Trans d'Aerith

[Dangerouge]

Hey! I'm Dangerouge, I'm working on my first remix and actually the first trance piece ever, and I'd like to hear some feedback. This may also become the first complete musical piece I've ever finished... Not that I haven't written loads of songs and made some demos and lots of recording, but never actually released anything for real. So, here it is, genre is, as I mentioned, trance of which I've become quite excited about this week, so I decided to make my first remix a trance piece. Like I said, it's my first remix and trance piece so be nice.

The latest version of the remix can be downloaded from http://niiden.com/transdaerith/v0.2.mp3

The previous version (0.1) is available from http://niiden.com/transdaerith/v0.1.mp3

Oh, and it's FFVII - Aeris' Theme if someone didn't realize that, you can probably find that on youtube if you haven't heard, in which case you should educate yourself anyway.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q85KIhPXrIQ

[Rozovian]

Hah, knew you were a finn when I saw your url.

Waay too much reverb on the piano. Piano just sounds weird, not distant. Takes a while before this gets trancey. It has the length, but not a proper buildup or the right sound for trance. Needs to be harder and bigger to be trance. Hihat sounds too vanillla, kick sounds too weak, synths sound too bassy, bass sounds too high... You should compare yours to some well-produced trance, see what they're doing different and figure out what you're doing wrong.

The synths sound ok, tho should be mixed better. The trance writing should work all right, but it could contain more source, a lot of time it just feels like a generic trance backing transposed to the right chord. Break around 3:20 is cool, but breaks the speed a little too much. Also, transition from the breakdown section needs work. Structurally, it seems aimless. I'd suggest keeping the patterns that work and redoing it based on how you wanna place those.

Has potential, but needs work. Do the work. For a first remix, this is pretty good. Make it better.

[Dangerouge]

Awesome! This is actually a forum where I can get great (in sense of constructivity) feedback! Thanks chap, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Hmm, yeah, I guess the "real" drum samples don't work that well in this piece, however the work so far is made in one day, so I haven't had the time to sit down and work on that so far... I kinda liked the hihat there though, but yeah I guess it's kinda too creamy , contributing to the vanilla-ish-ness of this whole remix, along with the reverb piano. Any tips on working on the drums (software, samples?), I've only been trying to achieve real drum sounds before so this is a foreign terriotory to me.

The mixing is a mess for now, there's no automation in the volume, and everything is pretty much overcompressed in a hurry. I'm going to do some extra bass layers because, yeah the bass is the most un-bassy (that's not a word! But I'll go with it...) instrument in the whole remix, and that's not right... It also needs some more humane touch in it, imo... Also going to add a 1/2-gated massive supersaw pad.

Huh, breaks the speed, I'm not sure what you mean with that?

Haha, yeah that kinda gave me away! xD

[Rozovian]

You could probably process the hihat to fit in better. Same wit the kick and the bass. Piano needs a better sample and probably different reverb/additional effects to give it that distant sound you seemed to go for. No suggestions for samples tho, kind'a trying to figure out drum samples myself.

[Dangerouge]

Hmm, now I made a kick that kicks ass and the overall sound is better, I double-layered the bass and added a halfgated supersaw pad... However hats and snare don't work at all, I think I just made 'em worse, I have no idea how a trance hat should be processed and as for the snare, I just downloaded a free sample and it sucks ass, sounds very industrial and thin, but maybe it can be worked into something usable. I should probably borrow my friend's Plugiator and sample some drum sounds in that to have something better to work with. I'll upload an update to the url as soon as I get the drums sounds working, for now it's still just the v. 0.1. out there.

P.S. Don't you just love Armin's Mirage? :D

EDIT: Oh, also made the piano clearer by removing the resonating 12db LPF I had forgotten there and, and also the reverb's mix to 60% dry instead of 100% wet... Sloppy of me, but done in a hurry, so what can you expect...

[Dangerouge]

Okay, uploaded a new version, check it out (link in the initial post)!

The drums are getting there, and added the halfgated saw pad, and piano is better, other aspects like mix and arrangment not fixed, mix is actually just worse. But this might undergo so much changes yet that I dare not waste time on mixing yet.

[Rozovian]

Less reverb, cleaner lows.

Drums need more energy, you can achieve that in a lot of different ways, but cleaning up the sound should be one of those. Screwing with volume envelopes and/or gates is probably something you'll want to do.

I hear way too much lows when I listen to this, you should only need the bass and the bass drum way down there, with snare, pads and comping having their low lows cut. Drawing some figures from my head, I think even the bass and bass drum can be cut at around 40Hz, snare, pads and comping at 200Hz or so, and most of the higher range stuff probably don't need stuff under 500Hz or even 1kHz. Note: this is straight from my head, don't remember exactly and I use my ears when I mix, not just the numbers.

Also, I tend to sometimes cut, sometimes just reduce. Depending on the EQs you have, you might want to use a low shelf kind of eq to reduce everything under 1kHz by 10dB (example for pads or something). You don't lose the sound, but you clean it up for other instruments who need that range more.

That should get you a bit further. Again, find a good mix and compare it. Listen for stuff like this.