'Never Forget' & 'Rain' Remix - Halo 3 & Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360)

[Pl511]

This was a fun little project that I've been working on to test arranging music in a large orchestra, and I think it's turned out very nicely. It's also been a lot of fun working on this and listening to each of the different parts of the original songs, so I might work on another remix in perhaps a different style to the original if this gets a good response that might be something I could look into. The arrangement of both pieces is based off the original themes in their respective games - with a few alterations - and was worked out solely by ear. Never Forget starts at 0:04 while Another Rain starts at 1:20. After this, at 2:58 there's a little section with both pieces played at the same time, taking different ideas and chords from each. This was made as preparation for a possible remix of a song from the Halo 4 soundtrack, so if you guys have any requests when that comes out I'm all ears. Hope you guys enjoy it!

[Pl511]

I know I'm not supposed to add new versions after asking for a mod review, but I needed to urgently fix some of the piano work because of distortion. Apologies to anyone if they had started writing a mod review. Thanks. Hope you guys enjoy this version!

[Rozovian]

Glad you're taking on ODST as well, one of my fav soundtracks.

The beginning and end takes on the first part of Never Forget are pretty cool, the last bit has a bit of a The Wingless vibe to it, but the rest of the track is just a rehash of the sources, especially the ODST source. Transitions, even within the same source, are pretty abrupt, and while that might work int he OST, it doesn't work in your mix. The sources are also separate from each other, which can also be a problem.

The mix sounds a bit overcooked, and that's not what the oc in ocremix stands for. It's like you've put all kinds of loudnening on the tracks, which only really wrecks the sound quality. The sounds themselves are pretty good, but the processing is a bit too much. If you have to trade in a few dB for a cleaner mix, do it.

Fix the mixing and save the best parts of the arrangement, and you'll have a great foundation for a new remix of Never Forget. If Another Rain can be worked into it more organically, that's great, but don't force it. There are other sources that might work better, if you need any.

ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION

- Too conservative - sticks too close to the source

PRODUCTION

~ Too loud - individual track processing, I think

~ Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) - occasionally

STRUCTURE

- Lacks coherence overall (no "flow")