Chrono Trigger main theme (jazz piano and violin)

[Savino]

I reharmonized the main theme from Chrono Trigger and recorded a version with my friend who plays electric violin. Haven't recorded electric violin, so I'm looking for tips there. I'm also wondering how y'all feel about the EQing. Let me know.

Link to my version.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Savino

[APZX]

I would have preferred that the piano been a bit more dynamic with the notes. Just the way it is played really does not appeal to me too much.

The violin though is really muted sounding. Now, I have mixed a few tracks with electric violins in them and I have always found that the DI version of them is crazy nasally and just plain unpleasant to listen to. So, my question is where did all the high end go? Was it LPFed out or something (kinda sounds like that)? If you were concerned with just how nasally it sounds then this is a place where HF limiters really come in handy (think De-essers). Pair that up with some generous dynamic controls and aggressive EQ and I think you'd be surprised how it might turn out. Anyway, for this it sounds like some HF limiting followed by some HF shelving would be a good direction to go.

The other thing you should be mindful of is the different spaces these two instruments are occupying. The reverbs are completely different sounding which kind of threw me for a minute until I realized that is what you had done. Instead of putting the piano in the left channel and the violin in the right channel why not try have a really wide sounding piano (i.e. the low notes are very much cemented in the left and the high notes are very much centered in the right) and then put the violin in the center. Take out some of the bottom end of it and leave more the high end and take out some the high end from the piano. I think it would help with balancing out the track some and make the mix a little bit more interesting. Just my thoughts though.

At any rate this is incredibly enjoyable to listen to though regardless. The entire time I've been typing this I've been listening to the track essentially on repeat. So, yeah just a genuinely fun listen.

[timaeus222]

The rhythm is a little eccentric here because the piano is hard to focus on, and it makes the swing-like rhythm too weird. Probably actually is the panning that's causing that. And yes, the violin does seem too low-passed.

[Savino]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback. Yeah, I definitely was worried about the nasally sound, but ended up way overdoing it. I re-EQ'd the violin and just compressed the very high end a bit. I also centered both instruments and just made the piano a bit wider. I added a bit of different reverb to the piano, but I'm not sure how much I like it.

Here's the new version.

Let me know what you think, and thanks for the praise!

[Savino]

Still looking for a bit of feedback on EQing, reverb, etc...

[Eino Keskitalo]

Sweet playing, and a pretty cool arrangement too!

The whole thing sounds muffled and stuff. Looking at the EQ, the piano on its own doesn't seem to go much beyond 5kHz, and the violin could also have a liiittle more high frequencies to it. I also tried out EQ'ing the low/low mid EQ (from about 600Hz downwards) down by around 3dB and it sounds more balanced to me that way.

Reverb-wise this sounded good to me. Good work, hope you can give it a little more polish!

[Nostalvania]

I really like the arrangement, playing and the jazz reharms, nice work!

I agree with evktalo that everything sounds a bit muffled and i think adding more highs and cutting some lows might help. I'm not a mixing pro so i think i can't really give more specific feedback on the production, unfortunately.

However, one thing i noticed is that the overall volume is a bit low.

[Savino]

Alright, here's a more polished final version on my soundcloud. I took out the awkward sounding noise gate on the violin, turned off some compression on the piano, and took some of your advice on EQing. Let me know if y'all have lingering thoughts.

Link to new version.

[Nostalvania]

Yeah, definitely sounds better IMO.

[Eino Keskitalo]

Yup, sounding much more balanced. The noise is noticeable on the violin when there's no signal, but I didn't really find it that distracting. Can't offer more crits with these ears. Enjoying!