[Kinichie]

Sorry about that Kinichie. Right now I'd say your instrumentation is very good overall. The only thing that doesn't completely fit for me are the saxes at the beginning of Final Boss - first, you're using a completely different set of notes there. In the original it's Bb to F on one part and A to E on the other, which produces a very nasty-sounding discord (as it should)... this would seem unfitting on saxophones, and personally I think it lends itself better to something like trumpets, which can really blare and emphasize the discordance. From a technical angle, the one thing that you really need to work on is dynamics. Most parts in both songs have little variation in strength or dynamics which is resulting in the songs sounding a little bland. Definitely work on this first, and then maybe tweak the mixing a little - for example, in ARZ the drums are extremely quiet and the pianos are a bit muffled and too loud, and in Final Boss the bass instrument is overpowering everything else.

Right yes I noticed that (Bb/F and A/E) after listening to the song itself after you mentioned it. I did the notes mostly based on the sheet music that was on the database. I'll work on it

[steveswede]

By "the lead" I'm assuming you mean the part I was discussing above? If so (hopefully), here is the link. As for the bass... hm, that is kind of a problem! There aren't really any sure-fire ways to remedy a situation like that short of creating the entire part again. The two things you suggested might work, though if you do try layering any other bass part on top of it be sure to highpass filter one part or the other. Also, if you have them, you could also try an expander or an enveloper. Even a compressor might work with the correct settings.

Thanks for the midi. But even this is making it sound bad. What hasn't helped is the fact that the main lead is two leads an octave apart. But one is slightly offset so it's like some kind of midi delay. This has caused it to clash big time so I'm gonna have to fine tune some pitched LFO automation for a single note press.

As for the bass. See what you think of this....

MCZ Rough mix 2

It's subtle. But the attack on the bass now has a chug to it like the original.

Layered some more horns and have a better attack on them.

This is still not there yet though. I hope to add more new additions once the original bits are all right.

[Canned Karma]

Better. You still need to add in the trill (thanks for the term scuba, skipped my mind) in the ascending/descending note parts, and the second, third, and fourth descending notes in the series at 0:45 are coming in just a bit too late. They should be in sync with the main beats.

[steveswede]

Better. You still need to add in the trill (thanks for the term scuba, skipped my mind) in the ascending/descending note parts, and the second, third, and fourth descending notes in the series at 0:45 are coming in just a bit too late. They should be in sync with the main beats.

The trill is what I'm on about in my last post. I need to add some extreme time on the automation to get it sounding right.

[DalekSam]

I'm not entirely sure if submissions for the Title Screen are no longer able to be done, though I still wanted to give it a shot.

So yeah, here it is.
Rather happy about it, too, the brass idea I got from another submission here.

[RedStripedShoes]

I'm not entirely sure if submissions for the Title Screen are no longer able to be done, though I still wanted to give it a shot.

So yeah, here it is.
Rather happy about it, too, the brass idea I got from another submission here.

Needs backup instruments, and a less synthy sounding trumpet.

[RadicalGarbage]

I hope it's not too late for yet another Mystic Cave remaster...
I haven't been on here in ages.
The following has grown quite large!
Upload is here => Mystic Cave DOWNLOAD

ReFX Nexus is awesome

[Tweaker]

Nexus is indeed awesome! Not totally 100% on your choice in patches, though; the modulation on the lead isn't quite powerful enough and it doesn't sound quite right. I'm also not too sure on your bass; it's organic enough, but it doesn't seem to have enough punch to really live up to the original song's bassline. Your percussion is also unreasonably weak, completely taking any and all power from the original song out. It's a bit of an underwhelming feeling, y'know?

Not bad, though! You've got the right idea, but it needs some adjustments before it becomes anything truly solid.

[RadicalGarbage]

How does this sound?
I have now added a Genesis-like bassy sound with a little VST called VOPM.
The modulation has been deepened and the rate has been increased
and the percussion has been replaced with new samples.


You can download here

[Tweaker]

Hm... it's a little better, but it's still not quite there. Do you think you could send me the FLP and whatever resources you used for this? I have both Nexus and VOPM, so playing anything from either shouldn't be a problem.

[ancara]

I think it's finally time to post sum new stuff.

First off, my try at Mystic Cave Zone 2p to complete the trilogy of 2 player-specific songs (Already did CNZ and EHZ 2p) :

http://www.sendspace.com/file/dd1hzx

Next, my newest try at Hidden Palace Zone:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/icg3rj

Finally, my newest try at Hill Top Zone (with two different harmonicas as main instraments, as a sort-of experiment to see it it'd work well) :

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4b99z9

Hope ya enjoy what I did, and as always, tell me what ya think, ok?

[Canned Karma]

ancara, your submissions are consistently creative and generally well thought out, but there is a trend I've noticed. In your pieces with large emphasis on percussion, it tends to drown out your harmonies and compete too much with your melodies. More specific examples: in HPZ I can hear some nice sounding stuff, but the bassline nearly overwhelms what you've done. It's not quite as pronounced in HTZ, much better spatial placement there. In MCZ2P, the trombone (?) takes the place of what I said about the percussion in the HPZ, yet the levels of your percussion in it are spot on. I'm slightly confused why there's such a difference.

Hopefully scuba, Tweaker, BlueStreak or another of the community's musicians can word this better than I'm able to.

[Caniad Bach]

@ancara your work's really good, but I think the harmonica needs to come up in the mix a bit. I'm thinking of doing a version of Hill Top Zone of my own using live instruments, is that harmonica a virtual instrument or is it live? I'd like to try a versions with a fiddle, a sampled harmonica and a live one to see which sounds best. I'm not trying to steal your thunder, I've just had this idea for HTZ in my head for months!

Also, I've been thinking that S2HD needs consistent sounding music, not nessicarily stylistically but production wise, if it's nessicary I'll be more than willing to master and produce the finished tracks so the sound flows between levels, I wouldn't change anything, but rather standardise certain things like volume, panning and basic EQ.

And are there any tracks that arn't being worked on at the moment? My set up is quite bare at the moment as my lovely music studio PC has decided to commit hari-kari on me, but I can knock up a few things on my laptop and at uni, and then get some better VSTIs and possibly some recording when I've finally sorted out that miserable bastard of a computer.

[FinalBeyond]

Just a heads up, recently Dreams Come True released a set of 'music box' styled versions of their old songs, including Sweet Sweet Sweet. While obviously we're not going to be doing it in the music box style, it may be useful to see how Nakamura has done an instrumental version nowadays. I can upload it to Dropbox or something if people want it.

[MaximusDM]

Here is my concept for Death Egg Zone through the end of the game.
So just close your eyes and image you're playing. :P

Credits:
scubasteve - Death Egg Zone
Blake Robinson - Sonic II Face the Boss
Blake Robinson - Sonic II Final Boss
Dreams Come True - SWEET SWEET SWEET
Sound effects came from Sound Snap.
Mixed by me.

I didn't count hits so don't get on my case about that. Enjoy.
MaximusDM - Sonic II Ending Concept

This post has been edited by MaximusDM: 18 March 2010 - 09:15 PM