Hydaelyn

[deusdiapente]

Remix of the Final Fantasy Prelude/Prologue themes

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rykh8wk0o3dj4ww/Hydaelyn.mp3?dl=0

 

Prelude

 

Prologue

 

[Rozovian]

This appears to have fallen between the cracks. Do you still want an eval of it?

Everyone, if you add an eval tag some time after the last post in a thread, you should also bump your track so it's easier for evaluators to find. It might be why we missed this one. Also, I suggest you name your thread something informative, usually the name of the game, possibly specific track, remix genre, or something along those lines. It's useful for listeners.

[deusdiapente]

Sure, I'd still like to know how I can improve this track composition/production wise

[The Nikanoru]

Alright, since you asked, I'll lend an ear.

I think you let the intro go on too long before you 'release the rest of the band.' I get the whole gradual build thing and the introduction of the chorus, but it think two complete circuits of the Prelude is too long to wait. Maybe see how it sounds if you start with piano and chorus?

I like the arrangement, but aside from the solo violin and the end run of the FF Theme, there isn't much variation in the first three minutes of the track. I would suggest keeping that violin solo a little closer to the beginning and adding a shred or two from that heavy distortion rhythm guitar I hear.

I think some mixing is in order too. I'm not very experienced at mixing, but I can tell you that the piano and violin seem very 'bright' sounds, the guitar very 'dark,' and the percussion is very 'far back' but the kick and cymbals seem 'close.'  Violins seem okay to me.

I disagree with the progressive fadeout ending. It leaves me hanging. My personal feeling is a big hair-metal-style rock out ending, but that would be difficult with the violins....

Sounds good so far. Hope to hear more.

[Rozovian]

This must begin with an apology. Posted May 14th. Not sure when it was set to eval, but I saw it August 17th, you confirmed it's still on eval on September 3rd, and now it's October 21st. That's 160 days. That should not happen.

Please, please just PM us when we're slow. We've promised to eval. Hold us to it.

--

Structurally, the arrangement is rather simple. Prelude -> prelude with vox -> prelude with strings and rock -> source-derived melodies with violin and metal -> prologue that starts in a break. It's a bit of a medley, in how sharp the transition from source A to source B is. There is some references to it after 4 minutes, but those could be a lot earlier too. 

The repetitions of the Prelude make it feel a lot more repetitive than it needs to be. You're essentially repeating the same musical idea, with different rhythms and backings, for 4 minutes. The rather mechanical sequencing of the piano doesn't help the minutes it's there, nor does the simple drum beat. Making those sound more human, more like a performance than computer-played sheet music, would do a lot for the track.

The instrument choice is a little odd. Piano, vox, strings; sure. Electric guitar and metal drums; sure. All of that together? It can work, but it has to be handled differently. I can imagine a pretty intro with the first stuff, a switch to the metal instrumentation, a pretty break, and more metal at the end.  I can imagine the metal providing backing for the violin, or the vox or strings supporting the metal. Here, the elements feel disparate, like they accidentally ended up on stage together and are doing their own thing to the same song without listening to each other. That's an arrangement problem. When do which instruments do what together with which other instruments, and why?

Instrument levels could be more balanced. At 3:18, the violin is really loud compared to everything else. Something to watch out for. I can also hear some compression problems, most noticeable in the crashes in the metal sections around 4 minutes in. Find some good reference tracks and compare your mixing to theirs. Good reference tracks are immensely useful. My music improved when I started using them. Find something in a similar style and listen for how each instrument sounds: how loud is the snare, how bright, how heavy; how loud is the lead, how bright, how big...

The sounds themselves are fine. I think the cymbals are the worst, and they're not horribad. I like the metal+violin combo, and there's a lot of cool things that can be done with it. You're on to something good here.

No bass? The track's frequency balance seems a little lacking in the lows, despite how the guitars try to fill that up. The stereo balance is sometimes a bit off-center too, which might not be a problem on speakers but is rather annoying on headphones.The Prologue part sounds too fast. You could solve it by slowing everything down, but that would make everything longer and the Prelude parts worse. I would consider a tempo change at the point of the break, just as the Prologue starts. If it works, great; if not, don't use it.

The areas in which you can improve: more human sequencing, less repetitive arrangement, more balanced instrument choice/arrangement, track levels, compression, and frequency balance and panning.

This is not an ocr-level track, but in the half year since it was posted, your skills might have improved to the point where you could make one, especially if you now know how to deal with the issues I identified here. Next time you've got a track on eval, PM some evaluators if you end up waiting more than two weeks, okay?