Chimpazilla Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) Hello OC Remix team, I am Rodok, although my real name is William Rhoden. This remix is from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, "Gerudo Valley" song It is called Valley of Fire. The name is taken from a local state park near my home in Mesquite, NV. There are several original incarnations of this remix, and this is the first I am comfortable sending to you. I'm a classical violinist, teach orchestra publicly, and just recently got back into remixing after building a small studio over the past two years. I would appreciate any feedback positive or negative. Thank you, Rodok PS Here is the link to soundcloud, but I've attached an mp3 anyway. ---------------------------------------------------- Edited February 27, 2015 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 This is a suuuuper conservative arrangement of Gerudo Valley, and the sequencing is very stiff. The instrumentation needs an eq cleanup as the mixing sounds rather muddy overall. But I really like the subtle additive nature of the instrumentation, with the piano, choir and horns coming in. The horns sound quite fake and mechanical however (like they sound so real in the original source, right? ). This has a long way to go in terms of production, and the arrangement/melody needs some more variation, but I want to encourage you to keep working on this track because of the unique ideas being explored. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I agree that this would involve a LOT of reinvisioning and tweaking in order to meet our bar. The arrangement itself is more or less a cover that largely follows the same structure as the original. The square arps that play throughout the track are a cool touch that begins to hint at some original writing and ideas, as well as the unique harmonization with the choir and brass, but I want to hear more of that! I think there's a lot you could do to personalize this arrangement with original writing and ideas so that it doesn't feel so cover-ish. The sequencing on all elements of the mix, synthetic and organic, is very rigid and doesn't sound like much attention has been paid to the note velocities in order to give them a more natural, humanized flow. To your credit, the fusion of electronic and orchestral elements has some merit to it, but I don't feel like the execution is up to par here. My best suggestion to you would be to continue to practice making new songs and I think you will naturally improve with time. Right now, this arrangement isn't where it needs to be for OCRemix but you've clearly got some good ideas in mind - share more of your stuff on our Workshop forums and keep working at it NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Melodically, I agreed this was too conservative, but there was enough going on around the melody that I thought this was reasonably personalized. There are good ideas for changing the surrounding instrumentation and textures. That said, by the time you hit 2:08 and it's just the source tune continuing near-vebatim melodically, it would have been good to hear some sort of melodic variations to add more uniqueness here. Overall though, it's mainly the execution and production holding this concept back. The sequencing/timing was pretty stiff-sounding, and the textures were very thin most of the time, so the track feels empty and robotic, despite the effort put into it. If you can humanize your sequencing and learn how to create fuller textures, you'll be in much better shape. If you aren't doing so already, William, hit the Workshop, and post your arrangements there for advice on how to improve those specific things. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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