Wind Scene Remix

[biskwikman]

Hey guys, this is a "Jazz" remix of Wind Scene from Chrono Trigger I'm working on. I think I'm nearly done with the arrangement but it's very minimally mixed. Mostly just to give it the general sound I want(some reverb and eq in some places pretty much). I'm don't consider myself as good of a producer as an arranger/writer; so if you guys could give me some tips with the production here I'd be really thankful. Also of course feel free to comment on any aspect of it.

Here it is: https://soundcloud.com/danielhenri/breezy

Edited September 6, 2013 by biskwikman

[Nostalvania]

I would say that everything sounds kinda dry and the sequencing is pretty mechanical. The drums (from 0:00 - 0:57) are a bit nervous/all over the place IMO.

I like the groove at 2:05 but be careful with the chords, some of them don't seem to fit with the melody: 2:06 A over E7/B, 2:08 E over F7, 2:11 B over C7/A.

Here's a suggestion of a chord progression, maybe it fits better?:

Amin7 | C7 9 (or C7sus4,13)| FMaj7 9 | E7b13(or Bb713) |

Amin7 | G7 13 (or Amin7/G) | F7 9 (or Fmaj7)| E7#9 (b13) |

Keep working on it, there are definitely some nice ideas!

Edited September 11, 2013 by Nostalvania

[Chlysm]

I really like it. But I'm not a jazz guy. I like some jazz, but it's hard to critique because jazz is a very freeform style of music as opposed to the more formal styles that we are accustomed to.

The only thing I could say is that the composition sounds mechanical, and perhaps you could incorporate some other instruments like a clarinet, or an organ..

[Elder Kirby]

While I'm a fan of ABA form arrangements, the section from 0:58-1:55 is way too different from the rest of the piece; it's very dark and broody, much unlike the groovy, down-to-earth sound of the sections before and after it. In my opinion it ruins the flow of the track and you should either rework it to sound more similar to the rest of the arrangement or shorten it or rework the part entirely.

Production-wise, your drums and piano are very very mechanical and robotic; do try to humanize them. Stevo has a good guide for it here somewhere on the forum, and the rest of the internet has a plethora of guides. A very very small amount of reverb can help, too.

I love the 1st and 3rd sections, especially the latter! Try to have more of it in your finished piece.

Good work, this has a lot of potential.

[biskwikman]

Thanks for the input guys. I realize it's very mechanical sounding at the moment. I haven't done very much with that yet except in parts where it was really bothering me. But I'll look into that guide stevo wrote because I'm probably not very good at it.

And Nostalvania, thanks for your in-depth chord analysis. I'll try your ideas out to see what they sound like. I'm not so good with chord structures and music theory in general so I wouldn't be surprised if there's something a little off sounding that I didn't pick up.

Any advice on other mixing techniques to get a better sound out of it? Any instruments that stand out as to dull sounding?