djpretzel Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Hi, ReMixer name: Cloud Real name: Daniel Fielding Email address: _cloudstrife@yahoo.com Website: http://www.cloudsgallery.com/ Userid (number, not name) on our forums: 22982, I think Name of game(s) ReMixed: Chrono Trigger Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Secret of (the) Forest Comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc: Made in Reason 2.5. I was originally intending this to be generally more ambient, and the whole midway transition to kinda-cheesy-dance-music happened almost completely by accident -- I wasn't expecting "scale tempo x2" to sound quite that good... The rest of the song was slightly inspired by the kind of sound in Voice Rhythm (Command & Conquer tune by Frank Klepacki), although there's not really a great similarity. I'll be a very happy bunny the day I can make something that sounds like that. I didn't intend for it to end up being so long. If I were more decisive, I'd chop some of it out... but I kinda like it all, as it stands, so I'm loathe to ditch any one part in particular. Most of my tunes struggle to break 3 minutes anyway, so this is quite an unusual (and welcome) problem for me to be having... The main reason for making this thing was that I've made quite a few remixes lately, yet none of them have been game soundtrack remixes, so the only thing I have on OCRemix is still my old, not-particularly-great Seiken Densetsu 3 tune. The original tune was neat, anyway... always did like that bassline, for some reason, and it was just short enough to force me to come up with plenty of new stuff rather than falling into the old "just change the instruments a bit" trap. Considering a Crusader: No Remorse remix next... assuming I don't have to spend any more time tweaking this one. Cheers -Cloud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 One thing I'd like to comment on first: try encoding with VBR next time. This IS a long song, but with the latest LAME and the right VBR setup, you should be able to conserve space without sacrificing a lot of sound quality. Anyway, this is a pretty liberal arrangement. I didn't recognize it at all until 1:14, and even then, it's not that recognizable (sounds more 'inspired by' the source). In fact, it's only at 2:17 that you can start to be sure its an arrangement and not an original piece. I do like some of the individual ideas used - such as the panning synths, the atmospheric pads, and the ethnic percussion. However, production is a big issue here. It might be just the poor encoding, but everything sounds VERY lo-fi. Nearly half of the frequency spectrum is completely inactive on my Winamp equalizer for the first half of the song! I can hear some cool sounds being used, but they're too muffled to be enjoyable. Please try to remedy this somehow. While you're at it, you might want to decrease the volume of that FM bass-ish synth, because as it is, its very muddy. About halfway through, when the percussion picks up with the guitar-ish synth, things get a lot better. There is more of a 'flow' or groove, and the original sections and variations make a lot more sense. Though, the big booming drum hits near the end sort of take away from the ambiance, and the very dry, mechanical piano doesn't help either. Check the remixing forum and see if you can't pick up some better piano samples (and string samples too, actually). Overall, I have mixed feelings on this one. The first half is lackluster and without focus, bearing little resemblance to the source tune, and introducing no interesting ideas. Also, the mixing in the first half isn't so hot either. However, the second half is a vast improvement, with a more engaging and exciting arrangement. With some polish on the production end of things (better encoding, tweaked volume levels, a few sample upgrades) and a revised arrangement for the first half of the mix, I would YES this. Until then- NO, but please resubmit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Secret of the Forest" (ct-1-11.spc) The arrangement is fine to me. It starts off original, but the changeup at :30 in the mix is perfectly fine rearrangement of 1:42 from the source tune. Cloud plays with that motif for a while, with interpretive rearrangement of the opening part of the original starting at 1:14 of the mix. Then coming in at 2:01, you get the more straightforward coverage. No problems on the arrangement front, personally. Very interpretive and creative. Need to sharpen up the sounds so you can appreciate the individual elements here. Everything's definitely too lo-fi here. I felt the samples were serviceable given the arrangement, so I don't mind them being kept the same. Everything sounds way better when you (finally) bring some high-end into the picture at 3:36 to fill out the sound field. Otherwise, like zirc pointed out, you've only got the lower half of the frequency spectrum. At least fill out the other half of the mid-range. The droning bassline hit some very rough spots at 2:44-2:48 & 2:59-3:03. For some reason, brigning it in again later on wasn't as glaring. Maybe one can get used to it, but it obviously works better when other sounds are in play as well and obscure it. Personally don't care for Chrono Trigger stuff most of the time, but this was alright, objectively speaking. Felt like the section from 3:36 to around 5:10 dragged on. Only a minute a half section there, but I felt like the constant development that was going on came to a halt. The ending, as it just hung there at 6:05, was kind of anti-climactic, but not bad. I'd keep the flow that occured from 6:01-6:04 and run with that a little bit longer, but it's a nitpick. Hope you weigh in whatever criticism you got here and come on back, Dan. I'd like to see this make it as your sophomore mix. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 Needs highs. Hiiiiiiighs. Man, so muffly. Master this puppy. Everything else is great; nice development, nice interpretation; some parts felt a little too long, but it wasn't horrible. I like this, but it really needs mastering. Resubmit ASAP! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 I like the arrangement here. The mixer did a unique job as far as I'm concerned. I don't quite feel as strongly as the other judges about high frequencies. This is how a lot of good ambient pieces are supposed to sound. The execution isn't quite there though. I do think some eq boosts in the 5k-10k and 15k regions sparingly would help here, as would some cuts in the lower/mid regions, perhaps in the 300-500 hz region would help balance things out a bit more. But still, I feel it's a minor gripe. When trying to determine mastering problems, the solution is not always to look for boosts, but often to roll off. In this case I would roll off and go back to the mixing stage and add some slight boosting as well. Then a global minimal boost in the master bus in suggested frequency ranges (these are only guesses, you'll have to find the ranges that suits your taste/this mix in greater detail on your own). I would not use Winamps eq spectrum analyzer at all for anything, it's worthless in my view. A lot of classical music would show almost no activity in the winamp spectrum analyzer, certainly not much activity in the higher regions. What I really think this mix needs is more instrumentation to create a lusher environment. For a mix of this nature there needs to be some density in the sounds. Component synthesis with clever midi controller programming would help change the character of the piece more. I think the key here is evolution of the background parts of the mix. Creative fx processing would be welcome as well. Tricky, but it's a borderline NO. Please resubmit, I'd love to pass this. If you decide to resubmit, PM me about this and I'll post it back to the panel without delay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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