A fusion mix: Terranigma, Pokémon, and Zelda

[snuffles504]

Alright, my first time posting on the forums!

So here's a mix I've been working on. The whole thing's written, but I'm horrible with production and could use a lot of tips/help. Or if you have anything to say about the arrangement, by all means speak up.

Remix on SoundCloud: "Shades of Home"

It's based on the hometown theme from Terranigma, but with a much different feel than the original tune. Still nostalgic, but less pastoral.

Sources (Youtube):

Prayer - Terranigma

A Place to Return To - Terranigma

Really, I used the last two sources more as musical references then anything else.

Thanks!

[Elder Kirby]

Welcome!

That synth guitar is really jarring.

It's okay for the background and rhythm if you're going for that kind of timbre, but it doesn't work for the lead-ish melody parts you have it do.

Get good samples or get a recording of real guitarwork.

[snuffles504]

Yeah, the guitar frustrates me a lot. I haven't been able to find any better (free) samples on my own, and I can't figure out a way to make this one sound the way I want it to. It's probably the biggest thing I was wanting help with.

[Skolar]

Welcome welcome!

This remix is very cool. I'm also inexperienced with production, so I'm unable to pick out anything too technical / subtle, but to me it sounds pretty good in that regard.

The strings that come in real quiet at 1:08 stood out to me as being a little quiet and hard to hear, but if they're at the level you want them, I don't think there's anything wrong with them.

Overall, I think this is awesome. Keep it up!

[crypto_magnum]

Put simply, I think that your samples don't do your writing justice. But the musical ideas behind this are great-- what a fun arrangement!

I'm always hesitant to suggest that people run out and buy better samples, because it's almost always the case that they can just make better use of what they've already got... if you've got access to a friend or two who would be willing to record guitars or saxophone, that would help immensely. For piano samples, you could probably replace them with something better for free, or record them yourself. For the big band brass, the only practical way to do that is with samples, and I don't have a recommendation on a good library... maybe check in the sample/instrument requests topic in the Newbie forum.

If new samples or free live recordings from generous friends aren't an option for you, you could always alter the writing to fit the tools you have (don't feature/expose sounds you can't pull of convincingly, for example). Although, I have to say that I feel horrible about giving that advice... I mean, you shouldn't stunt your growth as a writer just because your samples can't keep up with you. But at all levels of music production, when you're aiming to put out a finished product, the budget often constrains the creative freedom of the composer-- even for the professionals.

One more suggestion: keep posting, stay involved, network, and you may find someone here could collaborate with you, record some saxophone, etc.

Great work so far, and excellent first post.

[quintin3265]

Put simply, I think that your samples don't do your writing justice. But the musical ideas behind this are great-- what a fun arrangement!

I'm always hesitant to suggest that people run out and buy better samples, because it's almost always the case that they can just make better use of what they've already got... if you've got access to a friend or two who would be willing to record guitars or saxophone, that would help immensely. For piano samples, you could probably replace them with something better for free, or record them yourself. For the big band brass, the only practical way to do that is with samples, and I don't have a recommendation on a good library... maybe check in the sample/instrument requests topic in the Newbie forum.

If new samples or free live recordings from generous friends aren't an option for you, you could always alter the writing to fit the tools you have (don't feature/expose sounds you can't pull of convincingly, for example). Although, I have to say that I feel horrible about giving that advice... I mean, you shouldn't stunt your growth as a writer just because your samples can't keep up with you. But at all levels of music production, when you're aiming to put out a finished product, the budget often constrains the creative freedom of the composer-- even for the professionals.

One more suggestion: keep posting, stay involved, network, and you may find someone here could collaborate with you, record some saxophone, etc.

Great work so far, and excellent first post.

I agree with crypto_magnum that you could change up the song to get rid of the parts that show sample weakness. I actually gave the same advice to a different remixer a few days ago. But when you have a song like this one, where sample quality is the only thing holding it back, it seems like a shame to throw away that work.

One thing I wouldn't do is go out and throw down hundreds of dollars on expensive samples or mastering software. The gains you'll get are likely marginal, because sampling cannot yet approach the quality of live instruments.

One thing I found, with open-source software for example, is that the commercial products usually rank much higher in the Google search results than the free stuff, regardless of the quality of either. That's probably because the companies pay someone to do search engine optimization, while free developers just concentrate on their products. There have been times when I've been about to pay for something and then have some across something better that's free.

Before you give up on this mix or decide to change the composition, why not spend a few hours completely scouring the Internet to make sure there isn't anything better out there? Use several different search engines, use forums, and look down to the fourth or fifth page of results. At the worst, you may find advice from other remixers on how they got around the specific sampling issues you're having.

[snuffles504]

Thanks for the replies!

I did some more digging and realized that I have Garage Band on my school computer. So I opened that up to see what I could do with its guitars:

Excerpt with new guitar

I'm not entirely sure what I think about it, but it definitely doesn't stick out as much as the other. And after exporting I realized that I might need to adjust some volume levels to adapt to the new sound.

Again, feedback is greatly appreciated!

[timaeus222]

Thanks for the replies!

I did some more digging and realized that I have Garage Band on my school computer. So I opened that up to see what I could do with its guitars:

Excerpt with new guitar

I'm not entirely sure what I think about it, but it definitely doesn't stick out as much as the other. And after exporting I realized that I might need to adjust some volume levels to adapt to the new sound.

Again, feedback is greatly appreciated!

I definitely agree on the arrangement, it's fantastic.

If you want some more realistic picked guitar stuff (I'm sure the GarageBand guitars, or any non-sample library guitars, aren't as realistic as, for example, some sort of a Kontakt guitar library), I can do it and send you back a WAV or MP3 if you send me a MIDI of the guitar track (for the greatest accuracy). I'm sure it's possible considering you're using FL Studio (and I am too).

I have Keolab Spicy Guitar (acoustic guitar, free), this Kontakt lead guitar library ($179.99) and Shreddage Rhythm Guitar library ($50 or $70, depending on the deal you are looking at). Orangeholic is like the best sound demo for what you're looking for, btw, for Strawberry Evolution Electric Guitar.

Oh, and I have a lot of other stuff, so if you want to collaborate, I'm willing. I can add lots of cool stuff, like better drums, brass, lush pads, bells, etc.

[snuffles504]

I definitely agree on the arrangement, it's fantastic.

If you want some more realistic picked guitar stuff (I'm sure the GarageBand guitars, or any non-sample library guitars, aren't as realistic as, for example, some sort of a Kontakt guitar library), I can do it and send you back a WAV or MP3 if you send me a MIDI of the guitar track (for the greatest accuracy). I'm sure it's possible considering you're using FL Studio (and I am too).

I have Keolab Spicy Guitar (acoustic guitar, free), this Kontakt lead guitar library ($179.99) and Shreddage Rhythm Guitar library ($50 or $70, depending on the deal you are looking at). Orangeholic is like the best sound demo for what you're looking for, btw, for Strawberry Evolution Electric Guitar.

Oh, and I have a lot of other stuff, so if you want to collaborate, I'm willing. I can add lots of cool stuff, like better drums, brass, lush pads, bells, etc.

Really? Awesome!