Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess: Lake Hylia remix

[J.L.Condon]

Hey there everyone! This is my first serious attempt at a submittable remix. I have been doing original music for 6 - 8 months and am looking for constructive criticism/ comments.

This is a remix of the 'Lake Hylia' theme from the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.

So, without further ado, here is the remix titled 'Under the Lake'. Enjoy.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8934806/Shared%20Music/OCR%20submissions/Under%20the%20Lake.mp3

[Rozovian]

Raw synth design, stiff sequencing, not the most cohesive sound choices, ugly guitar, volume problems, an overall raw sound. Gets interesting half way through, tho still suffers some of the same problems. Intro, some bits in the middle, and outro - those weren't bad.

Those drums really don't fit with the other sounds, and their entrance is pretty abrupt. The track until then seemed like it was a slowly developing track with more promise. I'm a little disappointed by how good that was. Or more like how good it didn't keep being.

So, work on your sound design and mixing, do more good transitions and developments. You've got good ideas and I think you've got good ears too, just gotta learn how to use them.

Also, good choice of source. Come to think of it, there's elements of the source that sounds like a track from a game I've been wanting to mix but that isn't a valid source for ocr.

[Anorax]

What DAW do you use?

This... this is good. heavily synthed. Maybe you could less... punchy synths in the melody up until 1:18. Also, I personally feel like the power kit that opens at 1:18/1:20 shouldn't be there. maybe a bit less powerful kit. 808/909, maybe?

This is a guess, but I think you're using MixCraft, right?

1:42 - guitar needs some work. Don't be afraid to screw around with the MIDI controls a bit. (I am assuming you are using Mixcraft: when you are editing a VI sample, the little white bar below the piano roll is your MIDI control. this is usually defaulted to Velocity On.) Also, assuming you use MX5, try to plug the guitar through Shred Amp on the softest settings it will go.

This is me being very thorough. This is very unusual for me, btw

3:30 - piano is very strong. Don't change that.

4:17 - when the lower synths begin to fade away, try to fade out your melody synth or control a filter to cover it up in real-time.

5:04 - like the animation on the cello. However, you could add a bit of sound variation on it.

Very good overall. Will need work, but this is a very solid piece.

Needless to say, I couldn't come close if I wanted to

EDIT:

Come to think of it, there's elements of the source that sounds like a track from a game I've been wanting to mix but that isn't a valid source for ocr.

What? there's never an invalid choice for OCR!!! Just the mix itself. (except for any "source" that happens to be 90% unusable sounds and melodically-lacking rhythms, of course...)

(re)EDIT:

Biography

I got into music recently as part of a personal effort to create original scores for my short films. I am currently using Acoustica Mixcraft to create all of my original songs and remixes.

Thought so.

Nothing wrong with Mixcraft. It's notoriously simple, and yet it can be pretty intricate when you work at it.

[Rozovian]

What? there's never an invalid choice for OCR!!! Just the mix itself. (except for any "source" that happens to be 90% unusable sounds and melodically-lacking rhythms, of course...)

Loom, by LucasArts, adventure game, uses music from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, which wasn't originally written for the game... or so I assume, it was written in 1876.

[Anorax]

Loom, by LucasArts, adventure game, uses music from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, which wasn't originally written for the game... or so I assume, it was written in 1876.

Okay, you got me Technically,as long as the music was originally written specifially for the video game the source was from, there's no bad material for OCR.

Lucky us. We both use MixCraft. would you be interested in a collab on this? This would be very easy because there is no DAW barrier.

[J.L.Condon]

So, work on your sound design and mixing, do more good transitions and developments. You've got good ideas and I think you've got good ears too, just gotta learn how to use them.

Thanks for the comments, I will see what I can do with all this advice in the next version.

1:42 - guitar needs some work.

So should I go for a guitar which is more synth-like rather than one which tries to sound realistic and fails miserably? Or should I can the guitar all together and change the instrument to another synth?

Once again, thanks for the help with this.

[J.L.Condon]

Ok, here is version 2.0.

I have fixed some of the volume and mixing issues (not all of them) and the Drum Kit is now an 808/809 kit. I also retooled several of the synths so they are a bit smoother.

I will get to the remainder of the sound issues later (probably, Monday or Tuesday).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8934806/Shared%20Music/OCR%20submissions/Under%20the%20Lake%20V2.mp3

Edit:

I listened to this song through the good speakers in the house and heard a lot of sound mixing and volume problems, so I will work on that.

[Anorax]

I am at 0:47. If you are going to use a guitar, try to adjust the volume of each note seperately.

EDIT: the 808/909 kit works fine.

[J.L.Condon]

Here is the next version!

New in this version:

- added tempo changes

- some new instruments

- new solos

- some volume correction

Not changed:

- the volume on the guitars

Enjoy!

Under the Lake Version 3:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8934806/Shared%20Music/OCR%20submissions/V3.mp3

More feed back please?

[Tuned Logic]

Sounds very cool, but some improvements can be made.

1. The electric guitar-sounding lead is a bit harsh. You don't necessarily need to lower the volume, but edit out some of the frequencies around 1khz (estimate).

2. The song gets way to busy around 2:05. I had no idea what was going on there - focus each section of the song on a different part. If you want to keep all of the parts in there, pan some instruments to either side of the sound image, and make sure that each instrument has it's own frequency sweet spot. In a lot of the song, there is frequency overlap, and one sound crowds out everything else. Experiment with EQ. It is your friend.

3. Your drums sound so quantized that they are somewhat arrhythmic and don't really mesh with the rest of the song. Specifically, your arpeggiated synth clashes with the percussion rhythm, although I can't put my finger on why. Maybe try shifting the arp synth start point forward or backwards by a quarter of a beat or so.

Good luck with this one - it's very promising!

[Anorax]

2. The song gets way to busy around 2:05. I had no idea what was going on there - focus each section of the song on a different part. If you want to keep all of the parts in there, pan some instruments to either side of the sound image, and make sure that each instrument has it's own frequency sweet spot. In a lot of the song, there is frequency overlap, and one sound crowds out everything else. Experiment with EQ. It is your friend.

It's possible he was going for a... oh.

Yeah, I have to agree with Detuned on this...

What synths did you use, besides the ones packaged with Mixcraft?

[J.L.Condon]

1. The electric guitar-sounding lead is a bit harsh. You don't necessarily need to lower the volume, but edit out some of the frequencies around 1khz (estimate).

Thanks for this one, that will be useful.

2. The song gets way to busy around 2:05. I had no idea what was going on there - focus each section of the song on a different part. If you want to keep all of the parts in there, pan some instruments to either side of the sound image, and make sure that each instrument has it's own frequency sweet spot. In a lot of the song, there is frequency overlap, and one sound crowds out everything else. Experiment with EQ. It is your friend.

I'll see what I can do about that. I tend to like to layer instruments to the extreme, so I will try to give each it's personal space.

3. Your drums sound so quantized that they are somewhat arrhythmic and don't really mesh with the rest of the song. Specifically, your arpeggiated synth clashes with the percussion rhythm, although I can't put my finger on why. Maybe try shifting the arp synth start point forward or backwards by a quarter of a beat or so.

I definitely know what is going on with the drums. I added a special delay that causes the drums to echo at odd times... I wasn't sure about that.

What synths did you use, besides the ones packaged with Mixcraft?

For the Acoustic sounding guitar I used Synth 1, the lead apr I made myself, and the rest were all presets in Mixcraft which I tweaked slightly or added effects and reverb to.

Thanks for the comments and I will see if I can fix this up.

[J.L.Condon]

Update:

Currently, I am working on the last few changes and the EQ and volume (which is my most major task).

For now here is the latest version (V4):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8934806/Shared%20Music/OCR%20submissions/V4.mp3

Added in this version:

- More sound leveling

- I have regulated the velocity on the guitars and some of the other instruments to add a human playback quality to them.

- EQ work

In the next version (V5):

- Complete revamp of the EQ and volume

- More tweaks of the velocity and human playback features

Hopefully, if I do my job, next version will be the final version of this song. Until then, any more suggestions?

[Anorax]

For the Acoustic sounding guitar I used Synth 1, the lead apr I made myself, and the rest were all presets in Mixcraft which I tweaked slightly or added effects and reverb to.

Thanks for the comments and I will see if I can fix this up.

I am basically asking if you used any VSTs that are not packaged with Acoustica, such as Synth 1, Crystal, etc.

nice to know.

Edition V4 is sounding better. I have noticed how I have had a small... audio "disagreement" with the electric guitar. I am trying to remember if there is a wet/dry mix with Shred Amp. You might want to use the Voxengo Amp Simulator (Boolex for those who don't use Mixcraft) instead. I just... I don't know. The sliding noise that comes in as the guitar starts just... I don't know how to say this. It just doesn't work, I guess.

The mix is working quite well, however.

PM Can you send me a copy of the MX5 file? PM

[J.L.Condon]

The sliding noise that comes in as the guitar starts just... I don't know how to say this. It just doesn't work, I guess.

That is easy enough to fix because it is a Messiah guitar, I'm not using Shred or Voxeno amp's on it.

[Anorax]

Ah. Messiah.

I figured you had one of the Mixcraft GS guitars plugged into the amps, while you were using pitch wheel automation and mod wheel to make it sound a bit better.

[J.L.Condon]

Here is version 5.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8934806/Shared%20Music/OCR%20submissions/V5.mp3

New in this version (V5):

- Revamped the volume leveling and EQ

- The last few things I found are tweaked

- I have renamed the song "Ambient Exploration"

At this point I am looking for suggestions on the volume and EQ as well as anything which sounds horribly out of place. If there are no further things to add then I will submit the song to Mod-review.

If I think the project is finished I set the status to 'finished', right?

Edit: I have at least One More Version coming because I discovered several things about the EQ I didn't know prior, SO Version 6 will have one more EQ update then on to Mod-review.

[Spakku]

I have always hated this song. It was boring and the place it was in was boring and was entirely too big so you had to be stuck listening to this song drone on and on while looking for the handful of hidden stuff.

Your first minute is just the old song with an annoying synthesizer. However, gets further in, the cheese factor starts ramping up into something actually kinda respectable. I actually don't think you took it far enough yet to focus solely on mixing issues. Get some more use outta that over-modulated electric guitar. Give us the most absurdly cornball synthpop since The Neverending Story. Go fucking crazy with it until you've made the nineteen eighties your bitch.

Then you can focus on production value.

[Rozovian]

So, last time...

Raw synth design, stiff sequencing, not the most cohesive sound choices, ugly guitar, volume problems, an overall raw sound. Gets interesting half way through, tho still suffers some of the same problems. Intro, some bits in the middle, and outro - those weren't bad.

Those drums really don't fit with the other sounds, and their entrance is pretty abrupt. The track until then seemed like it was a slowly developing track with more promise. I'm a little disappointed by how good that was. Or more like how good it didn't keep being.

So, work on your sound design and mixing, do more good transitions and developments. You've got good ideas and I think you've got good ears too, just gotta learn how to use them.

Also, good choice of source. Come to think of it, there's elements of the source that sounds like a track from a game I've been wanting to mix but that isn't a valid source for ocr.

And now...

Improved synth design, nice use of panning (doesn't have to be hardpanned tho), mechanical melody entering at 0:42 (needs velocity/timing edits, or a less prominent attack timbre), second bass key might be clashing (it's weird, not sure if it's clashing, you should be able to find a more fitting key for it imo), blocky arrangement without much transitioning into or out of parts, terrible fake guitar sound, comping synth seems to be clashing at times - check what notes it plays...

...strings have a slow attack and the sound doesn't seem to mesh with the synths anyway, piano and guitar is way too loud, way too loud stuff in this second half of the track overall, nice slowdown, guitar needs to be more humanized. 4:48 is really nice (aside from the loud guitar).

Some observations. You seem to be having trouble finding not just the right sound but also the right idea for this track, this seems like a random experimentation with the source... which is good practice, just not very song-like. Find the ideas you wanna use, and arrange the whole thing around those.

It's an improvement over the previous version I heard, but you've still got stuff to learn.