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Xenoblade Chronicles X - The Way (Updated 11/2/2016)


Kat
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I originally did this as a bonus track for the Meat and Potatoes compo. I'm mostly looking for comments/critique/advice on the mixing, as I'm pretty new to mixing vocals and mixing in general. The arrangement is set for the most part - it's really just a cover rather than a remix attempt.

Updated 11/2/2016 - Most parts humanized and/or redone, some elements removed, guitar re-recorded.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was so free to leave some feedback in the MnP thread. My apologies for not being able to provide much technical feedback, though, I am a visual artist and illiterate in music. :S What I did not write the initial comment is that while the volume/recording quality of the vocals sounds great to me, the instruments sound a bit audibly "separated", but not very obviously so. I'm not sure if it's the matter of samples or tuning (?), but the voice sounds very clear and "close", but the instruments sound a bit more specially removed, it kind of does not entirely feel like one organic entity. It does feel a bit as if Matt sings alone an a capella. 

 

 

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Bumping this up - Many months later and I've decided to revisit this. I was never really satisfied with it. In the previous version the first half was rather clustered and had a lot of poorly mixed and arranged parts blending together and getting in the way of everything. It wasn't until the second half that my concept started to show, and I wanted to go back and turn it into a more coherent arrangement.As @Chromarin pointed out above, the vocals and the rest of the arrangement weren't sounded separated. This was primarily because the arrangement was done and the vocals were recorded afterwards and essentially plugged into the mix. Nothing was changed or adjusted to properly fit them in. I think I've blended them in a little bit better this time, though I still worry about the volume.

As of this version I've re-recorded the rhythm guitar and removed the lead guitar part, which was panned right and not exactly adding anything. It more or less existed because the soundscape on the right was lacking(with most elements being center or left). The piano has been reworked and humanized across the board and now fills that gap a bit better. The drums were mixed separately at first to try and get a more balanced sound before being mixed with the rest of the track. The bass was toned down quite a bit(but I think it may be a tad bit too loud).

I'd love to hear some feedback on the changes, the mixing and the arrangement in general.

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The music part is pretty solid! The vocals need more umph. Perhaps consider a female vocalist or perhaps make the vocal part higher? I'm not trying to dog anything, I just am not feeling the vocals as they are (the later half they improve from 3:25 on). The acoustic take on this is very good! The lyrics are good and the arrangement structure is very good. Kudos to bringing a Sawano piece to OCR :D! I hope you do more music of his!

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Oh yeah, I was never 100% sure on the vocals. While I had originally considered getting a female vocalist, I wanted to go for a more relaxed feeling mix. I'm pretty set on them now, but I need to do a little work on the mix itself - It isn't matching up with the vocals quite as well as I'd like. Rerecording them is unlikely at this point anyways, but I think I can work with it.

Glad you enjoyed it!  I'm not sure if I'll submit it (it probably won't change much structurally and may not be distinct enough to pass), but I do want to actually finish it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I'll be damned. I went and re-read my original comment and it is funny, cause now that I am listening to the updated version, I actually really like Matt's vocals! :o And I also like his performance, kind of makes me think of some of the male characters in the game, actually. His voice and the instruments mesh much better in this version, everything is more organic. The recording quality of vocals sounds OK to me, too. But it might be an idea to maybe apply some sound effects/filters or whatever to them in some places, maybe layering or so...

I still feel that the .. um.. bells, (marimba??) are not quite well placed. Though the bell sound is lovely in itself and very fitting for a Xeno-soundtrack, it seems a bit awkward in some points, again when there are vocals. Maybe you could tone down it during the vocal parts? It does sound very, very lovely during the non-vocal parts! Love the overall choice of instruments and the bass doesn't seem to heavy to me.

Would definitely love to see this getting even more polished! Thanks for keeping at it!

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