Banjo-Kazooie - Clanker's Cavern Orchestral WIP

[about:blank]

This is pretty much my first attempt at an orchestral remix, so I'd like to get some feedback/criticism before I go much further. Don't hold back if you think it's crap. I won't be too offended.

https://app.box.com/s/430e6c38wzzn2mvn6w7z

[timaeus222]

I see this more like a cinematic-electronic hybrid film-score-type remix, actually, and I personally find that harder because it asks for solid perception of low bass (this is not obvious). The concept is nice so far, but you've basically set a standard for yourself by using these high quality cinematic drums and percussive instruments, in comparison to everything else, which was handled in a way that makes the overall sound design combination feel disjointed (this is not obvious). It's kind of a situation where you bought high quality samples early on, perhaps, and tried to integrate it into what you already had, creating a discrepancy in sound quality (again, this is not obvious). There is a fair amount of low bass frequencies in your drum samples and they currently overpower your other instruments. However, I think you can find some nice inspiration from these since you're going in this direction:

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/hackers-at-work

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/the-black-flag

In the beginning, the harp feels a little too quiet, and I can barely hear it over the nature sounds (try turning up your listening volume for that part so you can hear the volume differences more clearly, and then turning your listening volume back to normal). Also, the woodwind lead at 0:22 has some sort of awkwardness to its attack. It feels like either it resets its phase (restarts its envelope) or is doubled up with some sort of plucked instrument. As a result, it sounds as if the player is... I guess re-breathing constantly, in a sense.

At 1:01, there's some major overcompression, so all your drums are too loud. At 1:20, the bass instrument harmonically clashes with the bells in a way that doesn't sound like natural dissonance to me. The piano that comes afterwards is also mechanical in rhythm and velocity variation. Layering it with that glockenspiel was a nice idea, but I think that can hide some of the softness to the piano tone sometimes, if the velocities of the glock are too similar. Softness to a piano's tone would be a sign that there's many velocity layers, which would say that it's a dynamic piano sample, so if all the notes sound "hard" (plunky), it might sound low-quality.

So I think fundamentally, you need to work on orchestration techniques so that you can get your non-drums up to par with your drums. Or, just use different drums if you have them. It's not you; this musical direction is just hard, that's all.

Edited November 5, 2014 by timaeus222

[about:blank]

Thank you so much for the thorough feedback. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'll check out those articles regarding orchestration as soon as I get a few more free moments.

To be honest, I'm using Symphobia Lumina for just about everything here with the exception of the piano (Addictive Keys) and sound effects. Most of the music I've made in the past is nothing like this, so I know I have a *lot* to learn. It's very likely that I'm probably sequencing everything very poorly

I'll upload a follow-up once I read up on orchestral production a bit more and tend to the present errors.

[timaeus222]

Thank you so much for the thorough feedback. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'll check out those articles regarding orchestration as soon as I get a few more free moments.

To be honest, I'm using Symphobia Lumina for just about everything here with the exception of the piano (Addictive Keys) and sound effects.

Hm, that library sounds really good. I do think you can definitely work with that.