Music Remastered

I'm working on an MCZ Track - as of now I've completed it, and just need to add instruments.

Here's it using generic Colecovision voices with Commodore 64 drums. These will be replaced with good Midi instruments with good patches and such later.

Dust Hill Zone - Err, Mystic Cave Zone

 

Heh, that's awesome. Another reason to support alternate packs. =P

 

Blast's CPZ is awesome, and rivals that of Blaze in my opinion, however, my one qualm is that at 41 seconds into blast's, the lower sounding instrument overpowers the higher pitched one, when in the original, the higher one is just as loud if not louder. Fix that and it'd be perfect.

Just my $0.02

 

Hoochah!



Mystic Cave Zone - with proper instrumentation!

Constructive criticism, suggestions, death threats, etc. welcome.

 

A possibility for music would be to use high quality FM synths, like they did on the FM Sound Module Maniax CD.

 

I just noticed that the MP3 exported to rather poor quality, and the drums don't sound right because of that on my MCZ track.

Also, new page, so you'll miss this:

Mystic Cave Zone

 

Right, I listened to all of the submissions, and decided which ones I like more. I then put them to the test using QJimbo's MP3 tool, and I must say, you're all doing amazing work. Keep it up guys, this is some great stuff in the making.

 

Here's Mystic Cave but in Module Format - Much higher quality than that mp3 I made.



Mystic Module Zone

 

Wow, this is some great stuff so far, =D.

I was wondering though, I can play some mean electric guitar and record it at a great quality if any of you are interested in having so in a remix. I can't really do any full remixes myself, mainly because I'm still trying to get good with FL5, but I can record electric guitar/bass for anyone, <3. Just tell me what you want it to sound like, and I'll be able to spit up something, XD.

Well, I'll try post some sample recordings of Sonic 2 songs tomorrow (if that's fine with the rules of this topic and everything of course). I'd really love to contribute, and selling myself as an instrument is about the only way I can, ^^.

-Blur

 

Any contribution is welcome, and it's quite possible that if you play in the right key with decent rhythm it can be mixed with an existing track.

if you will do electric guitar, please stay away from the generic radio trash in which everything is distorted. Some jazz-electric-guitar-like sounds would be a nice change.

 

Alright, with some of my effect pedals, I can make it sound like just about anything you want to really, :/. I've got some pretty cool delays and such, <3. As for distortion though, did you like anything from the Adventure era? If so, I can produce stuff like that as well.

-Blur

 

Of course we need.
There is so much goodness but only one entry per level!

If those contributions continue to keep this quality we'll be forced to also insert 2nd ranked music (Maybe they'll find a place as alternate music Extras)

Anyway, epic work people!

 

About my Sonic 2 Ending arrange, thanks for the kind words and remarks I read. I'm glad it left a positive impression.
The remarks are also entirely correct, as there was still something wrong with the mix. I only truly realized it when listening to the song with two different pair of headphones and two different devices (a Sony D-NE700 portable CD/MP3 player and my Nintendo DS through Moonshell).

So, I've made this alternate mix:
http://dioxazmusic.free.fr/music/sonic2end_fmarrange_alt.mp3

What I did is increasing the volume of the main brass, accentuating panning on the two soft brasses (the L and R ones), decreased volume on some supporting melodies (piano and oboe, because they ended up too loud) and increased volume on a choir section. I also made slight retouches on EQing with some instruments and made the bass drum a bit louder.
It sounds a little bit more pleasant this way to me. However, I'm not sure of the main brass still sound good (it doesn't sound as good as on the original tune to me, but it gets somewhat "improved" by the layered strings).
I still have to listen through headphones to see if I must perform deeper changes.

I understand what you mean but I didn't want the song to sound epic. To my knowledge, DCT's official cover, Sweet Sweet Sweet, doesn't sound epic either (I got a little inspiration from it actually).
There's also the fact that I still lack experience in orchestration and mixing which might play.

 

Rats, I thought by "ending arrangement" that you meant the remix of all the music that plays at the end of Sonic 2 as the credits roll. I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Great job on Sweet Sweet Sweet, though.

 

My current complaint (Bare in mind this is my taste coming through and not any nit-pickings at the remasterers themselves) about some of the music is that it's *really* synthy. For some tracks this can work (Chemical Plant, for example, which needs that industrial feel to it) but Emerald Hill should not sound like a rave track. Creating HD versions of the Sonic 2 music shouldn't just be a case of making dance tracks out of the old songs or hammering as much Sytrus plugin and Flange/Phaser onto the thing as possible. Try to retain the original musical genre of the level itself.

The two Aquatic Ruins are bang on the money for getting the feel of the level right... I'm still not sure about Hunter's Sax, but the rest of it is fine.

The Oil Oceans have the right feel too, but Tweaker's has far too much reverb (as does his Wing Fortress and Final Boss, which aside from the reverb actually generating distortion, is a pretty good attempt and has the right level of epicness I'd hope from them) and Hunter's is good but needs just a *smidge* more of the original arabian-ness of the original (A little too much synth) here... But now that I think of it I like Hunter's a bit more.

For Metropolis, it really does need that hard rock/industrial feel to it, but that synth guitar is awful :P If any track needed some proper guitar in it more, it's this one. Blaze's lacks the snare beat and just feels empty and the little side riff in the back is too quiet

And then there's Cinossu's Yamaha Synth Choir Happy-Fests, which is just terrifying :P

I'm gonna try a Final Boss (with appropriate Choirs, Chants and Guitar for good measure), then possibly visit Emerald Hill for some light remasterage

Another thing that's worth mentioning is that when it comes to do a Sonic 2 Credits Medly with all the previous level music, it'll have to blend in with the style of each tune, which could be tricky if several different people are doing the music (Thought I suspect that bridge'll be crossed in due time)

 

I made my tracks really synthy because the original songs were really synthy. I think that in order to capture the happy, upbeat feel of Sonic to the greatest extent possible, then synths are needed for a large majority of the "happy" tunes in the game. Emerald Hill is one such example—the synths I used (save for the bass) were meant to capture the feel of the original sound as much as possible without completely changing how it sounds (which is what Cinossu's did, in my opinion).

I mean, yeah, real instruments are nice in certain situations—I wouldn't want Casino Night or Wing Fortress all in synth—but for the most part, Sonic is all about synth. The best tracks in the series were mostly synth, if you ask me. That's how you really return to Sonic's roots.

 

It does depend, true. Something like Hidden Palace zone isn't as easy to transfer to "real" instruments as say Aquatic Ruin or Wing Fortress, but We've all heard orchestral and remade versions of Zelda, Mario, etc. in whatever style that have also worked. There's an Orchestral version of Sky Sanctuary (Also quite synthy in the orignal) that's fantastic, and proof you can retain the catchy melody without resorting to synth. Besides which, a lot of the olde synth (like all synth) back then was trying to replicate the instruments - Metropolis zone for me is obviously trying to replicate an electric guitar.

I don't know, I'd like to hear more "real" versions of the level music, to see how it transitions to the current generation of synthing. I think the Aquatic Ruin submissions are capturing that idea and it'd be nice to stick with it:

Emerald Hill: Friendly, flutes/woodwind, virtually no drums (or at least no snare) and some strings for good measure
Chemical Plant: Industrial, Techno-ish. Plenty of synth and snare, perhaps even slightly "Grungy" to convey the polluted theme of the level
Aquatic Ruin: Incan, flutes/panpipes, spanish guitar... Kind of South American/Latin kind of thing
Casino Night: Easily Las-Vegas/Showbiz style brass
hill-Top: This one I'm not sure about, but I will say I like the harmonica version...
Mystic-Cave: Like HillTop, this one's kinda funky... It's got a Theramin reguardless, so it's almost some kind of odd fusion between olde Sci-Fi and Funk/rap
Oil-Ocean: This one's been hit fairly well, the basic Arabian theme needs to be there
Metropolis: Rock :P
Sky Chase: Woodwind and Strings, the piano's ok as well I guess.
Wing fortress: Brass, Strings, Timpanis. A kind of Military fanfare - I love the currently submitted one but it has just a bit too much reverb
Hidden Palace: Strings and possibly some kind of strange string-instrument (Zither?) or, because of the cavernous nature of the level, percussion
Death Egg: Honestly? No idea... Another one where synth works well

That's my take on the subject, I'd like to try to do "Real instrument" versions of a few of 'em, but I'm not discounting the advantages of synthy tracks

 

You know what? I think I'll work on Wing Fortress a bit more when I get home. That should mark the first time I've ever gone back and revised a song, but I have some ideas that should make it sound a lot better. There's a lot of things I don't like about it now, especially the timpani and the fact that the bass doesn't fit at all. I do have to stick to the notion that excessive reverb on the brass helps you really feel like you're up in the air, though, so that will be staying. :P

 

Created these over the last few days:

Final Boss

Chemical Plant Zone

For CPZ, the drums in the original were barely discernible so I took a few liberties... however, I still think it retains most of the original's feel. (If anything, it's more upbeat.) For Final Boss, I tried to make it sound as realistic as possible. There's still some tweaks I could do to make the instruments sound a little more natural if you guys like it .

Also, I made these from scratch so let me know if there are any errors.