Sonic - The Junkyard March (Scrap Brain Zone remix)

[Matt E. Waldman]

Updated(5/10/09)!

Hey all! I updated the piece. A good number of changes were made. Let me know what you think of this revision!

http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/?action=single&f=Sonic-JunkyardMarch.mp3

[Rozovian]

I assume this is supposed to sound like an orchestra. The biggest problem I hear with that is how dry the samples are and how a mixed dry/wet signal isn't really giving them a realistic hall sound. Then again, nothing short of wet-recorded samples and/or expensive high-quality reverbs is gonna fix it. Unless you can take the track to a concert hall and record it with speakers on stage.

I suggest you either get yourself more passable hall-sounding music tools (or collabbing with someone who's got the tools for it), or to change your approach to something easier to do.

Then again, the santoor and percussion are the biggest offenders here, fixing those might be enough to make it a passable fake orchestra.

Transition at 0:43 is kind'a hard too, you might want to rewrite that part a bit.

Hope this helps.

[Matt E. Waldman]

Hey Rozovian, thanks for the feedback!

Right now, most of the samples are just placeholders. When I start a piece, I try using instruments that don't eat a hole through my computer! Then I put in the cpu-intensive instruments. I should've asked for feedback on the arrangement itself.

I shall continue working on it today!

[Moseph]

Reminds me a bit of the Sim City 3000 soundtrack, which is a good thing.

The percussion is the sticking point for me. It sounds to me like an imitation of a rock band's kick drum and splash cymbal, and I think it's too repetitive and too in-your-face to fit well with the general sparseness of the arrangement. I'm not sure what effect you're shooting for with the percussion, but if the purpose is to beef up the sound, I think that expanding the instrumentation (brass, fuller strings) will get the feeling across better.

[Matt E. Waldman]

Thanks for the feedback, Moseph! I redid the percussion. Interesting how it sounds like Simcity 3000 to you! It never struck me that way.

Hey all, I updated the piece, so please check it out in the first post! Let me know what you guys think!

[SLyGeN]

It doesn't really feel like a march to me. I'd recommend not going over 120bpm if you're going to create a march. I personally like 100bpm if I'm going for that sort of sound. I want to be able to see the procession happening in front of me while I listen. Synesthetize me!

The eighth notes are fine to use, but make sure that you give the quarter-notes time to stand out. Each beat needs to be strong, and the first of the four needs to be even stronger.

Personally, I like things to be a bit louder too. The melody was often just a single instrument playing single notes, as was the accompaniment.

I keep getting into more of my personal preference rather than objective suggestions, but I'll say just one more thing. Listen to Scrap Brain. The first two bars create a motive. The next two are just transpositions of that same motive. See if you can notice in the 5th bar (third alteration to that motive), the first note really brings out the minor-mode in the music. Accent that shit too! Milk these opportunities as much as you can and send the chills down my back.

[Icebird]

Sounded pretty good. (I didn't hear your first version). One thing that stood out to me was that the ending was a little abrupt.

[Matt E. Waldman]

SLyGeN: Thanks for the feedback! It's funny, because I was doing this entirely by memory. I'll have to listen to the piece closely.

Icebird: Hey, thanks! Yeah, I still need to come up with a proper ending.