3-Part Cover of 2 video game songs (5PM from Animal Crossing and E-102 Gamma from Sonic Adventure)

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

Animal Crossing is really one of those childhood games for Nintendo fanatics who were young in the 00s, and even though I don't play it anymore I have a soft spot and fondness for it. Sonic Adventure is the same way for me because I had a Gamecube instead of a Dreamcast and therefor got the DX edition. I really like the soundtracks to both games, AC for its adorable simplicity and SA for its overwhelming power. I've recently been planning on constructing a concept album on one of the summers I had a couple years ago, and thought that the 5PM theme, updated, would sound really good in the album because of its laid-back sunset groove sound and the fact that the game was part of the summer back then. It's meant to be three parted: the first part is just a simple remake of the 5PM theme, with a few instruments changed, the bassline edited, a few new instruments added in different parts to make the song have a little more going on... the 2nd part is supposed to suddenly switched from laid-back to aggressive before entering a long "jam section," and the 3rd part is supposed to calm everything down with a version of the ending of E-102 Gamma's theme (both that song's ending and 5PM's theme have the same chord changes in general right? It would be a smooth transition actually) on acoustic guitar, electric bass, strings, piano, organ and acoustic drums. So far I've only got the first part finished but I plan on fixing it up a little bit and then working on the 2nd part pretty soon. The first part is called "Tangerine Skies" because of the sunset feel of the original song. The main thing I ask from you all at OCRemix are just basic ideas on how I can improve it. I still don't know a whole lot about songwriting or FL Studio 11 so I would ask for tips mainly on updating the instrumental tones to sound more authentic, or correcting any incorrect notes/chord changes in particular. I actually performed this before by myself on a few instruments and I've asked one of my music teachers for advice on making this happen, so I already have a good idea on how it is supposed to sound and notation and everything. Still, I don't think it's perfect and could use some small-scale modification. Let me know what you think could be done, but be nice. I'm trying my best. >.>

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/581875

[Rexy]

I understand your request loud and clear. I'll see if I can point out some basic critiques to help shape out your vision - it's a big ambition for a new face.

- Good thing you mentioned FL Studio 11, because the ugly Slayer soundfont does not work in this instance. You're trying to make it sound laid back in the middle of summer, but instead the synth-metal-guitar-wannabe has ensured that everyone relaxing on the beach is being chased away by a bull stampede.

-- If you want my advice here, I generally prefer to use e-pianos to be the rhythm for that serene atmosphere. It's a good idea to double track two almost-similar-sounding instances of e-piano and panning them on opposite sides of the stereo field, the position depending on those for the other instruments (and certainly don't push either of them further than 40 each way otherwise it'll just sound too wide).

- The organ sound at 1:05 sounds way too thick in tone for what it's trying to do. I sense that it has a major tone that it's trying to work with, as well as a lower sub-tone that adds too much congestion to the lower rhythm area. To help this, I would suggest adding an EQ High Pass at 350hz - that would eliminate the ugly low register, while still keeping the dominant tone clean.

-- For future reference, this key chart might help for future equalisation quirks:

http://www.vibrationdata.com/Resources/piano_keys.jpg

If you have problems with unwanted frequencies, this could help you out accordingly as to finding out what tones in your VST may not be needed and taking action.

- That theramin at 1:21 / 2:41 needs transposing. It's 3 semitones up from the original progression - bring it back down there.

- The piano playing major 7th arpeggios instead of the original's minor 7ths doesn't translate well to the rest of the track. You wrote them purely as natural notes, while in the original its patterns are:

[G B(flat) D F / F A(flat) C E(flat)]

If you were meant to do that in the first place, then that's what you gotta adjust.

Outside from all this, the authenticy is something that I feel can't be done with stock FL samples. I know how hard it is to just work with so little so young (heck, I had been there >_>), but you can always look around KVR for any freebies that could really enhance the experience you're working on. Once you get more comfortable working with these freebies, that's when you can start looking at commercial VSTs and judging any demos from those in comparison to what you would have used.

As for synth guitars... if you still really want those, I'd recommend you ask another guitarist to record them live for you. That is by far the most authentic way.

I hope this helps you - and good luck with the rest of your project!

Edited July 14, 2014 by Rexy

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

Thanks a lot for that Rexy, that's very informative and you're very polite. Yeah I know the guitar tone I picked on Slayer doesn't sound all that good. I was looking for a sound with a little edge and distortion but not full-on metal. I guess I overdid it ;_; I selected Autochords, and chose Tube and Combo for the amp and cabinet models. I couldn't find a middle ground between clean and distorted so I just went for the full-on. Maybe I need to fool around with it some more. I was just considering going on here and asking for the guitar to be done live by a player, but I didn't think going on here asking for a guitar without first showing I tried anyway would help my case. I certainly would appreciate a live guitar player for this project, as there is the big jam part in the middle that I would like a professional-sounding solo over it once finished. Real chords sound better than fake chords as well.

One thing in particular I would like to fix is the cymbal crescendo in the beginning, I guess I shoulda paid more attention to searching for one :/

I set it up so that the organ melody is playing the same melody on 2 octaves at the same time ( A#5, and A#4 playing at the same time for example), so maybe that's why it sounds too thick. I thought it sounded too thin without any lower sub tones though. :/ I'll try the EQ trick though. Downloading outside instrumental tones doesn't sound like a bad idea either...

By 3 semitones what do you mean exactly?

Edited July 14, 2014 by Graham Ir Naughtsea
Typed some things I needed to check first and found were wrong later

[MindWanderer]

By 3 semitones what do you mean exactly?

A semitone is a difference of one note on the keyboard. So, for instance, C natural and D# are three semitones apart. Just take the theremin part and just drag it all three notes down on the piano roll.

[timaeus222]

A semitone is a difference of one note on the keyboard. So, for instance, C natural and D# are three semitones apart. Just take the theremin part and just drag it all three notes down on the piano roll.

With FL Studio, you can do Shift+Down on the D-pad three times, alternatively.

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

I see... well I think that it was meant to be 2 semitones up actually, so that its first note lands on the root of the chord (G), right? At 3 it kinda sounded off :/ Well I've made a few minor alterations to the song, some by your recommendation, some by me thinking some other things needed to be changed, I'll put it up later on as the 2nd draft of the song. 2nd part I will begin as well pretty shortly. :3

[timaeus222]

The bass is quite loud, just FYI. As a result you also have the kick drum too loud, most clear at 1:37.

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/581961

Here, I made a revised version of it, changed a couple of things by your recommendation and a couple things I thought personally could be fixed. Here are the list of revisions:

-Cymbal crescendo was now just replaced with some progressively louder ride cymbal hits

-Bass line has been given 2 added notes

-Organ's lower sub tone was deleted so now it's a single line. I tried using the EQ to make it brighter but did not understand the specifics really. :/

-Theremin moved up 2 semitones so its first note is on the root of the chord. I hope that's what y'all were thinking I had to do... :/

-Piano arpeggios switched from major to minor 7ths.

-The theremin spazzing section at the end has had all the stretched notes eliminated so it's now just a bunch of bubbling frenetic staccato craziness. It's also fun to take other instrument sounds and copy the notes onto them from this section. :3

Hope this is liked a little better than before... guitar tone is still really "metal" but I still have no guitarists. :/

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

The bass is quite loud, just FYI. As a result you also have the kick drum too loud, most clear at 1:37.

I was kind of thinking the same thing, although I do like having loud drums and bass just as a personal thing. I will correct volume issues as I continue with the project. If anything I think the strings in the later half are the biggest issue. They will definitely be cut down a few notches, especially out of necessity for the 2nd part I have began a little work on. :3

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/582011

3rd and final draft for now, until the 2nd part is finished :3 I got rid of the other 2 versions as my Newgrounds was starting to crowd with these a little too much. Only updates this time were volume related ones. The bass guitar and the kick drums as well as the organ were lowered a tiny bit in volume, the strings were cut down a big amount and the theremin was raised a little. And a fade out was added to make the ending seem not so abrupt. Hope this makes for easier listening :3

[Graham Ir Naughtsea]

Bumping this up so it doesn't end up completely lost in time before the 2nd part is finished. The 2nd part is going to be a long time coming though before it's finished. I'm only about 15 seconds shy of 2 minutes into it, and its estimated total length will be around 5 minutes or so. This is because it's a very time-consuming part I'm working on, because they dynamics are raised, I have to add many overdubs of each instrument to increase their volumes and mix and blend together, and every instrument is playing its own melody or rhythm within the two chords throughout most of it (this section reverses the chords though, switching back and forth between Fm and Gm for almost its entirety). The drums are also increased in intensity a lot more, with a lot more volume, overdubs, and some really maniacal fills. It takes me about an hour to make 8 measures each time, even though I've pretty much figured out what I want each instrument to do. I am exporting an MP3 of it tonight to bring to one of my music teachers during practice Sunday evening to explain to him what I'm doing and to ask how to make it better, so I can also post it here and get some constructive critiques from you all as well. Really I cannot wait to finish the song because I am having a ton of fun making it, it is just a LOT of painstaking work and concentration required. The 2nd part is called "Here Comes the UFO!!!" which is, of course, a reference to Gulliver flying in a UFO in City Folk. If y'all want I can post a link here teasing what it sounds like so far with the rest of the piece. It (Here Comes the UFO!!!) begins with a section I made myself which plays for about 30 seconds and the rest of it is exactly as I described earlier. Well anyway I can put a Newgrounds link should anyone want to hear :3