Incomplete Remix, need critiques: Halo - The Death of Master Chief

[Roddy]

Hey all,

I've been working on this "actual" remix for quite some time, and I need a bit of help. The song is posted here: www.sellaband.com/djgeki. You don't need to sign up for anything to listen to the song (or you shouldn't, at least), just go listen, come back here and give critiques.

Please note that I'm working almost entirely within the confines of Abelton Live (as far as strings/brass goes), so instrumentation may sound limited. I want to make this a submission to the OCR site (hopefully, that's obvious), however, I do NOT want to bother the judges with something that won't be acceptable immediately, and so I ask for your help.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to reading your responses.

[Rozovian]

The flute is kind'a loopy at some places 1:05 being one. The volume is modulated too much, see if you can reduce it or find another sample.

Some notes end too abrubtly, at least the 1:23 flute, and 2:10 and 2:46 strings. Listen it through to find other stuff like that to fix.

Sounds dry, especially when the pizzicato strings come in at - lots more reverb on those, some more on the other instruments.

You've done a lot right in terms of velocity and arrangement. Some panning issues, piano sometimes seemed to lean to the left a bit too much when it was solo. Some of the highest strings were a bit lagging, but it's a pretty good piece still. I like it. Needs those fixes, and it'd be good, I reckon. Not as awesometastic as you said your company is, but good.

I do NOT want to bother the judges with something that won't be acceptable immediately

From what I've heard, some remixers could use more of that attitude.

[Roddy]

Hey Rozovian,

Thanks for your comments! I'm going to try out the things you've mentioned above. Especially the reverb; I felt everything was a bit dry as well, but I didn't want to overuse the effect.

So, what would make it awesometastic? Does it need better flow in a certain section, a new melody, something more fleshed out?

Again, thank you for your comments!

[Rozovian]

It would be awesometastic if Tyler Heath or Jeremy Robson did it. But you're not them, so you're gonna find your own way of making it awesometastic. I'll give you a fix breakdown, but these are fixes remixers need to learn to spot themselves in their remixes. Myself included.

0:49 - Before this, the strings were a bit lagging. The strings sound too much like a pad and not like an orchestra.

1:07 - Loopy flute, the volume jumps too much.

1:30-1:34 - A bit too long and empty pause. pauses are good, but this one was empty. The one just before 1:50 is better.

2:00 - Around here, the strings sound lagging and pad-like again.

2:35 - The strings need a little more sharpness. If you have more strings samples, try those out. Nice build-up, tho. Works great until the higher strings come in, those are way too soft.

2:53 - Pizzicato panned to the left, strings at the right. In an orchestra, those are essentially the same instrument, just played differently. Higher strings are sitting somewhere, lower somewhere else, but pizzicato, legato, staccato, tremolo, all strings are played by the same instruments, even if they're played differently.

3:somewhere - What is the grande finale? Where is it? Some remixes put the action first, some put it last, and either of those work, but with an ending as long as yours, and no real payoff for the buildup mentioned before, this lacks that awesometasticality.

3:15-4:07 - Almost one minute of ending. It's beautiful, but not awesometastic. Awesometastic is a little more active, more energetic.

I think it's your samples that are your biggest problem. These could be tweaked to work better. Some arrangement issues like no grande finale and a long ending, but mostly sample issues. Better samples, or better tweaked samples.

That's improvements. However, this isn't bad, and you should really keep that in mind. It sounds unrefined, but not bad. Good luck!