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Undertale - Megalovania Orchestral Remix


Dissidia
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Was 0:12 supposed to have a dissonance? I ask because it didn't really feel like an appropriate place to have a dissonance.

The drums at 0:16 are mixed too quietly to have much of an impact, to me it feels like a waste of their potential, just having them in the background.

The chiptune aspect of it sounds extremely bad, sorry. It doesn't mix together with the orchestra at all. It's very dry, whereas the orchestra has lots of reverb, and it seems off pitch? It's tone clashes with the entire orchestra. Frankly, I think you should just get rid of it up until 1:47, and probably change it's tone too.

I can't really comment on the orchestra until 1:20 - it just sounds like mud underneath your chiptune sound. I think ~1:26 could have more interesting chords, it seems to just be octaves now. The chimes at 1:31 are too dry and loud compared to the rest of the orchestra. And the trumpet sounds too quiet. But I do like the transition to 1:48.

Why the fade-out ending? It's disappointing, you should have a climax instead.

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The new chord at 0:12 sound much better.

I still think the drums at 0:15 could be mixed louder, and possibly be more bassy?

At 0:24, when when tuba comes in to start playing the main motif, I think some new instruments should play over the strings for variation's sake.

0:32 - 1:20 sounds extremely messy. The trumpet seems to be playing everything early? And the strings at 0:56. Or maybe everything else is being delayed with an overuse of reverb? I can't hear anything underneath the melody. And the drum kit that comes in is mixed very quietly, and could use some compression to make it punchier.

At 1:02 and 1:18, you've taken a part that was originally a pitch-shift, and transcribed it into half-steps. I assume you're doing this because everyone who made a midi of this song wrote it for piano? The half-steps don't sound anywhere near as good as the pitch-shift did in the original. I suggest you have the instruments that could realistically slide pitch do so, or cut out the half-step and just have a whole step there. The half-step compromise doesn't sound as good.

On it's own, the chiptune-melody at 1:48 sounds pretty good, but I'm worried the orchestra under it has the same problems that it does at 0:32, and I can't hear it because of how loud the melody is mixed.

The new ending is better than a fade out, but it still feels anticlimactic.

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It's much better than the previous versions, but I still think the mixing needs work. Even though it's the melody, the trumpet sounds disproportionately louder than everything else, (and everything under it sounds disproportionately quiet,) making it hard to hear any of the chords, rhythms and counter-melodies underneath it.  It all just sounds like noise currently. At 1:36, the electric guitar could be much louder than it is currently. I assume you wanted it to be playing an exciting rhythm under the melody? But it's too quiet to make out, so it's not really adding much to the song except a quiet texture.

On 1/20/2016 at 11:22 PM, dannthr said:

Remember, when you work a long time on a track (especially when mixing), it's really easy for you to hear something you already know about than it is for someone who doesn't know what's coming to hear it.  It's a mental trick your brain plays on you as you become increasingly familiar with a pattern, it becomes easier to spot the pattern.  This can create an artificial sense of clarity where it doesn't exist.

Are the strings playing the exact same thing as the trumpet when it has the melody? If so, I don't think it's necessary, and it's just making it muddy. You could try having the trumpet and strings alternate between carrying the melody, and have the strings play chords when they aren't needed as the melody.

The drum kit, (not the taiko(?) drums at 0:15,) is still mixed very quietly, and could use some compression to make it punchier and have more energy. For reference, you can hear how loud it is in the original song. The bass could be much louder too.

I don't mind the orchestra being more subdued overall when the chiptune melody comes in though.

At 0:52, the trumpet sounds out of tune? General imperfections will make the song sound more like a real orchestra of course, but it's an important melody, (my favorite in the source actually,) so it's a distracting part of the song for the trumpet to suddenly become sloppy.

At 0:52 and 1:08, the trumpet also becomes messy in general. I imagine it would be a hard part of the song for a trumpet player, so I don't think the notes should be played as legato as they are. I also think the notes might be blurring together because of an overuse of reverb, or because the strings are playing with the trumpet and they don't have as much clarity. Perhaps you could try putting less reverb on everything, then listen to the song again to see if it sounds better?

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I can't figure out why you quoted me, Slimy.

To the OP, a good general rule about audio is that people can pay attention to around 2 and a half things at once.  Think about the two things you want to focus on at any given time throughout the work, it can change as the work progresses (things can come into and out of focus), and think about the thing you want to be there but maybe people don't pay attention to closely (often times this is our rhythm section).

By the same idea, you could think of a Bob Ross painting, there's a background that shapes the over all feel or tone but we don't give it close attention, there's a middle ground and a foreground--the middle ground and foreground elements take turns at being the focus and often times we can see them both at the same time--but that kind of maxes out the frame for us, we don't want more.

Always keep your ears fresh and try to be objective (this is often why people prefer utilizing outside engineers for their mixing process--they're usually too close to the material to be objective about their balance/processor judgements)--always think about the person who has never heard the work before and what their experience will be like.

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57 minutes ago, dannthr said:

I can't figure out why you quoted me, Slimy.

I felt it was relevant, since I think everything but the melody was consistently mixed too quietly, and you said it better than I could. But if you think I was wrong, don't hesitate to say so. Actually, the mixing sounds different now that I've just woken up, so either the OP replaced the file with an update, or I was completely off my rocker yesterday.

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That's good advice Dannthr, I usually put way too much stuff in my songs unless I'm doing 8-bit. Keeping ears fresh and being objective is really hard when you lose count of how many versions you have done. Luckily there is outside sources to help with that like you said. I would've been stuck a long time ago on this song if I didn't get feedback.

I did most of the changes you suggested Slimy, the "electric guitar" isn't supposed to loud, I tried making it louder but it didn't sound good to me. (disonance, not the best "electric guitar" sound). I wasn't sure what you meant by the percussion at 0:15 but i put some compression on that patch (it's an "all hits" type of patch from Albion) anyways, I also compressed the bass and the lows in general. Also reduced the reverb on many things (mainly the fast/blurred notes instruments).

Edit: Thanks for the feedback btw, much appreciated.

Edited by Dissidia
Forgot to thank
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Maybe it's just my monitors, but It felt like the guitar was too quiet, too far into the background and drowned out by some of the orchestral elements. It doesn't have to be overwhelming, but I felt like it could have been just a bit louder. It also sounded like you made gratuitous use of palm mutes, and while that isn't always a bad thing it just didn't sound right to me. One other thing(that's really more of a personal preference thing) is the percussion that comes in around 1:20. It felt like it should have had more "boom" before transitioning into the softer part of the song.

But overall I really like it. It's well done and an enjoyable listen.

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18 hours ago, Kat said:

Maybe it's just my monitors, but It felt like the guitar was too quiet, too far into the background and drowned out by some of the orchestral elements. It doesn't have to be overwhelming, but I felt like it could have been just a bit louder. It also sounded like you made gratuitous use of palm mutes, and while that isn't always a bad thing it just didn't sound right to me. One other thing(that's really more of a personal preference thing) is the percussion that comes in around 1:20. It felt like it should have had more "boom" before transitioning into the softer part of the song.

But overall I really like it. It's well done and an enjoyable listen.

Thanks for listening and your feedback. I might have overdone the guitar and made it too loud now instead but it was definitely too quiet before as you mentioned. I lessened the amount of palm mutes but there is still quite a bit though (but it shouldn't sound as off now that I removed some of the lows because they were making the palm mutes sound weird/bad) I tried making the percussion at 1:20 feel stronger.

 

 

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The palm mutes still bug me sometimes, but that's just like, my opinion man. Otherwise I can hear the guitar coming through a lot better now. Removing some of the lower end certainly cleaned it up a bit. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of the Dual Mix on Youtube, but with more of an orchestral focus. Sounding really good!

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On 2016-02-04 at 4:46 AM, Kat said:

The palm mutes still bug me sometimes, but that's just like, my opinion man. Otherwise I can hear the guitar coming through a lot better now. Removing some of the lower end certainly cleaned it up a bit. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of the Dual Mix on Youtube, but with more of an orchestral focus. Sounding really good!

I tried improving the guitar writing again, some of the mutes were really bugging me too.

Glad you like it. Dual Mix is really nice, probably my favorite version.

 

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