Papers Please - Orchestral Cover

[OC/DC]

Hi everyone!

I did an orchestral cover based on the Papers Please main theme, check it out!

Don't hesitate to comment, I am open to any suggestions!

 

(and sorry for my horrible english, I will try to improve that in the future)

[Moseph]

I think the melody up until 0:50 doesn't play nicely with the accompaniment. You have a quiet dulcimer sort of instrument playing melody over top of loud brass stabs, and the brass tends to cover the melody up. The orchestration is much clearer after 0:50 because first the brass drops out, then later the melody itself is played by the brass. In the section before 0:50, I'd suggest either toning the brass down substantially or playing the melody on a trumpet instead of the dulcimer-like instrument.

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Your English was actually great, at least in that first post. I wanted to affirm that for you so that you know it's good.
 

  On 5/17/2015 at 4:00 AM, Moseph said:

I think the melody up until 0:50 doesn't play nicely with the accompaniment. You have a quiet dulcimer sort of instrument playing melody over top of loud brass stabs, and the brass tends to cover the melody up. The orchestration is much clearer after 0:50 because first the brass drops out, then later the melody itself is played by the brass. In the section before 0:50, I'd suggest either toning the brass down substantially or playing the melody on a trumpet instead of the dulcimer-like instrument.

Good criticisms here; I agreed with Moseph for the most part, though I don't feel you need to replace the dulcimer-style lead. Still, adjusting the balance in the first minute so that the melody doesn't get drowned out would feel more appropriate.

Some sort of build-up or dropoff that took out the marching style drums and slowed things down could be interesting, but that may not work with the overall feeling you're going for, which is just a more expansive sound that keeps the feel of the original track.

In any case, this was a pretty solid arrangement despite it being so short. You did a good job varying the instruments so that the overall presentation didn't feel too repetitive.

[OC/DC]

Thank you for your advices and your kind words!

Well I tried to be as close as possible to the original sound in the first 50 seconds, so I choose this dulcimer-style instrument (which is the Dobro by 8Dio) but yeah the balance is a bit weird.

Balancing/Mixing the instruments is my main issue at the moment (with other remixes I did as well), I will try to improve that in the future!

[David Kiraeth]

Really not bad ! I agree with Moseph too, the melody is a little overwhelmed by the others instruments during the first minute. Otherwise, it is a pretty good arrangement and so the mixing.

You may want to play a little bit with the audio panning. For instance, the trumpet at 1:26 could pass from right to left at each "phrase", like they were responding to each other. But that's maybe just me who likes to play with panning

In any case.. Well done ! (my english may be bad too by the way ^^).