new to remixing/remastering game songs, have a question and any help is very appreciated.

[crysonfell]

I have a good ear for music/sounds, so remastering game songs isnt too hard for me...but only if the music is slower.

I was wondering, how exactly do people remaster songs from games, and make it sound so well for parts that are faster?

I mean Iv heard orchestral remasters that are like spot on, no mistakes, and I just cant figure out myself how they do it?

Theres a project I have been wanting to start, a real sounding orchestral remake of the final fantasy tactics soundtrack. But I cant do parts of songs where its too fast to make out the proper notes that were used...I have access to the piano sheet music for the ost, but that only helps so much when doing orchestral remakes.

Can anyone recommend maybe an mp3 slowdown program? Or just advice on how people do those parts

[timaeus222]

I would recommend something where you can rewind repeatedly to trace each note, like Audacity, or most DAWs---I use FL Studio, which has an unlimited-time free demo, but others have suggested Reaper. Audacity should be able to slow down sequences as well, though any stretching artifacts can be a bit offputting.

Besides that, I actually try to register the sequence in my head and hum it back (even if more slowly). If it's any faster than I can hum it, I just play it back in my head instead of humming it. Nothing much I can suggest to be able to do that other than try to do it, and practice it using sequences that are easy to distinguish above the accompaniment.

As for registering chords in your head, I would listen to simpler harmonies (like minor/major thirds, perfect fourths/fifths, etc), think about how they sound when combined, and get those to heart. That helps me break apart stacked chords and dense soundscapes and discern what I want to transcribe at the moment.

That was especially needed in this, which is a remake I attempted of this (I could probably improve the cello some more, but other than that I'm loving how it turned out), since I couldn't find any sheet music and had to do it by ear. What I did here was try to identify each distinct element in the soundscape and follow what it was doing. If I couldn't quite hear what it was doing, I wrote something reasonable to approximate what it was doing.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Definitions matter so that no one gets confused. I had to read the post a couple of times to be sure.

I think what you're describing in the first line is not "remastering", it is "transcribing" - aurally deciphering recorded music.

"Remastering" means that you would take an album's worth of recordings and master it again - which means balancing the levels, gapping between the tracks, track order etc.

"Remixing" in the context used on this site means two things. Taking stems of separate audio tracks from an existing work and balancing them to create a new cohesive and clean-sounding audio mix, this is the literal meaning of remixing. The second definition, which is technically "arranging" is creating a new arrangement of existing music. The same song, but with different instruments, chords, new sections etc.

Anyway, just about any DAW can slow down audio while preserving pitch. Reaper for example has a free evaluation period that never expires and it is extremely simple to slow the track down.

[Slimy]

1 hour ago, timaeus222 said:

That was especially needed in this, which is a remake I attempted of this

May I ask when and why did you make a remake of the Meeting and Parting song from Pokemon?

In response to the OP, most DAWs have audio editing tools. For general audio editing outside of a DAW, I'd recommend Audacity. There is a website called vgmusic.com where someone may have done the work for you, but there's no guarantee that those will be 100% accurate.

[timaeus222]

Thanks for asking - I started two days ago and finished yesterday, because I recently bought Blakus Cello and wanted to give another shot at remaking the song after having tried once before two or three years ago. Back then I couldn't discern all the notes/chords I needed to fully realize the remake, and I didn't get past the first 20 seconds. Since it is one of my favorite songs from my childhood, I really wanted to get this done.

[Gario]

1 hour ago, timaeus222 said:

I would recommend something where you can rewind repeatedly to trace each note, like Audacity, or most DAWs.

Pretty much that. With practice, you become good enough to get most sequences down with one or two listens, but it takes a lot of just going out there and doing it. In the mean time, slowing things down isn't recommended, as that means either the pitch slows as well, or confusing artifacts mess you up (like slowing down with Paulstretch, or something similar). Either pull individual notes out like this, or set the part on repeat and dictate notes one or two at a time. You'll get it, soon enoungh.

[Garpocalypse]

On 7/12/2016 at 8:14 PM, Gario said:

... In the mean time, slowing things down isn't recommended, as that means either the pitch slows as well, or confusing artifacts mess you up (like slowing down with Paulstretch, or something similar). Either pull individual notes out like this, or set the part on repeat and dictate notes one or two at a time. You'll get it, soon enoungh.

gonna have to be contradictory on this one.  Slowing a passage down is a great way to learn something especially if you have problems playing it at normal speed. If you take audacity for example and slow the tempo of something down by up to 30% in many cases it'll be easier to hear the intervals despite a small amount of artifacts that are generated. Beyond that though it allows you to hear how the notes are being shaped during the passage in greater detail. Even if you are the type to mouse in every single note,  little things that you can do learn to do to shape individual notes either through playing or through CC controllers and mod wheels are much easier to hear when a passage is slowed down.  

Not only that but slowing something down wakes your brain up to pay attention to what is being heard. Which is really why people are able to hear small articulations or individual notes so well as you mentioned to end up with a nearly perfect cover of the original. You might discover that the 2 notes played in succession that you thought were a 4th apart were actually a 5th, or that a note glissandos quickly from a minor 3rd before landing on the intended note, both of which can contribute to the "this doesn't sound wrong but something isn't right" phenomenon that occurs often in the early stages of ear training. 

As far as recommended programs.  Audacity is a great one for slowing things down though the free program can be cumbersome to use.  If you get NI Komplete, Guitar Rig has a variable tempo knob that goes up to 50% i think it was. Just load it as a plugin in your daw, set an in and out point, then crank the tempo knob down.