*NO* Chrono Trigger 'Eternity's Traverse'

[Palpable]

Names: AttolloDeus, Scynne

Real Names: Steve (AttolloDeus), Dave (Scynne)

User ID: 29690 (AttolloDeus), 29454 (Scynne)

Game name: Chrono Trigger (SNES)

Song name: "Time Circuits" (AKA" Corridor of Time")

Comments:

We made this song as a break into the OCRemix community. It is our first collab as musicians, as well as our first attempt at a video game remix.

Yeah...

~AttolloDeus / Steve~

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Corridors of Time" (ct-304.spc)

[OceansAndrew]

The "time travel" synth starts a little overpowering compared to the piano, but it fades out soon enough, but it just seems like a lot of elements overpower the piano in terms of volume when they should be supporting it.

Other items that overpower are the descending sweeping sitar-sounding chord, and the tambourine. The other elements fit in well volumewise, but there is one more issue:

The hard panning I can understand the use of, but when it's piano on one side, and what seems to be almost everything else on the other, it starts to feel really unbalanced. At the end is a lightly gated pad, which helps glue things together, but too often things aren't sitting right.

As for arrangement, this is pretty cool stuff, and even the basic beat behind it gives it some decent energy. I think centering the tambourine would help fill out some of the really high frequencies on both sides and would improve things, and then seeing what you can move to the center as well to try to meet the piano a bit.

This is pretty close, IMO and just needs some minor production tweaks.

no, please resub

[big giant circles]

Something as central to the mix as the piano really shouldn't be panned right. Wasn't a fan of the clap at 2:32, felt a little too dry and thin. Also, the volume seems pushed a little hot here, sounds like there's some audible clipping/overcompression going on quite a bit. Mostly on the piano, but I can hear it on the left side as well. The tambourine could use some velocity detail, instead of just coming in hard and staying there. Actually, you guys need to spend more time automating the volumes of pretty much all your instruments. Those knobs? Tweak them. Use them. By fading certain things in and especially out at the right times, you'll give your mix more dynamic contrast, and more emotional power. And even with an electronic mix, it will help it sound less rigid and mechanical. When things just come in and then drop out abruptly (like the tambourine at 4:14, or the strings at 4:41) it just sounds pretty amateur.

As for the arrangement, I'd suggest shortening your mix if you plan on resubmitting. I feel like the song can probably say what it needs to say in 4-5 minutes tops. And also, it wouldn't hurt to find a way to be a little more direct when referencing the melody of the original source tune. Try tweaking that, lower the master volume a bit before rendering, and learn to automate individual volumes and panning, and you'll have a much better second run. Thanks for the submission, keep at it!

NO

[Palpable]

Pretty cool arrangement, though it hangs on the piano a long time in the beginning. But you had some excellent riffing with the piano later on, great adaptation of the "Corridors of Time" melodies.

The mixing is definitely unusual, with the pad being the element taking up the most space or close to it. There's a lot of low frequency instruments competing, not that much high-frequency content. I'd recommend toning down the pad, bringing up the drums, and making the piano less muted. And finally, I'll also third centering that instrument, that was distracting.

I like the ideas here, some of the execution doesn't cut it yet. But having a solid arrangement is much easier to work with than a solid production with arrangement problems. Take our tips to heart, I don't think this is that far from a pass.

NO (resubmit)