Regal Rhythm (Legend of Dragoon - Royal Castle)

[Kat]

So this tune came to mind a while back and I finally got around to putting this piece together. It's an acoustic(as much of my stuff is) mix of that catchy Royal Castle theme from The Legend of Dragoon. It's still a work in progress, and I'm hoping to expand it a bit. Hope you enjoy it!

https://soundcloud.com/katallen-12/regal-rhythm

[audiclian]

Hi Kat,

I was listening to your piece and I think that's a strong start or sample for a remixed piece. I haven't played LoD in a very long time so I forget the actual tune of the source mater. However, I can definitely identify a very relaxed, medieval vibe from your recording. That said, it definitely needs more to flesh it out. Are you currently considering any modifications to the piece already? If not, I would recommend some (possibly light) percussion to emphasize the rhythm and other instrumentation, if possible with what you're working with.

Looking forward to hearing more from an LoD remix!

[Kat]

I haven't considered much at this point - I'd love to expand the instrumentation, but I'm not sure if I will. Light percussion was fairly prominent in the original piece and I'm not sure where I'd go with it, though I have experimented with a few things - Maracas, a couple tom-tom drum variations, etc - and haven't found anything I felt fit.

For the most part I think I may redo the "solo" portion that starts around 2:05. It could definitely be fleshed out a lot more before hitting that final fade-out. And then there's that little solo portion about halfway through - I'm thinking of redoing that on the 1st string rather than the 6th and giving it a softer more delicate sound.

[audiclian]

Well, I feel like you will likely be asked to rerecord it at some point, or equalize it if you have that option; there are points throughout the song (listening both on speakers and with my ATH-M50 headphones) with clipping and the low notes of the guitar were not coming through as clearly as you'd probably like.

Also, upon re-listening and listening to the source again, I noticed that while you have the chord progression and a lot of the notes played by the instruments in the the source, you do not have a very strong part to play the main horn melody. A friend of mine listened as well (another LoD fan, who has the OST on his iPod) said that he was unable to tell that it was the Royal Castle theme, and I think that is because a lack of that melody. And yes, flesh out your individual solo to make it more distinct from the main melody, and try experimenting with the lower strings - just keep in mind the balancing/EQ issue mentioned above when doing that.

[Kat]

Also, upon re-listening and listening to the source again, I noticed that while you have the chord progression and a lot of the notes played by the instruments in the the source, you do not have a very strong part to play the main horn melody. A friend of mine listened as well (another LoD fan, who has the OST on his iPod) said that he was unable to tell that it was the Royal Castle theme, and I think that is because a lack of that melody.

Ah, yeah, that little horn melody. I just couldn't find a place for that in this, but I know what you mean. It's not quite the same without it.

I never really planned to submit it to OCR, though. That goes for most of my acoustic stuff - I just don't have the time or equipment for a solid, clean recording. I may rerecord it when I have the time and try to clean up the lower end a bit, as I'm quite aware of a few areas where it gets a little muddy.