Liontamer Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Contact Information ReMixer Name: Wynd Balduram Real Name: Alex Huff E-Mail: WyndBalduram@comcast.net Website: http://www.phoenix-rock.com ReMix Information Game: Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest Song Remixed: Battle Theme Link: I actually did my "first remix" of this song a few years ago, when I was just learning how to play guitar and record songs on my computer. Needless to say, the first few versions didn't sound all that great, but they were definitely useful learning experiences, as was this one. After about 3 years of trial and error, recording songs for my band, and reading what materials I could concerning amatuer music production, I got better at recording and mixing. So, I finally decided to record a more polished version of the song I loved to play, to see if I couldn't add my own song to the collection of OC ReMixes I knew and loved. I used Fl Studio and FXPansion's BFD to lay down the drum track and mixed it down to a Wav file. I imported the drums into Ableton Live to record the live instruments, dry. Afterwards, I imported the dry instruments back into FL Studio to do the mixing. I ran the most of the instruments through Line 6's Gear Box Plug-in to get more authentic guitar tone, and, after several unsuccessful attempts to get everything to mix together and sound decent, I took a break. I came back to it again, about three days later, and, taking a fresh approach, finally got it to sound the way I wanted it to. My main inspiration for the arrangement of the song spawns from, of course, playing the game for the first time when I was very young. It was one of the first RPGs I ever played, and led me to play most of the other great platform RPGs, such as FF4, FF6, FF7, Chrono Trigger, Lunar, Grandia... The list goes on... But I've babbled enough. I hope you enjoy the ReMix. Alex Huff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Is it me or are there some wrong notes in the rhythm part earlier on? Like at :33-:35. That part sounds very obviously wrong in some way. The guitar performance is otherwise good. Very good solos + original material! I would spruce up the lead guitar with some bright EQ, reverb, and delay so it cuts through the mix more. Not a big deal though. However that rezzy lead synth is no good, I would pick a different patch or sequence it differently. It sounds too mechanical as is. The arrangement factor is definitely here. While you do rely mostly on the chords of the original as your backing, you inject a lot of variation and solos. 2:16 for example was great. The breakdown is nice as well. The whole second half of the mix is quite good. The drum sequencing is on the weak side. The samples are good, as are the fills, but at times the pattern seems to lack energy. Maybe compress + saturate it more. I also feel like you could do more with synth stuff to add to the harmony. I don't want to come across as really harsh here but I think with minimal effort this could be significantly improved. To summarize; make the drums more energetic (mainly the kick/snare), brighten the lead guitar so it cuts more, revisit that lead synth, and perhaps add some new harmony or counter-melodic elements ("real" instruments or synths, up to you). You have the arrangement down, and you're about 90% of the way there. This is a strong first sub - tweak it and resubmit! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 10, 2007 Author Share Posted March 10, 2007 http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ffmq - "Battle 1" (ffmq-07.spc) Oh yeah, I know this source. One of the few good tracks from FFMQ in my opinion. Opening synths were pretty lame, but the guitar and drums entering at :11 were relatively good, especially with those synths toned down a bit by that point. The guitar tone felt a little bland once it took the lead at :26, and the drums definitely need more power to 'em, like zircon pointed out. There's definitely some sour notes going on with the guitar harmonization around :33-:34. The mixing was rough, and the lead guitar ends up bleeding together with the synths when they're together from :38-:48. Like zircon mentioned, the lead guitar needs to cut through more vs. the rest of the sounds. Now around :50, it's hard to hear much besides the guitars and drums. The bassline's pretty obscured. Doesn't sound like there's much other instrumentation here to pad the track; rather the whole track is produced so densely that the lack of other subtle anchoring parts isn't supposed to be so noticeable. That's why it has a loud, but relatively empty texture. Nothing awful here, but better separation of the sounds would let all the pieces of the puzzle be heard. 2:31 switched over to some better textures where the various parts at least stood apart to the ear more. The drumwork still felt a little simplistic, but the performance clicked together much better. Both the solo and the source melody under the solo were really cool, but need a warmer, more ethereal sound; it's too dry right now. Good last section for the close. The arrangement was fairly solid. Bit too by-the-numbers in terms of the genre adaptation to start, but you added a lot of embellishments and subtle changes to personalize things before getting into safer, more interpretive territory with the nice solo work at 1:52 and never looking back. See what revisions you can make in light of zirc's suggestions to get the overall package sounding stronger; he really broke it down well. Good luck on this, Alex; creatively, this is leaps and bounds ahead of your previous FFMQ final battle submission 2 years ago. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Whoops, I've been meaning to vote on this one for a long while now, but I somehow lost track of that intention. Overall, decent performance, and aight production. There are some quirks glaring straight at me I would like to touch up on. Expanding on what Zircon pointed out first--the rhythm guitar: some cringe-invoking moments were produced from :33 until about :49 or so. Your power chords aren't meshing too well with your lead. I also wasn't a huge fan of the synthwork. The pulse attack bothered me, and it otherwise came across as really generic and mechanical and didn't compliment the other instruments that well. I really dug the section at 2:31, what with the Dire-Straights-Mark-Knopfler-Sultans-of-Swing-esque vibe. Very cool. The lead performance was pretty decent; you seemed to bend sharp a few more times and to slightly greater degree than I can overlook. That can be fixed pretty easily in FL, or any program that has some sort of pitch automation. All in all, I think if you fixed the power chords, reworked the synth a little, and applied some minor pitch correction, I'd have no problems voting green here. If 100% is a YES, I'd say you're probably in the 80% range, as far as I'm concerned. Won't take a whole lot to bump this one up to go. NO (tweak, resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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