FFVIII - "Breezey"

[TheHands]

I wanted to try to make it more interesting.

Old WiP: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7798742

Current WiP: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7894961

I'm working on something else to go along with what's here, which works fine as a background for the feel I'm looking for. I am mostly looking for feedback about the sound, but any/all would be much appreciated. Here's the source:

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

Thanks much.

[Artemis]

I like it so far... it's a good, full background (although I'm really new to this, so I'm not sure if that counts for anything ). And I like the sort of whimsical feel, especially from the toy-like sound effects you use to punctuate it. Are you using Garageband?

[Rozovian]

Argh, loud and harsh and distorted and really upfront. As far as an island sound goes, it sounds like sand in my ears. Nice groove, but you have to dampen the sound a lot. Especially if this is gonna be the backing, it's way too foreground-y to be backing. Dunno what the problem is, it could be just velocities (bring them down... a lot) or volume (clipping), the samples themselves, or just the lack of reverb and other front-back placement techniques/effects.

Once you do get the sound right, you might want to humanize it, it sounds mechanical. The arrangement sounds like it's gonna be a great backing, very enjoyable.

[TheHands]

UPDATE: Newest version found here. Made the old thing less foreground-y, added a melody layer to retain more of the original and for atmospheric purposes, and have a melody of my own for the second half. I'm still working on an ending, and I'm not 100% on the mixing aspect of the background.

[Brandon Strader]

ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION

[x] Too conservative - sticks too close to the source

PRODUCTION

[x] Low-quality samples

[x] Unrealistic sequencing

[x] Generic/cliche sound choices

STRUCTURE

[x] Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough)

PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts)

Hi. I used to love the Breezy song whenever I would enter that town in FF8. It's a great choice of song to work with. I think the sounds you used are still too harsh. I could understand if you were trying to make a "heavier" version of the song, but I'm not sure that is what you were going for. Maybe the harshness is a result of trying to boost higher frequencies, I'm not sure..

The loud synth you've got on the left speaker sounds too much like MIDI. The reverb smoothens it out a little bit not enough. I'm not saying to add more reverb, I'm saying that the sound should either be lowered in volume considerably so it blends in better, or find something a bit more realistic sounding.

There are strange "percussion" sounds in here that sound straight out of a MIDI drum bank. It would probably help the song to find something more similar to their realistic counterparts. I think I can hear "Plucked!" going on in there too from FL Studio. The sound is too close to a default setting. Plucked is really identifiable, and you could probably replace that with a nice harp soundfont.

So the biggest suggestion here is to find better-sounding samples.

Like Rozovian said, you should try to humanize it a bit.

[TheHands]

Just realized I forgot to lower the synth after modifying it. I raised it so I could hear what I was entering and forgot to lower that, heh. I'll see what I can do about some of the other issues raised.