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Phantasy Star II - "Restoration" Mega Drive +/Arrangement Album


BONKERS
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Almost done blocking it out. Something cool, I managed to work in the original 2612 bass patch (x2)and with some processing it sounds really cool as an arpeggiated bass line.
I also bought a new short scale Bass that should be coming in the mail in a few weeks so i'll be able to get some actually good sounding bass recordings. So i'm looking forward to getting to play with that as I tried to write all the bass lines used here on the DX7 with a real bass in mind. I might create a layer of the two together maybe as well.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oeVtIW7p1JA0HqBrFIMf3gx1ZBX66MtS/view?usp=sharing

Edited by BONKERS
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@BONKERS Funky! I will say, I felt like the low end didn't kick in until like 2'10" - bassline before that is active & funky but not filling out the bottom much, so when 2'10" hits it almost feels like bass is appearing for the first time. Something like bx_subsynth, or adding a sub layer, or just EQ on the bass could help give it more low end.

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Yeah it's there mostly as a placeholder for now because I am intending to record all those lines with a real guitar (As the first section or so does use a real bass but my bass is so old and crappy that it just sounds bad so if you listen at 00:40 the real bass is actually switched out for a couple of DX7 patches so I could write the lines without having a guitar to record them with yet.
Once I get the new bass in the mail i'm going to try and record all the lines for that (And keep the switch at 2 minutes to the heavier synth bass). I might also keep the DX7 patch and try to get the timing between the real bass and the synth as close as possible and then process them on a bus as a single instrument just for the cool effect. But i'll wait and see how that goes after recording.
The drums are placeholder as well at the moment, I have some processing going on with that but it's all on a single track which doesn't sound good. I'm planning on doing what I have done in other songs which is to write a multi-channel MIDI file with each channel being routed to separate tracks and processed separately before being sent to a drum bus. So I can get a certain specific sound on one part and one on another. This is actually the first song i've worked on thus far where the drums are all from a single set/machine(And this particular one is basically just mono without the ability to adjust the panning for different drums) just because it was good enough while writing and gave the kind of vibe I was looking for before really building it out. (Every other song so far has had more complex work done on the percussion)

The mixing here is really basic too as i'm trying to get in the general ball park of what I want with all songs as I block them out and then once they are all done i'm going to go back and really try to tune the mixes up. I tend to get too lost easily in small details (And waste huge amounts of time)when i'm building a song and I have found for me it's beneficial to progress to only try and get the basics out of the way while i'm trying to build the overall song before really going into the details.

I appreciate the comments and I knew someone would notice the lack of low end as I have while i've been building it. (Which reinforces how i've felt about it too. It sounds kind of good but it's lacking the low end punch)

Edited by BONKERS
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Ok, I think structurally the song is done.
It will be A ton of work to eventually "finish" it. (The Drums are basically still just placeholder as is the bass for the first 2 minutes) But the basic foundation is there so I can move on to building the next song.
I like the ending a lot. (As I always love coming up with those little weird outro sections)
But if it seems too out of place let me know what you think.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18S0nCqho9NAicq5f0iB68_-Ecc6H_2h4/view?usp=sharing

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Started on "Over".
Going to keep this song simple around a minute, minute half or so. Really like how this is turning out. I tried to plan a lot of this in my head before starting.
Initial idea was to add guitar and bass. But i'm wondering now .

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rAJ63VXTHuRHZdMlnH-mh9O_9huXV7Hd/view?usp=sharing

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  • 2 weeks later...

Song is pretty much blocked out I think, mixing is basic. But I think the idea gets across. I think i'll still add some stuff here and there maybe. (Like fixing the drums in the final measures that I messed up on and it's just a bad copypasta)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18sTzERMu9SJBKVf6hVh-u8HZ4aXty_sX/view?usp=sharing

Edited by BONKERS
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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Admittedly i've had a really hard time getting motivated and trying to come up with ideas for Advanced that don't stray too far from the original tune.
Here's what i've worked on since last time, there is a break where the real Bass cuts out to a Synth one just because that's made it easier to block out how I want to write it before recording it on a real one, while going back and forth between the two with ideas.
There is some clipping in this render as well, so sorry about that. If you have any thoughts feel free to chime in. Also: The Vocoder likes to misbehave and so on the second loop when it starts it has drifted a lot. >_>
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13fr4WYQnudRL8Lm-5ExHBKyb74ur33qd/view?usp=sharing

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some more progress, I figured out how I could integrate something that's been in my mind since I first thought of doing this song. Still blocking it out, but the core idea makes me smile at least :D
Vocoder still misbehaving. And lots of clipping so please forgive it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wBAj6VLAuD1n8eFceeSLbbwhPTuytUac/view?usp=sharing

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another update, almost done blocking this one out I think.. i've probably had the hardest time with this one out of all i've done so far. Sure have spent the most time trying to piece it together.(And realizing later that i've fallen again into my no repetition trap that I used to years ago where I don't ever repeat a single variation of a section of music and every repeat has something different about it.>_> Without realizing that repetition is *ok and it always holds me back.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3FVN6sbk2JKNDQKt8NGdXxKGJ979M4U/view?usp=sharing

Edited by BONKERS
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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm almost done with Advanced as far as blocking out goes. I've done a lot of work since the last wip but not quite there yet as i'm still struggling with it a bit.


I did have some ideas on how to start Power though!
Took inspiration from A Prologue and here's the first quick WIP
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ia-n_GTx6RTrM54Arh94NU232AVXLrIB/view?usp=sharing

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

Chugging along. The drums near the end are placeholder as I can't quite decide on what to do with them. I asked a friend for an opinion on that.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uapnVCxJbmMNLBCocb1Aysvguo06ueo4/view?fbclid=IwAR0wtA2M2m9tzvu6uVgFBC0JVcbB-y0A9DOAkKhgSYmaa0tIiJhkpqtMHqU

Attached are samples of drum riffs I tried to kind of go with. If you have an opinion on which one seems to fit best. I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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