Purge the Xeno (Xenophobe - Main Title theme)

[Troyificus]

Hello chaps, it's been a very long time since I posted anything in the workshop so I'm hoping this goes down well.

This source is from the latest PRC and I had a lot of fun with it. I'm looking for qualitative comments and suggestions on improvement. I'm not naive enough to expect this to be submitted as a mix, however if it was possible...

*EDIT* Added source track and putting up for Mod Review

Source:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mvf6y1575t4a1gv/Purge%20the%20Xeno.mp3

Edited July 6, 2014 by XPRTNovice

[The Legendary Zoltan]

That was a fun one. Good job.

[Troyificus]

OK so this has been on the board for quite a while so it's time I did something with it. I've fiddled with the mix a bit and I'm as happy with the end result as any mix I've made so far, so I'm putting this up for Mod Review.

[Troyificus]

BUMPing in the hope of grabbing a mods attention

[Gario]

MOD REVIEW

Bah, us Mods missed this one. Sorry, lemme rectify this for ya by giving you what you need here.

Interesting source - PRC does a good job bringing up sources that are not as well known. Sounds like you played this one pretty straight and conservative. While not a bad thing, for the sake of submitting it to the site it wouldn't really pass, since the site is looking for more interpretive video game arrangements. This is more of a face lift of the source, improving its sound quality rather than rearranging it. Again, not a bad thing, just not something that would be accepted on the site, on those grounds alone.

As far as the track goes, the piano is very mechanical. To make an instrument like that one work, you really need to humanize it (that is, adjust the velocities and volume envelopes to make it sound like an actual person is playing it). As it stands now, it sticks out against the rest of the texture like a sore thumb.

Overall, there are a lot of instruments in this track, and they all seem to want to be in the front of the mix. Balancing the track so that the instruments you want to stand out stand out and the instruments that are not as important sound more in the background would really help this mix out, cleaning up the soundscape so it doesn't sound so cluttered.

Nice work on it otherwise (the drums are pretty neat, and the source was pretty fun, too), but even with the fixes listed above OCR would likely reject it on grounds that the arrangement is too conservative. I would like to emphasize that this doesn't mean it's a bad song if OCR doesn't accept it - it just means that it doesn't fit the criteria of the site. Keep on making music, and good luck with your next arrangement!

[Troyificus]

Thanks Gario, I really appreciate the feedback; both positive and negative

[timaeus222]

I agree with Gario. The piano sticks out the most, IMO, as it's both mechanical and reverb-less. The instruments are also all competing for attention. It sounds like all velocities are completely flat, and although synthesizers aren't necessarily expected to sound realistic (unless it's a synthesized supposedly organic instrument), having natural velocity variation would help them to not sound machine-gun.

It may be a good exercise to learn a little piano so you can get some insight into how velocities might naturally flow. If you pay attention to how heavily your fingers press on a keyboard for each note (and it is not exactly the same nor negligible in the differences for each finger), you should eventually be able to think about it while you're sequencing and do velocities while you're writing. Note that when I say "not exactly the same", it implies the velocities should be different, but when I say "nor negligible in the differences", it implies the velocities shouldn't be too drastically different (otherwise it would be "pulsing").

Edited May 25, 2014 by timaeus222