Music Remastered

http://dodownload.filefront.com/12326347//...219be66ba2c353c

Just click the link and you'll get my remake of Chemical Plant Zone. Let me know if it's worthy for this awesome game.

 

scubasteve, is the CPZ music used in the demo your latest ver of it? because there's several very obvious beats missing at around 00:11~00:12. sounds great otherwise.

 

Oooh. This project is looking interesting. I might try my hand at contributing to the music part of this.
Just, what's the general consensus of the rearranged/remastered version of a song? (ie: Stylistic liberties allowed, what NOT to do etc.)

EDIT: Read the first post. Cool cool. :D Excellent in fact.

 

A suggestion for when the Casino Night Zone music is re-mastered: Mix it in the style of big-band swing music. The style of the melody and rhythm are practically designed for that sort of instrumentation and it'd sound GREAT.

 

Well, the problem is that it sounds like a straight-up MIDI render. I would try adding more real (sampled) instrumentation first, then work on improving the mix. At this point, for just about every song we seem to be collectively favoring remasters that use at least 50% real instruments, as they tend to more accurately represent the original tunes as they were "meant" to sound, so feel free to give that a try.

As for the mix, right now, the chords are too loud and up-front; reducing their level and adding some reverb would be a good start. Actually, a very small amount of reverb is good on just about everything when going for a fuller sound. And, while it's not artistically necessary, keeping the bass instrument panned center is generally a good idea technically. This is because subwoofers aren't meant to reproduce a stereo image, so those who have subwoofers will end up with a mangled version of your bass instrument (the bass frequencies will be in the center while the others will still be off to the side). That said, you can still keep it that way if you like, but it's good to be aware of the consequences. EDIT: You can also keep the bass sounding wide by balancing it on the other side. This is commonly done with synths by detuning each voice and panning them across the stereo field (many synths can do this automatically with a chorus/unison effect).

If you listen to the original drum tracks (FM channel 6 and PSG channel 4 -- find them here), it's actually just a straight beat throughout that entire section. (I think the hi-hats give the impression of there being additional snare hits.)

I and several others have already attempted just that. They're on the database .

 

uhhh what? Emerald hill? no. I said CPZ, Chemical plant. and when I said 'beats' I didn't mean drums. Well going to the CPZ music page and downloading the original tracks, the missing notes are frrom FM Ch 1 at around 00:13~00:14. Very hard to miss.

 

Whoops, my bad O_o
Yeah, I see what you mean now. I'm probably going to start CPZ from scratch again anyhow since there seem to be quite a few people who aren't very fond of my current version.

 

really? I liked it.

also, the Aquatic Ruin Zone you recently did I really liked it but, in the original in the DAC track there are these two beat clap like sounds throughout and I cant tell exactly if there present in your mix, I think they might be but there so quiet you can barely hear them. There is also the rapid clap sounds that are are at around 00:20 in the original and your mix leaves them out completely. This ruins it completely for me without them.

 

Maybe I misread your posts, but in case you have troubles replicating CNZ, here is an smps2xm conversion, with all the measures properly separated, and all the channels labeled. Works best in Mod Plug Tracker.

 

Hey everyone

I'm a new trial member, and really excited about being in the project - or almost being in it

So, as for the music, I've listened to some of the tracks on the DB, and there are some that I really love, and then there's other that are nice, but just do not have that Sonic 2 feel to it, in my opinion.

As for Cinossu's Casino Night Zone - brilliant, absolutely brilliant. This, I think, should be the one to use in the game. Although, with Cinossu's stuff, as brilliant as it is, I generally find it a wee bit too ... shall I say ... obtrusive, or too pompous for a background tune. The good thing with Sonic 2 original music was that it served the atmosphere of the zone well, but never became obtrusive (you may decide if it's because of it being ingeniously crafted, or just because of technical limits :P). That's my two cents.

 

Well, I noticed that a number of people on the tech demo release thread had a "Yeah, and that CPZ remix? Um, no" sort of reaction to it, which is more than a tad short of a glowing review :p

So with the clap sounds, I decided to add a straight 16th clap pattern to give it more of a Latin flare. I then attempted to emphasize the claps that were already there in the original, but as you can tell that really didn't work. So now I've added an additional clap sound that only plays where the orignal did. As for the claps at the break at around 0:20, I consciously decided not to put them there simply because 1/32 note claps sound... well, highly unrealistic. Everything I tried sounded quite bad. That's why I replaced them with the castanet and tambourine combo.

Here is the update: Aquatic Ruin v1.1

I also fixed some other problems with the percussion... the break at about 0:16 seconds was missing, and the second snare hit in the pattern in the first half was 1/16 early (which thankfully nobody noticed. Hah!) And, as Tweaker suggested I've added some strings, and instead of just duplicating other parts again I wrote some supporting chords. I'm kind of iffy on them myself (especially the first half), so criticize away everyone... Here they are separately: Aquatic Ruin strings

I would actually go for "technical limits" here. I think that by remastering each track with real instruments and applying modern mixing techniques (e.g. reverb, compression), they will inherintly sound much fuller and livelier -- the downside being, of course, that they may end up sounding more obtrusive, as you pointed out. In the end, I would personally much rather see them modernized to the fullest extent possible rather than holding back to a more minimalist approach, simply for the sake of a slightly less obtrusive sound. Anyway, hi and welcome to the project

 

Wow Scuba, your music really gives goosebumps... The middle part with the trumpet is so overwhelming..!

Congratulations again!

The only problem I notice on the first part, is main instrument that seems too "acute" (don't know if that's the correct english word).

 

If I had to interpret that as anything Vincent, I'd say the transients are a tad too sharp. The samples are great, as usual, but... it's definitely getting there, just not quite. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful mix that I'd easily listen to just because, but if you're going for perfection, then hey.

The bad part is I'm not really sure what you can do with it. If I had the individual parts for it, I might try just the slightest EQ on those frequencies to tone it down. As you've noted many times, it's all about the subtle changes!

 

ha, oh wow. that's harsh.

Definitely an improvement with the new claps. And I had a feeling you deliberately left out the claps at :20 for that reason. Still the the break at :20 sounds bad as it it is. It feels slow and empty, the rapid pace claps really made that break work. Does it really have to be 100% 'realistic'?

I've been re-listening to your other songs again and Your Special stage is simply amazing its absolutely perfect.

Final Boss and Wing Fortress are definitely epic but could stand to be improved upon. WFZ for one, at the break at :18ish in the background is a violin or something, it sounds so bland and fake sounding. Make the violin sound I dunno, more like a violin? and possibly I dunno, put multiple violins as if in a full orchestra? With WFZ and Final Boss, they sound like there being played by only 5 or 6 guys and not a complete orchestra. I think this is their only fault.

Mystic Cave and Chemical Plant, there both the best of whats been submitted. I really really like them both, MCZ especially. Every thing else is trash in comparison.. All the other submissions either sound allot alike (like they worked off the same midi then tweaked the instruments slightly), been turned into a horrible techno mess or just sound plain terrible.

Casino Night... Cinossu's is definitely better (yours is pretty, meh) but, theres just something I about it I can't put my finger on that just sounds bad.

Hidden Palace, which I didn't even know you did till I saw it on the db (was it posted to the forums ever?), this is so fucking amazingly epic, words cannot descibe it's sheer awesomeness. don't change a fucking thing.

 

Hmm. Well, the problem was not just that they sounded unrealistic, but they just sounded out of place. I'll take another shot at it, though.

And thanks for all the feedback! To avoid another ridiculously long post, I'll just say that I agree with all of your criticisms. Also, I wasn't even aware that my HPZ was on the database... I never posted it here because it's actually unfinished (no percussion), which makes it wonderfully ironic that you would recommend that I don't change a thing :P

And Vincent - No worries, I know what you mean. I'll see what I can do.

 

Thanks! I'm really hyped about it, and I hope I'll be of use

Yeah, you're right. I was just saying, for me personally, it would be a pity if the music got too 'obtrusive' if we wanna call it like that, because a big part of the Sonic 2 gameplay feel is created by the stage music, and in my opinion, especially by its ... uh ... in-obtrusivity? :P

Guys, check out these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuczEjFfJzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsIMOvcGGbc

I like the first one a lot - it's Jazzy, and it hits the original CPZ music's feel pretty closely. The second one though, underlines the stage's aggressivity with the distrorted guitar (after all, there's poisonous purple fluid all around Sonic, right?!)

I'll try to create a rendition of the track this weekend, got some ideas in my head...

 

After hearing that and reviewing the submissions on the database so far, I have to agree. I would call that superior to what I've heard so far in all but one respect - the bass. If there were a way to combine that track with the bass scuba has in his latest rendition, I believe we would have a winner on our hands.

So good to see people getting excited about the project's music again after a relatively long break from it!

 

Oh, hahaha! I didn't even realize the drums were missing! I take it selecting suitable drum samples for it is proving difficult? In any case, it definitely sounds beautiful as it is. Seriously though, I got this playing on repeat. I love it.

 

Ahh, damn. I tried it with my "old" Fruityloops 4, but somehow the instrumental samples were all broken (all the .wavs produced no sound whatsoever) ... so I've gotta install Reason first. Duh.
And my drawing tablet - I need my friend to give it back to me first. I wanna do something, but I'm kinda blocked, heh. :P
But I'm looking forward.

 

Holy shit mine sounds like the first one. Dl here

http://sonicsanctuary.digibase.ca/CPZ.ogg



Edit: I made this BEFORE I listened to that youtube vid >_>