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Chrono Trigger : Schala's Theme [ReMix]


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I like the new intro (more of a good buildup feeling there), as well as the added flutes. The new ending is good, but I'm a sucker for big, drawn-out endings (blame my love of prog rock) and I feel like you've left me hanging. As long as you keep on bringing out good material, you could just keep on going and going and going and going...

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Brandon Strader and halc are liars!!!

Anyways, your music is very reminiscent of Disco Dan's style, which is good, because DD was known for extremely catchy remixes. This could be one of them, if you improve it.

The arrangement itself is very nice, I find myself enjoying it, despite never playing Chrono Trigger (I'M WORKING ON IT!). The instrument choice is rather basic and will be NO'd by the judges, but it creates a nice, ambient atmosphere that good trance music is known for creating.

You might want to take a look at some of the other trance artists on the site such as bLiNd and DigiE for a better example of good trance.

Keep working on it. I want the final mix posted.

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Awesome stuff.

The only thing I could say is the mix goes pretty fast. Everything comes in and out. You should make more build up since it is trance. And the melody is gated fastly. Maybe you should double evrything?

I'm not a pro trance guy since I'm nore dubsteppish but I do love the atmosphere of the trance song. Please continue your hard work.

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I love the strings in the back ground, a real epic feel. I'd say the percussion sounds a little flat and kinda sticks out. Maybe a deep echoed snare? ( and maybe a tympani to complement the strings? ^_^ sorry band geek ) something to tie the rest of the percussion, which fits, to the rest of the sounds. Maybe draw out 1:20 to 1:29? Its sounding like a f'n winner 8)

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I thought I was familiar with Schala's theme but I didn't recognize any source until like 0:55.

Is there any bass until 1:30? Because it is either too low or not there, which would be bad.

The snare is very unfitting. Too agressive for this song.

It is sounding nice, even if a bit repetitive. You just need to add the other part of Schala's theme and this would be great!

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It feels like it's missing more complex percussion or some more instrumentation, like a piano fluttering in the background or something. The beginning is so nice, pumps me up, but then you thin out the atmosphere when the percussion becomes more driving. It's a little strange to me.

1:16 is so pretty but I'm craving for some harmonic energy behind it. My ears just expect to hear a soft echoing crash, hi-hat, piano, something. There's also no reverse crash leadins or anything that builds tension.

I like it in general but it sounds thin to me right now. I thinks it's a great base to add things to.

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You stay too true to the source. Add some original material; live a little. Right now you're lacking that unique piece of originality that is prevalent in practically every single posted ReMix. Ask yourself, "Why should the judges say yes to me? What's so special about my remix that makes it stand out from the hundreds of others?" If you can't answer those questions, then you need to keep working on your mix.

Yes, the cop out ending makes the mix seem short. I suggest adding an interlude-y ending after 2:59, like how you did at 1:17, as a sort of coda; you want there to be a nice feeling of closure. Maybe you could even inject a refrain of the main theme there, but incorporate it into a nice ending.

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The panning effect on the harp seems awkward to me. I didn't really expect that and it probably shouldn't be used.

At 0:20, when the ensemble comes in, it seems to be too loud. I think you were going for ensemble backup, so lower the volume on the ensemble. Also, high pass it above about 120Hz to accommodate for a bass you use at some point. You want a full sound, not a sound that overlaps with others.

At 0:44, where the harp does a scale-like roll, that's a good spot to start the snare roll lead in, not at 0:45; that's a little too late. You might already have a snare roll going on at 0:44, but I'm not hearing anything with the snares at 0:44 - 0:45. Perhaps it was fading in too slowly?

At 0:45, when the drums come in, the kick's decay is a bit long; its bass frequencies at the second half of its waveform are muddying things up just a bit, so shorten the tail within the DAW itself if you can (FL Studio can, at least).

The kick and the snare might also benefit from some compression so that they sound punchy but not too loud. Endorphin's a pretty good, free compressor.

The fill at 1:39 doesn't seem like it leads into a mellower section. At the spot in the fill where you have a gap in the snare sequencing, add a snare there to get a 5-hit snare roll. That should be a bit more natural.

At 1:46, the reverb on the piano has too much low end decay. You might want to get a new reverb plugin if you can't control the low end decay, mids decay, and high end decay. That's a necessity in any reverb plugin. Ambience might work out for you, but I'm not sure. Try checking that out. It's donation-ware. Donate at your free will.

When the breakdown section is over, at 1:52, use a different snare. It's a lead in to a new, more creative section than before, so keep the kick energy to a minimum until you get there. You could even high pass the drums there until you reach 2:00, then automate a reduction on the high pass until the high pass mix is 0% at 2:06.

At 2:06, there's immense bass compression. Watch your bass and kick frequency ranges. Notch your bass EQ where your kick is, and give a slight spike on the kick where the bass is notched.

The gated panning auto filter synth is good, but try editing the auto filter so that it doesn't lower the cutoff so much; that's causing some issues since it's at such a low cutoff for so long. It tells me that that synth also needs to be high passed to above about 120Hz to make room for the acid bass.

At 2:52, it feels like that should be your big outtro. It doesn't quite feel like it's there yet. If you do the above stuff, you should get significant headroom to raise the volume of the strings.

The last thing is the piano needs some humanization edits. If that wasn't played live, you might want to consider thinking about doing so, asking someone to do so, or learning how it could sound live and edit the velocities.

Good luck!

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The EQ stuff is going well, after a fresh listen.

Small details I'm noticing:

The kick sample sounds too much like you're trying to adapt a dance kick sample. Try going for, perhaps, a vinyl kick or something with more punch. I haven't used this set, but maybe you should check it out: http://www.thesample.net/2011/06/underground-vinyl-drum-kit-vol-1/

At 1:40, the piano is more exposed, so maybe you should change the velocity curve to lessen the "hard" hits. "Hard" hits generally sound less realistic.

Aside from that, sounding great!

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  • 3 weeks later...

For the section at 0:21, now that I think about it, sounds like you are playing the chords on the same octave. Try splitting the chords across octaves. Have the first and fifth down an octave from the third and seventh, or something similar to that. Basically, shift the bottom note of the chord and the note second from the top of the chord down an octave to get a big open chord, and that might really widen the sound of the strings. Give it a shot.

The kick and snare are really working well right now, great job.

At 1:38, I do hear the reverse crash you have there. Perhaps you can replace that with a different one that has an earlier attack. The current one has a really late attack and it doesn't give much of a heads-up to the breakdown.

For the breakdown, if you can, try to record yourself playing the piano instead of sequencing it in. It's not overly important, but mods will nail you on that and say it's too rigid and mechanical.

At 3:12, the drums just stop. Try doing something else with the drums to give a heads-up for the lack of drums afterwards.

The last thing is that the ending might be too abrupt, at least to me. I'm not sure if anyone else will say that.

Keep it up!

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