Guile's Theme from Street Fighter II

[Jaxo]

Hey OCRemix! First post here (be gentle, heh), I'd like to know what you guys think of Guile's Theme, a remix I just did today over the last 4 hours. I was having a bit of trouble getting rid of a crackly-poppy issue, which is usually compression, but it turns out it was a fault of my non-existent sound card. You still might hear some when the guitar harmony comes in, though.

As well, the transition from intro->main is weird, any ideas? It seems way too abrupt and unexpected. I'm also thinking about lowering the volume of the arpeggios at the beginning, but I'm not sure.

To not making just listening to it boring, I've included a link to a screenshot of the very messy workspace to watch while it plays (god, that sentence was atrocious). Just so you don't have to stare at a waveform.

Just remember, everything goes with Guile's Theme! Thank you !

Edited April 21, 2014 by Jaxo

[Jaxo]

Version 1.5 is up! I've remastered a few things and changed the order. Link has been changed in the OP!

[Nonamer]

Despite being one of the most recognizable VGM songs, there is a surprising lack of Guile mixes. I applaud your attempt to join the ranks of guile remixers.

It's obvious that your intro needs an entire overhall (one or two soft instruments are not going to cut it for this kind of mix), so hopefully you can work out the transition as you tweek around with the intro.

Instrumentally, I'm okay with it, but the judges will probably scrutinize it.

The most glaring issue with this song, and one that actually trips up even veterans from time to time, is the mixing. You have some instruments, such as the drum and the bass, which have too much prominence, while the lead guitars and the arpeggio-sounding synth need a slight boost. The piano and the background synth are fine where they are.

If you haven't already, invest in some good headphones. That should help with the mixing.

[Jaxo]

Thank you! I'm using these right now, which I spent about $150-$200 on. They sound great, I just suck at mixing, hah.

I'm trying to improve the intro, I just don't know what to do. I want to keep the 'blast' when the chorus comes in at about 20 seconds. I'll turn down the drum and bass, because if I turn up the guitar any more it crackles/pops. Not sure why, probably the mixing though.

Thanks for the input! I'll upload a new one when I'm happy with the changes.

[Magellanic]

I like the intro as its got a really nice, uplifting feel compared to the original. The guitar lead sounds too distant. Also, if you can get real guitar in there, do so. Otherwise, an expressive synth would suffice.

The hihats are too static/robotic. They need some life injected into them. I really like 1:15, its a nice breakdown/build....perhaps extend it some more before hitting back to the main theme. At 1:32, the pad is just too loud. Its masking everything. Something like that needs to be pushed back further in the mix. Your kick drum needs to come out more. The snare is okay, could do with more EQ but a stronger beat from the kick would really get this grooving

In all, I love how the arrangement builds and has a climax but you can definitely get it cleaner in terms of production. Everything is just washing together too much by the end. Its partly the level balance, but its also EQ. Even some more tweaking with the panning could get some more seperation between parts going. This mix has a lot more potential. Don't be afraid to extend or develop your ideas more. More specifically, the build to the climax. Milk it for what its worth to give even more satisfaction when it returns to the main theme.

[Jaxo]

Thanks! I've since updated the mix and am still working on the bridge, but I also got a Tascam US122MKII to record my guitar, and so far it's sounding pretty damn awesome, except it's my first time recording guitar, and it's messy!

[x] Humanized hi-hats

[x] Remastered slightly, can't do too much because I don't have the guitars yet

[ ] Bridge enlightenment

[ ] Guitars!

I figured I'd update to not make it look like I just abandoned this project and thread. This just might take a while because I'm a noob at recording real-life instruments in my basements with studio equipment (before the Tascam I recorded guitar with my JamVOX, which isn't as I'd say 'studio'). Thanks for all the support so far!

[timaeus222]

Until 0:15, there's a saw arpeggio playing. Try shifting that up an octave and seeing how that sounds.

When the guitar comes in at 0:15, it seems too ambient. It's lost in the mix and feels like it's far away in a separate auditorium, or something. Kind of sounds like a PRS guitar from Omnisphere somehow at 0:28 on the gliss up, though. xD Not a bad thing on the tone. Try bringing it out more, decreasing the reverb wet mix, and increasing the dry mix.

At 1:01, it sounds like a low string instrument is coming in and cluttering the low mids. Maybe you could bring it up some octaves and use it as a countermelody or harmony instead?

At 1:33, the piano or some sort of keys instrument has way too much reverb on it. It's just making it hard to hear anything there. Take it down to about 60%. The strings there also hit a really high frequency, so it might give you trouble later with the lead guitar. Try low passing that very slightly.

Good luck!

[Jaxo]

Thanks guys, I think I've arrived at the final mix. I'm not happy with it, but I'm just so sick of tuning things with my guitar ("time to record? Have some intonation issues!") that I'm keeping the crappy sounding synth guitar in. Here's a demo of a quick run-through of the song I did, just to show the tone. This isn't a finished product, as I messed up, this is just to show the sound. I'm also going to keep the bridge the way it is, too, partly because there's so much automation to move over and resync all the tracks, and also because I want to keep the energy up in the song.

Great observations, as well, timaeus222, I have no idea how you know all these little things about my song! That is PRS Guitar, from Omnisphere, except I found a soundfont of it somewhere and am using that, since I don't have Omnisphere (is that 'ok'..?). I found the sound in a zircon video, did some research (asked him), and found the soundfont of just the guitar, free on some orange-looking website. I also tried shifting the beginning arps up an octave, but it sounded REALLY lame.

Another thing - I feel like I'd be kind of betraying myself if I did, but if anybody really, truly wants to do a guitar part of this, it would be much appreciated (it's in Db, but it's all on the G, B, and e strings, no need to downtune). Whenever I record, the recording comes out sounding like I'm barely plucking the string, whereas I'm picking it full-force. Not a clue why, my guitar's volume is maxed, which is usually the case of that. I've been playing guitar for about 4 years, and can play the song perfectly fine, but when it comes to recording, it's just like my first week of guitar again. Stage fright, I guess!

Rendering now, I'll have a finished product up soon. Again, I'm not happy with this, but I want to move on to new ideas I have and I feel like having an unfinished song lying around is just another thing to worry about. I won't submit this for mod review until I have my real guitar in this, sounding like it belongs in the song, not like it's been roughly laid on top of a finished mix.

Thanks everybody!

Edited April 21, 2014 by Jaxo