Pokémon Remix: Regi Trio Battle

[TGH]

This is one of four remixes I made with a trial version of Mixcraft 4.5. lol

I have been forced into making this a final product rather than a WIP because my trial version has expired and I can't edit it. Although if I ever buy it, i might pick it up again.

But this being said, I like the way this came out. . .I'm going to submit it eventually, but I just want some opinions on it so that I know more about where it stands in terms of whether or not it will be accepted. . .

http://www.4shared.com/account/file/198793370/a09934a6/Regi_Trio_Battle_Remix_FINAL.html

Please tell me what you think.

-TGH

[Zarmakuizz]

Well, my answer will be just a little too late ^^

I like your track, however there is not enough instruments. With only synthetic pianos your song really looks like the original song, you should add more instruments, then you will be able to give more "strength" to this music (a fighting music cannot be anything but powerful).

[Algamest]

Ahh yes i heard this one a couple of times, It's not easy source material, but i think you pulled it off quite well, I enjoyed listening to the song as much as i can without thinking of trying to get a Wailord and a Relicanth, then learning Dig, going the correct route in the fast currents and......well, you get the idea! Good work!

[The Damned]

I enjoyed listening to the song as much as i can without thinking of trying to get a Wailord and a Relicanth, then learning Dig, going the correct route in the fast currents and......well, you get the idea! Good work!

Jesus christ, man, spoilers?

It's a decent composition, but you really need to get better instruments. The low-end synthy stuff isn't going to cut it. This, as it is, is going to get an immediate "no" from every judge that gives it a listen.

If you can get some better sounding instruments, it would have a much better shot. Do keeping working on it, because there aren't enough Pokémixes out there, and this one at least has good composition and style going for it.

[TGH]

Thank you for the feedback, guys! And no, Zarma, not too late at all. . . I wasn't planning on submitting this, but I started tinkering with it again today and came up with this. This is version 2:

http://www.remixsite.org/remixes/184-v2-TheGuitahHeroe-REGIs_Gone_Mad

I didn't necessarily change any of the instruments, I just kinda adjusted them to make them sound better. And I plan on adjusting them further, too. And there's this noise at 1:11 that you can hear, I think created by a slight difference between the two leads; sorry about that X(

Anyway, once again, feedback would be appreciated.

-TGH

[TGH]

Here's Version 3:

http://www.remixsite.org/remixes/184-v3-TheGuitahHeroe-REGIs_Gone_Mad

Anyway, this time I did change some of the instruments, most notably the lead instrument. Please let me know what you think!

-TGH

[SLyGeN]

Right now the piece feels rather empty as far as the overall presence is concerned. I'd suggest these things:

-use more frequency bandwidth. Have a high instrument playing around in the C5 range. Have another instrument play around C3-4. Yet another around C2. And another down low. C0-1.

-make the driving beat less tinny, and change it up a bit; it got a little stale for me. Make the bass drum punch me in the chest. Incorporate other percussive instruments for more variety. Think of a basic rock kit. If you want to use electronic samples instead, great. Get a white-noisy percussion synth in there to act like a cymbal crash. Find a hard-attacking, low release, harsh synth for your snare. And I already told you what I wanted for that bass drum kick that'll blow out your eyes, hoah. droppin plates. And shit, it's an electronic instrument. Your potential for variety there is endless. Don't go more than 8 bars without changing up the percussion timbres.

-I saved the most important for last. COMPOSITION. Add some material of your own. Or make the original piece better! Or at least somehow make things different. People here don't know shit about music theory, so to be honest it's probably not as important to the judges as it is to me. You probably could get away with copying and pasting a motive and transposing it up by 7 semitones to add some musical color.

What'll really get 'em though is if you mess with the modality of the piece. It's also a cool way to add some variety and change the entire mood of the segment without too much work. Look into how the 7 church modes are related to each other.

Retrograding a motive is also a cool way to get some mileage out of your remix. It essentially doubles the length of the part your working on, and sounds way different, but the material then only needs a few minor tweaks, because the harmonic and melodic structure should have been strong to begin with. (I'm working on that Sprout Tower mix I posted way back still; Sprout Tower sounds absolutely beautiful if you play the notes backwards.) The regi themes have a rather simple melody, though, so I'm not sure if retrograding will work as well as it does with a more active melody.

HAPPY MIXING!

[TGH]

Thanks for the suggestions

The thing is with the bass drum, If I try to make it louder the mp3 buzzes at every kick. . .I know this has something to do with compression, but to be honest I really don't know anything about that. . . How could I change the compression in order to make it louder and yet keep it from buzzing as well?

Also, if you don't mind. . . what is retrograding? Just playing notes backwards?

And what are church modes, and modality?

Thanks again.

[SLyGeN]

To effectively employ church modes, you're gonna need to research them on your own to get the full picture. But after that, it's easy to tweak shit to conform to the mode you want. This'll all make sense if you do the research. Wikipedia is a fair place to start.

The basic concept is that a mode is simply a scale with defined spacing between each of the seven notes. Church modes refer to seven modes specifically:

Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Aeolian, and Locrian.

There are many more than that, and there is much more to modes than what I just described there. Begin with finding a sample of someone playing a scale in each of those seven modes, and that should intrigue you enough to further research the concept.

As far as your bass drums, I really don't know shit about compression. Frankly I just don't like it when electronic artists use a tinny sound like a bass drum, but alas many people do. That means at this point this is becoming a question of my personal opinion versus what's actually best for you.

I think what I said about filling out your frequency ranges is an objective suggestion, though, and is worth doing. Try this:

Copy your main melody,

paste the melody twice such that each one has its own range..low, middle, high. Listen to it. It'll sound .. better.

After you've done that, tweak the middle voice so that it isn't moving in parallel with the rest of them anymore. Make sure you use chord tones! don't just throw shit around. It should sound even better than before.

Now tweak the bottom voice, and do the exact same thing. Guess what? Now you have a 3-voice harmony, and your music actually has real chords.

Try adding a fourth voice.

Use the original piece as a guide.