Haunted Woods (Diddy Kong Racing) - Metal Remix/cover

[gavmq]

Hey guys, been visiting ocremix for a while but never posted here. I did a metal cover of haunted woods recently and I'd love some feedback. It would help me out on making next cover better. Hope you guys like it, thanks!

https://youtu.be/RlfHI-mCp78

[DevilBeats]

Overall a very good metal cover! I think the track works very well for this genre. The harmonic minor licks at 0:10 and such are neat but I feel the delay effect you have layered over those sections brings too many unwanted clashing notes.

[T- Ape]

Sounds awesome. Maybe add some synthesizer next time? Gives it some variety in the overall sound of the song.

[jnWake]

I wonder why you raise the tempo so quickly haha. It's nothing major but it's weird to have such an abrupt tempo change 10 seconds into the song!

Anyway, the arrangement is pretty cool. I don't honestly remember the source but it sounds very natural as a metal song. I agree with DevilBeats about the delay. It honestly sounds pretty bad since the delayed notes are awfully loud and it makes everything clash so much. Playing was pretty good mostly but I feel your vibrattos are kinda weak. With these kind of leads you expect the lead guitar to "scream" and your vibrattos and bends sound pretty tame. It may be a bit of a cruel comparison but listen to the lead guitar in this mix: https://soundcloud.com/ocremix/1-06-mega-man-x-sixto-sounds . That's what you should aim for in expresiveness with bends and vibrattos IMO (the bend/whatever at 1:35 is an amazing sounding one for example). You could also try using more slides and legatos in the lead too, instead of picking almost every note.

Overall, this is neat. Mixing is pretty good IMO, with the drums and rhytm guitar sounding powerful and clear. Some leads play on low octaves which can be a bit jarring though.

EDIT: To not sound overly critical haha, I listened to your cover of Dark Palace and you use way more "expressive" techniques there that are absent from this mix. You should try to incorporate those to this arrangement since they can add a lot of personality and style to the mix!

[gavmq]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

@DevilBeats agreed. I had this song finished a while ago, but it wasn't good and I re-recorded most of it. That was one element that I didn't, and I should have.

@T- Ape I tried using synth for the fast(ish) riff at 0:17 but it got lost in the mix. Could be my amateur mixing skills though, I'll try experimenting with synth more in the future.

@jnWake Lots of advice, wow! First I'll agree to disagree with the tempo change. The source song (https://youtu.be/l2ejlmLmi8c) only references the intro lick once, and I figured it would be a great way to make a splash into the song, and then stick the faster tempo. I think it sounds better slow. Also the drums do warn you of the tempo increase! Here's an example of someone else who maintained tempo (https://youtu.be/En5QKDXbhOQ)

Agreed about the vibrato. Trumpet is my primary instrument, I don't practice guitar much these days. Sometimes I need to think about what I'm doing on guitar rather than it coming naturally to me like it does on trumpet. Looking back, I didn't even think to vibrato when recording. I'll keep that in mind, and practice more.

The low part I'm assuming is at 0:56. Yeah I tuned down to I think...B? It was very low. Probably a bit too much, but I really wanted to make that riff sound suupper heavy. Would have been better had I transcribed the song into a different key I suppose.

Thank you, regarding the mix! I've been using headphones for a long time but I just bought a pair of Yamaha H7s to mix with and it reeaallly helped me out.

 

Thanks everyone!