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Twilight Princess - Midna's Theme/Boss Defeated Remix


Deedubs
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Hi, everyone.  Aside from a few entries on one of the ongoing album projects, It's been too long since I last submitted any remixes to OCRemix.  I'm looking to change that.

Here is a rough draft of a remix of Midna's Theme and Boss Defeated tracks from Zelda: Twilight Princess:

Rough Draft: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KnMyYf46W7eDlUZW1lSlUyTDg/view?usp=sharing

1st Revision: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KnMyYf46W7c1pBLThUUldHS2M/view?usp=sharing

2nd Revision: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KnMyYf46W7bGtwWjlvV1VnWTA/view?usp=sharing

Original tracks: 

 

 

 

 

A few particular things I'm looking for feedback on are:

1.  The transition at 0:42.  My aim was to create the feeling of suddenly waking up from a dream, but is the transition too abrupt?

2.  Is the arrangement too conservative?

3.  From 2:48-3:28 does the mixing get too crowded as more instruments are added?  That has been a weakness of mine in past tracks.

If there are any other issues with the track, I would most certainly love to hear feedback on them.  I know the english horn sounds a bit wonky and I've been working at it to tighten it up, but sometimes it feels like CineWinds has a mind of its own.

Thank you for listening!

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I love how ethereal and spacious this is in the beginning:

The transition at :42 was nice but I would add something to give it more impact, to let the listener know to get ready to transition into a new phase. Maybe you could add a low volumed bomb or *booooooom* sound if you get what Im saying.

After the transition it sounds really nice, its really peaceful. Maybe you could add some low volumed strings in that part to bring it a bit more life

I really love the 2:48 and above, but I would lower some of the sounds to not have it sound so bunched up, but it sounds really good really jazz like

Overall, I give this a 8.8/10 I love it!

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I can tell you, I don't think this arrangement is too conservative. I think this arrangement is great, actually. I think you've got something good going here. 

The transition at :42, to add to what Smooth4lyfe1987 said, I don't think it sounds bad, but with sounds that are present imediately after it, adding something in the low end would be cool, maybe not something like a huge impact, but maybe something subtle, something with a bit of snap to it maybe to get that sudden jolt of "This is the reality." that you're looking for. 

I think if you were to post this as is the judges might mention the fact that some of the fonts are a little mechanical, and what stands out to me the most is the piano at around the 2:18. Sound dry to me for the type of roominess that you're looking for with that echo feel in there. Try adding just a touch of reverb, not too much, but just enough to wetten that up, and I could say the same for the 4:05 point in addition when it's just piano.

BY THE WAY, LOVE THE ENDING CRESCENDO. I dunno what chord that is, but it's so lush and beautiful and the tail of that crescendo with the fade out is phenomenal.

Aside from that, the (clarinet?) soundfont in there does sound a little fake, but it's not contrasting too hard with any other hyper-realistic sounds, so it's not horrible, but still noticeable at the very, very least. 

The bass I can tell is a soundfont, but my issue isn't the realism but rather the bass seems a little too present whenever it's in the soundscape, maybe just turn it down a bit. 

All this being said, I love the attention to detail with the dynamics. I'm not an official reviewer or anything, but these are my takeaways. Arrangement is phenomenal in my eyes. Nice work on this so far, keep at it! I'm getting chills listening to some of the chords in there. Beautiful, beautiful chord work.

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Thank you @Smooth4lyfe1987 and @Ridiculously Garrett for the feedback.  I really appreciate it!  It will certainly help me get this remix into much better shape for submission!

8 hours ago, Ridiculously Garrett said:

BY THE WAY, LOVE THE ENDING CRESCENDO. I dunno what chord that is, but it's so lush and beautiful and the tail of that crescendo with the fade out is phenomenal.

 

I, myself, was actually surprised with how well the ending chord worked out considering it contains a D#, E, F, F#, A#, and B, but they're all spaced out it such a way so they don't seem to clash with each other.  I'm not exactly sure how the chord would officially be categorized.  That part of my music theory education seems to elude me currently.  Here's the chord, with the F notated as an E# for consistency:

593dec8defce6_2017-06-1118_19_14-Chord.pdf-AdobeAcrobatReaderDC.png.bad5205b064fd8f672aabb910ddc248c.png

Originally, I was calling it an E Major 13 (#11) chord with a b9 added up top, but I figured it's just easier to call it an F# Major 7 chord stacked on top of an E Major 7 chord.

I'm a sucker for thick chords :-P

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Yeah, if I were to write that chord, I'd call it an Emaj13(b9). Because as written it's E, G#, B, D#, F#, (which is an Emaj9), then you're bringing in A# which is the #4 (11), then C# is the 6 (13), and then finally E#... theoretically, it would be the #1??? I think? I would just think about it as the b9 because the enharmonic of E# is F which is just the b9. So I would write it that way. But since you're using a polychord with 2 major seventh chords stacked on top of each other you could always just write it like:

F#maj7/Emaj7

like you said you were. Either way.

I love chords. 

EDIT: Aw wait I just realized that The #4 is just the 11th lol. And C# is the 13th (6 and 13 are the same thing lol.) That's what I get for trying to think about that right when I get up. So I'd actually write it like Emaj13(b9).

Edited by Ridiculously Garrett
Stupid chord mistakes.
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eval:

Really nice sound choices throughout. There's something familiar about the intro, I think it's a Mazedude remix that it reminds me of. And no, the transition is fine, not too abrupt.

Can't tell if the string pads are supposed to be strings or pads. They behave more like pads. The more acoustic elements of the track suggest they're strings, though. Not sure what to think about them, but in this state they stand out a bit. Smoothing out their writing should help.

Not sure what to think of the bass either. It might just be that I prefer the bass lower, or that I think it sounds fake. Possibly both. But something bugs me about it. 

It gets rather messy around 3 minutes in though, so your instincts are right. For cleanup, think about the hierarchy of the instruments, which ones need to be heard and which ones can be pushed into the background. Mix levels accordingly, do some EQ separation and carve space for the more important instruments in the overall sound. Consider whether you truly need all those instruments, or if there are some that you can remove from this part, or at least strip of some of the thickness (in texture, frequency range, clarity, whatever).

The drums in the mess add to it enough to warrant a separate mention. Adjusting the cymbals' EQ might help, as they currently have a rather noisy and trashy sound.

The overall sound in the loud section sounds like it's been pushed a bit too hard against a multiband compressor, or had a loud exciter or something on half the frequency range. It's an artificial-sounding loudness. I think it's plenty loud, you can ease up on the squashing a bit. Once you've cleaned up that section, this issue might resolve itself. But in case it doesn't, it's worth listening for.

It's not too conservative imo. Sounds like a nice, creative arrangement. I like it, and I don't think I liked the source much. So job well done on that front. :D

I think the only thing keeping it from being posted is the loud and messy section, which needs to be less messy. The other issues are worth looking into, but I don't think they're dealbreakers. Cool stuff.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Alright, it took me forever to get around to fixing up this arrangement.  I got a little distracted in the last month.  The evaluation was much appreciated, @Rozovian.  

Here is my 2nd revision: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KnMyYf46W7bGtwWjlvV1VnWTA/view?usp=sharing

Some of the major changes I can name off the top of my head:

- Went through and changed the (Cinematic Strings 2) full strings patch I was using for chords and separated it out into separate string patches (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, etc.) so everything there should sound more natural.

- Changed the bass guitar patch to a different one that I think blends in a little better and hopefully sounds less fake

- Dialed back the compression on the master track

- Worked on the hierarchy in the buildup and the louder section afterwards starting from 2:49

- Added a couple of counter-melodic cello lines

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

eval:

The woodwind at 1:20 has a couple of notes that stand out, listen for the little jumps in intensity, up or down but especially up. You might want to clean up the velocities around there.

You might want to fiddle a bit with the EQ around 2:15 and on, since the guitar arpeggio is brighter and more clear than the woodwind, making it unclear which element is in focus. The ears are drawn to the louder, brighter, clearer element, and when that seems to be one that's intended to be in the background, it gets confusing.

I'm a little concerned about some resonant frequencies during the busy section in the second half, but I know my speaker setup hypes the highs a bit, so it might just be that. Test it out on a couple of different listening setups (eg pro audio monitors, phone, earphones, headphones, car, computer speakers) to see if that part needs some EQ trimming or if it's just my setup.

There's also some rather prominent lows, even in the soft sections. I get that it's intentional, but it's a little loud at times, and I wonder how balanced it is. That's another reason to check it on multiple listening setups, and on different listening levels. I've realized with my own work that it can sound fine on one setup and not so fine on another.

It's quite dynamic. This makes it an annoying track to listen to on low listening levels, but very rewarding to listen to on higher volume. Consider whether you want to raise the level of the softer sections. Maybe you should. Maybe it's fine.

I can keep finding little annoyances to nitpick, and can tell you my personal preferences, but I don't think you need another eval on this. Any issues this still has are minor and/or subjective. And it's quite enjoyable regardless. Nice work.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This can't be allowed to be swallowed into the abyss. This is too beautiful of a remix. I literally felt like I was somewhere else just listening to this. I saw myself in a cave, looking up at an opening where I could see the clouds and sky. Once I climbed out, and below me was a forest, with mountains in the distance. I don't usually say weird stuff like this, but that's the imagery that was there for me.

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Thank you again, @Rozovian for the thorough feedback.  The woodwind has been especially difficult to get to behave and I've been considering doing away with it and either 1) record myself on flugelhorn, or 2) ask one of my colleagues if they'd be willing to record soprano sax for me assuming they have a good recording set up.  The other issues mentioned wouldn't surprise me at all and I plan to spend some quality time going over some mixing fundamentals again once I finally submit this track.

And thank you to @Uffe von Lauterbach and @Light_of_Aether for the kind words.  Due to, among other things, job stuff, trying to finish up an album, working on a new hobby, and, admittedly, laziness, this remix has been on the back burner quite a bit.  I feel inspired to get back at it once I have free time this week.

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