Cease to Exist / Master Porky's Theme

[Ghost Voltage]

Something from Mother 2 I shat out

http://youtu.be/taUOwr-hg-s

[jordanrooben]

First, I highly recomend not using youtube for anything if you want feedback on the track. Mainly, because I can't tell if it's poorly mixed, or if you tube totally destroyed the quality.

The intro sounds cool, but that vocal clip, while creepy enough (and I feel that you're trying to play on that), is not used well. For the first ~30 seconds, you build up energy, and then chop the whole volume down for the vocal clip. And, after it, the volume and energy jumps right back to where it was. If you want to have a clip like that, I recommend not lowering the volume, but instead have only drums, or chords playing at the same volume under the vocal clip.

After the intro, when your lead guitar comes in, it sounds pretty cool. I don't have too much experience with sampled guitars, but it sounds like it's sampled to me. Mainly, because it's stays at pretty much the same velocity for the entire time it's playing. You should try to humanize it.

You have sections in there where the backing leaves, and the lead plays another melody. I would advise you to use a different sample, or change the octave for the lead in those sections, because the way you have it, there's not much variety.

The drums sound muffled. That could be because you have too much reverb/effects, or it could be flat samples. They also are a bit quiet. I know that it's common in this genre for the drums to be quiet, but you may want to consider making them a little bit louder. That though, is just my opinion.

Finally, there's not much dynamics, or variety in the arrangement. You use the same samples for the whole track, and while that's not bad, it lends itself to being somewhat boring. The real problem IMO, is that all the stuff stays at the same octave levels. You could easily raise or lower the guitar by an octave in certain sections. I definitely like how you have sections where the backing is absent, and you have what sounds like wind or something. You're on the right track there, but, and again, this is just my opinion, you should make them a little bit longer, and do something to the guitar to make it stand out.

Keep in mind though, that some of the things I said may not actually be problems. Try putting it on soundcloud, or box, or tindeck and see if you have the same volume issues.

Overall, you have a good start. None of the samples are fake-y sounding (except possibly the drums), and if they really are samples, isn't exactly easy to accomplish. The de-tuned end is a nice touch, but because it's also a fade-out ending, is a bit cheesy. The vocal clip is a bit unnerving too. Good luck!

[Ghost Voltage]

thanks. those are real guitars, or rather one real guitar multitracked.

[Elder Kirby]

Adding on to what jordanrooben said, you don't have much dynamic or aural variety. I like the arrangement and source tunes, but you have to work on your mixing a bit.

The sudden vocal sample is a big minus; I think both of the samples are unnecessary, actually.

I would try to make the song longer and add a middle section maybe, where you can develop slight ideas.