F-Zero GX Lightning

[ShadowBlade]

Love this soundtrack.

I'm sure I'll wind up changing some tones etc. in the end. Right now this is mostly just a cover but I plan to add in some original parts. I'll also do some guitars for it. I kinda want to get both a retro snes vibe yet modern sound at the same time.

Basically, is this a solid start or shit?

Click here

[Rozovian]

Yay, GX. Not sure what you're going for here, but it sounds way too weak, as if you're trying to get the drive and energy without actually using driving, energetic sounds... which wouldn't be easy.

Not an easy track to remix, it's repetitive, doesn't have a lot of melodies or chords to work with. It helps to understand oscillator sync when you analyze the source.

Hard to say much more without spending half the time just guessing what you're trying to do with it.

[LordGavin]

I'm agreeing with Rozovian. I know the original song quite well, as it was one of my favorites in the GX game.

The instruments/sounds you've chosen for this song are quite weak, and for the most part can't emphasize strongly enough the song being remixed. The drums I find unappealing to listen to. You should try and blend them better to the song and/or give them more definition to help drive the song stronger. Beyond that, a lot of the sounds otherwise are... very odd to my ears, and I have a terrible time trying to explain why I do or don't like them.

The original song doesn't have much of a melody to work from, so yes it's a hard song to remix. All I can recommend is if you want to make a more energetic or driving song to really push for that, or if you want a calmer, more serine song to go for that instead. Your mix almost sounds like it's right in the middle, and perhaps that's why I'm having troubles really criticizing it.

Either way, I recommend really reconsidering what you're trying to accomplish and to reference some songs of the type of song/sound you'd like to aim for in this mix and go from there. Hope any of my words helps.

[ShadowBlade]

I'm agreeing with Rozovian. I know the original song quite well, as it was one of my favorites in the GX game.

The instruments/sounds you've chosen for this song are quite weak, and for the most part can't emphasize strongly enough the song being remixed. The drums I find unappealing to listen to. You should try and blend them better to the song and/or give them more definition to help drive the song stronger. Beyond that, a lot of the sounds otherwise are... very odd to my ears, and I have a terrible time trying to explain why I do or don't like them.

The original song doesn't have much of a melody to work from, so yes it's a hard song to remix. All I can recommend is if you want to make a more energetic or driving song to really push for that, or if you want a calmer, more serine song to go for that instead. Your mix almost sounds like it's right in the middle, and perhaps that's why I'm having troubles really criticizing it.

Either way, I recommend really reconsidering what you're trying to accomplish and to reference some songs of the type of song/sound you'd like to aim for in this mix and go from there. Hope any of my words helps.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Osc Sync carnival is one of my favorites from GX too, Infinite Blue probably tops it though IMO.

I want a more agressive rhythm section, yet want the melodies to have a more mellow feel. If that makes any sense. Like I say, I have some heavy guitar parts written which I think once I get those recorded will make a big difference. I'm also playin around with the synths trying to get more suitable tones.

I really wanna know how I can make these drums sound bigger and more "in your face" though.

[Rozovian]

Well, the bass is too loud, so fixing that should give you more room for the kick. The snare is weak, you could layer it with a snare with more snap for a harder sound. The hihat idunno about, you could probably get something out of messing with velocity and rhythm, but you could just as well get a more aggressive sound out of different samples.

Overall, you should clean it up, frequency-wise. When you add guitars and stuff to this, you'll just get a muddy mess, as if there's not already stuff bleeding into the other sounds' frequency range.

On a related note, this mix made me make a sync lead like the one used in the source. Should be useful.

[ShadowBlade]

Well, the bass is too loud, so fixing that should give you more room for the kick. The snare is weak, you could layer it with a snare with more snap for a harder sound. The hihat idunno about, you could probably get something out of messing with velocity and rhythm, but you could just as well get a more aggressive sound out of different samples.

Overall, you should clean it up, frequency-wise. When you add guitars and stuff to this, you'll just get a muddy mess, as if there's not already stuff bleeding into the other sounds' frequency range.

On a related note, this mix made me make a sync lead like the one used in the source. Should be useful.

New attempt

I tried to make that one synth more aggressive sounding. Screwed with the EQs more to try to get it right but I highly doubt I did. Layered two snares but I can't tell if it's any improvement.....kick is weak. Lowered volume of bass as well. Can't add in guitars anyway as mics not working. My understanding is to kill un-needed bass frequencies in the guitar. Which I do anyways.

Overall it's still an apocalyptically bad mix.

But I wanna hear yur lead you made.

[Rozovian]

Snare is too distant, add a snare with more snap and presence - cut if short if you have to, Kick could be a little softer so it's not too powerful. You want energy more than weight, right? You should probably edit the kick's rhythm for more drive. The second kick in the rhythm currently serves as a stop. Going for a different snare rhythm in part of the mix could also give it more drive. If double time isn't right for it, try some less regular rhythms that fit with the lead's rhythm. Currently, the drum writing isn't doing much to push the track forward. See what you can do about that.

Your synth playing the synthtalk/vox thingy's part is way too loud compared to the other parts.

The bass is gonna need some work. Have you tried some form of distortion on it? That, in combination with some drastic velocity edits, could get you a more driving sound. Don't think an amp sim is the right thing, but a standard distprtion effect should do it.

Are you making this for ocr? You're gonna have to start deviating from source at some point if you are.

Can't show you my lead until I get my server space back up and running.

[SonicThHedgog]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Osc Sync carnival is one of my favorites from GX too, Infinite Blue probably tops it though IMO.

I want a more agressive rhythm section, yet want the melodies to have a more mellow feel. If that makes any sense. Like I say, I have some heavy guitar parts written which I think once I get those recorded will make a big difference. I'm also playin around with the synths trying to get more suitable tones.

I really wanna know how I can make these drums sound bigger and more "in your face" though.

use a synth for the bass, boobass kinda sounds spooky. and i think instead of getting rid of the strings i think you had in wip 1, you should use higher quality samples for the string sections.

also why is you mic not working? guitar could fit well in this.

[ShadowBlade]

Snare is too distant, add a snare with more snap and presence - cut if short if you have to, Kick could be a little softer so it's not too powerful. You want energy more than weight, right? You should probably edit the kick's rhythm for more drive. The second kick in the rhythm currently serves as a stop. Going for a different snare rhythm in part of the mix could also give it more drive. If double time isn't right for it, try some less regular rhythms that fit with the lead's rhythm. Currently, the drum writing isn't doing much to push the track forward. See what you can do about that.

Make kick softer, fix rhythm, try to get better snare. Okay

Your synth playing the synthtalk/vox thingy's part is way too loud compared to the other parts.

That thing has been giving me issues with volume. I'll fix that.

The bass is gonna need some work. Have you tried some form of distortion on it? That, in combination with some drastic velocity edits, could get you a more driving sound. Don't think an amp sim is the right thing, but a standard distprtion effect should do it.

No but I can try some distortion and other effects plus velocity edits like you say and see what happens.

Are you making this for ocr? You're gonna have to start deviating from source at some point if you are.

Highly unlikely I have the skillz to get it good enough. I'll deviate from the source anyway though.

Can't show you my lead until I get my server space back up and running.

=(

Bottom Line. I'll try to resolve this shit.

[ShadowBlade]

use a synth for the bass, boobass kinda sounds spooky. and i think instead of getting rid of the strings i think you had in wip 1, you should use higher quality samples for the string sections.

also why is you mic not working? guitar could fit well in this.

I'm jamming along right now and guitar would be SICK in this. However, my stupid mic won't work with windows 7 for some reason. I've tried almost every solution google has put forth and no progress. I plan to buy a Shure and an interface asap though so I'll throw in some guitars when I get that.

Yeah to hell with boobass. As for strings, I'd KILL for EWQL's strings. I know a guy who has a keyboard with some good strings............but good luck getting that lol.

[ShadowBlade]

Attempt 3

Well I like the vibe I got goin'. Bass sounds better now IMO. Added in a pad effect at one part where I think I'll play a little guitar solo over. Changed up drums a bit. I'm gonna replace this one section with an original part.......later.

Sounding better or worse? Probably worse but hey, stranger things have happened.

[SonicThHedgog]

Attempt 3

Well I like the vibe I got goin'. Bass sounds better now IMO. Added in a pad effect at one part where I think I'll play a little guitar solo over. Changed up drums a bit. I'm gonna replace this one section with an original part.......later.

Sounding better or worse? Probably worse but hey, stranger things have happened.

the bass is weaker and sounds like it has no low end, and the kick still is weak.

[Rozovian]

While there's more variation in the drums, there's not really more energy. The hihat is trying to drive a far slower kick and snare, which just makes it sound too fast in a slow song. You need to put more drive, more forward momemtum in the other tracks. Figure out which parts have drive, and which ones don't, and change stuff. Find the rhythm that make it seem slow, and change them. Mute them and try to think up something better.

At 0:14 there's a noticeable change in energy levels. Why? The driving rhythm goes from the distorted lead to the kick-snare combo, which just doesn't drive enough. Another transition is at 0:44 when the kick-snare rhythm changes to something slower. At 0:59 the lead comes in again, and the track has forward momentum again, despite the even bass drum rhythm. At 1:28 you go into the breakdown part, but notice what happens at 1:36 when you start introducing stops in the bassline. Take a listen to your track, listen for the parts that make it fast or slow.

It still needs a lot of cleaning up. Cut excess lows from everything that don't need them, and give the kick and bass different space in the lows (basically, decide that frequency x is for one, boost that slightly in one and cut fromthe other - likewise with frequency y, and both should be in the 50-200Hz range). Do similar things to the rest of the instrumentation to push stuff into their respective places in the frequency range. Cut excess release tails and decrease the amount of reverb. The mix needs more clarity to be more upfront and energetic.

Also, the kick is not weak. The whole track ought to be louder, and the kick needs to be more balanced.

[ShadowBlade]

Newest One

After spending......damn I've lost track of how long on AIM with Sonic Th hedgog (w00t teamwork) this is the new result. In my opinion it's way better than the older ones.

[SonicThHedgog]

Newest One

After spending......damn I've lost track of how long on AIM with Sonic Th hedgog (w00t teamwork) this is the new result. In my opinion it's way better than the older ones.

hmm ii forgot to include the snare, ill send it to yah

[Rozovian]

Compression problems from kick and the vox replacemernt. While the rhythm currently has more drive than before, it now suffers a problem with being repetitive. The kick at 1:28 is louder than the others, keeping the overall volume down after normalization. The sounds are still spectrally wide and ought to be EQd to keep each of them in their respective place. The vox replacement isn't a great sound anyway.

Nah, still stuff to improve on.

[SonicThHedgog]

Compression problems from kick and the vox replacemernt. While the rhythm currently has more drive than before, it now suffers a problem with being repetitive. The kick at 1:28 is louder than the others, keeping the overall volume down after normalization. The sounds are still spectrally wide and ought to be EQd to keep each of them in their respective place. The vox replacement isn't a great sound anyway.

Nah, still stuff to improve on.

we know, we did not use a compressor to keep/even out the range for the kick. and i guess we will tighten things up on the left and right but that kinda of a prefrence and which vox sound, when i had the track i only helped with bassline and kick everything else not my call