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Zelda O.o.T - Storm Force Seven (Song of Storms - Funk/Jazz)


Nostalvania
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So instead of working on my castlevania remix i made this here: https://app.box.com/s/poxs5ggr06hmma39fy8n

Source:http://youtu.be/43IPAGw01IY

It's a 7/8 Jazz/Funk version of song of storms. Yeah, i think it could be extended, it's a bit short but i'm not sure what else i could add to the song.

Edited by Nostalvania
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Bring the piano out more, it's buried by the accompaniment (ironic, isn't it?)

I like the rhythm but try to work on the phrasing of the main melody a little more. Try to make it flow more naturally. Sometimes it feels like "he ran out of beats and crammed the melody notes in" in certain parts.

Otherwise, this is pretty !@#$ing good. The arrangement is long enough. You have enough content in the measures to make it so it's not short. Absolute time and perception of time are two very different things.

Edited by Neblix
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Love it!

And I agree, the piano could be bumped up just a touch.

Arrangement-wise, it's stellar; I guess I would perhaps enjoy a tad bit more length. Two ideas for length, take 'em or leave 'em: you could cut the soloing out around 1:58ish with the piano, and just comp around on those chords for a few loops, and afterwards come back in (either full-blown or reduced, depending on how you do your comping). OR You could extend the breakdown section a little bit. I guess to me the only thing detracting from the song so far is how relentlessly energetic it is, so it could stand to have a break from the (admittedly amazing) soloing for me to have a chance to catch my breath.

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  • 4 weeks later...

first off, this is sick!! i don't know if you'll even read this, and i can't pretend to know your end goal for this (whether you intend to submit it to ocr or not), but i'm going to leave a long non-mod review anyways because of how much i liked your arrangement, haha.

the bass/b3 writing during the turnaround at 1:03 is really slick and the whole chord progression sets up the solo section around 1:19 nicely. though the snare sample you're using isn't particularly strong, and is also more exposed since all you have essentially are the b3 comping chords and electric bass locking in with the groove.. i'd recommend maybe side sticking over snare for that specific section. it'd also help to reinforce the identity of the solo section as such.

i feel the drum writing in general could stand to use more variety.. especially alongside your harmonic/melodic writing, which is killer. simpler drums are fine for establishing the groove, but after the third or even second time through the vamp, the beat starts to lose momentum, and the listener, expecting development, loses his will to groove/live. maybe fill some of the gaps between hat hits with 16th note hat hits, irregularly, so your hat pattern gets the double benefit of sounding more syncopated and not like a two - four bar loop, and use some quick open-to-close hat hits for good measure! most of your fills last about two to three beats before the upcoming first bar of the repeated vamp and could be more developed; give your fills a space of the last measure or measure and a half before the vamp repeats! treat your fills (and more macroscopically, your percussion as a whole) the same way you'd treat the notes of a melody: carefully and deliberately. that way they will sound more intentional and less like an afterthought. ride-bell hits and flams over single snare hits are always stylish too, used sparingly of course. making the drums more exciting alone would introduce a lot of compositional energy into your arrangement.

the improv is stellar. i've looped your piano and e. piano solo probably ten times already. the few parts where you slug the rhythm during your piano solo, and the first time through the melody, are really tasteful and clear indications that one, you would be awesome to jam with, and two, you probably like a lot of the same music that i do! so i hope at least some of what i'm writing hits home.

this one is more of a personal preference. b3s ought to scream. where is the dirt, the crunch? i appreciate its mellower sound during the e. piano solo, but a more distorted sound could be contributing so much more energy to the previous section that builds up to it! the b3 sounds like you've slapped a lo-pass over it at around 2.2 khz, denying all frequencies above that the chance to see the light of day. tragic, i know. there's a disturbing lack of high frequencies in the mix balance. you have a lot of instruments already filling up the low to mid sections of your frequency spectrum (i count kick drum, bass, acoustic piano, e. piano, and currently the b3. the clavi sounds mid-hi to me), so lessening the chokehold on the b3 would also be a great way to restore balance to the force, and your mix!

with respect to other mixing considerations, your levels sound fine, nothing seems to need reverb, and the separate tracks all sit in their frequencies nicely. the last step towards a more believable, a.k.a. samples-masquerading-as-live-musicians mix, aside from acquiring more realistic samples and hand-tweaking note velocities, would arguably be panning to cleverly emulate the stereo image of a live performance as live musicians occupy different areas of the stage/jam floor. also, is it just me, or are the hands of the supposed clavi player panned hard left and right, respectively?

i'm guessing you haven't mastered this yet, because the overall level of the track is on the lower side. some slight mastering compression would go a long way in bonding the separate tracks. the instruments on the low end of the frequency spectrum (your kick drum and bass) could stand to be brought up with respect to the harmonic instruments. you might as well fix this in the mixing phase, or you can slightly compress the master track from around the 55 hz to 200 hz range with a multiband compressor and add some makeup gain, which will give your mix the buff "level 10 kick and bass tightness". non-dispellable. no expiration timer. the drums lack a bit of presence compared to the other instruments as well, most obviously at around 1:00. i'm bringing it up here because i'm not sure if they'll be better or worse off after the compression/limiting mastering phase, but there's a good chance that they'll benefit from a two to three db boost on its volume fader and some light compression. you definitely don't want to kill that live sound, so a 2:1 ratio and a threshold of around -15 to -18 db, with a quicker attack and medium release, should give them more punch while avoiding making them sound overly produced.

the mix clocks in at just over two minutes; long enough to establish separate sections, and short enough to make me want to repeatedly hit the replay button.

really hope you take another look at this man!

best,

peter/melody

edit: for preserving star wars canon

Edited by melody
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not a problem at all man! the writing is great, and while i personally think you could take this arrangement to another level by taking another look at the drums, most of the areas that need touching up are, in my humble opinion, production-related. i can personally attest to the soundness of shaggy and rozovian's ears and would take a look at everything they're talking about; i'm certain that their crits would be more accurate and in-depth than mine if they had the time to write paragraph upon paragraph.

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It's a 7/8 Jazz/Funk version of song of storms. Yeah, i think it could be extended, it's a bit short but i'm not sure what else i could add to the song.

*raises hand* Sax fills and solo? =P It's not needed but if you want it I'm all about that.

Nice 7, I'm a fan of how well this meter works with the source material. And I like your free flowing give+take approach to the melody. The anticipation of certain phrases caught me off guard at first, but upon 2nd listen I rather enjoyed it the whole flow of it.

Many props.

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  • 6 months later...

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