Jump to content

Chrono Cross - Dream of the Shore remix idea


ambinate
 Share

Recommended Posts

Here's an idea that just came into my head tonight that I decided to try out. I've never done a remix before (but I've been a big fan of the site for a few years) so this may turn out to be a terrible mistake, but I'd just like to get some opinions and feedback on this to see if it's worth turning into a full remix.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZU9OQ0Y

It's an electric guitar arrangement of one of my favorite songs from Chrono Cross. Sorry for the sloppy playing and strange timing. Also, I'm not too skilled at mixing, so the levels are kind of all over the place, haha. For some reason, I thought it was called "Journey to the Shore" for a while, so that's why the file's named that.

Thanks in advance!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow the reverb/chorus or whatever effect you got to give it that echo is orgasmic :D. It gives it a real dreamy feel ;-) though at certain parts it does kinda sound a BIT meshed together. But I think this is more-or-less a solid piece, at least in my books. Keep up the good work :)

The heavy guitar one is good too, but I think you should give it a bit of an echo feel if its possible :-D. I think that the accoustic one is better IMO though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, i'm actually liking the metal one. It doesn't make any sense with the source tune, but it doesn't matter that much anyway. I can just hear it with a more rythmic backing pattern and drums, and some other stuff...man it'd be cool. 8)

The mellow version is also really nice, and I love what you did with the melody. I'd almost experiment with the acoustic melody you wrote, and try it in the metal version. Heck you'd never get nailed for "not original enough" if you did that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awww why not? Reverb is cool.

Reverb on everything makes it really muddy, especially on bassy stuff. Using reverb in just the right spots can definitely sound great (Why else would we use it?) but it's far from a "just slap it on everything to make it sound good" effect. Treating any effect like that isn't going to sound good at all.

As far as the mix, I'm really really liking the newest version. The reverb actually isn't THAT bad, but I'm on headphones right now. Tone it down some regardless, but don't ditch it completely. This newest one could easily go into the electric guitar thing you had going in the first recording with a clever transition, and it'd sound awesome. The mixing isn't as bad as you said it is, but it's not perfect. There's not much high end, and the bassline could be brought out a tad more. If there's any reverb on it (I can't quite tell), you should tone it down or take it off. Here are a few tutorials on mixing that really helped me out:

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

http://emusictips.com/frequencies-of-common-instruments/

Also, as far as percussion goes, look into using REAPER. It's an awesome little program, and you can sequence drums in that. You should be able to do it fine with the sound card you have, I'm using the integrated one in my laptop and it works great. The sound card quality mainly comes into play when you're recording, as far as I know. Don't take everything I said here as totally 100% accurate advice, I'm far from knowing exactly what I'm talking about, so, yeah. Keep working on this mix, you've got a great start so far!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't checked the thread in a couple days and it got a bunch of replies - nice, haha. Thanks a ton for all the feedback, and all the positive comments. It's very motivating. I'm still working on getting a decent mix for the distorted electric guitar part, but I think the song is going to have to be put on the backburner for a little bit because I start school this week. Once I'm settled in I'll get back to work on this.

Deathbyspoon - thanks for the tutorials! They're really informative. You mentioned sequencing drums in Reaper - do you have any guides on how to do that? I downloaded the program and have been learning it, but I don't know how to sequence in this or any program, really, haha. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have any actual tutorials, but here's how I do it. There might be a more efficient way, but this works for me, so, yeah.

-First, you'll need a seperate track for each sample. In the FX > VSTi category, put a ReaSampl0matic5000 on each track. Select the wav file of the sample you're going to use for each one (Kick, Snare, etc, you should be able to find some pretty decent samples, if not just ask) and make sure the drop down menu is set to Sample and not Note. Then on the top menu bar go to Insert > New MIDI Item... and double click on what was added to go to a piano roll editor. Now just click in there to place your samples where you want them for that channel. Make a MIDI track for each one and you're in business. Since playing them from a MIDI track like that can be kind of resource heavy, if you need to speed it up a bit, right click the track you made and select "Apply FX As New Take (Mono)". Then remove the ReaSampl0matic5000 and you have an actual wav file of the drum track. If you have any more questions or need help, just ask!

EDIT: Oh yeah, a quick note; I think I read elsewhere that you're using Audacity for this right now. I'd highly recommend switching over to REAPER entirely, as it can do recording as well, on top of a lot of other stuff. I used to use Audacity as well, but I moved over to REAPER entirely, and it works fantastically.

EDIT 2: One more thing, I heard your "New Mix" version you posted in the Remixing forum. It's sounding a bit better, but I can't tell if there's a bass there or not or what. If there is, it definitely needs some sort of work, and if there isn't one, you could use one =P. If you want live bass, just PM me, I'd be happy to record something for you. The mixing on the rest of the instruments is starting to sound better; with drums and bass, I think you've got a pretty good sound on your hands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

So it's been about 2 years since I posted anything about this mix, and it's been just as long since I actually made any changes to it. But I recently started learning more about MIDI and using soundfonts and Reaper and all that sort of stuff, so today I decided to revisit this old idea and see what I could do with it as far as drums are concerned. Let's just note that I'm not a drummer and so my sense of rhythm and what constitutes a good drum beat are pretty miserable, but it was still a lot of fun.

I put this together pretty quickly just as a sort of test run, so it's still really rough. Also, the guitars still sound like shit. But I'd really appreciate it if you guys gave it a quick listen and let me know what you think and if this is worth pursuing. Thanks a lot!

http://www.tindeck.com/listen/wfgl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

not bad at all man. I don't think the guitars really sound shitty personally.

I would like to hear some room tone on the drums though. Right now they are just very dry and it makes it more obvious that it's individual samples. To add a little realism, room tone is needed.. The best I suppose you could do without actually having room mics on drums, is to just add a little reverb to them.

and I mean TINY amount of reverb man, just enough to kind of make it sound like all the drum pieces are in the same room.

Other than that, it's a good start. Another 2 years until it's done? =P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...