Lufia 2 - Tyrant Breaker (Master Mi Remix)

[Kat]

4 minutes ago, Master Mi said:

I'm still unsure if I add some drums in this melodic section of the preview - but I feel that this part without drums and with lots of melodic synths and VSTIs instead has its own charme somehow.

I feel like it could work if you either added some high hat open/close fills. Alternatively, you could bring in some marching-styled percussion towards the end as you build up towards another heavy section.

[Master Mi]

Thanks. ))

I've already thought about some calm reverberating cymbal sounds at this point or some slow orchestral/industrial bass drum or snare percussion - but I'm not quite sure about this.
Maybe a drum-free, mystically melodic part isn't that bad at all - but I'll try some percussion stuff before.

One more question - what do you think about the rock/metal part from the beginning of this video until 0:30?
Is there a bit too much hall or interference in the lower section and should it be a more dry, thick 'n tight or is it okay according to your ears and studio technology?

 

[Master Mi]

Finally, here's the promised brand-new version of my Lufia remix - after taking much longer for this one than I had expected.
For this new version I have composed so many new things - I'm sure you'll really love this one if you already liked the last version of this track (if you want to compare I'll leave the short preview as well as the last version 1.5 for a few days on my Youtube channel).

So, here is the new version 1.6:
>>>

>>> https://clyp.it/04kbvlt1

---------------------------------

Since I couldn't implement the whole information of the changes I've made in the Youtube upload description of this new version, here's the full text (I know it got a bit huge - but might contain some interesting stuff for video game music lovers or Lufia fans as well - I'll work on a shortened version of this one for the Youtube upload during the coming days):

"Some time ago I had the strong urge to make a remix of the Battle #3 theme (the battle theme that starts when you fight the Sinistrals) from the Super NES game Lufia (in my country Germany the game's title is just "Lufia" - while in other Western countries it might have the title "Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals").
Since I've got a lot more knowledge and skills in composing and mixing during the last two years I think it was the perfect time to make a brand-new version of the former - kinda outdated - track version and take all the time I need until the remix was like the version developing in my mind.

With my professionell studio headphones Sony MDR-7506 - as well as my new studio monitor speaker system, consisting of the pretty nice and faithful Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitors and the awesome Japanese Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 subwoofer - I was able to go much more into detail and bring the soundtrack quality within the improved mixing on a completely new level.

There are some really big changes I've made in this version 1.6 - far too many to explain them in every little detail.
So, here are some of the essential alterations:

1) First of all, I've set up a brand-new mixing with a much cleaner sound, less impure reverberations and a wider stereo panorama.
You can hear it already in the beginning of the battle against Gades - the rather thin sound of the previous version is finally history.
Now the sound of the instruments is much stronger and all the instruments have some space to breathe a little without clashing too much or creating an annoyingly muddy soundscape.
I also decided to make the basses much drier 'n' tighter - I think it was a good decision.

2) I worked much more with different velocity dynamics at certain instruments - especially in the clean electric guitar and drum section.

3) For the drums throughout the remix I've created much more variations and new, pretty cool transition parts where the drums take on a more dominant role in the soundtrack.

4) But this was just the less important stuff I've done.
Since there are four Sinistrals you fight in the game I wanted to create four individual parts which would truly fit the characteristic traits of each Sinistral.

5) For the battle against Gades - the Sinistral of Destruction - I've created a pretty strong, bassy and straight forward musical part that sounds pretty heavy and hulking.
Therefore, I used some different electric bass guitars which have to compete against the powerful drums and some rather unobtrusive electric lead guitar sections.

6) For the battle against Amon - the Sinistral of Chaos - I've made a much more fierce part with some heavy power chords which goes into an uptempo and more melodic part later on.
For this intention I had also made some extraordinary guitar rhythms which are actually based on an electric piano VSTi I've combined with a selfmade preset of my pretty awesome Vandal: Virtual bass and guitar amplifier VST plugin - a pretty nice combination and good example for experimental, creative sound design.

7) For the battle against Erim - the Sinistral of Death - I've composed a completely new part which is much calmer, more melodic, ambient, really soulful and a little bit sad as well, within a progressive and rising musical structure.
For getting into this calm new soundscape after the fierce battle part against Amon I've composed a little transition that works a lot with drums and bass elements and some special guitar techniques which slow down the tempo of the track within a few seconds.
Then some smooth electric basses and a clean electric guitar kick in - the part where you can finally listen to the well-known lead melody of the Sinistral battle theme for the very first time in this remix.
This musical passage expands progressively together with different ambient synth pads, a celtic harp, an acoustic guitar, rhythmic synthesizers and a whole choir (where I could finally compose some majestic chords for my pretty nice Vita Choirs VSTi).
I tried to compose even a drum part for this section - but I overruled this purpose because it kinda destroyed the mystical atmosphere of this unique musical soundscape.
My intention to create a bit different, less rocking and much more soulful, mystically melodic part for the battle against Erim was based on the really arcane entity of this female Sinistral, the extreme length of the whole soundtrack, which really needs at least one great break from the fast-paced rock/metal stuff and the fact, that Erim had also been the mysterious lady Iris in the story who helped the heroes several times on their journey.
And she is not only a Sinistral of Death. She is also some kind of a Goddess of life and balance and develops some kind of compassion for humans within the story.
In the Nintendo DS remake "Lufia: Curse Of The Sinistrals" the inner conflict of Erim/Iris between her nature of being a Sinistral of Death and her growing compassion for living and loving beings like humans gets even much deeper.
There, in an altered ending on a New Game+ mode, in which she used the Dual Blade to revert time, Erim sacrifices her own life to save Maxim and Selan from dying on Doom Island (whereas the death of both is part of the inevitable, a bit sad ending in Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals) and sided with human friendship over Sinistral godhood.
That sacrifice also impresses even the pretty much unknown fifth and obviously most powerful Sinistral - Arek the Absolute - who acts mostly in the background of the story as some kind of an observer.
And there he mentions that her sacrifice will not be in vain.
So, maybe you can now understand much better why I composed a special part for Erim in a way like this.

8)... After the battle against Erim a short musical part with an alternate lead melody ensues.
It's still pretty atmospheric, but a little bit more propulsive.
Related to the video material in my Youtube upload this musical part represents the last way to the final Sinistral Daos - the Sinistral of Terror - and his personal introduction where he starts to explain some of his intentions and where the music finally goes over into a melodic peak.

9) And then, suddenly - when Daos explains that there are two ways of looking at things, one side that believes in love and the good thing and the other side, that seeks destruction, some kind of an eternal duality of life - the music turns back into its vigorous metal temper with some powerful drums and heavy power chords.

Then the track gets one more short break that slows down the pace of the soundtrack one last time - before it rises with a premonitory guitar triad, accompanied by some nice synth pads and - knowing that the final battle is inevitable - leads over in the final battle as well as in the final part of the soundtrack.

10) The final battle against Daos begins with a little forceful introduction - which comprises some heavy bass guitars, drums and some new electric lead guitars - and where Daos points out that he is the Master of Terror and that the heroes won't have a chance against him.
As soon as the battle begins the music turns into a fierce and powerful metal track where lots of different instruments struggle for supremacy and clash like in an engulfing inferno of frequencies which finally ends with a raw electric lead guitar sound as some kind of the last breath of the decisive battle against the Sinistrals.
For this part I've set a great value upon the playing techniques and different articulations of the 3 electric lead guitars I've used - which took up a pretty long time until it sounded like I wanted.
Together with the basses and the rhythmic guitar stuff I aspired to make this final part of the battle against the Sinistrals sound kinda furious and badass - as if there's an high amount of sealed life energy that gets unleashed und breaks free within a fierce battle of two mighty opposing forces.
In the end the great life force of the heroes - formed by inner strength, courage, friendship, compassion, love and a sense of justice for a better future - triumphed over the rather loveless, power-crazed and destructive force of the Sinistrals.

11) Apropos life force...
Since many rock and metal tracks suffer from heavy compression in these days - which is often made to create a louder maximum output volume, but which reduces the dynamics, the definition and the clarity of the sound quality in the same way - I want to go a new path inside the rock and metal scene which - in the way I have also created this remix - works without using compressors, limiters and other sound surgery tools which mostly reduce the definition and clarity of the sound just for less defined din.
So, I think about creating a new metal genre that could have the fitting name "Life Force" - a term that stands for drive and power on the one side, but also for life - which consists of breathing, evolving and vitally moving in the other side... just as music should sound in order to bring back an idea of life force in the minds of the listeners.
It might still sound pretty big and bold for the current state of my musical progress - but I'll keep on this path, try to make further progress in music production and get much better and even more skilled in things like music theory, imagination and realization of complex compositions, mixing, creative sound design and a much more natural, instinctual understanding of music as a whole.
And of course I'll also try to get much more life force inside me by eating raw natural food, getting a good amount of sleep, sunlight, natural impressions, by physical workout, living a down-to-earth life and by exploring and going the path of my soul.
Yeah - mooooaar life force... for... nah, not for world domination... ;D
... mostly for staying sane and healthy, getting stronger, excited and passionate, feeling radically awesome and for getting into an extraordinary state of mind and emotions from which I can bring in this life force in my tracks and remixes as well.

12) Because of the new music structure, my new intentions and the extended length of the track I've also made a completely new video with fitting scenes of the final battles against the Sinistrals for my youtube upload to create an even more exciting audio-visual experience - especially for the fans of the game.

At this point I want to give radically great thanks to my good ol' Youtube comrade lufiaevolution666 for allowing me to use scenes from his Let's Play of the German version of Lufia and getting the opportunity to enhance my Lufia remix visually.

Here's a link if you want to watch the whole final part of his Let's Play of Lufia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27TxJW2SROg&list=PL0qWmcB4HVFa-lxLoj-Y62qffD3-fqCEl&index=58

I hope you enjoy the efforts, skills and passion I've put into the new version of my remix.
Nevertheless I'll keep the fire radically burning and try to improve even more in the future. ))"

[Master Mi]

C'mon guys - really no opinion about the new version?

Wanna get some constructive feedback about the things you like in this bigger update and things you would make better/improve.

[Mak Eightman]

Wow! 4 year old wip!

Don't use Vita guitar VST if you want to reach something "real" sounding. Trust me. This VST simply CAN'T do anything real.

Drums are buried. Kick has lack of power and presense. Crash(china) and other cymbals, having freqs conflict with each other and snare. Sounds messy. Hi-hat sounds louder then kick and snare.

Big problem with stereo field. Lack of panorama(say hello to Vita gtr VST). This led entire mix to somethin crowded and messy.

Cool track, but has no energy, because of buried and crowded drums. And disgusting fake gtrs.

Also it's too quiet to my tastes(like twice or more then my mixes  )

EDIT: Yes, I made all my music in Music Maker

[Master Mi]

Dude - thanks 4 the feedback.

But that sounds...
... kinda devastating. xD

The time just means I began with the Lufia track 4 years ago (and with music production in general about 5 years ago) - but I've worked with lots of other projects during this time.
So, I go on with my remix updates in circles just as my time and mood allow or really push me to go on with a certain track.
And there are also lots of months during a year I don't do anything within music production as well.

With the guitars I hope you don't mean the electric piano stuff in there which may sound similar to a guitar 'cause I used it together with my guitar amplifier called Vandal.

Besides - I'm not using those Vita guitars since a pretty long time now.
I rather work with the guitar VSTis of my Independence Pro Suite and Vandal as an amplifier.

And I think the samples sound kinda realistic - but just have a look at the raw solo samples (they first show the acoustic guitar samples and the electric guitars afterwards).
>>> https://www.producerplanet.com/de/article/acoustic-electric-guitars-2983/

It might be a tough decision in mixing to balance out properly between assertive drums/basses and assertive melodies - but maybe I'll go for much better drum samples in the future.
But I still have some drum kits in my Independence Pro Suite which I haven't really used in my tracks at all.
What do you think - do these drum samples satisfy your ears much more?
>>> https://www.producerplanet.com/de/audio/drums-381/

Hm, strange - I've listened to this track on many systems (Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitors, my former Adam TV5 studio monitors, Sony MDR-7506 studio headphones, my HD MP3 player and my good ol' Panasonic LCD TV) and on all of those it sounded pretty clean.
On which speaker system did you listen to this track?

And yep - it's about half as loud as most other tracks 'cause I master my tracks uniformly at EBU R 128 loudness standards - it's similar to the loudness levels of the 70s or early 80s where the loudness war didn't play a major role in music production.
------------------------------------------------------

PS: Wouldn't recommend Music Maker at all if you work a lot with VSTis and plugins 'cause of it has rather weak program engine that tends to crash if too much is going on in a project (it's much more designed to work with loops as a building block concept and just a few VSTis).
Rather try out/upgrade to the newest Samplitude Music Studio from Magix - it's at the same price level with limited amount of MIDI tracks (although they raised them from 16 to 32 in the new Samplitude Music Studio 2019), but it has a totally stable hybrid program engine which doesn't tend to crash and which plays your VSTis and synthesizers correctly.
And you'll also keep your previous Magix content if you upgrade from Music Maker to a newer version of Samplitude Music Studio.

Show me some of your tracks with electric guitars and drums you prefer and tell me which samples you have used for it - I'm totally interested how your guitar and drum stuff performs in a track.

[Mak Eightman]

Listened with my mixing phones. deppend of what you call "clean". It mixed messy. Freqs conflicts, delay/reverb conflicts(freq), panning. All this brings your audio tracks to overlay each other. 

I don't know what is your drum VST right now, but if it has ability to work with each drum/cymbal/whatever channel it's ok. You can make it sound a lot beter.

Make some accent to kick at 2,5-4 kHz(depends of your ears), hipass 30-50 Hz, boost 50-90Hz, cut 100-300Hz, add crunchy distortion(a little). You'll hear a big differents in energy.

Work with each part of your drumm kit, don't use presets. Presets sounds great, but as is, without other instruments. If you want to put it to your mix, you have to work with it a lot(making from scratch, more usefull).

I'd suggest start from drums and bass mixing. 

Lead guitar sounds too fake, rhythm sounds even more fake. Don't know piano or any other sample you used, but it totaly sounds like fake guitar to me)

As for MM, yes it work very bad with VSTi, but ironicly it has the best midi editor i've tried.

I don't use any gtr samples, I use guitar actually. https://ocremix.org/quicksearch/remix/?qs_query=mak+eightman

 

[Master Mi]

Thanks for your hints. ))

So, you 're a professional guitar player - this might explain a lot.
Your tracks sound indeed very clean and well mixed.

Some of the frequency/hall/delay overlappings could be there because I've used a ping-pong delay effect on several guitars and the electric piano (which also panned on both sides) as well.

I mostly use default or self-made presets for my virtual instruments (so, for the drum VSTi as well) and set these as I think that these might be fitting for the conditions of the track.
In this remix I mostly use the Rock Drums from Magix. I guess you already know this VSTi - if not, here's a little Drum Groove I've created with Vita Rock Drums and some video material of this VSTi.
>>>

The little synth-like guitar sound of the electric piano as rhythm is intended by me. I totally love this one.

But for the lead guitar sound my intention was to let it sound kinda truthful and realistic. But I guess I can't compete easily with VSTi stuff against a pro guitar player. ^^
----------------------------------

Samplitude Music Studio and Samplitude Pro X from Magix have the same excellent MIDI editor like Magix Music Maker - but much more settings and a very stable program engine which doesn't hinder you to work with complex VSTi and plugin stuff in a project.
 

[Mak Eightman]

Yeah, I know this drumm vst. I tried to make something good sounding, but failed. I'm  lazy, to find out how to work with that vst.

If you don't have any chance to take Addictive drums or supperior or other cool drumm vsts, you need to separate every drum/cymbal to a different track.

Turn off all effects to have "dry" signal. Then you can work with your drum kit. I'm not sure, may be this vst has ability to edit each track. I just coudn't find it.

Also, try to avoid reverb/room for drums master. This thing bring your drums under the mix.

Careful with delay. If you use more then one instrument with delay, be ready for muddy mix) You can fix it by EQing delay it self and drop down effect's mix for delay.
Use 10-30% to find out the comfortable sound.

31 minutes ago, Master Mi said:

Samplitude Music Studio and Samplitude Pro X from Magix have the same excellent MIDI editor like Magix Music Maker - but much more settings and a very stable program engine which doesn't hinder you to work with complex VSTi and plugin stuff in a project.

Sounds like an advertisement

[Master Mi]

I guess I'll use a different set of drums for the next version (but I won't work on this one for a very long time) - although... I kinda like the snare drums and toms of this drum VSTi.
Maybe I'll mostly change the kick drum and the cymbals and have a bigger focus on the panorama and a cleaner mix with less frequency issues for the next version.

Dude, it 's much more an authoritative order to buy that Samplitude stuff than just an advertisement. ))

Haha. ^^
Nah, it wouldn't be a good ad for the company to describe one of their highly promoted products (Magix Music Maker) as pretty bad or quite useless for MIDI-based music production - while I really love to talk about their less promoted but really excellent products (like Samplitude Music Studio and Samplitude Pro X Suite).

I've already wrote Magix that they should stop putting energy in the development of Music Maker ('cause as a rather useless beginner DAW with a much weaker program engine primarily made for loop-based stuff it will totally ruin the first impression of their new standard user customers) and focus more on their semi-professional Samplitude Music Studio and professional Samplitude Pro X (Suite) or Sequoia instead.
As it seems they have integrated their stronger hybrid engine in the latest version of Magix Music Maker 2019 instead - but I'm still a bit sceptical towards this, 'cause I really had a hard and very long time (especially as an absolute beginner at DAW and music production stuff)  with Music Maker until I figured out that the shitty program engine of Music Maker caused all the troubles.

But as you remarked correctly - the MIDI editor of the Magix DAWs is absolutely great and full of very useful functions.
I think it's because Steinberg (Cubase) and Magix (Samplitude) were some of the first companies who invented full-grown high-end DAWs for the consumer market.
So, they might have a pretty big pool of knowledge and experience at making great software-based DAWs.

Samplitude was also made in cooperation with a university of my beloved hometown - so, I'm a bit (undeservedly) proud of owning it and working with Samplitude Pro X3 Suite
... and soon >>> Samplitude Pro X4 Suite - which also has some pretty cool enhanced MIDI editor functions as you can see in the video here >>>

 

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Good god, man.

Have you been working on this for four years now?

[Master Mi]

14 hours ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Good god, man.

Have you been working on this for four years now?

Nope, I just started working on this remix about 4 years ago as I've already wrote in the 5th comment above yours.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

6 hours ago, Master Mi said:

Nope, I just started working on this remix about 4 years ago as I've already wrote in the 5th comment above yours.

So that's basically a yes.

[Master Mi]

16 hours ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

So that's basically a yes.

...if that's your understanding of the term "working", then you might say so.

But I'm sure that if you had worked (for example) only one year in 2010 and another year in 2015 for the same company XY, you probably wouldn't have said at the end of 2015:
"I've been working for 6 years at company XY."

For me language is a tool which should help to communicate honestly, precisely and to avoid misunderstandings.
So, I'd rather say:

"Since 2014, I've worked for about 2 months on this remix."