Pumpkin King Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Finally got another DKC arrangement finished! I went in a bit of a different direction with this one compared to my other arrangements. Overall I'm happy with it. Enjoy! Source: My arrangement: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumpkin King Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Haha. And I already made an edit. I uploaded a new video to youtube so the link is now up to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Hey, saw you posted about the same time as me, so I thought I'd leave some thoughts. Nice orchestral samples here. Processing is nice and clean. Repeated patterns are sequenced a bit rigidly though, mainly because it's a straight-up repeated pattern and the instruments are a bit dry. A touch of hall reverb wouldn't hurt I think and varying up velocities or writing a bit more in the intro. Nice woodwind lead sequencing, though the grace notes came off as artificial. A little more reverb wetness couldn't hurt here either - or perhaps on the orchestral samples as a whole. Kick drum is a bit "thuddy" and doesn't have a lot of punch to it. I'd recommend boosting the mids/high-mids just a bit so it doesn't sound so bassy. Straight up repeats of the piano part & velocities isn't really helping realism factor either. Varying note velocities would help here. Actually, this whole thing makes me think of Mannheim Steamroller in a sense (which is a good thing), and they don't go for a "realistic sound" per se. So in a sense I guess it depends on what you're going for here. Overall, this is very pretty and very well executed. Looking forward to seeing this one when it's subbed. Good luck to you. EDIT: Just realized I hadn't commented on the arrangement side of things. About to head to bed, so can't really go into depth, but on first blush this strikes me as being on the conservative side of things. Just something to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumpkin King Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Thanks for the reply! About the reverb. I actually toned down the reverb because it was a bit too much to my ears. Maybe I need more listeners to give me ideas there. Or maybe I need to sleep and listen to it again. The kick drums... I'll look into that. I'm not very good with kick drums and compression (or just never went into learning it). But I actually did boost the highs from what I remember. Maybe I should boost the mids more. Haha, the funny thing about your piano comment is that I played that part and quantized it. In fact, I played every single part in this arrangement (with some edits here and there). Some things were looped, but the piano part in the end (believe that's what you were referring to) I actually played. Didn't loop that or anything. The only reason why there isn't too much realism is because I quantized everything the way I wanted it. I meant for it to be like that for the whole arrangement (including most of my other orchestrations). The samples I use don't have too much realism compared to top notch products, so I try to take advantage of it. So yeah, realism is something I don't go for. The arrangement... it's just a bit conservative I'd say. I'll give you that. I completed this whole thing in two days. I like working that way and try not to spend forever on songs unless I want them to be long. I know that I had many more ideas for the end but it ended up sounding like a song from Aerosmith (or something, dunno what song). So I stopped and kept it short and sweet. I'd take a listen to your song on the page to return the favor, but man my ears and eyes need a rest haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkbrandflake11 Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 This is really nice.The piano arpeggios were quite lovely around 2:14 with the flute. I must say, Nutritious is definitely right with the flutes sounding more electronic with the attack with the trills and grace notes. The arrangement almost has a march feeling to it. If electronic is what you are looking for, it sounds very nice and gives a moving feel to the original. It is very crystalline. It might be cool if a soft triangle was used in with the percussion, as long as it doesn't sound just like the bell sounds used. This is very solid though, a very nice arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumpkin King Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Yeah the flutes... ahh I played that part and quantized the grace notes. It kinda bothers me, too, to be honest. I wanted to keep true to how I was dealing with the entire orchestration, so I quantized that and tried to make edits appropriately.... didn't work out the best. I did realize that adding reverb to the entire piece kinda hides some factors like that. But it's not the sound I'm going for. And I do like how I handle my current orchestrations by straying away from realism. If I have top orchestration software, then I'd do things differently I'm sure. Anyways, glad you liked it! Hmm... why did I never think about the triangle? It's something I could somehow add. I'm thinking of adding more to my arrangement since the end of the song seems a bit abrupt. Dunno when I'll do it, but I'll keep this version as the shorter one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellywu2 Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Couple of things:- 1) Reverb - It could do with some more. 2) The string ostinato needs a bit of humanising. At the moment it's, like a poster above said, very rigid. Apart from that, I like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumpkin King Posted February 20, 2013 Author Share Posted February 20, 2013 Alright I really appreciate the comments guys. Thanks! I've been listening and have played around with adding more reverb. I'm not so sure at this point. Every time I add more reverb to the mix, it just gets to be too much. It doesn't give out a pleasant sound to my ears. Probably because with my early edits here I've just been adding it to a master track, rather than what I've been originally doing (the reverb being on a separate aux track). Kinda in a lazy mood. Any ideas with the reverb? I'll also try to play around with some humanizing. To be honest, I'm not sure I will go through with that though. The biggest thing I want to edit is the flute, in terms of humanizing the grace notes correctly. Or I could just get rid of the grace notes all together. Much easier haha. The next thing I'll do is try to think of a way to extend the song. That'll take more time. I updated this to "Work in Progress". Any more suggestions and comments are welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkbrandflake11 Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Personally, if more reverb was added the mix might sound a little washed out. The bass of the whole might be able to be brought up just a little. If anything needs more reverb, the last part with the quite piano and bells around 2:03 might be able to have just a little more to give more of a contemplating feel. Just after listening again, the piano part is a little electronic sounding with no real dynamics. This kind of gives it an arpeggiator kind of sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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