Chrono Trigger - Ruined World (2300 AD Overworld rearrangement)

[VDZ]

It's been over a year since I last posted..I think I've improved quite a bit since my first, second and third posts...

Anyways, this is a rearrangement of the 2300 AD overworld theme from Chrono Trigger. The original song can be found by clicking this YouTube link.

EDIT: The rearrangement (v2) can now be found at http://tindeck.com/listen/ratm .

v1 of the rearrangement can be found at http://www.tindeck.com/listen/didg .

Can anybody give it a listen and make some comments about it (are my tracks any good yet? What can I do to improve the track? Why the hell am I making a rearrangement from a game that already has so many rearrangements?)?

[rig1015]

You gotta nice genesis chill with this track.

Crits:

Your wind sound FX has hard tailing, touch it with reverb to help decrease this.

Bring more in quicker, you totally lost my attention span after a min. If the track isn't moving after a minute you could loose the audience. I understand tribute to source and progressing and all that what not... but still, way too long.

Bring your drums up. They sound far thus to quiet in the mix... try turning them up a wee bit.

Give an update.

[Evil_Cronos]

I'm not sure if this song is ready for the judges or not, but I don't care. I've had this song on loop on my computer on and off for close to a week.

It's interesting that you chose to take a desolate and depressing theme and turn it into an ambient, mellow, and relaxing track. I find that the repetition of track works well with the ambient vibe.

You may want to try reworking the track if the judges are not happy with it but I'm really thankful that I found this song.

Great Job!

Cronos.

[Doni]

HI VDZ,

Hopefully this helps:

It's an interesting source. I would consider this to be one of the least memorable songs from the CT sound track. Actually I have trouble considering it a song rather than a soundscape or some background synth arrangements.

But, that doesn't mean it can't take on something more akin to a "song". First of all, your synths are sounding nice and warm. I can't complain about how they sound at all. I would be curious to know how 'wet' they are? Meaning, how many effects have you put on them; including compresors and such.

The overall arrangement is a bit longish. Maybe if I was high on PCP I would love this, but man, those days are long since past (just kidding...) I admit, it does grow on you a bit after a repeat listen, but only a repeat listen whilst engaged in doing something else; as I am engaged in writing this review for you. I won't say that you should change it, because it's obvious that this is what you are going for. Just something to consider.

The drums. Ok I see what you are going for here. I think you want to have a '"drone-like" feel to them. They are quiet in the mix, but I think it would be better to make them louder and add some reverb, and maybe some chrous or slight delay to 'disperse' their sound a bit. Also, the arrangement sounds like a keyboard preset a bit. I know you are going for repetitive, a kind of 'too tired to change' sort of feeling; I too have created this feeling in many of my tracks (not just game remixes). But there is a fine line between nailing this aesthetic and sounding a bit lame.

All things considered, I think it's almost there. I'm not sure if it's powerful enough to be sumitted, as it seems the judges favor certain sounds over others. But in all I would say its a nice effort and you should keep on making tracks of the chilled out variety!

[VDZ]

Sorry for the late response, I thought the thread practically died after the first response.

I'm not sure if this song is ready for the judges or not, but I don't care. I've had this song on loop on my computer on and off for close to a week.

It's interesting that you chose to take a desolate and depressing theme and turn it into an ambient, mellow, and relaxing track. I find that the repetition of track works well with the ambient vibe.

You may want to try reworking the track if the judges are not happy with it but I'm really thankful that I found this song.

Great Job!

Thanks. I'm glad you like the song...generally it takes me quite some effort to even get people to listen to my songs ^_^"

If you have the SPC or an MP3 of the original song, you might want to try listening to that on repeat as well (the SPC can even loop properly)...it really works well with the original track as well.

Crits:

Your wind sound FX has hard tailing, touch it with reverb to help decrease this.

Bring more in quicker, you totally lost my attention span after a min. If the track isn't moving after a minute you could loose the audience. I understand tribute to source and progressing and all that what not... but still, way too long.

Bring your drums up. They sound far thus to quiet in the mix... try turning them up a wee bit.

Give an update.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I'll try if I can improve the track that way.

I'll try to give an update...but for now, I'm kinda inspirationless. There are just times when all my attempts at making music fail, but that always passes after a while. I'll see if I can improve the track later.

First of all, your synths are sounding nice and warm. I can't complain about how they sound at all. I would be curious to know how 'wet' they are? Meaning, how many effects have you put on them; including compresors and such.

None. Currently, the entire song doesn't use a single effect. The synth (both are actually the exact same synth, one just plays much higher notes than the other) is just the default PAD-Default-Factory preset for the Dominator VST. (Funny story: I started making this song when I was just playing random stuff on that VST and found myself somehow playing the exact same chords the 2300 AD overworld music uses. It sounded so good it didn't even need any effects whatsoever.)

It is possible that the wind sample used some effects, though, but it's been too long since I made it to remember. (I originally made the sample for a different track, Sea Journey, back in April. I just recycled it since I needed a good wind sample and it worked pretty well.)

The drums. Ok I see what you are going for here. I think you want to have a '"drone-like" feel to them. They are quiet in the mix, but I think it would be better to make them louder and add some reverb, and maybe some chrous or slight delay to 'disperse' their sound a bit. Also, the arrangement sounds like a keyboard preset a bit. I know you are going for repetitive, a kind of 'too tired to change' sort of feeling; I too have created this feeling in many of my tracks (not just game remixes).

Not really. I just suck at making drum patterns...ever since I started making music, drum patterns have been my weak point. I'll see what I can do to improve the drums.

But in all I would say its a nice effort and you should keep on making tracks of the chilled out variety!

Hm...if you like tracks 'of the chilled out variety', maybe you'll like Clouds or Relax.

[VDZ]

Procrastination is an art. After almost a year I finally made some modifications. The new version can now be found at http://tindeck.com/listen/ratm .