"Sunset at Dragon Roost" (Dragon Roost Island - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker)

[mentalstrike]

Hello all! It's been a very long time since I've visited these forums, and a long time in general since working on anything music-related that got complete enough to get feedback on, but I had this idea the other night, and haven't been able to really think about anything else until I started working on it, so here we are!

 

The idea was basically just "I wonder what the Dragon Roost Island theme would sound like in a Bossa Nova style?" Most of my production knowledge is in EDM, so what followed was a lot of research (not nearly enough yet, I think), and then a few pages of notes trying to conform the theme to this new style and time signature. I'm pretty proud of what I have so far, certainly more proud of this than anything else I've made in the past few years, but I've reached a point where I'm not sure how to proceed. My personal thoughts right now are that the track progresses a little too slowly for my tastes, and I think the transition from the "A" melody to the "B" melody needs a lot of work, but I think I've been stuck in my own head a bit too long to have any ideas. If anyone could lend a fresh pair of ears and a new perspective, I'd really appreciate it!

The guidelines for posting say to include a link to the original track being remixed, so here that is. I'm specifically referencing the OST version for the bassline, but that's the only real difference I'm aware of between the game version and the OST version.

[Break a Record.]

That sounds wonderful.
Keep up the good work!

[SlickWiggler]

I like the idea of doing a Bossa Nova version of this song!  It does sound like it takes a little too long to get to the melody.  As far as I know Bossa Nova usually follows the same head structure used in Jazz, where you play the melody (head), each member of the group takes a solo over the chord progression, the head repeats, and the song ends.  Maybe trying to explore that structure and adhere to it more will help with the pacing.

It also just feels very... mechanical?  It needs more groove to it, I feel.  Try changing the velocities of the notes to emphasize different beats and give it a little more momentum.  Right now everything feels very square.  Giving it a slight swing and shaping the note velocities a little better will help with that I think.