Phantom - Forest Temple (Ocarina of Time) Remix

[Cinctulan]

I just finished a remix of the Forest Temple theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It started as a just-for-fun project, but I ended up working pretty hard on it. I didn't originally plan on posting it here, but I decided I wanted to get some feedback.

Tips/criticisms are very much appreciated! I'm still fairly new to producing and I'm always looking for things to learn and improve on.

EDIT: I decided to get rid of the offbeat snare hits in the second half of the song, but I left the old one up there. Let me know what you think.

Edit again: Deleted the old link, removed it from soundcloud.

NEW LINK: http://soundcloud.com/cinctulus/phantom-oot-forest-temple

Source, by Koji Kondo

[Cash]

Ooh, Forest Temple is a great source.

I like the hip-hop vibe you got going here. The bass is sounding nice.

I hear a crackling sound in the background, it sounds like popping, a production problem. If it's intentional, it doesn't sound good. It's distracting, and really shouldn't be in the entire track, except in the intro/outro. The drums are a bit boring and repetitive, I suggest you change them up some. In fact, the entire track could stand some more variation. The track is rather sparse, not much is really going on here.

A good start, but needs improvement. Hope my feedback helps, good luck!

[Cinctulan]

Hey, thanks for your feedback! The crackling sound was intentional, but thank you for letting me know that I may have gone a little overboard with it.

As for the repetitiveness of the track in its entirety, I agree. That's part of the reason that I cut it so short...I couldn't really decide where to go with the song after a while, and I felt like it might be getting tiresome.

I might still decide to revisit this track after a few days away from it. I've gone through at least 5 "final" iterations of it in the past two days, so I think a break is pretty necessary. Your comments will definitely be taken into account when I either revisit this remix or start my next one!

[Garrett Williamson]

I have to agree with Cash here. That pop noise does sound like a production problem; like the volume wasn't properly adjusted or something. Distortion is the word I'm looking for, really. I like this, but I don't think it would be accepted onto ocremix because you are heavily sampling the original track, and just took the pitch down a bit.

The idea of this track is great, though, and that beat is pretty sweet. But this is a really hard song to remix, so the fact you were able to pull it off this well is impressive (that wasn't a mean comment, that was a compliment).

[Cinctulan]

Thanks for the kind words, G-Mixer

I was aware that the track wasn't really appropriate or worthy of being accepted here from the start, especially because of the heavy sampling that I was using as you mentioned. I admit the vinyl popping sounds were a little risky, and something like that probably wouldn't make it into any remixes that I planned on posting here for official judgement.

I'm glad you liked my idea for the track, though! I'll be sure to bring more remixes here in the future.

[Chimpazilla]

God do I love this source... one of my favorite vgm tunes of all time... this does sound cool, I like what you did with the slices... why not try to add MUCH more of your own stuff and just use those slices as accents? The bass is a good start, add much much more of that, add some grooves, and some kind of cool solo lead instrument... all those sample slices should not be center stage. I'm hoping you give this another try as this is the most wicked cool source there is.

Here is a great example:

And another great one:

[Cinctulan]

Thanks for the feedback, chimpzilla. It's one of my favorite vgm tracks as well!

I honestly wanted the sample slices to be in the forefront, although I agree that a lead instrument could be very cool. In my case, I think it'd take a good amount of effort to come up with a sound or melody that didn't disrupt the tone of the song, but I'm sure it's doable. I may have to give it a try

When arranging the mix, the bass was the one thing that I thought would fit with the aesthetic I was going for. The song did turn out the way I originally wanted it to, but I definitely see where you're coming from. I may have been a little too subtle from the start.

For my next remix (which may or may not be a second attempt at this source), I'll probably take a different, less sample-heavy approach to things. This is my first effort at both sampling and remixing material that I didn't write myself, and I got very excited at the idea of chopping up the source and writing an entire track with the slices for some reason.

[Chimpazilla]

I suggest this to get you started: take what you have here, play it on loop and noodle around on your keyboard over the various parts. Audition various instruments to see what works where. Something quick and plucky? Something long and bendy (portamento)? Something distorted (a saw) or perfectly clean (a bell)? This can be so much fun. This is what I do. I've just written an entire background track, now the next step is to audition leads. So much fun!

[eskAe]

i feel like a really deep sweeping sub kick would be more in context with the rest of it. the hi-hats are about as crunchy as the snare, doesn't give much of a contrast like that.