Final Fantasy IV Final Battle Metal ReMix

[Composer1992]

Hi, I'm new to OCReMix but I'd love to share my newest Final Fantasy ReMix (FFIV final battle by Nobuo Uematsu) and get some feedback on it. Thanks!

Original track:

I used mostly the Kontakt 4 library for all the instruments.

[Darangen]

It's a pretty cool cover. Not sure if I'd call it a remix though as there aren't too many new ideas in here. It sounds cool and nostalgic though.

* A lot of times the instruments sound fake. Not the samples, but the lack of humanization makes it sound like you took a midi file and plugged it through some virtual instruments, hit export and called it a day. Look into learning how to humanize the instruments so they sound like someone is playing them instead of a machine. It's most evident in the drums and strings, and sometimes in the guitar (I can't tell if it's real or not, but some sections lead me to believe it's another virtual instrument).

* The drums are really quiet. Much too quiet for a metal mix.

If you're just looking to have some fun and share some music, this is fine and I encourage you do to so. However, if you're looking for your stuff to appear on the front page you'll need to do a lot more interpretation of the source compared to what you have here.

Good stuff though! Keep it up!

[Composer1992]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I find it hard to reinterpret things in a new way, I like the original too much.

With the drums, I put them at that level because I like to hear the orchestral parts as prominently as they are. By humanization, do you mean I should try to put the quantization off a bit? I quantized pretty much everything.

[Darangen]

Humanization can mean the quantization, but that's not all of it.

It's also velocities, timing (which could be quantizing), anything that gives the instrument expression or feeling.

When everything is quantized and has little to no fluctuation in velocity it sounds like a machine is playing the part. So maybe dial it back on the quantizing, most DAWs have the option to set how picky the quantizing is so you can find a sweet spot that doesn't kill that human aspect, and depending on the virtual instruments you use there are different ways to pour emotion into them. Could be velocities, could be using a mod wheel, could be having several different tracks for one instrument that has different expressions on each track.

It's a lot of work, but it's worth it in the end when you can play it back and not only hear the part, but feel it as well.

[Composer1992]

Well for the velocities, I play in every single note with a keyboard. I've been told that it can sound more natural to not quantize melodic instruments, etc, so I might go back to not quantizing those. I don't have a mod wheel, though, so I have to draw in the automation for expression instead. But thanks

[Tuberz McGee]

Ha. Hey Andrew! It's Callum. Small world.

I would really recommend looking into some live performers.

And I realise that some are harder to acquire than others, but at least your guitars could use some live treatment.

I like how you said that you played all of the parts by hand.

That means that there's already gonna be some humanistic (is that even a word lel?) feel to it in terms of rhythm.

That snare kills the drum part, have you compressed the drums at all?

Plus, the hi-hat feels like it needs some more variation and velocity quantization.

The part from 0:40~ onwards until 1:00~ sounds REALLY good in the drums (minus the snare).

Your kick sounds like it has no substance, try boosting some low mid frequencies by a few db and perhaps 10kHz by a few as well. You'll get some solid thumpage from that.

I love your own additions to the arrangement here. Mind you, I've loved all of your compositions, so I don't doubt that.

It does feel like it needs a better, more thorough ending though, just to fit with the genre. Maybe a double time section?

Also, that brass sounds so hella good. I think you're better off calling this a Power Metal mix than just a plain old metal mix. Haha

You can notice that the bass is not real unfortunately (and in my favourite section it's most noticable(0:40~ - 1:20~)

Also, how much Reverb/Delay have you used?

Don't let this dishearten you though. This is really good. And I know for a fact that you have the skills to get this to an OCR Mix Post standard.

- Callum