Destiny 2, The Farm Remix

[Wassup Thunder]

This is a collaboration project with Souperion. We created this remix of Destiny 2's track The Farm a while ago, and decided we want to refine the song to be high enough quality to be submitted to OCR.

This song uses various organic instrument samples from EastWest PLAY plugins. We are seeking feedback on everything from sound quality, arrangement cohesion, to whether or not we should leave in the voice clips from the game. And anything else I haven't thought of. I'll greatly appreciate any examples, instructions, or sources on how to go about the changes suggested so that we can improve this piece to achieve our goal of getting it refined and on OCR.

And I never mind being told good things about it too, I'm human XD

 

[TheVideoGamer]

Ok a couple of things (Since you asked):

What i liked:

1. I love the instrument choices, the reverb usages is great.
2. I really liked the stylistic choices here.
3. The vocals samples are pretty funny.
4. The source tune plays to your strengths. The orchestra blends well.
5. The ending is incredible. I loved it a lot.

What i think could be worked on:

1. It's a bit muddy in the low end. I'd be wary of that.
2. The remix is very consistent. For 7 minutes, i would add some dynamic changes, to make it less in your face all the time. So maybe a solo instrument for some kind of breakdown. It's nice and all, but can exemplify a bit of the...how shall i say it...repetition is probably the word. It needs a break basically.
3. A lot of instruments seem to be competing against each other. Needs a bit of balance.
4. The vocal samples stood out more, than they should. However i think this is dependent on how you take this source, and i did like the humour in it, so it was good.
5. To add onto the second point, I think breaking it down into a solo instrument or something, actually gives it a more humanising quality to it. It makes it feel like a real orchestra is performing this piece as well as giving us a break.

All in all though, solid work! Keep at it!

[Wassup Thunder]

Thank you, both for compliments and suggestions! This gives me and Souperion some much needed direction for editing. I'll explore how we can make more variety in the sections, try making a solo perhaps to give it that needed break up! We'll also look at dialing back the vocal samples to not be quite so distracting. Those quotes were added originally as a joke in the production, then we kinda grew attached to them.

I agree, the low end does sound a bit muddy. What's something I can try to fix that? I've often ran into that problem and am not too sure how to resolve it.

Oh, and just looking for some helpful clarification: on the instruments competing problem, do you think it's a layering problem or a "there's too many instruments playing different parts at once" thing? Cause I make both mistakes a lot in my arrangements! XD
Thank you very much for taking the time for this feedback!

[H36T]

Hmm, keep in mind I am unfamiliar with the source material but I'll try my best.

Things that are worth thinking about.

1. The one big agreement I had with the above is that this just seems like a hell of a journey. Like at no point was I able to sort of...pin down a melody or a sort of feeling. Maybe put another way I felt like it was a rollercoaster of a journey and I had no time to stop and appreciate some of the more beautiful aspects of the track. There were some really beautiful chords and moments but I think I needed more time to process them.

2. Speaking of those pretty chords. Around 2:42 starts this beautiful play on this chord progression. I'm unsure if it is supposed to be open fifths with a hint of the thirds just aren't coming out. Maybe you purposefully don't want them to be strong? I feel like here it would really benefit from that time slowing down and being able to let me gush over that little progression/motif. The same thing with the ending of that section before the next vocals. I almost feel like...it is meant to be a major chord but the the full triad is being suffocated there somehow? If this is a stylistic thing though then no worries!

3. There is a bit of an issue with the lower frequencies...which is a bit odd since the lower range seems like it isn't really being hammered a lot...I wonder why? EQ or a filter would help but I'm thinking maybe it is one instrument that might be the culprit. Maybe a bad sample...hm, curious indeed. Try EQ first or a pass filter and see what happens. Don't want it sounding empty though so be careful.

 

Lastly though, I wanna praise the amount of work that has gone into this. Obviously you put an immense amount of time making a lot of wonderful instrumentation and taking us along this journey. Surely a lot to see and take in and some real beauty there. I wish I knew more about the source so I could comment on what is being done exactly, but as a song in and of itself it surely has a lot of substance and I think you and Souperion are to be commended for that. Still, I think I come away having wondered what was it I listened to because it was so much! Give us some time to chew on a few things I think. More than anything, I think doing more with a little less here will let me really just dig into this more. Congrats on a wonderful start and I look forward to hearing more soon!

[Wassup Thunder]

Thanks for sharing thoughts, I appreciate it. I think I understand what you're saying about the amount of substance and traveling. Souperion and I both found a lot of opportunities to variate on the source melody, but perhaps there's some parts we could trim out to help it be a bit more stable longer. Which makes me chuckle a bit, because we took out part of the original song thinking this remix was getting too long! And it probably is! XD

I'll take a look at the chords around 2:42 and see if I can better pronounce them. Maybe settle on what they need to be too... thirds, fifths... I often over do it on chords and have too much going at once. I definitely want to be sure that the melody is clear and the chords have time to be savored. I'll keep working on it with Souperion and see how we can make this better. Thank you!