1492: Conquest of Paradise themesong

[redtails]

1492: Conquest of Paradise is a terrible film from 1992, celebrating 500 years of discovering of America by Christopher Columbus. Despite the very negative reviews and low viewer counts, I liked the film. It's most likely the musical score that attracted me into the story. The melodies featured in the film were composed by Vangelis, though terribly arranged with all sorts of electronic synthesizer keyboards. Being one of my favourite films, I tried to arrange the main theme in an authentic symphonic way with a hint of percussion, without using synthesizers. I'd love to hear commentary on the arrange.

Original:

Arrange: Sorry, no longer have this on my soundcloud, you can enjoy the original instead

General hints and tips are always welcome～！

[Dissidia]

Nice timing, I made a thread about this theme just the other day comparing chord progressions to vgm.

You have to many frequencies competing in the high mids/treble range (also at some parts they are a bit overbearing). I don't want to say the usual, but you need to take more turns and be more liberal. It's too close to the original. The A part repeating then the B part. It is difficult to remix songs you like, cause you don't want to change too much, at least that's how it is for me hehe.

Do you have a direction you want to go with the song? A special emotion? It can help greatly if you know what you want to convey. You don't have to agree with me but those are my tips

[redtails]

Nice timing, I made a thread about this theme just the other day comparing chord progressions to vgm.

You have to many frequencies competing in the high mids/treble range (also at some parts they are a bit overbearing). I don't want to say the usual, but you need to take more turns and be more liberal. It's too close to the original. The A part repeating then the B part. It is difficult to remix songs you like, cause you don't want to change too much, at least that's how it is for me hehe.

Do you have a direction you want to go with the song? A special emotion? It can help greatly if you know what you want to convey. You don't have to agree with me but those are my tips

Thank you kindly for the commentary and for listening to the arrange. Were you talking about this thread http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34536 ?

And it's true favourite songs will be stuck to closely, it's not just you. The original Conquest of Paradise had this "epic" feel to it, though it was an "ancient epic" feeling. I'm greatly amazed by all music from Two Steps From Hell and their entire concept of how trailer music has to sound like. Peony Cage arranged by Morrigan (

) embodies the entire concept of that modern style of arranging. What I thrive to arrange is intenseness. Your tips of heading a direction with a song was very helpful. Thank you again for the commentary～

[shadypickle]

I like this particular piece of music quite a lot and I share a different opinion about the sounds used in the original. I personally like the synthetic keyboards and what not used by Vangelis. That's your opinion though so I will respect it and not argue it.

The only reason I bring that up is because it pertains to your version. To me it seems like the only difference is the removal of the synthetic keyboard. This is pretty much a verbatim rendition. One notable difference though is the lack of dynamic's in your version. It all seems to plod on at the same dynamic and intensity, making the transition to the triumphant B section sound boring. Also the intro in Vangelis's version slowly builds to the theme, where as yours introduces it pretty much immediately.

I will agree that it is hard to remix a song you like a lot. It's hard to be to creative when the melody is ingrained in your head. But you must try.

I went back and read this and it seems like straight bashing but don't take it that way. It's criticism. Don't give up on this, there is a lot of potential in this track. Just polish it up... a fair bit.