ExperimentalSoundLab Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Source: My take: http://tindeck.com/listen/twgi Hello Everyone, I'm new here. Last Sunday I found out about this place and started obsessively listening to all of the remixes I could find. During the time I spent looking around, I realized that one of my favorite games, Disgaea 2, had received no love and no requests. I must have been in a problem-solving kind of mood, because after some research as to the expectations for a remix, I immediately started cranking this track out. The reason I chose this particular piece to remix is because anyone who has played Disgaea 2 as long as I have knows that to get to level 9999 (yes, it's possible and AMAZINGLY rewarding), it takes a lot of time in the Item World. I basically know the tune by heart from all of the hours I've poured into it, and it's a fairly good track to remix, so why not? I called the track "No Fear" because the item world seems very simple and easy at first--you breeze right through it--but when you get to level 100 and you're staring a level 2 Item God in the face, it's pretty darn scary. I'm already very proud of it. However, I'm also very critical of it, so I'm just going to mention some of the things that I don't like. What I know how to fix: -It's too short. The ending is lame anyway,so I'm planning to add another part, possibly spiraling out a little more from the source material to make some scary soundscapes, a la Devlab by Devin Townsend. It's called No Fear, after all. One idea I had was to use some material from other tracks from Disgaea for the ending. -The guitar work is sloppy and the doubled octave part is out of tune. I'm not the most competent guitar player, but I'm slowly getting better. Most likely I'm going to redo the guitar parts for that middle section altogether. -The drum beat at the beginning of the "metal section" is lame. I was thinking I would try out a different type of beat, maybe on the toms instead of the more straight ahead rock beat with the hi-hat that I have now. Any suggestions for alternative rhythm section endeavors I could try would be appreciated. -The arpeggiated bass sounds ugly. I'm currently tweaking it every chance I get to see if I can make it sound any better. That's more that I'm struggling to gain a mastery over Massive than a serious issue, I think. What I need help with: -The big thing that comes to mind is production on the drums. I know that my acoustic drum set sounds amazing when you're in the room with it. I just can't seem to get the eq levels right. The bass drum in particular sounds too "thumpy" to me, and I wish I knew how to give it more punch without overpowering the mix. Also, the snare sounds just a little bit dull compared to how colorful and powerful it sounds in real life. Once again, all of the eqing I tried just resulted in clipping or overpowering the mix. I really could use some advice in this area. -Any other production suggestions would be nice as well. I'm new to a lot of the concepts involved in production. I did some EQ and panning work on the rest of the tracks, but I have done no compression and I think it sounds fine. Who knows? I might be wrong. That's all I can think of at the moment. Enjoy! EDIT: Latest version: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Monkay Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 An awesome song from an awesome game . This game doesnt get enough coverage but this remix is pretty great. Im not really a critic and i hardly know anything about music but all i can say is keep things fresh and interesting and always change it up. MY only comment would be to either lower the drums or boost the volume of the main melody because is kinda hidden behind all the drums and stuff but hey thats just me. This song is really great now and cant wait to see.....hear how it is finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExperimentalSoundLab Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Thank you! I tried turning the drums down and bringing out the melody synths a little more, and I think it sounds a little better. I'm going to hold off on posting an updated version until I've made more major changes like rerecording the acoustic drums, which I'm too tired to do right now. School work 'n stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExperimentalSoundLab Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Apologies to anyone who was interested in hearing an updated version. My computer died on me and left me without Cubase or internet for about a week. I would have liked to do more before posting another version, but here's my latest one: http://tindeck.com/listen/ksxz Changes: -Extended intro -The melody is a touch louder in the begining -Got rid of the crappy part of the drum track -Redid the guitar parts -Changed the bass synth in the metal portion -Began segue into the scary ending The scary part is going to draw heavily from this track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05-Hn6v8Zc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Monkay Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Yea!!! I am really liking how the song is progressing and i know the weird ending "wooshing" sound is just there to end it for now. Still a really great mix still (in my opinion of course:<) and adding the scary ending will extend the amount of time the song is as well. Keep changing things up and keep on working on this mix. Even though other people might not notice this pretty nice track i will like to see this mix finished and (hopefully) accepted into OCR. Off topic but what program do u use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExperimentalSoundLab Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 Yay! Comments! Thank you so much for your encouraging words, although judging by the viewcount on this thread, it isn't that it's being overlooked, it just isn't getting a whole lot of comments. In answer to your question, I use Cubase LE 4. It came free with my mixer, which is an Alesis 8 USB. My synths primarily come from Komplete 6 by Native Instruments and my own programming handiwork on my Korg microKorg. Not the most expensive setup, but it's what I'm familiar with, and I hope this track proves that I can make it sound nice. Somewhat. Once it's finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExperimentalSoundLab Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 Alrighty! Just uploaded my first completed version! (and I figured out how to link to it with the fancy picture ) What do you guys think? I'm not sure the scary part has enough of the source track for it to be recognizable. I was also pretty hasty in terms of slapping a compressor on and fiddling with eq. For reference, here's the source track the scary part uses again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05-Hn6v8Zc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Monkay Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 What else can i say? It juz keeps gettin better and better . What makes it really cool (in my opinion) is its disgaea music!!! Love how the drums change and the "breakdown" in the middle. As for the scary section, it gives off a scary vibe (as it should) but MY only thing is that it is kinda hidden behind all the effects. And possibly make the transition from the main melody into scary part a bit smoother and flow. Overall pretty awesome but the ending could be tweaked a lil and the transition between both parts more smooth (but hey thats juz me, a nobody, saying my opinion). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExperimentalSoundLab Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 Alright, thank you dj monkay for all of your help and advice. I'm changing it to mod review and posting a new version with some more work on the production and re-recorded drums. After the mod review, I'm going to make any last changes and submit it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Okay, I'm going to be honest with you here. Your arrangement is really cool. I wouldn't suggest changing too much about it. Your sound choices even are very cool, I'm sensing a lot of zyko-flair from that sinewave lead in the intro, which I like. Overall you've got a fantastic atmosphere and a lot of cool details going on. The drums are pretty well written, I love the stutters. But your mixing is very problematic. There's a lot of elements in here that are just waaaay too forward in the mix, and they get piercing at times, particularly your guitar and synth leads. This is most noticeable when you've got high notes with a very long duration, where the sound starts to grate. I'd say your EQing in the lower frequencies is pretty good, but the highs need a lot of balancing so they can gel with the rest of the song. I also hear some very significant balancing issues with those guitar licks in the intro of your mix. Try panning those so the two recordings aren't occupying exactly the same space in the sound field. Right now it just makes that section sound messy, but I think it's salvageable. My last major criticism is the whole section with the white noise buildup and the subsequent dropoff. My personal opinion (others' mileage may vary on this issue) is that it runs a bit too long and a little too loud; there's some cool synth work buried beneath the noise but it's barely audible. When the dropoff actually occurs, I'd recommend a more full cutoff of the noise, so the effect of the kick coming back in is more intense. Right now, it sounds like you only cut off about half of the noise and leave the rest in, which doesn't carry much dramatic impact for me. Like I said, others may have differing thoughts here, so I'd suggest waiting for a second opinion from another workshop mod. Ultimately, this arrangement is REALLY cool and your soundscape is fantastically crafted, but the mixing is holding this back. With some EQ work and a lot of attention paid to balancing, this could easily pass the OCR panel on arrangement merits, I think Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Monkay Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Finally some real critiques from a pro. i dont know too much about music so it was a good idea to go with the review. Still a killer song and hope everything goes well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExperimentalSoundLab Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Alright, I took much of the feedback into consideration and did my best to fix things. I found that a combination of eqing, moving things around in the mix, and some different sound choices did a lot to help the issue of too much being too forward (I hope; please tell me if there are still issues). I also did a lot of messing with the sound to try to get rid of the "grating" sound you talked about in the synth lead and guitar. It really hasn't bothered me, but that might be my headphones or the fact that I haven't been away from this mix long enough to notice. Once again, please let me know if it still bothers you. I haven't been doing production for long enough to hear it for myself yet. I decided to leave the "wall of sound" section the same because I really do like it the way it is, and I would like to hear another mod's thoughts on it before I start making drastic changes. I did change it so that the sound is completely cut off at the end, but I'm leaving it untouched beyond that. EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. Thank you Emunator for your encouragement! I am relatively new to this, and it really helps to know that I'm on the right track in some respects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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