Liontamer Posted September 28, 2006 Share Posted September 28, 2006 ReMixer name: LoopyThePirate Real name: Darrell Reconose E-mail address: Website: http://www.myspace.com/loopythepirate Game remixed: Final Fantasy VII Song remixed: Highwind Takes to the Skies Link to song: Comments: This is my little rock + orchestra version of the Highwind theme from FF7. I got inspired by Dream Theater performing Octavarium with an orchestra on their new "Score" DVD. There's a bit more that I had started from that same inspiration, and I may be sending them in the near future as well. Hope you enjoy! -Darrell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 Whoa, I'd say you've got some mixing problems here man. The loud stuff right at the beginning borders on clipping, and after that everything sounds very densely packed together and cluttered. I'm definitely hearing either clipping or heavy limiting as the song progresses, particular in the e. guitar part, which is really not acceptable here. There's not a lot of room for the individual parts to breathe. Monitor your individual volume levels much more closely and make liberal use of EQing to tame highly resonant frequencies for individual parts. Some sort of stereo enhancement either through part doubling, stereo reverb, or ping pong delay on different parts would also help to make things sounds "wider". Postproduction issues aside, I also think the drum samples are not very good and could use some humanization. Guitar is nice, orch samples seem to be fine (though the clipping makes it kind of hard to tell). Focus on the mixing/mastering problems first though. The arrangement isn't as much of an issue as the technical stuff, but it's still on the weak side. You tend to stay pretty close to the original aside from a few break/transition sections (which are good - you just need more of 'em). Rather than repeating the main riff verbatim several times I would advise more variation on the melody either by changing pitches or rhythms. You can also change the chords or add your own to make things more interesting and give it your own spin. I like the concept here. Work on personalizing the arrangement a little more and redo the mixing and you'll be good to go. Resubmit! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 10, 2006 Author Share Posted October 10, 2006 http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 403 "The Highwind Takes to the Skies" Whoa, I'd say you've got some mixing problems here man. The loud stuff right at the beginning borders on clipping, and after that everything sounds very densely packed together and cluttered. I'm definitely hearing either clipping or heavy limiting as the song progresses, particular in the e. guitar part, which is really not acceptable here. There's not a lot of room for the individual parts to breathe. Monitor your individual volume levels much more closely and make liberal use of EQing to tame highly resonant frequencies for individual parts. Some sort of stereo enhancement either through part doubling, stereo reverb, or ping pong delay on different parts would also help to make things sounds "wider". Postproduction issues aside, I also think the drum samples are not very good and could use some humanization. Guitar is nice, orch samples seem to be fine (though the clipping makes it kind of hard to tell). Focus on the mixing/mastering problems first though.The arrangement isn't as much of an issue as the technical stuff, but it's still on the weak side. You tend to stay pretty close to the original aside from a few break/transition sections (which are good - you just need more of 'em). Rather than repeating the main riff verbatim several times I would advise more variation on the melody either by changing pitches or rhythms. You can also change the chords or add your own to make things more interesting and give it your own spin. I like the concept here. Work on personalizing the arrangement a little more and redo the mixing and you'll be good to go. I hate to crib zirc's vote like that, but I couldn't really add anything more to this that he didn't cover. Read everything he said all over again. You REALLY gotta pay more attention to your sound balance and overall production. Everything's indeed very cluttered together, and the arrangement isn't very interpretive overall compared to the original. Everything's at the same tempo with similar instrumentation ideas, though I liked the persoanlization of the guitar writing in there and the few glimmers of originality in there. Drum tone was really flimsy and the performance sounded really mechanically timed, e.g. 1:53-2:45; some of the drum rolls really exposed the sample. If you're gonna keep the tempo and instrumentation similar to the original, you definitely have to alter the rhythms and style a lot more than what you've offered here. Keep at it, bro. You show promise with these subs, but still need to keep working at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Orichalcon Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 Sounds like a cover to me. This is the kind of thing the Black Mages might attempt to make, and they'd probably do a much better job of it, but there are five of them, as opposed to one guy here. There are a couple of little changes here and there, but the arrangement is essentially the same. Even if you fixed up the rather bad production issues with this piece, it'd still be rejected for being too close to the source. Last suggestion is, if you don't know how to program drums, either get a drummer to play for you properly, or get someone else to program them for you. These drum patterns really are pretty lame, generic rock beats. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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