Bowser's rude awakining (edited)

[bloodeyezack]

http://www.tindeck.com/users/bloodeyezack

this is my first attempt at making anything. its the first thing I have done. (I really procrastinate) there is a LOT of mistakes but yeah its my first try and I have only been working on for the passed few days. the audio is messed up in some places. its not close to being complete (I need to do a lot of editing).

well anyways pretty much its a remix of the "Road to Bowser" here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gTBuDK06Z4

I need to work on 1:00 up but so far I think I'm doing ok.

please give me you honest opinion. am I on the right track?

[Gario]

PAAARRRAAAAALLLLLEEEEEELLLL FIIIIFFF... no, I won't go there. I'll just say either take the polyphony out of the pad, or change the pad entirely. It'll clean the track a little and make the overall soundscape sound a little bit better.

The synth combination is a little bit odd, tbh. Strange isn't bad, if you can make it work, but this isn't a case where I think it works. Try getting a more consistent sound first (techno texture + pads work for that, although the pad itself isn't a good choice, like I mentioned before), then add some of the oddities in there (Mmm... chiptunes; tasty, tasty chiptunes) and see if you can get a better synthesis out of it, if you want to stick with what you got.

The soundscape is a little too full too often. Clear out the instruments periodically and give the ear some room to breath. It can be a nice sound to introduce everything at once, but taking things out keeps the flavor fresh for the full sections, so don't be afraid to take instruments out, periodically.

I think the source is there, sort of at the end there, but it's a little sparse, for me... I'd need to go back to the source (which you kindly provided, thank you ) and compare them to make sure, but I think it may be a touch on the liberal side, there, for OCR.

The production is a little on the loud side (which is causing a little clipping), but rather than complicated mixing just turning down the compressor a couple of decibels would fix all that right up and match it to the volume of other tracks on this site, so it's not a difficult fix.

The mix really hides the thematic elements and pushes them into the background heavily. Mix them into the front a little bit more - that might actually help people hear the source, there.

Not bad for a first post here. I think it could turn out quite nice, but for now it's not clicking for me, quite yet. Keep working on it, and don't be discouraged.

Oh yeah, Welcome to OCR .

[bloodeyezack]

thanks for the advice.

on my part I still trying to understand how everything works (sad thing is I haven't been reading the manual:-() so far I 'am just getting used to using FL studio and figuring out how to make what I imagine come out into the computer. its hard.

but yeah I know what you mean.

by the way I had to do the theme around the end by imagining the notes. I barely got the rhythm right.

I'll try and fix it up soon.

[bloodeyezack]

alright I made a couple of changes. I still have some work to do but I took out the vg tone and the other pad.

I think it sound better this way, but I feel like I'm missing something... I don't know what it is though.

I think its pretty good for my first song I have ever done. (haven't done anything before this) though it not finished.

[Anti-Syne]

Just listened to it and it's not bad at all considering it's the first thing you've done I don't know the original too well so I can't comment on the arrangement.

My main problems with it is that the drums get very repetitive very quickly, it'd be nice to hear some variation in them, why not add a few fills?

Secondly I'd like to hear some more lead sounds, I think it's got too many slow attack wishy washy pads in there so it seems to lack some sort of real driving force.

Keep at it though cos the foundations are there for this to be a decent mix,

[SLyGeN]

If you're using pads, you shouldn't have any compression on them. Ideally you don't want any compression on the overall piece, although some compression on percussion is recommended (do it right).

Tweak your levels and velocities such that there is no clipping anywhere, and if you find that your instruments are overlapping too much, lower the Release on your ADSR settings.

As far as parallelism, do it only if it's deliberate (i.e., don't do it to be lazy.) If you follow that rule, then there's nothing wrong with it; straying from parallelism is an archaic rule that should only be followed if you want a classical sound.

I usually don't add the fifth above the pad because all of the western scales have one diminished chord for which a perfect fifth does not exist.

As far as instrumentation, make sure you use the entire spectrum of sound.. highs, mids, and lows. You might even subdivide it further if you want more instruments. Also remember, pads are not leads (and the reverse is true, too.. some people make that mistake).

I realize that the original kinda uses a pad-like sound as the lead, but notice that it's got just a bit of edge, is written in a higher-mid register, and has enough attack such that it can be used as a lead. There's even dissonance near the end of the original that also adds to the edginess in a way, with the rubbing. Also notice that little touch of color that gets added with the tinny little lead that comes in every so often.

Once we can hear those instruments better, we can have a look at the composition. But until then, make sure you're adding your own touches of color here and there.. but more importantly this:

Every time you copy and paste a short loop to play again consecutively, you should feel a piece of your heart get viciously torn off. Don't do it. Tweak shit, transpose it, throw some passing tones, whatever. Just don't repeat the same thing over and over; it's a cheap tactic to get mileage out of your piece. There's no reason to do that when there are plenty of other cheap tactics to use that only a very, very well-trained ear would be able to pick out the first time through. (I'm talking inversion, retrograde, etc.)

Have fun. You've got a lot of work to do, but I look forward to hearing the next iteration. Make us happy.

[bloodeyezack]

thanks for the advice guys.

I still have a lot to learn but I won't be posting another edit for good few weeks. I'll do my best to learn more tactics while I'm at it.

[bloodeyezack]

Click here to listen to Bowser's rude awakening3.mp3

I'm just putting out a update version, ( I know there is a lot of problems still) I have changed somethings and used some Automation. I'm learning a lot from this project. thanks to everyone who gave me advice so far.