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EQ Help, Please: Trials of Mana_Final Boss


Souperion
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This is an unfinished segment of a medley me and my remix partner are working on for a Secret of Mana/Trials of Mana tribute. There are a lot of mechanical problems we're working on, but right now my biggest concern is EQ and balance. The current approach is boosting the violins at the mid-high range, Cellos at mid, and Brass at mid-high. I welcome feedback, and hope this piece isn't too hard on the ears. Thanks.

 

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Hi:) I'm an amateur, and I'm not posted on OCR...at least not yet, but I will throw my two cents in since it was asked for.

First, I would like to say I enjoy the tune, and the percussion sounds particularly nice:)

Starting at about 1:00, there is a chime type instrument that I am hearing that sounds just a little too prominent, imo.

At 1:14, there is an instrument ( A violin perhaps?) that comes in on a sustained B flat...that B flat and the other sustained B flats that follow on that instrument really stand out. 

Other than that, my amateur ear might suggest a boost on the master for the lows and low mids.

 

Good luck, and I hope I'm not out of place offering my suggestions!:)

 

 

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Sounds overly EQed to me, the low-mids are lacking and it sounds like you're not using the samples in their most appropriate ranges. In this scenario I'd remove all the EQs and start getting the sequencing itself to a place where it sounds correct. Proper orchestral mixing is impossible when you instrumentation needs so much improvement. The original had a rock beat and bass guitar, you can't just remove those elements and expect the track to work without a lot of arrangement for an orchestra.

- Sounds like you're using violins/violas/celli to play lead parts, those samples aren't not really intended for long sustained lead lines like that, use something like a flute or oboe that's usually doing more expressive soloing. The long sustained string lines produce heavy droning overtones that get very ugly (like at 1:17)

 

- The percussion section sounds rough overall, the sequence I mean, not the samples. It's just a constant wash of brittle high end that sounds too bombastic for a percussion section. This song was written originally for a drumkit, you can't 1:1 a drumkit with a percussion section. Either layer in a drumkit to play the beat and accent with the percussions or rewrite what the brass and low strings are doing to create movement and imply the disco-ish beat of the original (and again be smart and dynamic with the percussions). You won't be able to EQ anything correctly when the percussion section is going hog wild saturating the track with all kinds of high-mid and high overtones, chill with the tubular bells too.

Overall the problems you have with the EQs/frequencies are mostly due to the lack of proper arrangement for the style, there's a lot of work to be done but I think you can get there with practice. It's extremely important (especially with orchestral stuff) that you learn your samples and study proper orchestration as much as you can, improper use of orchestral samples will always yield terrible results, trust me I know from extensive experience :\

 

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