FF6 - Kefka's Theme Remix

[Shid0]

Hello fellow remixers,

 

Here is my take on well-known Kefka's Theme from FF6. At first I thought it would sound a bit spooky for halloween, then I started experimenting and thus went for a more spacey ambient sound. I liked where it went so here I am.

 

I would love some feedback and reviewing on this track. Hope you guys enjoy it !

http://www.mediafire.com/file/a9byk9dbvozb02u/Freaking_Out_v2.mp3

 

Edited: Reworked version

[Jorito]

Interesting arrangement, I like it  Not much to criticize, or it would be that I find the snare a bit weak and buried at places (e.g. the middle bit around 1:30 and the part that starts at 2:20). Also the ending could be a bit stronger. I would probably cut it off at 3:01, nice and dramatic.

Also, with the vibe you have going on, it might be nice to dirty it up with some bit crushing and glitching; I think it would go well with this style.

[Shid0]

Alright,

Thanks a lot for the really quick advice, Jorito, i'm happy you like it.

Iindeed the snare gets really weak at times, I just fixed that.

About the glitching, it's something i have to experiment on, but I think it could sound really cool, and it would fit in the frame I have for the song alright. I'm just not really experienced with it so i'll need to experiment on it for a while.

 

The ending tho i'm not sure i'll change, i like it that way personally

 

Cheers !

[Shid0]

Okay following Jorito's advice, i reworked my mix to get a better sound out of my snares and better sound all around. Tried a bit of glitching too but not too much.

 

Oh i'm also putting my mp3 on mediafire from now on since i don't really like how it sounds on soundcloud.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/a9byk9dbvozb02u/Freaking_Out_v2.mp3

[Ronald Poe]

I like it. I can see Kefka dancing to this funky and creative interpretation of his theme. I don't see any problems with it at all. Definitely should submit this when it's done ...

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Production:

I like it. Very tight and clean, every element has its own space, I can clearly hear every detail. Good EQ balance, good choice of synth tones, everything blends well. Each element feels like it has exactly the right reverb.

 

Arrangement:

I love the overall feel of this track. Dark, creepy, a little weird, very Kefka-esque. I think you really captured what was great in the original track, and emphasized all the right pieces. Cool pizzicato intro. Love the textures. The pacing is spot-on; every time my ears start getting tired of an element, that element drops out or changes at just the right time (particularly important with sustained bass notes like this). I love the glitching on the arpeggio synth, and would love to hear even more done with this. I think the length of the track is exactly right.

A bit on the conservative side as far as structure, rythm, tempo, etc, but I think there's just enough variation for this to make it through in that regard; if I were on the judges panel I'd still give it a YES, but I can definitely imagine some NO votes for being too conservative. Regardless of what the judges say, I'll definitely be keeping this track on my playlist. Awesome stuff.

[timaeus222]

Hm, first things first: Sorry to say, but I hear the Kefka sfx, and that unfortunately, as part of the OCR submission standards, is not going to fly, since we had an agreement with Square Enix not to have any of their sound effects in approved ReMix submissions (especially if unprocessed like that). But that aside, you should still read on.

I like the sinister vibe you have going on here, and the sounds you used are all distinct. The mixing itself isn't that much of an issue in terms of clarity, and the main concerns I would have are the (i) simplicity of the sound design, (ii) the structure/development (due to the sound design and repetition), and (iii) the conservative nature of this arrangement.

SOUND DESIGN/SOUNDSCAPE

The sound choices themselves are up to you, but the problem I see here is that many of the accompanying sounds (arpeggio, textural glitching, etc) are competing with the lead sounds in the frequency spectrum. Besides the bass, they are all upper-midrange, with similar resonances in their filter setup and similar portamento styles. As a result, they blend together "too well" while also getting a bit painful, and for me, get grating within about a minute.

Here is a resource for practicing sound design, or at least getting yourself familiar with the general features of a synthesizer.

As for the percussion, the drums themselves don't seem to actually fit the vibe you're going for, and in my mind, they don't really suggest a specific genre. They actually sound like default FL Studio drum samples for house or electronic dance music, and if you pay closer attention to the drum sample choice in modern music, it's typically tailored to the particular genre.

Here is a nice resource that taught me how to choose or layer drum samples.

At 2:04, there are suddenly hard-panned drums, which just throws me off until 2:20. It just doesn't make logical sense to me to have drums panned that far left and right (and alternating at that). Conventionally, the kick and snare are front and center. 

STRUCTURE/ARRANGEMENT

Whenever I listen through this, I can't wrap my head around any sort of structure. The sound design is so similar throughout that---and I'm sorry to say this---it doesn't sound like an organized, planned structure was in mind. 

The other reason why is that the drums are very much on autopilot, and they feel like they're just there to be there. 

One way I think about evaluating structure is that if I fast forward 15 or 30 seconds, I should be able to hear something that suggests that I'm in a different part of the song or that the song is making progress in its dynamics. When I do that here, I just get a meandering feel from the structure.

The arrangement itself is also rather conservative. If you A/B the source with your ReMix, the notes are similar, although I do think there is sufficient interpretation purely on the arrangement perspective.

SUMMARY

As a summary, the overarching concerns I would go over are:

• Simplistic or overly similar sound design and soundscape. This is not easy to address, but you can start by practicing more with your synths and getting more familiar with their nuances, trying to design your own sounds to get a feel for those synths.
   
• This led to difficulty discerning a clear structure, as I can fast forward through 15 seconds at a time and not tell where I am in the song. Since the sound design is so similar throughout, I can't identify any clearly distinct section in the arrangement.

The arrangement is somewhat conservative, but I wouldn't think that is a major issue here, as the above are more prevalent IMO. The source usage is obviously there.

Overall, I don't think this would pass on the panel. (Besides the disclaimer about not using the Kefka sound effect, I mean.) Keep it up though. This is definitely more coherent and distinct than some of my old stuff!

[verafx81]

Wow great track didn't think I was going to like it this much. Hey keep it as is or keep working on it and save as a different file cause I'm really loving this. 

Sucks that you can't use ff sound effects, makes me want to use ff sound effects in everything I do (giving square the finger).

Sorry I get angry when I encounter restrictions. I love the sound effects I love this dark remix, keep up the good work.

[Shid0]

Oh god, thanks for the replies guys.

And wow timaeus that must have taken quite some time to write/analyze. Thanks a lot for taking your time to go in such details.

 

DRUMS

That shouldn't be too hard to work on (hopefully ^^). Indeed i didnt really dig them much yet and will obviously have to.

 

SYNTHS

That one is going to be tricky, i'm pretty much a beginner. The way i approached this is searching for presets i like in the VSTs i own, and tweaking them to my tastes. I'm not really good at creating a sound from scratch yet. But that's definitely something i'll keep an eye for in the  future. Guess i'm in for some heavy tutorial reading/watching !

 

STRUCTURE

I'm going to  set a structure from the start so i can have objectives to hold on to and try to keep close to it while also try to find more free interpretation of the base melody.

 

For the conservative point, it's an issue i'm aware of. The thing is I usually love the base  source and try to keep it's "soul" and usually that ends up in me not going far enough with the melody and arrangement. But i'm working on it

 

Thanks again everyone.

 

Back to work !

[RAZ3]

Some great advice has already been given so I'll try not to repeat anything. But heres my own personal impressions of the track:

Pros

• Liking the pizzicato strings at the beginning. They don't sound overly mechanical or fake. What did you use?
• The laugh SFX leading into the beat is a nice touch. I've added a few FF SFX to my latest track and it always adds a nice nostalgic vibe.Shame we cant use them in proper subs
• The kick has a punch to it but as already mentioned, the snare can get a little lost when in tandem.Have you considered sidechaining some of your other instruments to your kick to give it a little more space? (Edit: Haven't listened to the newer version yet so ignore my comment about the snares if its been fixed)

Cons

• Try to steer clear of overly used presets. Those in the know can pick them out a mile off. As soon as that synth dropped in at around the minute mark I instantly recognised it (Sytrus?)Quite like the glitch effect going on with it at points though. If you are not confident building sounds from scratch just yet, grab a preset and mess with some of the simpler controls (ADSR, Cutoff, Resonance etc) to make it sound a little more unique. Hell, chuck some FX on it and see what happens.
• Personally, I feel it can get a little repetitive. I think it may be down to the main melody synth that is consistently used throughout. Maybe a little automation on the synth controls for that instrument could have added a little more variety?

Anyway, thats just my personal opinion. I really think there is something special to work with here and could be a really strong track with a little polish.

[Sir_NutS]

The mix is clean, but the balance feels off, I think your compressor is acting up too much on your mix bus and messing up the dynamics, you can tell when some of your synths are obscured heavily even when outside of the "groove" window caused by the kick/snare.  I think you can work on that and also, on the arrangement side, distancing a bit more from the original in structure and melodies.  Synths could use more variation, but in all honestly you can make a good track with a few synth sounds if your arrangement is rock solid.

Good luck.

[HoboKa]

Hey, this is pretty awesome Shid0 - I enjoyed it a lot

EDIT) After some mulling over, I did find that it gets stale at 3/4 mark and could use some more slight variations.  Have other synth backings, or even other orchestral elements popping in would be cool.  If this is for the panel - but I think (edit) the other peeps' feedbacks are more sound, given that 2 of them are judges lol.  Assuming you care to submit this, if not, it's cool as is

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Boy, I seem to be in disagreement with the rest of the people commenting on this, because I just. Fucking. Love. This. Mix. As-is.

[Shid0]

Hey guys, seeing that this one seems to bring lots of discussion, and that i haven't been updating lately, I would like to give some heads up.

 

I've been working on a very different version of the song for some time now, and am not happy with the result. I think i've gone too far from my previous work. As such, I will go back to the one i got here and start over hoping to find a way to improve the actual song instead of just shooting myself in the foot.

 

Thing is I love participating in the community stuff here at Ocremix so i'm also doing some work for the MnP and PRC competitions, and while it sure is a good learning experience and it helps me improve, it takes some time away from my work on this piece, so it's probably going to take some time until i sort things out to get to the level i want.

 

Would love to submit this in the future, but i understand it doesn't really fit the requirements of the panel, at least in the current version, though i don't want to go to far away from the style and arrangement i had in mind.

 

And again thank you all for the support and reviewing, i'm still pretty green and hope to improve, and the feedback really helps with motivation and having a good mindset.

 

Sorry btw if i repeat myself a lot, english not being my native language, I will probably make some mistakes here and there !

 

Cheers !

[Jorito]

TL;DR: Just keep at it, you're doing great, and if you keep doing what you do and keep that mindset, you'll get there

I finally managed to get a listen in on your latest version, and my biggest feedback point would be on the arrangement side of things. That Kefka melody is pretty cool but also pretty short. That means we're hearing it a _lot_ and half way I kinda lost interest. I think half way would be a great place to play around with the melody, maybe chop or glitch it up, mess with the timing, add some harmonies, or maybe go all out and add a wacky synth solo inspired by the main melody.

Anyway, even as-is, it's pretty enjoyable, but I'm sure you can step things up a notch if you feel like working on it again. Don't hesitate to hit me up if you've got questions.