JasonP27 Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 This is my Dixieland style remix of the Bob-Omb Battlefield level (1st level in the castle) in Super Mario 64. It's aptly titled Dixieland Battlefield. Remix: Dixieland Battlefield (V1) here's "version 2" Dixieland Battlefield (V2) version 3 Dixieland Battlefield V3 - updated 09 June, 2009 version 4 Dixieland Battlefield V4 - updated 09 & 10 June, 2009 (new ending, different banjo, needle SFX) Source: Original on YouTube Feedback please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROTO·DOME Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Well, first let's point out the first blatantly obvious thing. The samples you're using are little better than MIDI which, really, is a no-go. The whole thing just felt MIDI standard, there was no expressive qualities to the instruments where they really were gagging for it later on (1:33 in particular). Basically, I vote getting better samples- or a better program altogether. However musically you're obviously good, there are chord sequences in there that were obviously not in the original, however they sounded better. (However I do think, at 0:13, you should put in an Eminor7, Ebmajor7, Dminor7, G7 sequence in. I wanted it badly.) The instrument writing got alot better as it went through and I found myself liking it- especially as it reached the third section where you diverged from the source and back into 1:33. The ending was also a bit weak, needed more. Basically, you need better samples, a better program to write them in and to definitely diverge from the source just that lil' bit more. You'll do fine, you can tell you understand music anyway ^__^ Hope that helped a lil'! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 2, 2009 Author Share Posted June 2, 2009 thank you for your honest feedback To go for the dixieland/big band jazz sound, I need to find antique sounding instruments. I'm having trouble finding a banjo with the kind of clink sound I need. Any suggestions for specific free VSTi or soundfonts would be quite helpful. The "band" of instruments is: Banjo Trombone Clarinet Piano (Honky-tonk is likely the best type for this but other suggestions are welcome) Trumpet Acoustic Bass Drums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROTO·DOME Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 First it would be better to ask: What program are you using? And no problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 2, 2009 Author Share Posted June 2, 2009 oh yeah that might help Fruity Loops 8, I also have Cakewalk Pro Audio that I'll use sometimes if I need to sequence something and can't seem to pull it off as well in FL... but that's very rare. I'd say my budget it almost non-existent too. I COMPLETELY agree it needs some more variety and less repetition. I was just laying in bed and couldn't fall asleep cause all I could hear in my head was dixieland music. I just opened the dixieland battlefield project up in FL for the first time since Apr '08! I can't believe it's been that long since I touched it... I am wondering... were there ANY instruments that sounded good or should I look for better sounding everything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gevenstaines Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 i really like what you've done. if you could find musicians to record the trax and avoid synths where possible, that would be great. waiting for the next version... -geven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 i really like what you've done. if you could find musicians to record the trax and avoid synths where possible, that would be great. waiting for the next version...-geven That would be ideal. I actually play the saxophone and my grandfather plays the banjo, mandolin, guitar etc. (he used to be in a real Dixieland jazz band). However, I have just more or less moved to Australia from Pennsylvania, USA. I don't know anyone here really (except my fiancee and some of her family). I have no money left to work with, and if I did I'd be saving it up for the wedding later this year, and for the honeymoon back home to the USA. So I can't be buying a saxophone. Never looked into renting one before but I don't have the equipment to record myself playing anyhow... oh and my grandfather is 80 now with bad arthritis so he can't play anymore too. Oh how I wish I could have a real dixieland band play it... and they would likely take a creative approach to it and make it sound more authentic in the style as well, with better and more improv and just a better Dixieland sound. I got up late last night and started to fool with some of the instruments in the project, changing or tweaking them, I changed a little bit of the parts so far, going to get into it more over the next week or so, but like I said I'm planning a wedding so not going to have a whole lot of time. Yeah, I'm waiting for the next version too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gevenstaines Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 congratulations on your wedding plans! so i assume you left your sax in the states, or sold it? there are lots of musicians here at ocr, perhaps you could request people to record specific trax. otherwise i'm confident it would work well with synths with enough instrument and midi detail. -geven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROTO·DOME Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 So I can't be buying a saxophone. Never looked into renting one before but I don't have the equipment to record myself playing anyhow... I play sax y'know. Alto and Sop. Just if you're interested; I liked the piece... >__> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 6, 2009 Author Share Posted June 6, 2009 Thanks but for now I'll keep things simple My PC only has 1GB RAM so any more complex instruments and it's gonna explode... need to upgrade here's "version 2" I guess Dixieland Battlefield (V2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nubioso Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 My PC only has 1GB RAM so any more complex instruments and it's gonna explode... need to upgrade Ahh, no way man, I used 1gb of RAM for the longest damn time and it did me good. I don't know how intensive FL8 is, I use Reason and ProTools myself, but I've had 15 or so instruments in reason going, each of them having some EQ, compression, reverb, delay...tons of devices within reason, plus if it's rewired into ProTools and my protools session would usually have a ton of plug-ins going too and it'd generally do aright. It wasn't until I get the super high quality piano refills for reason that I noticed my system choke and finally upgraded to 2gb of RAM just so the pianos would load faster and not bog down the system, but overall it should do you aright with 1gb. Anywho, about the remix....interesting idea for sure and no doubt without (like you've all been saying) either real instruments or just damn good samples would make all the difference, but yeah....I wouldn't even know where to get most of those that you'd want to look for. That's awesome though that you were able to conceive the whole dixieland style and really incorporate it into the song. Good job man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackPanther Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 I really like how you've done this especially since I've taken a class on jazz and know the format, you've done this well. While I would like to hear this with better samples, I know how hard it is to obtain em. But good stuff though man I hope to see this on the front page eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 8, 2009 Author Share Posted June 8, 2009 wow guys of course I love it myself... but I wrote it... it just makes me smile to see that others think it is at least musically sound you know about the 1GB RAM... were you running Vista or XP... cause I actually had alright performance on XP with only 416MB SDRAM, the only thing that's really better with this computer that has Vista is that the projects/samples load faster... however, I just noticed the other day that I had not had my computer's power/cpu settings at a perfomance level... so now it seems to be doing a little better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROTO·DOME Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 wow guys of course I love it myself... but I wrote it... it just makes me smile to see that others think it is at least musically sound you know about the 1GB RAM... were you running Vista or XP... cause I actually had alright performance on XP with only 416MB SDRAM, the only thing that's really better with this computer that has Vista is that the projects/samples load faster... however, I just noticed the other day that I had not had my computer's power/cpu settings at a perfomance level... so now it seems to be doing a little better Yeah, the update is better, and the samples do work nicer however they're still begging for more realism. If you got some actual recordings done, it would sound great. Still don't go much on the ending though. Could you do something a bit like this? Anyway, FL has an 2GB RAM roof. I find that VSTs generally lag out with low CPU, not really RAM. 1GB should be fine (2GB is better still though), I'm not sure I have many songs over that. And yeah, musically it sounds good! n__n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 8, 2009 Author Share Posted June 8, 2009 Yeah, the update is better, and the samples do work nicer however they're still begging for more realism. If you got some actual recordings done, it would sound great.Still don't go much on the ending though. Could you do something a bit like this? Anyway, FL has an 2GB RAM roof. I find that VSTs generally lag out with low CPU, not really RAM. 1GB should be fine (2GB is better still though), I'm not sure I have many songs over that. And yeah, musically it sounds good! n__n I just have so much other crap running in the background hogging up my valuable resources... I've been shutting them off and getting better performance. The processor I got is one of those Intel VIIV Pentium-D 2-core jobs. Much better than my old Athlon 800MHz CPU lol. Yeah, I had something similar in mind for the ending, it's from one of the Dixieland songs on my grandfather's old recordings if I can find it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nubioso Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 wow guys of course I love it myself... but I wrote it... it just makes me smile to see that others think it is at least musically sound you know about the 1GB RAM... were you running Vista or XP... cause I actually had alright performance on XP with only 416MB SDRAM, the only thing that's really better with this computer that has Vista is that the projects/samples load faster... however, I just noticed the other day that I had not had my computer's power/cpu settings at a perfomance level... so now it seems to be doing a little better Oh yeah, duh! I forget that some people actually decided to upgrade to Vista and not stick to XP like myself =P Definitely makes a huge difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 9, 2009 Author Share Posted June 9, 2009 Oh yeah, duh! I forget that some people actually decided to upgrade to Vista and not stick to XP like myself =PDefinitely makes a huge difference. I agree... this one came with Vista though... I changed/added a couple things on the advice of my brother, but not too sure about the tuba part around the 1:00 mark... Dixieland Battlefield V3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted June 9, 2009 Author Share Posted June 9, 2009 updated the first post with newest version 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReverend Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I'll give this one a go. I can really hear some major potential for this style (Dixieland, obviously) on the source. Again, as others have said, the samples are lackluster, and need some attention, for this I have two suggestions: Some you may be able to keep if you EQ them correctly using a parametric equalizer and perhaps adjust the ADSR envelopes (since you're using FL Studio). Second, you might be able to squeeze by with the "antique" sound you've got in the beginning if you muffle it a bit and add in a record scratch sound like on an old vinyl. Course, you can't do the whole song that way, but maybe if you wanted a cool little intro? The arrangement, however, is great. It's busy, but then again, Dixieland can be very busy. I really want to hear these instruments shine, and you don't necessarily need the best VSTs to do it. Pay a lot of attention to the effects you have on each instrument track. You can really beef up a bland sound with some solid EQ, doubling, reverb, stereo effects, delay, etc etc. It goes on and on. You have many effects at your disposal already included with FL which are just fine. Specifically, the percussion can use some attention for sure. The vibraslap sound you use, or gyro sound or whatever that sound desperately needs some help. Simple reverb can do wonders. As for the individual instruments, I think the trumpet sample is too flat, and you'll need to get a new one. The sax sound is fat, and you might be able to squeeze a decent sound out of it. The clarinet sound has potential too. The banjo will do well, I think, with reverb and EQ. The acoustic bass sound is good too. Slap a little reverb on that honky tonk piano and accent the higher frequencies and that definitely will have some impact. Okay, so after reading that last paragraph it's kinda clear as mud. If you like that advice at all I'd be glad to try to elaborate on it or expound on it in a more meaningful way. So, in closing and in short, my advice to you is this: I hear a good arrangement, but the sound is holding it back. Find new samples or dig in and see what you can do by processing the ones you have. You might be surprised what you come up with. Hope this helps. Rev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Revoredo Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 wow the file was sorta HUGE. The tune was cool. Good work. I like the arrangement, and the idea is pretty cool. However, there's one thing which keeps this away from being an OCRemix : The samples and the production. The brasses are kinda OK (although ,you should work with dynamics and vibratos), but the drums, bass, ukelele-sorta-thing and piano sound like midis (good midis.. but still, midis). From what i read, you use Fruity Loops (or FL studio), and your computer has 1 Gb Ram. Well, I work with the same program, and the same Ram. if it helps, there are many plugins which might help you : EWQL Stormdrum and EWQL Hardcore Bass are plugins i use a lot for bass and drums, they work nicely and smooth under FL Studio. Plus, Garritan Personal Orchestra has a really cool piano. You should check them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonP27 Posted August 9, 2009 Author Share Posted August 9, 2009 thanks for the feedback guys... I'm always happy to see what others think... that's why I posted it... it's a constant learning process for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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