Jump to content

"Face The Fear" Castlevania Guitar Remix


Recommended Posts

So, they thought I was cool enough to take on "Cross A Fear" for Vampire Variations 2. I finally have a WIP that I think is going somewhere. I was always inspired by the rock albums of Castlevania music in the 90s, so I did take inspiration from that.

For the finished track, I hope to have live bass and get the track mixed/mastered by someone who has the right equipment and experience to do so. So if you wind up believing in this remix, perhaps you would be interested?

Anyway, the original -

My version thus far....http://soundcloud.com/angelcityoutlaw/face-the-fear-cross-a-fear

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mixing needs work, although I'm sure you know that. Those guitars need to be fattened up, they should have a lot more punch. For a wall of sound, I recommend recording two sets of guitars for each track, and panning one left and one right. The drums also bother me - a little too much bass in them I think.

Definitely sounding good though :) !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mixing needs work, although I'm sure you know that. Those guitars need to be fattened up, they should have a lot more punch. For a wall of sound, I recommend recording two sets of guitars for each track, and panning one left and one right. The drums also bother me - a little too much bass in them I think.

Definitely sounding good though :) !

Thanks for the quick feedback Bahamut! Strange thing is, I actually do have the rhythms double track and panned. It's probably just my sub-par mixing overall that is responsible for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too much low in the guitars... try rolling off the low shelf a bit around 200hz. The drums have no velocity variation or humanization and that hihat almost sounds like a techno hihat. Maybe you could get some help with the drums / samples for the project. Keep it up!

Also I think Bahamut was suggesting quadruple tracking, not just double tracking. But I don't think you'll need to do that if you just EQ the rhythm tracks properly. :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well you already have advice from two big names, so what do I know... but I like to keep up with your work so here goes.

That's a nice melody to work off of. Variations just immediately pop into my head. However your mix, to me, sounds really lifeless in the lows. The rhythm guitars feel dragged down by it. Feels like they should be more prominent in general.

I always enjoying hearing your lead guitar work. I'm not well-versed in hard rock but it's just epic and fun to listen to. I'm serious, I could listen to it just on its own, my ears are lovin it.

Keep it up, I'll continue to follow your work man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty much what everyone else said, guitars feel bassy with no mids and very little highend. the drums feel very electronica'ish unless thats what your going for, if not try adding variation to the velocities and a good convolution (IR) reverb.

As for the lead while the melody is good there is no sustain between the notes.

Those are the only things I see, but still a good composition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well you already have advice from two big names, so what do I know... but I like to keep up with your work so here goes.

That's a nice melody to work off of. Variations just immediately pop into my head. However your mix, to me, sounds really lifeless in the lows. The rhythm guitars feel dragged down by it. Feels like they should be more prominent in general.

I always enjoying hearing your lead guitar work. I'm not well-versed in hard rock but it's just epic and fun to listen to. I'm serious, I could listen to it just on its own, my ears are lovin it.

Keep it up, I'll continue to follow your work man.

Thanks! I can try changing up the phrasing and what not on the main theme each time it repeats.

Too much low in the guitars... try rolling off the low shelf a bit around 200hz. The drums have no velocity variation or humanization and that hihat almost sounds like a techno hihat. Maybe you could get some help with the drums / samples for the project. Keep it up!

I shall try! Thanks for the tips!

As for the lead while the melody is good there is no sustain between the notes.

....I'm not certain what you mean. If you're talking about the staccato part at the start of the main melody then I really don't know what to say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The bass instrument itself is too loud, especially in the trebles. Try scooping the range between the mids and upper mids, leaving in a low band width band pass for the treble lowered by about 2dB. That way the live bass later should have sufficient but not excessive frequencies for any fret slides or slapping or anything out of the ordinary in a bass. The hi hats are a bit weak. Find one with a longer release---and a more "brushed" hissy sound.

Definitely work on the rhythm guitars though. Raise their volume for sure. Try to have them about 2dB softer than the final decision on the lead's volume.

I do agree on how the drums have too much bass. I don't think the kicks need to be THAT prominent, though they should be. It kind of sounds like the mids are a bit too high, the upper mids are a bit too low, and the bass and sub are a bit too high. A curve kind of like this might work if the kick is on a separate mixer track:

http://i47.tinypic.com/14w9irk.png

Ignore the oval though. :P

You might want to get a better guitar tone, though, if you can. It might just be because you did still have to roll off things below 200Hz first (although I've heard below 150Hz is fine too). The bass gives the bulk of the tone for me, at least. There are some mid frequencies that feel missing though, in the guitar.

I would be interested in mixing this though, if you'd like. All I'd need are the individual instrument tracks. I can do some stuff to help you avoid the preliminary production problems, and then for the more intricate stuff that I just can't notice sometimes, try asking someone else? Or ask Sixto; he does guitar stuff all the time. It really depends, though. What DAW do you use?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's not what you said about them before...

I'v complained about your lead a lot(which im still not sure if its your playing or lack of attack in tone etc...), but not your rhythm tone.

your (i think, cant remember) streets of rage remix had a pretty good rhythm tone,

but when you compare this remix to that one, your previous tone had alot more mid and high end (and questionably scooped sounding) but still better, but like I said only a small thought. This tone you have now sounds good too but just not with a good Eq curve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I reckon some EQ can give those guitars a bit more of a bite/bark. If you can just get some more feeling (and vib, like Brandon said) then the lead should be all good, though some more embelishment couldn't hurt. The hihats could do with some more humanization. They're a bit robotic.

As far as the arrangement goes, the original is definitely recogniseable. On the repeats it would be nice to get some count-melody going or extra-accompaniment ideas going. Also, post this on the KNGI forum too :D Other than that, its a good start :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well you already have advice from two big names, so what do I know... but I like to keep up with your work so here goes.

That's a nice melody to work off of. Variations just immediately pop into my head. However your mix, to me, sounds really lifeless in the lows. The rhythm guitars feel dragged down by it. Feels like they should be more prominent in general.

I always enjoying hearing your lead guitar work. I'm not well-versed in hard rock but it's just epic and fun to listen to. I'm serious, I could listen to it just on its own, my ears are lovin it.

Keep it up, I'll continue to follow your work man.

Don't take my word as gospel, I probably missed stuff! Truth be told, I can be bad sometimes at identifying/giving specifics, so I will sometimes get multiple opinions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too much low in the guitars... try rolling off the low shelf a bit around 200hz. The drums have no velocity variation or humanization and that hihat almost sounds like a techno hihat. Maybe you could get some help with the drums / samples for the project. Keep it up!

Also I think Bahamut was suggesting quadruple tracking, not just double tracking. But I don't think you'll need to do that if you just EQ the rhythm tracks properly. :-)

EZDrummer is your friend for velocity/humanization - cheap too iirc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, so on the POD HD that I bought recently and used to record the guitars here, I realized that there is a pedal sim before the amp sim. For some reason the pedal sim is by default cutting out a shitload of mid range and boosting lots of bass. So I'll have to re-record the guitars I guess....

Hey....I'm a noob with all this crazy new music technology and recording.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...