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Becoming the Forest -- Link to the Past remix


ectogemia
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LINK (updated)

Phonetic Hero came up to Indy from Kansas for the weekend, and we remixed some LTTP. Herein, one may find such fine sources as the ocarina/bird flute theme (cannot find link, but surely you know it; it kicks off the remix),

,
, and the ubiquitous
. The work was pretty evenly split, and I think our styles meshed together quite well to produce a nice cohesive remix.

wat u think?

edit: Added more beef to the low and low-mid end. Added some percussion. Added some filtering automation to the repetitive arpeggio. Added a choir in the latter part of the track. Adjusted drum EQ and balancing. Added in some quirky chippy tom part.

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MOD REVIEW:

Hmm... This one sounds pretty thin. It's got a lot of highs and upper mids, but few lower mids and virtually no bass throughout. Gotta get some bass in there - I think by giving some of your texture instruments some better lower mids and beefing out your bass you'll fill that soundscape more effectively.

The arrangement covers your source sufficiently, but it feels like it meanders a bit, there. Bookending the track was a great idea, but I could use a little more in the middle that connects it what the beginning had to offer - with all the other sources in here, it's border-lining medley territory, here.. That arpeggio that plays throughout the middle sounds neat when it comes in, but by the time it's finished it starts to grate on my ears because of how long it remains - it plays for nearly 1:30 out of 4:17. That's nearly a straight third of the track, there. Cut some out of it, or space it in your track a little better, there.

The glitch stuff was pretty awesome. Wish there was more of that in there, personally... 8)

Neat arrangement, but it needs a little work before you decide to submit it. Best of luck with it, though - the short source doesn't have enough love on here.

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MOD REVIEW:

Hmm... This one sounds pretty thin. It's got a lot of highs and upper mids, but few lower mids and virtually no bass throughout. Gotta get some bass in there - I think by giving some of your texture instruments some better lower mids and beefing out your bass you'll fill that soundscape more effectively.

The arrangement covers your source sufficiently, but it feels like it meanders a bit, there. Bookending the track was a great idea, but I could use a little more in the middle that connects it what the beginning had to offer - with all the other sources in here, it's border-lining medley territory, here.. That arpeggio that plays throughout the middle sounds neat when it comes in, but by the time it's finished it starts to grate on my ears because of how long it remains - it plays for nearly 1:30 out of 4:17. That's nearly a straight third of the track, there. Cut some out of it, or space it in your track a little better, there.

The glitch stuff was pretty awesome. Wish there was more of that in there, personally... 8)

Neat arrangement, but it needs a little work before you decide to submit it. Best of luck with it, though - the short source doesn't have enough love on here.

Agreed about the low end. That's kinda my own particular production weakness. I can never get the low end to sound sufficient. I wonder if it's an issue with my speakers more than it is with me? Probably not.

I'm not sure I agree about your assessment of the integration of the source tunes, but I did feel compelled to bookend the track as such because I thought maybe it did need a little more self-referencing for cohesion, as you said, so I think there's definitely some merit to your critique in any case.

I hadn't thought about the arp being too persistent, but upon listening again, I'd have to agree. Might cut it out or filter it out for a phrase or two now and then. But it's sooo coool-soounding D:

Glitching = sampled the previous phrase and put it into Fruity Granulizer which I had just learned how to use the night before + additional processing like reverb, filtering, bitcrushing, etc. If you haven't messed with Fruity Granulizer, definitely give it a try. AWESOME plugin. Hours of fun can be had loading in vocal VG samples and making the character say horrible, horrible things.

Thanks for the mod review, brah <3

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I can't believe you guys made this over a weekend... it's really cool! Love the glitching! I like that arp, maybe you could just make a unique variation of it for part of the time it plays, making it less repetitious? The bass is indeed a bit lacking. Add something, or let what you have there be louder and/or play a little lower in frequency. I found it a tad harsh in the very highest frequencies, those hats really push the limits, that's my only crit. Nice work!

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I'm personally having trouble digging out any source before the 1:30 point. Dunno if i'm not listening properly or what :P

There is alot of reverb and delay at the begining imo. A little too much, it serves to muddy things up. As for the treble comments, they still stand, stuff is very piercing generally. You need to be careful with your treble parts. You also need to throw sources around more. When dealing with mutiple sources, judges don't like the "Source A, Source B, Source C, Source A" approach much. You've gotta meld them together, or at least intertwine them a little. Cool glitching effects! Its not pass worthy yet, but you've got some good things going here. Fix up the treble issues, focus on arrangement expansion and you'll be a little closer :D

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The arps leading into the Kakariko village interp section are actually the ones from the source, just sped up and modified for 4 as opposed to 3. The beginning has the

verbatim (c'mon Nathan... first search I did for the theme :P ), and theres some Sanctuary interp going on in the background almost constantly after the raw flute section in the beginning

EDIT: Lol, even work split my ass! I'd say about 60/40 your favor, if not worse on my part... I was a little burnt out after my one-nighter for the Sonic Compo... apologies :D

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I'm personally having trouble digging out any source before the 1:30 point. Dunno if i'm not listening properly or what :P

There is alot of reverb and delay at the begining imo. A little too much, it serves to muddy things up. As for the treble comments, they still stand, stuff is very piercing generally. You need to be careful with your treble parts. You also need to through sources around more. When dealing with mutiple sources, judges don't like the "Source A, Source B, Source C, Source A" approach much. You've gotta meld them together, or at least intertwine them a little. Cool glitching effects! Its not pass worthy yet, but you've got some good things going here. Fix up the treble issues, focus on arrangement expansion and you'll be a little closer :D

Wilbert, I always seem to get critiques on the treble of my mixes. I never seem to hear what's wrong with the treble myself, so clearly I'm missing something. Could you point out specific points in the mix where you think the treble is an issue and exactly what I need to do to fix it? Would be a good learning opportunity for me. I'm tired of hearing how crappily my high end is balanced :D

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I think Will is right, but I'm directing his critique on the reverb toward the floor toms / bass drums (it sounds like one of those). Try gradually lowering the wet and upping the dry and seeing what gives them less of a hissy reverb but more of a... heavier sound? You might see where I'm going with this. It's kind of hard to explain this type of sound, but if you can imagine a pipe band playing a bass drum, it's kind of like that. This is at 0:20, 0:29, etc. Leave some of the hiss though, but reduce some of it so it doesn't have as much of a tail.

At 0:55, the wet reverb on the snare is starting to create a muddy sound, so decrease the reverb at that point a tad until maybe 1:14.

At about 2:56-ish, your... vocal-like pad is kind of overpowering your lead. Just reduce it a bit. It's sounding great so far!

Very cool glitch effects, actually! :D

Letting the reverb go on so much, though, at 3:29 might make people skip forward in the mix to see when the song continues. Try fading into the next part slowly as the reverb dies away, not after.

At 3:53, it could be cool to add some crackle effects.

Other than that, keep working on the arrangement and production! :D

Good luck. =D

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The glitch stuff was pretty awesome. Wish there was more of that in there, personally... 8)

Ecto, if you send me a WAV, I'll take 'er out back for the ol' GrossBeatin'. I won't over do it, I promise

EDIT: What the devil? Is my 'verby bass panned left in the beginning? Could be my headphones, but it sounds odd. Also, the flute is almost lost for that first flute melody after the piano. Maybe switch it out for a more cutting lead. And hell, while we're here...

The stuff you did with the square tom sounds badass. I'd be alright with even just glitching that, if you sent me a stem

Pads at 2:45 are too loud. They may be ok after a few bars, but when they come it, it's awkward and overpowering

God that granulizer part is cool :D

Filter is a bit rezzy on the outtro, 'specially on the piano

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Really bright intro. It's like you've cut the lows and mids from most of the isntrumentation, and left only some of the drums in the lows. The mids feel empty and the whole thing feels excessively bright and contrast-y. Don't boost highs and lows so much, go for a more balanced mix.

I'm agreeing with Will's crit concerning the medley structure. Actually, I'm agreeing with WIll on everything. Cool glitchy effects, excessive reverb, frequency balance...

There's a few instances of weird writing that you might wanna look into as well, like some weird melodic motions at 1:57, 2:54-3:00.

Could _easily_ be fixed up to par, you just gotta figure out what to do with the arrangement to make it more directed, less medley-ish.

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Wilbert, I always seem to get critiques on the treble of my mixes. I never seem to hear what's wrong with the treble myself, so clearly I'm missing something. Could you point out specific points in the mix where you think the treble is an issue and exactly what I need to do to fix it? Would be a good learning opportunity for me. I'm tired of hearing how crappily my high end is balanced :D

Wilbert? lol ok.

There is piercing at 0:55 which is caused by that lead sine like thing you've got. You need to bring down the 1-1.5khz range, which often is slightly accented in those frequencies for sine type instruments.

That lead at 1:31 also needs bringing down around the same area i'd say. Your crash cymbal is also slightly piercing. Hard to tell if its specific instruments or if the problem is caused by the master, but if you bring down the highs in those parts, it should make this sound alot better :)

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