WIP - MMX Chill Penguin and possibly more

[Spoool]

I found this sitting around on my computer from a few months back, it started as a piano arrangement of the melodies in the Chill Penguin stage theme. I decided to try and lay down a full orchestra but after a minute I realized I've already tired out the main themes, which made me believe that a full orchestra 4-part writing style would lend well to a 3 movement Megaman X suite. Just haven't been able to decide if there's any merit in what I have so far so I need some advice on whether to break it down entirely and start over without directly diving into the song's melodies, or keep what I have. Obviously a Cmi piece like this wouldn't be a very good opener to a classical suit and I already have some work for Storm Eagle in the pipeline, I just want some comments on what I have before I keep moving on.

http://www.tindeck.com/listen/nwvr

[Rozovian]

More MMX Chill Penguin. Hmm, have I heard this source before...?

Arrangement is really nice, great way of backing the source melody. I'm a bit concerned about how you're following the progression of the source. it can easily turn into a medley (ocr doesn't want as much the A-B-C-D kind of medleys as the Ac-Bcd-Ca-Db kind), and you're gonna have to make sense of it if you don't go the medley route. Iwould suggest cutting the source in half and sticking to the first part for a little longer before moving into the second. Actually, cutting it up in a lot more than two parts is probably better. You can make a lot out of just the 9 notes between the first and second parts of source, which you also had on piano in your intro; and there's lots of pieces in the source that can be used in different ways.

The sounds need work too, no matter what you're gonna do with the arrangement. The samples sound ok, just need to handle them right. Velocities, changes during sustains, reverb, EQ. For example, the piano+cymbal sounds lame tbh. The right note stuff and effects could make it much better.

Go for the gold, make this awesome, you've got a nice start already.

[GorillaMatic]

Very orchestral, and very nice. That's all i wanna say. Sorry for lack of crit

[Gario]

Hmm, this is a very popular source from MMX on the WIP forums here. What's on the Chill Penguin menu today? Orchestral, mmmm...

I hear a lot of popping. Clean up the production on this, pronto (turning down the compression until there is no more popping). The panning is irksome (too much hard panning, there) and the sound is pretty mechanical, overall (changing the velocity up would be a good idea to give it a more life-like sound).

Otherwise, not bad at all - it's slightly on the conservative side, but I don't think it's too much so. I like your instrument choice, and I feel where it needs to go (that instrument in the beginning of the source would be perfect right where you ended this).

By the way, what do you mean you've tired out the source? Listen to what people do here on the site - you'll find that they take sources and expand on them in a variety of ways, making it last as long as it needs to. Try to expand your source so it lasts longer without getting boring .

[Spoool]

Thanks for what you've said so far and sorry for digging up the millenium falcon of arrangements on my PC and dropping it here for you guys to deal with. This is a dry old junker that I was thinking about tossing out but I think with some work I can make something cool out of it. I just wanted to make sure you guys wont yawn when you see the source and walk away, haven't kept tabs on the buzz here in years. This mix is very dry, I haven't touched dynamics yet, let alone much EQ at all and some of the effects that I would like to drop in at a later point, i'm about to chop up the sorce melodies a little bit and work with them some, something I didn't have time to do when I constructed this during finals week.

The only real panning is oboe 100% one way and flute the other, which I should drop to about 75% I think. And Garo the clipping you hear was an EQ mistake I made on the bassy end of things regarding the piano and harp, as well as a few doublebass issues if I remember right, i'm not going to hit the production end too hard until I have a few more minutes to this piece.

Also, 3 movement MMX suite? yay or nay? Storm Eagle would be the opening section and I havn't picked a closer, probably not one of the maverick themes actually.