djpretzel Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 Hello, I'm James Statom, age 19, and my remixing name is "radiocent." The name of the game I am remixing a song off of is Zelda: Ocarina of Time. (I'm sure you get PLENTY of those.) Anywho, the song I remixed is the Gerudo Valley theme (also plenty of those I'm assuming), and the name of the song is "Hearts of the Gerudos". Mainly, I like to compose classical/instrumental/orchestral music, but I go on a techno benge every once in a while, as you might see on MySpace. This song is, however, NOT in any way techno. It is a completely orchestrated version of the Gerudo Valley theme with much careful attention paid to good chord structure along with my own variations. It might at first sound like a rip of the orchestrated version found on one of the Zelda Orchestra CDs available now, but it really is not. I made sure to pay extra special attention to how the chords play out and how I could possibly pay tribute to the original composer, Koji Kondo. I've been working on this song now for about 2 years, just piddling with the idea of possibly submitting it to OC ReMix. I've finally gotten the courage to submit it, and, well, here ya go. The song is inspired by the way I viewed the Gerudos (and Ganon) whenever I played the game for the first time. The Gerudos are a bunch of bandits that don't know any better than to steal and pillage. However, I felt a special place for them while writing this song. Mr. Kondo did an EXCELLENT job of creating a chord structure that is repetitive (but not in an annoying way), while also expressing how the game creators really felt about the Gerudos and wanted their players to feel as well. I've tried to expose a few of the many beautiful chords that Mr. Kondo wrote with the strings and the piano, as I figured that these two instruments were the best at making chords harmonize in ways that no other instruments can. Please consider that I've only worked on-and-off on this song now for approximately two years, and that it is the first piece of music I've submitted to your web site. Also, please consider the fact that I have a full-time job and that I attend college, so I don't have the time to really dig into this piece and make it PERFECT. However, I do believe that you will (hopefully) be pleased with what I've arranged on Mr. Kondo's behalf. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely yours, James Statom radiocent P.S. - If anything is wrong with the ID3v2 tags, please let me know. I used Winamp to edit them the best that I could, but if I need to use another program to edit the ID3v2 tags, please inform me so I can resubmit my request. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 piano is mechanically sequenced...dynamics please. the strings dont sound great. there's something about the attack on the lead that is fairly clunky. the changes to the melody line are in poor taste in my opinion. Some of the arrangement decisions are actually very cool, however the sample quality and mechanical sequencing hold this thang back, jack. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" Yeah, that piano sounds terrible. Semi-decent tone, but the performance is really doing the robot. Same with the strings. Arrangement isn't really interpretive, but the genre adaptation is actually pretty tight. The string writing shows a lot of promise and needs refinement on the production to better realize the potential there. Some low strings took over the melodic stuff at 2:26, but everything was too quiet. The piano's been repeating ad nasuem (boring), so you need to figure out how to change up the patterns and keep things interesting with this background material. Don't just treat it as filler. You really need to beef the piano chords up and also push up the volume on those low strings up until you bring in the other strings at 2:44. Meh, arrangement's basically repeating the same ideas at 3:02. This is the third mix I've heard in the 6-minute range where people are just recycling their ideas halfway through with only minor changes. There's no point in saying in 6 minutes what you can say in 3. Listening to the piano at 4:16, exposed and on its own, barely filling up any space while plodding away is exceedingly boring. Don't wait until 4:55 to bring back the melody on a second piano and bore the listener. In any case, decent ideas, but the arrangement draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags. Don't put the arrangement in cruise control after a certain point, especially for something this long. Cut out the fat, and keep thinking of more ideas here to provide dynamic contrast and fresh instrumentation ideas. Learn how to properly fill up the soundscape, because the way you're using your sounds right now isn't cutting it, and learn how to give more realism to the "performance" of your sequenced sounds. The ReMixing forum should be of particular importance to you. Keep at it in the community. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 sequencing sucks. in most cases i'd just rather record a part through a keyboard and call it good. anyway, one of the things that sucks about sequencing piano and strings is that you have to spend so much time dealing with humanization. it's important though. you should be spending a lot of time messing with those velocities until it doesn't sound like Mr. Roboto at the helm. from a composition standpoint this is actually pretty decent. however, as LT pointed out, the arrangement does get plodding at parts. my advice would be to either trim it down or have it move somewhere else. anyway, i think you've got the gift, you just need to work on the execution, which sadly has a ways to go. good luck. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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