Remixing goodness.

[Vaylos]

Since I mentioned it in that other thread, I figured I'd post linkage, and grab some opinions on the track i'm working on.

The target track I chose is the Royal Chapel theme from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I'm trying to aim for a dark, stormy and ghostly/spectral quality. My only real major concern, is if I don't deviate enough from the source material. I kept pretty close, adding my own drum patterns, and violin. And I added an exposition of the violin where the organ should come in, and let the organ come in after that.

Anyhoo, if the OCR peeps don't like it (posted it to their WIP forum) Maybe I can fenagle the strings a bit, and toy with the choir harmonies to make it more my own mix, and less close to the source. *ponder*

Unfortunately, I don't havea link to the source music. However, if you own the game you can always go to the sound test at the old librarian dude hehe. Else, I guess see if the game music is posted up on zophar's PSF archive? *shrug*

Constructive opinions would be appreciated.

Linkage:
http://members.cox.net/james.musicman/SotN-Chapel.mp3

[Fitz Tayo]

Well I know where I can get the original to compare them, if I knew the title of the song. (The title of the song being differant to it's area, it's not actually called "Chapel Song" I believe)

But it's good I think. Though I think more variation on the theme and within the drums would be good, like some improv on both. How did you make this? (Program, keyboards etc.)

[Vaylos]

Used FL Studio 5..er...demo...yeah.
(I'm planning to save up for 6 actually)

The samples are all SF2's that I grabbed from various places in OCR's remixing forum, as well as SF2midi. Darkesword's page has a few, and the samples posting has a lot of different places if you can stand reading through the whole thing.

The Drums I tried to come up with different patterns and mess around a bit. They aren't generated, they're done note for note. There's a good site that gives a very good general approach to seqeuencing drum patterns.

http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_make_o ... tracks.htm

And yeah, the drums do get a little repetitive. I should Probably vary them more during the violin exposition. I used keyboard for the Violin, which mine is an old Yamaha PSR-520 (and it's showing it's age...the backlight just died out). The rest was mostly done via the piano roll.

*ponders* Yeah I should improv, or alter the choir a bit....or maybe at least do more to the strings. Or maybe just play the organ solo by hand or add flourishes and ornamentation to it. That would help I think.

Also, just looked up a track listing, and the source track is "Requiem for the Gods".

[Fitz Tayo]

Ornamentation would be good for the organ part I think. I think the strings that play along with the choir are fine, though the choir could be more prominant up to 2 minutes.

I don't think it's too close to the theme, and the greater atmospheric detail and better quality emphasize this point. Really achieves the whole "dark, stormy and ghostly/spectral quality". In my experiance choirs tend to add the ghostly/spectral quality (depends on the song really, but it's suited to this).

Thanks for the composition info also.

[Vaylos]

Hehe, no problem. Actually I came across that site relatively recently since I was working on stuff for a friend of mine. He's studying game design down at Full Sail in Orlando, and needed me to do some music for a class project.

I came across that site, and another one that was a good read (have em both bookmarked hehe)

This site is good for a general overview on music composition. Apparently the author has some books that follow and this one is the first. It's mostly about the overall process and structure.

http://www.musique.umontreal.ca/personnel/Belkin/bk/

[Aegis]

I think it rocks. Reminds me of Furious Angels, in a wierd sort of way. Great job!

[Vaylos]

Hehe Thankees. Compliments will always be appreciated I honestly think that this is one of my better attempts at creating a remix. Hmmm, I definitely think I'll try making the pipe organ a little more baroque in style though. Should be easy to add in some ornaments and simple flourishes.

[Poenaensis]

I love music, this looks fairly comprehensive! But I couldn't find this track.

[Vaylos]

I'm only supplying the following link for reference of the source material.

http://bluelaguna.net/music/csotnost/mp3s.php

The source/reference track is Requiem for the Gods.

Just scroll down til ya find it.

edit to avoid doublepost:
So, I re-uploaded the mix, since I updated and made some changes.

*Fixed some chords oddness in the violin exposition
*Tried to add more feeling in the violin exposition
*EQ'd violin to give a slightly warmer sound
*Fixed some panning/position/reverb issues.
*Tweaked volumes and instrument balancing all around
*Added an arpeggiated lead-in for the organ
*Switched to slightly better sounding bells and a slightly different choir for one of the voices.

I think this makes it about V.5 now hehe. *slowly approaches that 1.0 mark*

Same link as above, I still need to think up a decent title for it :/

The only downfall, is I'm not sure how the remix will translate to other speaker/stereo systems. I mean, I don't have audio monitors yet. (I need to save up for some cheapish monitors) So, for now i'm stuck with my Infinity RS2 bookshelfs for my main/fronts, and my crappy labtec lcs-1050 desktops for the rear speakers. Still, I get a pretty decent overall sound. Just...probably not as good as it could be on other setups I think.