Native Dialect Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Jin's heroic march is clearly an homage to the themes of old Super Robot anime such as Getter Robo, and Mazinger Z, and as such was composed as an orchestral piece rife with horn blasts, and violin swells. However, Marvel vs. Capcom was one of the last games developed for the CPS2 arcade hardware, so the theme was never properly realized given the limitations of the CPS2's audio hardware.. My arrangement was crafted with one goal in mind: modernize as much of the instrumentation as possible so as to realize Yuko Takehara's original vision for Jin's theme. Unfortunately, even my attempt at rendering Takehara's true vision is hampered by the fact that although the MIDI instruments in GarageBand are a noticeable improvement over Capcom's CPS2 soundfont, they still do not sound entirely authentic. Still, I gave my best effort, recording live guitar, using the best suited drum kit in GarageBand, and stacking the horns to achieve as realistic sounding an orchestra as possible without the use of an AU instrument, or sampling. The only element I could not recreate to my satisfaction was the CPS2 orchestra hit, so I used the same hit found in the original composition (sampled directly from the CPS2 soundfont). Constructive feedback is always welcome. Thanks! Song Title: "Heart of the Typhoon" (Jin Saotome Theme Remix) Originally Composed By: Yuko Takehara Arranged and Performed By: The Native Dialect BPM: 238 Style: Symphonic Metal Hardware: iMac, Ibanez Talmon Software: GarageBand, Audacity Heart of the Typhoon Source Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Skoda Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 Oh, wow, you use GarageBand? For something made with MIDI instruments, this actually pretty damn good. It was like... N64 music, but higher quality, aside from the guitar. And the guitar playing was fine, though it doesn't sit well in the mix. It was like your guitar work was having a power struggle against an orchestra. And some of the orchestral instruments stick out in a way that I can't exactly explain. Still, I can't say that I didn't like it. I'm interested in remaking this for you from your recordings and midi tracks. I make no guarantees, but I think it would be a good opportunity for me to learn how to mix live instruments like guitar. I mean, I don't do orchestra stuff often, but I guess I'm not bad at it... https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/875971 A hip-hop piece there with mostly orchestral instruments in Mixcraft 7 (I use 8 Pro Studio now). I'm not trying to advertise; I'm just letting you hear what I can do. Native Dialect 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Dialect Posted October 19, 2019 Author Share Posted October 19, 2019 On 9/28/2019 at 9:55 AM, Seth Skoda said: Oh, wow, you use GarageBand? For something made with MIDI instruments, this actually pretty damn good. It was like... N64 music, but higher quality, aside from the guitar. And the guitar playing was fine, though it doesn't sit well in the mix. It was like your guitar work was having a power struggle against an orchestra. And some of the orchestral instruments stick out in a way that I can't exactly explain. Still, I can't say that I didn't like it. I'm interested in remaking this for you from your recordings and midi tracks. I make no guarantees, but I think it would be a good opportunity for me to learn how to mix live instruments like guitar. I mean, I don't do orchestra stuff often, but I guess I'm not bad at it... https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/875971 A hip-hop piece there with mostly orchestral instruments in Mixcraft 7 (I use 8 Pro Studio now). I'm not trying to advertise; I'm just letting you hear what I can do. 1) I agree with your criticism of how the guitar sits in the mix. After having listened to the track a few dozen times without headphones, I realized that I should have either raised the volume on the guitar track, or at least panned it to the left so that it could be isolated from the rest of the mix. At the time, I felt that the guitar was overpowering the horns and violin, which are the parts of the arrangement that I want most to stand out, but that may not have been the most effective choice. Funny enough, I have a Sagat remix that also incorporates horns and violins, but because I wanted the guitar to be prominent, I had no problem with allowing it to drown out the other instruments, and the end result is arguably better from a mixing standpoint. 2) I'm going to take another crack at the project, and see if I can get a better guitar tone, and mix. If not, then I'll happily take up your offer! 3) Your original composition is nice! Reminds me of Chrono Trigger, if its score were a trap album. Seth Skoda 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Skoda Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Native Dialect said: 1) I agree with your criticism of how the guitar sits in the mix. After having listened to the track a few dozen times without headphones, I realized that I should have either raised the volume on the guitar track, or at least panned it to the left so that it could be isolated from the rest of the mix. At the time, I felt that the guitar was overpowering the horns and violin, which are the parts of the arrangement that I want most to stand out, but that may not have been the most effective choice. Funny enough, I have a Sagat remix that also incorporates horns and violins, but because I wanted the guitar to be prominent, I had no problem with allowing it to drown out the other instruments, and the end result is arguably better from a mixing standpoint. 2) I'm going to take another crack at the project, and see if I can get a better guitar tone, and mix. If not, then I'll happily take up your offer! 3) Your original composition is nice! Reminds me of Chrono Trigger, if its score were a trap album. I don't know how to use this message board to its max, but I wanted to thank you. But it's not my composition. I only wrote the percussion and carried out sound design and mixing. If you click the link to the original song on the page, you can hear how the composer made it. IMO it's definitely got that SNES feel, but perhaps not Chrono Trigger. As far as your mixing, try EQ'ing your instruments a little more tightly. Lately I just throw a low pass and high pass filter on every instrument (even the bass) to take out unwanted frequencies and get a cleaner mix. Having filters restricted to different ranges for each instrument (even if they overlap) can give you a cleaner mix. Be careful, though. You could easily end up with a tinny (yet muffled) mix. That other piece I'd like to hear. I love metal and hard rock, so throw it on me. Edited October 20, 2019 by Seth Skoda More constructive feedback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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