Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Crystal Tears remix

[HoboKa]

Decided to tackle a more obscure mix - a sad theme. It's rare that songs make me go Q.Q but this source tune did that to me lol. Hopefully my remix conveys at least some of the feeling here. Also, I'd like it if some1 would collab and sound upgrade me lol.

http://www.fileupyours.com/view/218181/HoboKa_SOTN_Portrait%20of%20Dorian%20Alucard_VerA1.mp3

source:

Soz wrong source tune title - it's actually Lost Painting =l lol

[Monobrow]

Yo Hoboka.

Overall impression with this song is that it needs a lot of automation for it to build correctly. Really think about your climaxes and build your padded (orchestral or otherwise) instruments with automations in volume and tone.

Your piano is too dry IMO... Also it needs some release and sustain IMO...

I think your piano writing is way too blocky too... Try to put notes in other parts of the beat other than 1-2-3-4... Use the ands and uhs *as* in the beat too.

Your whole song could afford to sound less blocky... Your drums are emphasiing beat 1 and 3 every time and kind of make the song seem really slow and boring... I might not even use the snare or bd in the way, and go with a more organic kit... Maybe some glitchy drums? Maybe some Toms? Your drum writing is very bare and needs help.

By about 1 minute in, your piano work needs a serious overhaul, it's just too boring, IMO I'd erase what I have there and try to think about a more free-flowing piano section, where you get some creative thoughts out. It's your solo instrument, so use it as a leader, don't let it be stifled by the four beat measure.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[HoboKa]

Alright, thanks for the crits - I definately need to work on my humanization - but for the drums, the original had a real simple drum beat that complimented it well - it could be that I'm using the wrong samples - or my rendition of the track just doesn't fit well with the same drum style. So I guess I'll just edit them out for now and add them later if I need.

It's pretty difficult to get a reaal good sounding keyboard melody going with just a mouse, would really like a keyboard lol. Not to mention that I'm pretty amateur in the orchestral department, er more so than my other genres anyhow. So I think I'll put this project on hold until I get better samples and perhaps a keyboard too lol.

[Gario]

Hmm... Yeah, the piano needs more humanization and such, but Mono seems to have that department covered, so I'll say no more .

What worries me about this is that it's incredibly similar to the source. I don't mind too much, normally (I mean, OCR isn't the end-all of remixes), but you use pretty much the same instruments and everything - the only difference seemed to be the drum beat beneath the music. The orchestra portion is a nice change, but it doesn't make up for the introduction. You'll need to at least change the quality of the instruments (if not change the instruments altogether) in order to make an impression on the listener before the guts of the music comes in.

Getting in touch with better orchestral samples would also be a boon for this

It is an interesting source (although from playing the game recently it bugged me that Konami would use it for half of the castle...). I wish you the best on this.

[HoboKa]

Thanks for the comments Gario

And sorry for not updating the track. I got pretty sick recently - that's what I get for being in poor shape and having a bad diet. Dunno when my inspirations will come back, but it won't be until I get better. Again, thx for crits guys. Peace.