Final Fantasy X - "Riff Mountain"

[Manji]

Hey up everybody - so I've been fiddling around with this for the last few weeks and figured I'd throw it up for any feedback/thoughts that people might have. It's a 7-string guitar, heavy, atmospheric, RIFFZ version of the absolutely excellent Mt Gagazet theme from Final Fantasy X which I have affectionately titled 'Riff Mountain' just because. There are a few fudged notes so I'll be re-recording chunks of it, I've not done a great deal of mixing on this and it has no mastering whatsoever because that's an arcane and unknowable art to me, but nevertheless- feedback would be appreciated! I think it's decent, I'm just not sure whether the arrangement is where it needs to be. 

Cheeeers!

[Manji]

Bumpy bump - I've done a version 2 of this (with added bass, ambience, extra bits) which I'd consider ready for review! Feedback greatly appreciated

 

[Gario]

Ah, no source link, alas. I know you mention it in the OP, but it does help linking the source for us. Normally that's a straight requirement to get an eval, but since I've just been listening to that source I'll give it a go, anyway. Just a heads up for the future.

EVAL

Nice performances, great deep tone to the guitar. I like your style, and I think the track shows that you have the technical and production chops to pull off whatever you want, here.

There are a few things that I should point out, though. The track overall suffers with the levels of reverb that you have layered on everything, which makes it sound muddy. Tone down the reverb and your guitar will sound tighter, more powerful.

I can see that you changed the harmonies up a bit from the source. I can see that working, but the chords you settle on are not quite right. At 1:23 you've settled on playing power chords over that first note, but in the source (and in this arrangement, as well) the note that's one step lower is the key that the track is in - that first note was a neighbor tone. This makes the 1:23 - 1:54 (and similar sections) very difficult to get through. Changing harmonies from the source can work well, but drop the harmonies in those sections a whole step or else everything will sound off.

2:55 has a part in the background that's not meshing with the rest of the track. It corrects itself in a measure, but that decorative guitar part doesn't sound correct.

It's going in the right direction, but I think the arrangement needs a few tweeks in the harmonies used from time to time, and a careful look at what guitar licks harmonize well with the lead and what doesn't. It's probably 85-90% great with 10-15% being tough to listen to due to being off key, so it has potential to be pretty sweet. Also, be sure to tone down on the reverb and I could see this doing well on the panel. Good luck!