Zelda-Kakariko Village Jazz remix

[Gintokipianist]

Hey currently working on a jazz rendition of kakariko village, all from ear, wrote out a lead sheet for it though, finished the first 2 sections plan on making a solo section, just want some general opinions on the instrumentation. for instance im toying with playing the lead line on piano or having the chords on a rhodes kinda sound.maybe an acoustic bass? generally i find acoustic bass vsts to be hard to hear and abit useless and i certainly dont have one handy to play

got a final mix now!

[Rozovian]

Cool start, tho at this point pretty simplistic. I think the sounds themselves will be all right, just needs more elaborate and varied drum writing, like ghost notes and velocity edits. Wouldn't hurt to change up the instrumentation now and then, it's a way of keeping the track varied. Just don't use that as the only thing that changes.

Concerning the bass, you can EQ up the mids and highs to make the bass more audible. It's definitely got bass atm, but if you need to hear its mids and highs, EQ it. If it simply doesn't have mids and highs that you can boost, put an exciter or overdrive or something before the EQ. Just make sure to keep it subtle, its only purpose is to create mids and highs through distorting the bass, not to actually be a distortion effect or anything.

[evory]

The beginning bass notes indicating the chords sound a bit stale, especially with the repeating hi hats in the background (which get really repetitive over time actually), but the jazz chords coming in are really good and typically-jazzy. If the beginning solo bass notes were meant to provide atmosphere, I don't think it's really necessary, since the piano chords + bass together accessorise the vibe melody enough. K I'm not sure how much sense I'm making here D:

The vibes coming in really break through the mix and stand out, so that's quite good I think! Although I think it could play some chords at times rather than just single notes with the occasional grace note. If by bass you mean an acoustic bass in addition to what you have now, I think the bass in here is very audible already, so it seems fine as it is to me!

Looking forward to hearing more of this

[Gintokipianist]

thanks, yeah the vibes play some chords later, and the piano plays some shearing style voices, im also probably making a solo section, and yeah the bass at the beginning was boring for me too, i actually think it sounds better going Bb-E-C-F instead of the common Bb-G-C-F (1-6-2-5) but i thought people might be annoyed if i fly off the handle with the jazz, because since i mix alot of jazz, most my ideas are too jazzy lol, anyways yeah i agree the drums are crap, i just set up a little triplet groove to play to, since im actually crap at drums

[Capt. Stupidity]

Where's my espresso?? If you are able to jazz it up more, do!

Instrumentation is good. For further expansion I'd definitely suggest a bit of sax in there. See if you can get a live sax player to work with you on this mix. That would add a lot. The vibes and piano are excellent.

For the intro, try to vary the bass lines a bit before the piano comes in. I like the bass at the beginning, but it sounds a little too simple as it is.

I could hear the bass just fine, but I would still take Rozo's advice and try EQing the bass and see how that sounds. Good job so far. We need more jazz remixes!

[dannthr]

One of my favorite rules of thumb for bass lines is have the bass phrase end on the down-beat of the next measure.

Not something that always has to be adhered to, but damn it works well.

[Gintokipianist]

thanks for all your input, im starting to really like this site, and well although i work with alot of professional brass players, they are actually alot busier than me,and mostly 40+i dont think they would have much intrest for this either way ive started redoing the bass, done a third section and getting it primed for some solos. i also started messing with doing a jazz waltz style mix of "underwater theme" from mario. ill work on it during free time 2moro

[Gintokipianist]

Hi, thought id show my progress, Updated the drums (still need abit of variation but 10x better) change "fretless to double bass) changed the instumentation and implemented some jazzy feel changes. have been practising some different solos on it, but not recorded yet hope you all enjoy how its coming along, bass is abit muddy on this mix but not too bad, kinda works.

[ffian1]

Hey man,

This is pretty cool. I'd agree with you about the bass - it may not be prominent in the mix, but it adds quite a cool character to whole vibe.

Sounds far better than the last version too!

I know my opinion means little, but this is pretty cool man. Keep it up

edit: Why did I say cool that many times? That was a little silly...

[Gintokipianist]

ok ive done some more got whats basically a final mix, i mean i might change it abit later for now im happy with it, i didnt do a mad jazz solo cos i thought people might find that abit caustic haha, but i did a shearing style one, and a sorta lounge style improv playthrough of the piece solo piano, hope you enjoy.

[Capt. Stupidity]

Your latest version is 10x better. The drums may be a little too loud for my taste, but that's mostly personal opinion. Is the piano a live instrument, or is it a sample? It sounds like a sample to me and there are some parts where the humanization is slightly off. If you could get a real piano or a better sounding sample for the interlude you have there, the interlude might sound better. Right now, it sounds nice, but it's hard to listen to the piano for long because it doesn't sound really good.

Love the acoustic bass by the way

[Gintokipianist]

haha nah its not a sample lol, its a yamaha vst that came with my piano (its the same one as on the piano if that makes sence) its actually just me playing, though some sections i played it 1/2 speed its slightly quantised because i have some a pretty poor resolution on my midi timer so i use a magnet style quantise to pull stuff closer to the beat (or 16th or whatever) but generally shearing style voices just sound like that close voicing chords with chromatic run ins etc (guess it sounds alittle busi) anyways thanks for words

[M249-M4A1]

I like this! Just need a funky sax

[Capt. Stupidity]

haha nah its not a sample lol, its a yamaha vst that came with my piano (its the same one as on the piano if that makes sence) its actually just me playing, though some sections i played it 1/2 speed its slightly quantised because i have some a pretty poor resolution on my midi timer so i use a magnet style quantise to pull stuff closer to the beat (or 16th or whatever) but generally shearing style voices just sound like that close voicing chords with chromatic run ins etc (guess it sounds alittle busi) anyways thanks for words

Haha! Sorry, meant no offense. But, after listening to again, it sounds alright. However, there is one part where you really bang on the piano and I think the velocity is a little too hard. You might want to tone it down a bit.

Also, just to let you know I have the piano intro stuck in my head. It just keeps playing over and over. That's a good thing. I think you really created a good hook in your mix.

[Gintokipianist]

haha thanks for your feedback yeah i noticed the bit you mean, i do like 3x stabs in a row, and the velocity totally maxes out, to be honest i enjoyed doing the mix but since i dont really plan to submit it, might not bother to correct (most of the submitted music seems to be chillout kinda stuff, not that there is anything wrong with that, infact i love listening to it, its just im not so great on any of the more synthy stuff since i only really use cubase and "real" sounds, the downside being that i pay too much attention to my playing and not the overall sound)

p.s im just doing the finishing touches on a jazz/funk remix of the first lvl from mario64 again it sounds very "real" but got some smooth ass piano and brass section

[Capt. Stupidity]

I would say submit it. It has a good chance of passing, and if it doesn't pass I'm sure the judges would say to resubmit it

[Gintokipianist]

would you say submit it with the piano solo at the end or cut it? it might be abit too airy and unquantised for some tastes lol, but sure if you think so, i guess i will fix that note that was over hit and submit it

[Capt. Stupidity]

I think the solo at the end is great. Not everything has to be quantized. It gives the mix a much more realistic feel to it and from what I've heard that's a good thing. You don't want the mix to sound to MIDI-ish if you know what I mean.

[DarkSim]

Oh, I love this! Beautiful playing, especially the solo at the end. I'd say there needs to be a clearer transition between the 2 sections, as they both stand out individually. Again, I think you could afford a few more individual flourishes and stray a little further from the source, but it's a solid mix as it is.

Listening again, the dynamics of the jazz section could be improved, maybe having a breakdown to show off that bassline, before building back up and ending with a crescendo before cooling it back down with the long solo. Kinda like how Muse do in

, ending with a nice bit of... Chopin, is it? Lovely stuff.

[Gintokipianist]

yeah thats chopin lol, the most famous nocturne Eb and yeah i agree it could be improved and i like all the suggestions, but im working on other pieces and got alot of real work aswell so i might not come back to it for a while lol

[aur3lius]

Hey, this is a really nice piece. Like it alot. enough so that I wanna ask how do you feel about doing collaborations?

I've been stuck on jazz mode for a little more than a year now. ever since I found out what the hell a 7th chord was. Most crap remixes I try to do end up jazzy in some sort of way, but never finished. I''m wondering if you would be interested in working together on some of those.

I'd have to warn you I'm a big novice when it comes to jazz playing. But I figured working together with someone would help me out in that department to an extent.

[Gintokipianist]

i dont mind doing them, or answering questions about chords etc i mean its not like im jazz king but if your just learning sort of 7ths etc i can probably show you some different variations etc, got alot of work atm, but yeah im open to ideas and suggestions

[aur3lius]

cool, well I got a jazz remix that I've been tinkering with. It's a very slow piece (which I'm most likely gonna change. Not really liking the pace) and I feel it could do with some decent piano playing and not the garbage I've been hammering out.

Uh, I guess I should really post the source. It wouldn't really make since for you to work on this if you didn't enjoy the source to begin with. This is the song in question:

And now I realize I'm derailing this topic. So to get back on, I'm curious as to what key your remix is in? I figured Bb, but you mentioned earlier that you're playing an E as opposed to that G minor. So is that an E diminished?

[Gintokipianist]

thats quite a cool piece, never heard it before though, and yeah the e substitution in it is basically E half dim or Gm6/E And yeah its basically in Bflat though i reserve the right to play chords out of key when i feel like it lol for instance substituting the Cm7 for a C b9 b13 just for giggles, anyways for jazz chord voicings and voice leading is what gives you the sound, you should experiment building chords with multiple forths and sorta semitone crunches for instance i play the C minor in the piece as A-D-Eb-G giving you a semitone between the d and eb and basically the other notes are all forths, that voice could also be a diminished or f13 depending on the bass, but anyways now im waffling

[aur3lius]

ugh, Its that playing outta key stuff that gets to me, even though I like the sound. I don't know, just feels like I jack stuff up when I try going chromatic.

Your comment on playing that Cm confuses me a bit though. If you play it as A-D-Eb-G, do you still consider that a type of Cm chord? well, actually I guess you wouldn't. I guess that would be a substitution of some sort.

Ah and playing something like a C b9 b13 sounds like quite a work out on guitar. When you play it on keys, are you leaving out something like a 3rd or the 5th? Or are you throwing in all those suckers in there?