Barium

Great advice, thank you guys! I took a listen to Hall of the Mountain King and I hear what you're saying, Sil. I'll give those ideas a shot and see what happens; thanks a ton for the in depth analysis, I really do appreciate it. (Also, the timpani is absent because I don't have really any percussion yet , I've just been working on the other sections. I'll start adding that in as well.)

Gogo's theme is a light, almost clownish little tune, it's a lot of fun on the soundtrack. I decided to remove as much happiness from it as I could and see what happened. Source is here: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/FF6-_Gogo%27s_Theme.mid Or just hit up vgmusic.com, go to Super Nintendo, A-F, Final Fantasy 6 (as though anyone listening to WIPs needs instructions on how to do this, right?) and listen to Gogo (3) by Jorge D. Fuentes. I thought that that one was the closest to the source of the bunch. My piece is here: http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/zzem/Gogo I say semi-orchestral on this because I really don't know much about orchestral composition and, essentially, I know I'm missing a lot of things necessary for the right feeling, the right motion, the right...everything, I just need to figure out what those are and how to do them! Hopefully I'll learn more with time. So until then, I'm okay with writing arrangements and putting them to orchestral instruments: semi-orchestral. This isn't finished yet, as you'll notice there isn't even really percussion yet...and despite how conclusive it may sound at 2:13, I don't plan on ending there at all. This is mainly to get feedback on the rest of the arrangement, and to see if I should keep on going the way I'm going or take a different approach. I think I'm still developing my ear and so there's going to be a few things that I'll have screwed up, and I'd like to know what they are. I haven't put much effort into the production yet, really, but any comments you have on that will be appreciated as well. Any and all feedback is appreciated, so please let me know what you think! Thanks.

Thanks for the tips, I've got a lot to do right now but I'm hoping to be able to work on it again shortly. That version was mainly for arrangement critiques, I haven't put too much time into production yet. Probably should have specified that. But I'll get some work done on it soon.

A noir shooter movie without Clive Owen? *gasp*

I really love the soundtrack to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, it has such a different sound than the other Final Fantasies. So I tried to do an orchestral rearrangement of the music from the last boss fight, the song called "Sad Monster." So, without further ado, here is Monster's Ball. I'd love any and all comments and advice, please, I really want to improve. Completely slipped my mind that I could find the original on youtube, so go ahead and give that a listen if you'd like a reference. http://youtube.com/watch?v=AwMzq0PyCiI

I wanted to do something slow and cool with this song from Tetris and I feel like I learned enough from my previous foray into mixing to really give this one a shot. It's very liberal with its interpretation so you'll have to listen carefully to hear the song but I assure you it's in there. I'm still quite inexperienced and I'm eager to improve myself so I'd appreciate any and all feedback. http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/hqpn/Eurasian-Chill-v1

Well, if you like Cubase and you're a student / teacher, you can get Cubase Essential 4 Educational Edition (the "barebones" version though it's still got plenty of features and it works for me) for $75. Pretty much all of the Cubases are at least half off if you can qualify for the Educational version.

Well, as much as I know I won't be able to defend myself from a Snappleattack, I am quite a new mixer, so I am very prone to mistakes. But, if I've got more arrangement problems than production problems then that's okay, as I really haven't made many changes arrangement-wise from the first couple versions aside from changing my ridiculous lead instrument (I like it ), it's all been about making the bad arranging and mixing sound cohesive while going to worse. So, lemme know how or why it didn't really happen (if you can nail any good examples/reasons from just listening); I'd like to improve on that front as well. As for arranging, I get what you mean for the majority of what you're saying but one thing stands out - how are my harmonies wrong? If you care enough to try to point out specific examples of my bad harmonies I'd appreciate the chance to figure out why. Like you said, I do lack musical knowledge; aside from having played the bagpipes for seven years I haven't played another instrument from an age (piano at age five) I can remember but I am trying to expand my musical knowledge both through practice (here) and classes (which I can't take until next quarter ). I can just imagine you saying you don't want to hear my life story, but that's okay; I'm down with the soul-crushing as long as I can get some good advice from it. EDIT: Getting some good feedback via IRC about certain things, especially the harmonies, so I'm getting a feel for what you might have meant. Still feel free to let me know what you had a problem with though, in case it was something different that I could fix.

I'm baaaaaaaack! Okay, I've put a decent bit of effort into trying to get everything to mesh together and I also tried to pump up the bass a bit more. I replaced the synth at the beginning with trumpets, I think it makes for a more powerful lead harmony. Tossed in a couple variations to the trumpet/synth lead (I honestly like the additions and how it sounds overall at this point, I don't really want to change it). Go ahead and give it a listen if you've got some time and feel free to give me any advice/feedback/comments you might have.

All righty, yet another version is up. I spent all day on this one (spring-breaks-in-which-all-my-friends-are-out-of-town ftl) trying to use the old bass while preventing any pumping, so let me know if there's any in there and if there is, when specifically it occurs. And I really couldn't think of anything else to do with the trumpet/synth lead, I didn't want to complicate it any more than it already is and I'm fairly satisfied with how it sounds. By the way - thanks for all the feedback Eino, I really do appreciate it. It's helping out a lot. EDIT: Thanks to advice from bustatunez, I threw a multiband compressor on the track to see what would happen. I uploaded the result and posted it (it's called Beta 34) so if you've got the time I'd love for some opinions on which is preferable.

Okey dokey, a new version is up. There is literally no compression in this one, so as a beginner I'll hazard a guess that any pumping is caused by the limiter on the master track. Let me know if you hear any, I can't hear it too well after listening to this over and over and over. Also, if you notice any pumping, please let me know specifically where it is. I brought out the synth that I had paired with the trumpet (it was always there before, it was just pretty quiet) so now it's a lot more obvious and perhaps will give the trumpet some liveliness. I also tried to get the background synths to blend in a bit better. I had to mess with the bass line as well, so it'll sound a bit different (I think there were just too many competing sounds in it) so let me know what you think of it. Well, I kind of like the way it ends now. The whole song feels resolved at the fadeout; there really isn't anywhere else I want to go with it and I don't think a sudden stop would suit this very well.

Mmk, I've posted a new version; go ahead and give it a listen. I tried to fix those "pumping" issues and I think I got some but not all of it. I'm not sure if I can hear it as well as others may be able to so let me know if it's still too much. As for its length, I didn't plan on making it any longer - arrangement wise I'm pretty done with it. I feel like the fadeout shortly after introducing that last section is rather fitting, but let me know if it doesn't feel right to you.

Okay - I'm not exceptionally experienced so feel free to take this with a grain of salt, but it seems like you'd appreciate any kind of feedback. STRUCTURE [X] Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) [X] Pace too plodding [X] Too repetitive [X] Abrupt ending PERSONAL COMMENTS For "Pace too plodding," and "Too repetitive," they weren't too prevalent personally, it felt like it was intentional and that's okay, it does go with the overall feel. However, for "Not enough changes in sounds," I did think that using the same synth at 2:16-2:54 used in the rest of the song got somewhat "boring," even if it was supposed to resemble the sound of the melody before and after it. Also, the string crescendo starting at 2:00 felt a little fast, not too big of a deal. And this one is a tiny nitpick, but when the strings jump an octave at 1:24 there's a tiny space of silence which was a bit jarring. And finally, for "Abrupt ending," was there a specific reason to continue that sample at the end beyond what felt like a very natural conclusion at 4:18? But I like the sound and feel of it otherwise, it creates a great ambiance that's very fitting for a "funky" haunt.

Thanks for the tips, there's an update posted up there now. I already had a newer version to be posted (in which I had redone the drums) so I tried to deal with the first issue you mentioned prior to posting. Give it a listen and lemme know what you think.

I know this song is oh so popular, but I've just done another fairly major re-edit, and I'd love some feedback.