Turok 2 , Port of Adia Reverted.

[b0rka]

Pretty basic so far, just started this project yesterday. old school tribute to a great ost ^^

http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/store/turok%202%20port%20of%20adia%20reverted.mp3

[hewhoisiam]

Source is always a good idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBdvzDeKnsg

The first thing that jumps out at me is the beats at 0:58 all end up the same volume where they did jump around in the first part of the introduction. The volume changes and accents makes them just different enough to stay interesting, but those last few hits lose that feeling.

At 1:08, you have a very harsh sounding synth playing the rigid 8th notes from the beginning, with a very pretty pad sustained sound. This is clashing to me, and needs some of the harshness toned down, which has a sort of double bonus when you bring the harsh sound back in and it seems new and fresh.

I get bored with the thing around the 2:30 mark, it needs more variation to keep my interest at least till the part at 3:30 comes in and the change up happens. Too repedative, maybe with some dynamics work and some variation in the breaks and transitions you can pull this together. But right now it's too long. The track is suffering from having too many 'same-ie' breaks and transitions, but you can address that when you fix it up later on and have a better idea of direction, more variation will really help this. (same-ie breaks is kinda a weak critisism, but worth addressing)

There is one sustained synth at 3:52 that is just out there on its own and it's killing me! You want something like that to be much more subtler, imho. I wrote a bit about some synth choices in one of these comments, consider a different synth alltogher for this and some of the work in this are. Too many graty/rough sounds.

A word on drums, very mechanical. If you're wanting this to be a snare heavy type of song, you want to consider that velocities will change a lot to make it realistic, also you may want to add 2 or 3 snares total for effects like flams and rolls. Picture that a drummer will lead with their strongest hand, which won't make as much difference (if the drummer is good anyway) until you get into your faster notes and rudiments. A snare roll isn't really just fast notes, I'm not sure how to sequence it. But on a drum, an open roll is double bounced 16th notes usually. The stick bounce makes the first note louder than the second of a bounce, so Rr Ll Rr Ll so to speak. A closed roll is the buzz sound you hear. Broken down a very clean buzz is between 4 and 7 ish hits per hand depending on the tempo, still at 16th note speed. It's so fast you can't hear the individual hits, that's why all you get is a buzz sound. To program a buzzed roll true to the way it would be hit on a drum would be insane, you're buzz would be something like 32 steps per beat, all with dynamics, and I imagine that'd make any program have a heart attack. You'll just have to look into it if that's really the sound you want. Here's the example of it.

Overall, I feel like the mix is missing some very low end BOOM BOOM bass things. I think that's a real strength in the original that I don't see here. Consider adding a low bass part playing some chords or somefing. I'm also feeling that some of the synth choices you use as leads (especally later on) might not be the best. Again I feel like that pretty pad sound sound clashes with that gritty sounds in places. Not all of your leads need to have that dirty subtractive sound. Just one or two will get the mood and sound across. You've got so much that it's muddying things up for me.

The development is pretty close to the original as far as tempo and events, you'll want to do something to mix it up in there and make it your own. The development is there where you add instruments and ideas, but just nothing really taking center stage. Breaks and transitions are short, sometimes repedative, and sticking close to the source. Don't be afrade to break out and play with the parts in this you really like. It's not a bad starting point, but it's too close to the source right now. If you're looking for ideas, try going into half time somewhere in the middle and really nailing down something with that 'pretty' pad. It'll give people a break from static things and get you a new place to build up from.

This could use some mastering work in EQ and panning, that'll help with the space issues and put some frequencies into that low bass range that I'm not hearing. (tho I think it should have another low part stacked with that subtractive bass sound imho) Give the snare some heavy reverb, that'll help with the mechanical sound. Dynamics too, this might not all be in the mastering, but in the actual writing. This is mostly one volume at the moment. The piece can really use some volume automation at the beginning and the breaks to make the parts really come to life.

Hope this helps, I'll be watching this thread.

-H

[Rozovian]

Despite hewo's useful source link, I'm just gonna comment on the music, not the interpretation and arrangement.

The best repetition isn't straight repetition, it's when something repeats and something else changes. The entire track could be just one long build-up, kind'a like what this remix seems like. Yeah, you do some cool stuff at the end where you just keep the snare rhythm and pads, and add some melodies. This gets boring long before then, you need something that can hold the listeners' attention, or a good groove to keep them listening.

Needs to change more, and needs to be mixed more interestingly. Everything's kind'a open and exposed, and you haven't separated the sounds much, it seems. Most of the time you don't seem to have enough sounds to separate anyway, but they could still need their own frequency area.

Interesting, dunno how much is source evrbatim, but this sounds like it's got potential. Groove potential for sure.