Gradius III - Aqua Illusion

[VicViper]

Just finished a cover of one of my favorite tracks from Gradius III. Stage 2 - Aqua Illusion.

http://soundcloud.com/vicviper99/gradius-3-aqua-illusion-cover

[EC2151]

I like it a whole lot! It stays very true to the original, and I really like the instruments you used.

If were to start improving, I'd try humanizing the percussion a bit more; the snare hit sounds a bit flat.

[crypto_magnum]

What an appropriate user name you have there!

I really enjoyed this cover a lot. Really nice synth sounds, you nailed all of the bends, and production-wise there isn't anything much that sticks out to me as lacking. I'm generally a poor judge of production values the better they are though, so maybe someone with a more fined-tuned ear can help with that.

The one thing I did notice was that the whole mix (from 0:20 on) seems sort of... slightly muffled... as if there's a somewhat harsh low pass filter on most of the instruments. I'm kind of unsure about this criticism and can't quite articulate right, but maybe give it another listen and see if you hear the same thing. Maybe it's just that the lower half of the frequency spectrum is really filled out, but the top half doesn't have as much going on and so it feels a bit unbalanced...? Or maybe I'm crazy. I'd get a second opinion on this before messing with it.

Nice work on this. I love the Gradius III soundtrack, and this was like a nostalgia trip in HD. Great cover; thanks for posting!

[MusicHunter]

Great song man i freaking love it!.

[BlackPanther]

Friggin awesome!

[Nostalvania]

Great song! Great cover!

I like how it switches from 5/4 to 3/4.

Interesting chord at 0:54.

Thanks for sharing.

[DarK PurPLe]

This is a very cool remix! Being a fan of the original I had to check it out.

I'm not sure what software you used, but as crypto_magnum pointed out it is slightly muffled-sounding. It may be due to MP3 compression ratios lower than 192kbps or perhaps just the mix. If you can, use a high shelf EQ around 3-4 khz and boost maybe 1-2 dB. The drums seem like they are a little too compressed, but that might be desired on your part to give it a SNES-like feel.

Otherwise, I think it is a nice upgrade on the original. Fun to listen to and well made. Kudos!

[Rukunetsu]

Can't go wrong with Gradius music I say; Excellent work here.

[crypto_magnum]

I'm not sure what software you used, but as crypto_magnum pointed out it is slightly muffled-sounding. It may be due to MP3 compression ratios lower than 192kbps or perhaps just the mix.

Ah, I hadn't thought of that! Now that you mention it, it does sound a bit like if you preview a recently posted OCR remix using the embedded youtube video on the side, versus downloading it; the preview always sounds slightly muffled to me, but maybe it's really just that it's lower fidelity... I'll bet you that's what I was hearing.

So maybe I'd examine how you're rendering your final file... see if you've got a setting turned down. I really wouldn't know much about that.

Taking a fresh listen again, I still love it! OCR doesn't have enough Gradius, imo. I'd love to hear what you could do with a less cover-ish take on this source or something else from this series, too, but that's up to you.