Legend of Legaia - Rim Elm - Reggae style

[Jorito]

So... here's a song I did for the finale of Remixing with the Stars. It's the song Rim Elm from the PSX RPG Legend of Legaia. I wanted to do something entirely different from my usual repetoire and chose (oldskool) reggae as a style.

I think it turned out pretty well, given the 2 week deadline that I had, but I'd appreciate some feedback so I can really finish it. So... any opinions and suggestions for improvement?

Here it is:

https://soundcloud.com/jorito/da-legend-of-da-regg-aelm-ya

Source:

http://youtu.be/W2TSDlXy7EQ

Edited September 2, 2014 by XPRTNovice
MR Complete

[Juanzor]

It sounds really good, the quality of the sounds is amazing !

Legend of Legaia is one of my favorite PS1 JRPGS but I had to go and listen to the original track because i couldn't get it right away though.

Do you mind telling me where you found the steel pans ? I'm gonna need them for a Tomba/Tombi 2 medley that i plan to make in a future when I'm more experienced

[Jorito]

Thanks, glad you like it TBH I never played Legend of Legaia myself, but due to the assignment in remixing with the stars I ended up doing my teammate's song in the style I chose

The steeldrums are a layered sound of the default Kontakt sound library and the steeldrums from the Korg M1 VST. Standalone they weren't great, but combined it turned out pretty well.

[Jorito]

Labeling it as finished. What do you think, does it still need a bit more work? Would it be a good submission and addition to OCRemix?

[Jorito]

I think I'm ready for a mod review

[timaeus222]

Somehow the rhythm guitars feel like they're missing some high frequencies compared to the sampled instruments, and somehow they make the mix feel like a lower bitrate than it actually is. Otherwise, I'm not much of a reggae enthusiast, so I think it sounds good.

[XPRTNovice]

Link to source please.

[Jorito]

Link to source please.

Oops, how stupid of me! Source link added to opening post.

[XPRTNovice]

[ModReview]

- The beginning 3-4 guitar notes sound a bit out of tune.

- The bass in general could use some EQ trimming at the extreme low end to make it fit with the rest of the mix a bit, but it's a taste thing, too.

- You blended the flute thing and the steel drums very nicely to create a pretty nice texture during melody lines.

- The flute gets a little shrill at 1:40 ish doing those turns on top; careful with that. I couldn't tell if you added a doubling instrument or not, but it got significantly more piercing to the ear.

- Arrangement wise, I would say at 2:19 I kind of felt like I was just hearing the beginning again. By 2:42 I was getting really tired of hearing that introductory melodic line on the flute. If I were to make a suggestion, I would say cut the part from 2:20-2:42. You would prevent the feeling of being dragged back to the beginning and driving more energy toward the end. The ending is nice.

Really I would say my major problem with this is the arrangement; it's a shorter piece and we hear that main line an awful lot. The mixing is pretty solid, and so is the instrumentation. I can't really give you a good gauge on whether the judges will hit on it or not, since arrangement is a little more subjective than you having a bunch of mud in the mix, etc.

[/Modreview]

[Eino Keskitalo]

Quite a solid mix, but indeed a bit repetitive. Making that final stretch a bit shorter like XPRTNovice suggested could very well work. (I've got to forward this to a friend who was a fan of the game's music.) Also, Liontamer was just mentioning the lack of reggae OC ReMixes, so there's definitely a call for this one. =)

[Jorito]

Cheers for the feedback guys, much appreciated! Will go back to the DAW to polish some rough edges and add a bit more variation?