LUFIA 2: WAVE MOTION [[Sinistral Battle Theme]]

[Theophany]

Alright, OCR brethren...

I've been working on this track for like 2 months (for those of you wondering "Doesn't this noob have an unfinished FF6 track?). I just today finished this track to the point where I'd call it listenable, BUT, it lacks EQ & compression, and I mixed it low.

So if you want to hear this as it's meant to be heard, I'm going to have to ask you to

JACK UP YOUR VOLUME.

SOURCE TRACK:

The second source track is a surprise

For most Lufia 2 fans, this is probably their favorite track ever, period. With that in mind, I have given this bitch my best shot. I hope Lufia fans will do me the honor of saying they enjoyed it. My ultimate goal was to give Lufia fans the chills while listening, but we'll see.

Also, if you're wondering what those weird metal sounds are, they are supposed to be the sound of the Dual Blade resonating.

So, my feedback questions:

1. Do you think this will make it passed the judges panel?

2. Anything stand out as pain/pleasure to your ears (nitpicking encouraged)?

3. I have never EQ'd a mix before, but I feel that with proper EQ and compression, the finished product will many times better, cuz right now it sounds kind of lo-fi and lacks punch, the drums especially. Is OCR willing to guide me on this?

OCTOSTRIKE//

Jason

[Gario]

Nice, sinistrals... and a bit of the ending, for good measure.

Alright, to answer your questions...

1. Not right now - volume's too low and the file size is too high (over 6mbs). Beside that...

2. The strings are muddy - you'll need to seperate their sound from the electronic stuff you've got going there. The same can be said of the brass you've got going there, as well. Now, the electronic bass in there is far, far too loud - in fact, it's clipping more often than not. Look into balancing that better.

3. Zircon goes into some depth about your questions here. It sounds like you could use EQ in the individual tracks as well as the master track, but if you'd like I could send you a compressed, EQ's master version of your song, just to see what the difference is . Essentially, it could help your track be louder (compression) and clearer (EQ), but be careful not to overdo either (overcompression will cut the sound out when you don't want it to, and over EQing it generally can cause clipping if your not careful).

Yeah, compression and EQing can help, so look into using those to help clean the track up.

[Theophany]

1. Yeah... I guess I meant after the EQ and compression

2. That has been a huge problem for me. My plan was to export all the tracks separately (strings, etc) and was hoping that could somehow bring the strings out more once all the individual tracks are EQ'd....

3. It is a fine line, and this will be my first time EQing, so your feedback is really appreciated. My project files for this are in 20,000 different places (because my comp is too lame to handle everything in a single project file), but I will probably begin exporting the individual tracks tonight and begin mixing them.

A Gario compressed/EQ'd master sounds awesome. You'll need the mp3 though, won't you? Or do you want me to upload the wav somewherez?

Also: I'm going to be using Audition for my EQ/compression, unless anyone has a better suggestion...

Thanks for the quick feedback!

[Gario]

I made do with the track you have with the whole mastering thing, so don't worry

Speaking of which, here's what I did - you'll notice the sinistral section is much clearer than before, but the second section sounds terribly hot. I wasn't going for perfection, so you know... don't kill me . EQing, if done right, can make the track really stand out (like the sinistral portion of my track, for the most part)... while when it's done wrong (like at the end of my EQ'd track), it'll sound like complete crap.

Of course, not every problem can be fixed with the EQ. You'll need to find a way to separate the sounds better before doing the mastering on this track - I think part of the solution should be done in the mixer, not the EQ or compressor. By the way, try to make the original track's volume as high as it can go without clipping before incorporating the compressor - it'll help give a nicer sound, in the end.

That electronic bass really does need to be taken down a few notches, though - it'll allow you to turn up the rest of the track considerably. Your live instrument sounds are quite nice - did I mention that before? Hope this helps, and good luck with this

[Theophany]

I made do with the track you have with the whole mastering thing, so don't worry

Speaking of which, here's what I did - you'll notice the sinistral section is much clearer than before, but the second section sounds terribly hot. I wasn't going for perfection, so you know... don't kill me . EQing, if done right, can make the track really stand out (like the sinistral portion of my track, for the most part)... while when it's done wrong (like at the end of my EQ'd track), it'll sound like complete crap.

Of course, not every problem can be fixed with the EQ. You'll need to find a way to separate the sounds better before doing the mastering on this track - I think part of the solution should be done in the mixer, not the EQ or compressor. By the way, try to make the original track's volume as high as it can go without clipping before incorporating the compressor - it'll help give a nicer sound, in the end.

That electronic bass really does need to be taken down a few notches, though - it'll allow you to turn up the rest of the track considerably. Your live instrument sounds are quite nice - did I mention that before? Hope this helps, and good luck with this

Wow, man, thanks for all your effort!

I'll turn the bass way down in the next version I post and try to make the sounds pop a bit more by separating them out, but yes--the strings are way more clear just from your EQ alone. I think that's probbaly the issue-- when I was mixing on my crappy headphones I couldn't hear the bass so I had to jack it way up.

I'll keep your advice in mind before using the compressor. It will be nice once all the tracks are exported individually, Audition has some nice compressing features imo and a multitrack thingy so I can lay the whole mix out and switch between the parts. Hopefully I'll have something up this weekend to repay the quick reply! At work right now, otherwise I would do it now... : /