Nocturne of Shadow

[From Pallet Town]

Hey guys first time remixer, thought i'd come here for some good advice to increase the chances of my mix getting posted.

Im doing a mix of Nocturne of Shadow from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

I wanted to make a lo-fi, gritty sounding recording like something from an old record or tape but im worried that even though the poor quality is 100 percent intentional and done for an artistic reason, OC would not allow it because it only accepts

production of "high quality"

I added some redead screams and moans into the song because i know that redeads scared the shit out of everybody

Im not sure weather or not il add more to the song, because there is only so much one can do with a 21 second source

Thanks for your help

Here is the source

Here is the file

[Spakku]

As long as it sounds like the recording itself is of something high quality they'll probably be cool with intentional distortion.

When they're playing the actual nocturne there should be more variation in styles than just instrument and key, maybe make changes to the melody or timing. Either that or use it less often.

[From Pallet Town]

Ah i see, but do you think the distortion is too much or is it just right? The instrument samples were all normal but then i made each one lofi to varying levels

[Spakku]

The piano sounds awesome but I think the rest of your samples just sound sloppy instead of aged.

I would recommend using good quality samples, then record that, then run the recording of everything together through some distortion. That'd make it more convincing, I think.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I wanted to make a lo-fi, gritty sounding recording like something from an old record or tape but im worried that even though the poor quality is 100 percent intentional and done for an artistic reason, OC would not allow it because it only accepts

production of "high quality"

For mastering purposes having it sound aged for a stylistic purpose doesn't mean it's not "high quality".

High quality in the submission terms, at least what I gather from posted remixes and reading around the forums, just means that it has to be mixed well so you can hear everything clearly and the sequencing needs to not be mechanic and scream "COMPUTER GENERATED".

If the whole mix is like that, you have to make the mix loud enough that it can stand on its own without needing clear pristine stuff to bring the mix up. Right now this mix is just really really quiet. Also, your sequencing sounds very stiff and the redead stuff is really just more annoying than it is adding to the music.

Also, quick note, distortion has nothing to do with sounding "aged". It has to do with EQ, compressors, clipping and the like. Distortion is just going to make it sound really aggressive unless it's so light that you can barely tell there is any. A friend of mine was contemplating running his album through an old tape reel or something like that and sending it back to his computer to get a vintage sound to it. The details are probably inaccurate in this example, but the point is to try and be creative with the mastering.

[From Pallet Town]

Thanks for all the mixing advice guys, I think il clean up the mix a bit, make it less muddy and sloppy.

Any other advice about the composition, arrangement or that kind of stuff?

[Ramen4ever]

I kinda like it. It would really benefit from being higher quality though. Right now it sounds pretty distant.

[Rozovian]

The sequencing is really stiff. With a minimal arrangement, you really leave the instruments exposed so it takes more work to make the instruments feel natural. The 0:25 and 1:25 parts are the worst.

There are some parts of the harmony that's just weird. Not just suitably unsettlingly weird, but more newby-mistake weird. Also, the first instrument might be clashing with the guitar, I honestly can't tell but it's as if the pluck is either out of tune or in the wrong key. Or both.

There's some serious volume issues in here, especially the 0:42 transition. I get that you want some dynamics in there, but when the lead doesn't reflect those dynamics at all it just seems like a mistake.

I'd go look for a better reverb. there's someting here that sounds like a plate reverb or something, probably because it's way too short to work. A hall setting on a decent reverb plugin should do fine, tho a good convolution reverb would be better. If you computer can handle it.

There is an amount of distortion involved in old equipment, so neblix isn't entirely right. However, very few distortion plugins are made to handle that kind of distortion, most of them focus on amp-related tech or basic signal mangling. Or waveshaping. An accurate old equipment distortion would be difficult to simulate, tho there's a number of filters and noise plugins that can get you some other artifacts of old equipment. iZotope had a freebie called Vinyl that did this, and the Luxonix LFX-1310 has a couple of old tech-related functions.

But as he already stated, an intentional old sound is one thing, a subpar production is another. Your mix is currently in the second category.

Your arrangement seems a bit stuck with repeating the source verbatim or using some original parts. Try rewriting the source into a groove or move its melody to different chords for some variation. You have some cool ideas here, work on the execution and see what else you can do with the source.