haven't heard the original before, but changing up the melody a bit is a good idea. You're on the right track, but like I said earlier, some of it doesn't quite seem to work and the dissonant parts kinda distract from the mood.

This needs a lot of work, but for only being your third mix ever, this really isn't bad, so keep it up, man!

[Rozovian]

Dude, put this in a playlist with a couple of ocremixes, see how it stacks up. You'll find that the drums here are terrible by comparison. Try to figure out what other remixers are doing about their drums. have a look at some drum presets, figure out why they sound the way they do.

I can list a few things you should use: other samples, compression, EQ, volume envelope. That should get you started. Oh and one more thing: volume. The bass drum far too quiet.

The chords you're using seem to be in a different key sometimes. Learn chord structures and what notes you can and can't use together.

Also, you have volume controls for a reason. You leads are ridiculously loud and run over pretty much everything else. The track you think are important, bring their volume down to nothing, then bring 'em up until you can hear them clearly. That volume is usually a lot lower than it was before.

I hope this will help. Since you admit you're beginner, you should have no problem taking our feedback and learning from it. Good luck.