Jump to content

Sonic & Knuckles - Sky Sanctuary


 Share

Recommended Posts

It sounds as though have every instrument turned up to the max volume here... Thus this sounds really congested/some clipping issues are present.

I see what you're going for structure wise (nice job in that respect), but currently I'd say go through this mix and adjust the volume on a few things first. (I'm not good with technical descriptions...I'll leave that to someone else haha). Keep at it though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Maybe it's just crappy headphones, but the drums still sound a little squashed to me. I'm not sure you've fixed all of the issues. Try dialing everything down a little bit rather than just adding limiters, or something. I'm not really a mixing expert, so I'll let someone else explain it better.

The arrangement runs a little long, in my opinion. It mostly sticks on the chord progression and feel of the A section, which gets a bit grating after a while, in my opinion. After maybe 70% of the song, I was getting a bit bored of it, so you may want to write a bit of a changeup there. That would be pretty integral if your plan was to submit to OCR, in my opinion. At 2:20, you play the intro riff again, and I really feel like after that, it should go into a completely different feel just to break up the monotony a little bit and inject a bit more personal flair into the arrangement, especially since the feel of your take on it is so similar to the original track.

I like your idea with the ending, but I'd try to do something to build the dynamics a bit more with each repeat of that last phrase. Maybe the second repeat, change the chord progression and instrumentation a bit, then vary up the drum pattern a bit so it builds more into the ending.

All in all, it's pretty solid from what I hear so far. I like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drums need a stronger presence, with more personality. Also, not sure if the sound you're going for is orchestral or technomanga, but that occasional sizzle from the main melody is taking me out of the feeling everything else is putting me in. Strings have a bit too much attack, if the goal was to interpret a real life string ensemble, everyone is playing with exaggerated crescendos everywhere.

Arrangement sort of mimics the original too closely, with similar instruments and little variations to the main melody or chord progression.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's very

squished

like, this thing is a brickwall like a motherfucker. there aren't any dynamics! the mixing is shot up the wall like a squeezebox; this has internal problems that limiters will not magically fix. is the limiter boosting the gain on the main track? if so, make it stop that; only have a main track limiter at zero db so that things never go -above- that and even then try your best to mix -without- the limiter there so that you know when things are too loud.

everything feels kind of flat and bland and safe; not just your arrangement, but the tonality of it. it's very midi-playing-at-psg-chip right now, to my ears. the drums are the most interesting part of this mix and they're not produced terribly well/arranged terribly well (though they're better than most of this)

part of the reason everything feels very flat is that everything is Go Go Go all the time and it's exhausting; have some quiet bits to accent the loud ones! i know you've set on this being the structure of the mix but it's way dire right now. don't listen to the original at all; think of the mix as a new composition with similar parts instead of This Is Me, Making Sonic Music. do something wild and wacky with it! program crazier synth voices. go all-out.

minor note: the string at :53 is dire and doesn't fit the tonality of the rest of this at all! i'd recommend personally not using anything resembling an orchestral sample/synth unless you're actually playing it yourself but i'm in the minority here, but in general that's a thing that should be fixed somehow

idk

i hope that helps

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's very

squished

like, this thing is a brickwall like a motherfucker. there aren't any dynamics! the mixing is shot up the wall like a squeezebox; this has internal problems that limiters will not magically fix. is the limiter boosting the gain on the main track? if so, make it stop that; only have a main track limiter at zero db so that things never go -above- that and even then try your best to mix -without- the limiter there so that you know when things are too loud.

everything feels kind of flat and bland and safe; not just your arrangement, but the tonality of it. it's very midi-playing-at-psg-chip right now, to my ears. the drums are the most interesting part of this mix and they're not produced terribly well/arranged terribly well (though they're better than most of this)

part of the reason everything feels very flat is that everything is Go Go Go all the time and it's exhausting; have some quiet bits to accent the loud ones! i know you've set on this being the structure of the mix but it's way dire right now. don't listen to the original at all; think of the mix as a new composition with similar parts instead of This Is Me, Making Sonic Music. do something wild and wacky with it! program crazier synth voices. go all-out.

minor note: the string at :53 is dire and doesn't fit the tonality of the rest of this at all! i'd recommend personally not using anything resembling an orchestral sample/synth unless you're actually playing it yourself but i'm in the minority here, but in general that's a thing that should be fixed somehow

idk

i hope that helps

Yeah, this was very helpful! I need to look up mixing a little bit more, because what you just described is a problem in a LOT of my stuff. I never actually realized what was causing it. Thanks for the tips everyone!

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...