Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden Galaxy - Orchestral Remix/Re-Arrangement

[chriskaudio]

So here is my first Remix, but I think ist not so bad

Do you like it? How is the Instrumentation and mixing?

Any Feedback is appreciated. 

Thanks and I hope you enjoy!

 

 

The Original: https://youtu.be/VEIWhy-urqM

 

[AngelCityOutlaw]

So the first thing that jumps out at me is that the piano has a number of harsh resonances that are hurting my ears. Just do a sweep with a paratmetric EQ with the Q set high and lower the offending sounds when you find them.

Listening onward this is actually happening with a lot of the sounds.

The horns are way too loud and if realism is what you're going for, there is no way some of those elements (I think I hear a harp?) would be very audible with brass playing at the kind of dynamic. By the way, forte or louder is actually not played that often in most orchestral pieces. Especially for this tune, I'd keep the horns/brass at a more "choral" kind of dynamic except toward the end. They also seem to crescendo way too much and too sharply. To demonstrate what I mean, here is a good example of brass writing; in a chase scene, no less.

Aside from when it's just the section by itself, the brass are generally playing at a lower dynamic suitable for the other instrumentation.

I'm not sure what you're using for samples, but the strings especially sound noticeably fake.

Toward the end, the arrangement gets pretty cluttered and I can't clearly hear all the different lines. The harp, lower brass, celli, trumpets, high strings, etc. all sound like at least some of the time they're overlapping frequencies and it muddies the arrangement.

I'm not familiar with the source, so I can't really comment on how faithful or not it is, etc. I saw you posted the link, but tbh it doesn't matter to me if it is or not; I'd rather just listen to the remix and crit but overall, I'd say it's not a bad first remix.

 

[Light_of_Aether]

This is a very faithful orchestral remix. With your choice of source, your biggest challenge is making your orchestral remix sound realistic. The Super Mario Galaxy music was performed by a real orchestra so an orchestral remix of any of its songs should be as realistic as possible. The piano sounds okay, but the strings don't sound realistic at all. I agree with AngelCityOutlaw on the volume of the french horn: it's way too loud. It sounds great, but it's too loud. I feel like the trumpet volume is too high as well. What samples are you using by the way?

Also, just so I'm clear, realism is achieved by how you program the MIDI information. Low quality samples can still result in a great-sounding remix if the arrangement was programmed well. You could have the Vienna Symphonic Library, but if you don't know how to use the instruments effectively, it doesn't matter. A good example of the low quality samples with great programming yielding an awesome remix is here: http://pisanifamily.info/will/music/Zelda Medley.mp3. I don't know who the author is, but they did an amazing job with it.

This is definitely a good first remix! Changing the dynamics would improve this remix a lot. I'm looking forward to hearing your future works.

 

[chriskaudio]

Thank you for your Reviews! Heres my updated Version (hope there is an improvement):

 

I tried to remove those resonances. Actually im quite surprised by how many disturbing resonances i found and i wouldnt have heard them if would not have pointed them out to me. Guess I dont have the ears for it yet.

I also softened the brass and tried reduce the mud, aswell as make my strings more realistic. Not sure if I succeeded. And i cut the harp.

 

As String Samples i used 8dio Adagietto Strings and even some Kontakt Factory Library stuff. 

 

What better string samples would you recommend?