Liontamer Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) Artist Name: Mellow Sonic I'm not really a big Assassin's Creed fan, but this Ezio's Family theme by jesper kyd is just epic. After hearing it, I thought I could play a bit of it. Now, after several attempts, I've finally finished the remix. All parts were played freely, nothing was sampled from the original! cheers! Games & Sources Edited September 11 by Chimpazilla closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 this has a lot of the themes from Earth, which is the only track from the OST i've ever remixed myself. was neat to hear the different elements from a track i haven't heard in a decade. opens with the quarter note theme from the original alongside some pads and swooshes. there's some keys, but it really hits at 0:30 with strings coming in. they're a bit muddy in the low end and repeat the same pattern for quite a bit. there's some electric guitar for a bit on the arpeggiated lead, but i also hear some clipping at 1:01, and a lot more at 1:06 and after. the additive arrangement techniques continue with a synth voice element and some cinematic strings. there's a lot overlapping by this point - maybe 1:35 or so - and it's mostly doing the same thing as the original through all this. there's a drop at 1:59 and some rhythmic elements added in, which is a nice change. a plectral instrument is added at 2:13 and again outlines the melodic material with some other light arpeggiation added in. we continue to see additive arrangement as more elements are added in, making what's effectively an additive crescendo through the next 30s or so. there's a lot of clipping around the 3:04 mark for several seconds when the bass instrument comes in. there's a big wall-of-sound transition at 3:27 with some taiko and other rhythmic elements added in. this sounds awesome but clips like nuts - the bass and the bottom end of the drums are heavily conflicting with each other until 3:56 when they drop off. there's some outro material and it's done. this needs a significant mastering pass. there's a lot of EQing and volumization that can be done especially on the low end to help with the huge clipping that's going on. i don't even really hear compression or a limiter engaging, so something that can reign in the big sections without losing the timbral contrast of the quieter parts would be critical. from an arrangement perspective, this is a fairly conservative but competent arrangement. i wouldn't have minded hearing some more creativity around the melodic line and chord progressions, given that most of the countermelodic and harmonic material you used was already present in the original. before this passes, for me, i'd need to hear a significant EQing and volumization pass made so that the mastering is much cleaner. the arrangement stuff isn't required but it'd be a stronger track if it's considered. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 (edited) This is a sweet source, I've not heard it before. Adding drums to the final section was a cool idea, and maybe consider bringing in a light drum pattern early to help increase the energy level in a different way other then dynamics or doubling parts. Your master limiter is putting in work here, and it's not doing it in your favor. I can hear many places throughout where there is audible clipping/distortion of those peaks. This must be addressed if you plan to resubmit. 0:59 the synth vocalist comes in and is slightly behind the beat with each note. Once the sub kicks into full gear around 0:48 things start to get really full and lush, but you lose a lot of clarity because of heavy overlapping of notes or just too much reverb. From 2:58 to the end it's basically a total wash of reverb and overpacked parts. Either you need to go back and work on gain-staging out the piece with a new mixdown where the different parts aren't so loud and stepping on each others toes or start taking out parts that don't add something unique (needless doubling). Prophetik hit the nail on the head in saying that this is conservative, but not without some personalization. Plenty of orchestration choices that were not in the original as well as addition and subtraction from the arrangement as it goes. So I feel like a slow burn like this can work as an overall structure and you added your own flavors to it, kudos there. However, the production on this needs to be addressed and improved upon. NO Edited September 11 by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 (edited) Definitely conservative, this arrangement sounds and feels very similar to the source. Even the beautiful vocal is verbatim to the source song. So this feels like more of a cover than a remix. This is a nice, lush soundscape, but even one minute in, the mastering does feel very overdriven, with everything the same volume and I can hear that the top end of everything has a crunch on it from overcompression. If you haven't, make sure that all your instruments have their lowest lows EQd off, so that there aren't any unnecessary low-low and inaudible sub frequencies causing you to lose mastering headroom. The RMS value is -7.3 which is rather loud for an orchestral piece, but even that can be fine if it sounds clean... but it doesn't. Mastering a full-soundscape piece like this one, pushing the limiter this hard gives it an unwanted "wall of sound" effect and eliminates the lovely dynamics the piece should really have. Although this is lovely, the arrangement is very repetitive; it sounds like the same loop played three times (intro, build, chorus) with the second iteration acting as a breakdown, and with drums over the final third. That's too much repetition, on top of the arrangement being overly similar to the source. There are some personalizations, but for me they are very minimal. The other two Js may feel there are more personalizations than I can hear. At a minimum, the mixing needs work, most importantly volume balancing and using EQ to remove unnecessary lows and inaudible subs, and the mastering needs to be dialed back so there is no audible overcompression. Some more personalization on the source would also help overcome some of the repetition in the writing. NO Edited September 11 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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