Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Awakening Remix

[Vidilian]

The vocals in the original are done in a way that I felt I could get away with using a synthetic voice in the remix since it's not about trying to sound real. It's a stylistic choice that's somewhat similar to the original and hopefully the robotic, unnaturalness is OK because of the mostly monotone melody. 
Also feel no need to make it longer as the original is also short.
I'm probably wrong on both points so any feedback is appreciated.

Original:

Remix: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KhL_yGGx7lIQ0Vm2QKaOE6Cz_tzK11lf/view?usp=share_link

Edited October 24, 2023 by Vidilian

[Vidilian]

Changed this to ready for review so I can get an idea of where this stands. Still unsure about the things mentioned in the orignal post.

[Hemophiliac]

Evaluation:

Don't worry about the vocals sounding robotic.  They fit in the genre that you're going for.  Interesting source, haven't heard it before; thanks for sharing it!

It doesn't feel fully developed yet even though the original is short.  It feels like there is still space for more exploration and development with yours coming in at 1:49.

Low end does feel muddy as the bass takes up a lot of space, make sure you're applying EQ on it to remove unnecessary frequencies on it and EQing any reverb that may be on the bass as well.

After Measure 26, at 0:46 when everything comes back the track gets very full and looks like you really pushed the levels to be as loud as possible.  Gotta keep some space in there for all elements to come through and have breathing space.  You could achieve this with remixing the levels or through utilizing compression to duck certain elements out of the way.  It's during this section that the percussion gets nearly buried completely and can barely make it out.  You want to have the mix look more like the first half in the image above, you can see all of the peaks clearly and there's space for all of the elements.

Does the vox have a lower harmony?  It sounds like there's something maybe a 5th below the melody line, but I can barely make it out.

Maybe try looking for another track that sounds similar to what you're going for here and reference it.  Using comparison could help you clean up the mix if you really listen critically.

[Hemophiliac]

[This is an automatically generated message]

I've reviewed your remix and have returned it to Work-in-Progress status, indicating that I think there are some things you still need to work on. After you work on your track and feel that it's ready for submission to OCR, please change the prefix back to Ready for Review and someone will review it again. Good luck!

[Vidilian]

The vox doesn't have a harmony a 5th below but it consists of two distinct voices panned left and right. The timbre of one is more deep so that may be what you're picking up on? Thanks for a lot for the feedback.

[timaeus222]

I feel the midrange (and to some extent the upper treble) here is fairly cluttered when we get to 0:46. It seems like the brass, FM pads, and vox are competing there. What I would recommend is to scoop the midrange a few dB on the brass, and try low passing the FM pads (the buzzy part) a little so that the vox can breathe.

The cause of the muddiness that Hemophiliac hears is the clash of the sub bass and the low end hit like at 0:30 - 0:32, in the 20 - 120 Hz range (although the low-mids don't actually have much going on). I would try sidechaining a small amount so that the low end hit there pushes down the sub bass when it strikes. I would also consider high passing the sub bass so that you cut out anything below about 20-30 Hz - it usually won't make a difference on what you hear, but it'll help with the overcompression by clearing up some headroom.

Hope this helps the mixing!

Edited November 2, 2023 by timaeus222