Nova's Music Thread (Metroid Mixes)

[Pyro Paper Planes]

Hello. I've been a lurker here for sometime. However, I've had a lot of encouragement to post something here, and show off some of my work. I've been meaning to for sometime, but have always been daunted by the quality of the mixes on this site. That's not my main problem though.

The thing is, while I love remixes, I don't strive to do that in my work. I prefer to recreate songs, to breath new life into them. My work, for the most part, rarely strives to be different from the originals, if at all. My songs are mostly "What if a song composed for the technology back then, was composed for today? And what would it sound like?"

Nonetheless, I've decided to go for it, and post (the work I'm proud of) here. For now, I'm going to stick to the Metroid songs, as I believe they are my best work.

I use Logic Studio to create these songs. If you would like me to post more information on how I created these mixes, feel free to ask.

The Prelude (Fusion Mix)

Galactic Warrior

Red Brinstar

Red Brinstar (Echoes Mix)

Maridia

Alinos

Nightmare

All of these mixes are not final, but are close to it. For the most part, all that needs to be done is some mastering, and maybe one or two minor changes here and there. Right now though, I have very limited knowledge about mastering a song. For now, I have simply increased the volume of the exported song by 80% (with the exception of Alinos, which uses a mastering template. This happened completely by accident, yet it improved it in every way, so I kept it in.) I know increasing the volume is not the way it should be done, but until I know how to master a song properly, I plan on keeping it simple, and easy to change for later.

I plan on going to a course for Logic Studio, which lasts 1-3 weeks. By the time I'm done, I should be able to repost these songs with the final touches added to them.

I could post the checklist here, but I'm not sure if it would be helpful. My goals are different to OCReMix. I plan on the songs appearing the game being made by my friend, Metroid: Net Mission. However, if you have any comments, I would like to hear them.

Any other songs I compose will be posted here. If you are interested in more of my songs, I have posted a few more on my youtube profile. However, I must warn you, that I feel they are not quite up to par as the mixes posted up above.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy my music.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

I hate to bump messages, but... not one single reply?

Maybe it's the title name... anyway. I'm not sure if bumps are allowed. If they aren't, sorry for the bump. I would just like a few opinions at least.

[SoulinEther]

I like the electronic sounding synthes/sounds etc you've put in lots of these pieces.

Galactic warrior makes use of a trumpet/brass instrument on the right that sounds a little exposed/fake.

Red Brinstar sounds cool. Piano works for me. The Echoes mix also sounds cool.

Maridia: in the intro, and throughout, that thing a woodwind or a synth? Moving from one note to the next makes it seem like there are more than one - something with attack and sustain?

Alinos is sounding pretty rich due to better mastering. The chorus could use some improvements to make it sound more natural, like messing with attack and sustain maybe. Sounds strong, though.

Nightmare sounds better, too. Tense.

I only know one of these... so .. I can't really say how well you've managed to reproduce the originals, lol.

And unfortunately my mastering isn't very good either (haven't had nearly as much to master as you have, lol). This means that I have very little to offer you, sadly. But I do like how many of these turned out, and would like to hear how they sound after you get some pointers from people here that are qualified to do so (unlike me) and/or take a class on the subject.

Net Mission sounds cool, too.

[Game_boy]

They're all very good; if you were to submit here you'd need more variation from the source but the quality is good.

For Red Brinstar / Echoes, the melody is too quiet compared to the background. I can barely hear the notes.

Do you plan to make any more Metroid remixes? Outside of Red Brinstar (for some reason), there is a lack of good ones. My suggestions would be Kraid's Lair / Ending from Metroid, Main Deck / Sector 1 from Fusion, Sanctuary / Temple Grounds from Prime 2 and Tallon Overworld / Phendrana Drifts from Prime.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

Thank you guys for your comments, I really, really appreciate it.

Galactic Warrior: Hmm, you are probably right. This was my first song on Logic, so there is probably a way to improve the sound that I missed. I'll see what I can do.

Red Brinstar: Yes, people have commented on the low attack, etc. One of my friends even said that I should never use Synths for a lead instrument... he probably meant to say Synth-Pad. I'll see if there is another instrument I can use to make the melody more distinct. I actually knew of this problem, and thought I could get away with it. I guess not, lol. The reason I kept the low attack (etc), is because of how satisfied I was with the sound of the instrument. I didn't want to lose that. However, now that more than one person has confirmed that the melody is too soft, I agree that I should perhaps change it up a little.

Maridia: It's a synth, themed after a woodwind. There's something wrong with the instrument I used. Again, I love the sound of it. But there's two significant problems, the first being unique to this instrument: It randomly plays a note REALLY loud, so I've had to use annotation to decrease the volume at the specific points of where it is loud. When you listen close to the song, it throws the pace off, etc. I have no idea why it does that, but it's very annoying. The other problem, is what you mentioned, something is off synch. I never noticed until I tried to use a mastering template. I have no idea why - The notes are all on time, etc. I have a feeling this could be my best piece, if I can fix it.

Alinos: Thank you. I fully agree with your point of authenticity. When you say the chorus, do you mean after the build up, or somewhere else? If you mean after the build up, I was experimenting with the lead choir and pitch effects. It didn't really turn out that well, now I look at it again.

Nightmare: Thank you.

I will make sure to repost them here when I have reproduced them. I should be taking a course sometime this summer.

I might work on remixing other songs, but I love what I'm doing right now. I'll see what I can do though.

Again, I truly appreciate these comments and criticisms. They really help.

[SoulinEther]

Alinos: Thank you. I fully agree with your point of authenticity. When you say the chorus, do you mean after the build up, or somewhere else? If you mean after the build up, I was experimenting with the lead choir and pitch effects. It didn't really turn out that well, now I look at it again.

I meant in the buildup - it's not horrible, but I think with some work you can get it to sound more natural and fluid. I think the pitch bending is interesting, though unrealistic.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

I've made a piece that would be more fitting for OCReMix, as this time, it's an actual remix!

It is a remix of the Main Theme of Metroid, specifically the Metroid Prime games. I have no idea what I'll actually call the name of the remix for now. I'm very satisfied with it. It's probably still too close to the original source, but I think you will appreciate this song. The YouTube version is slightly outdated, so here's an alternative link.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nmnom1lznj3

I hope you enjoy.