Feedback and Suggestions requested for Remix

[MusicNewbie]

Hello.

I am trying to make a remix out of the "Results/Lose Race/Did Not Finish Race theme" Screen from the game called Stunts, and I am wondering what instruments you guys feel are best for the project? Here's a little twist: The "instruments" are only Windows XP sounds, which can be downloaded at this link, while the project file itself can be downloaded here.

I hope that this thread is in the appropriate area. If it is not, I apologize, and I will try to post this thread to the appropriate area of this Forum site.

Thanks.

-MusicNewbie.

[Saga Musix]

I have moved your question as the Compo forum is for announcing competitions (compo is a shorthand for competition in the Demoscene).

Right now your module sounds like complete chaos. This is, at least partially, because the samples you are using are all designed to sound correct around middle-C (C-5 in OpenMPT); however the instruments in the MIDI file you imported are sometimes much higher or much lower than that, so they either sound very muddy or very tinny. If you want to keep using those samples, you will have to transpose some of the melodies in the patterns up or down. For example, channel 4 should be transposes one octave (12 semitones) down.
Next issue: Your samples are in different keys. You have to tune them all to the same key, or transpose the pattern notes accordingly. It's much easier to work with samples that are tuned to the same key, though, so I would prefer doing that. OpenMPT's autotune utility in the sample editor can help with that, but it will not work well with those samples that consist of more than one note.
Which brings us to the final issue: Some of the samples you use are chords, i.e. they consist of more than one note played at the same time. Playing an existing melody that was supposed to played with a single note at a time using a chord sample will never sound good.

I'm sure you had an idea (take this song and "simply" remix it using it Windows sounds) and it sounded great in your head. But it's not that simple really. I know there are many songs that were made using those Windows samples, and it may seem simple to make such a song yourself, but usually they only sound good because the composition was specifically made for those samples, and it makes use of the samples skillfully. Simply taking an existing compsition and replacing its instruments with Windows sounds will almost never produce good results. Which brings us to the actual question:

I am wondering what instruments you guys feel are best for the project?

I certainly feel that Windows sounds are not going to cut it. In particular, if you are new to making music I would not try to make music with them, because they are not easy to handle (due to the stuff mentioned above). But then again I am also not a fan of people taking a MIDI file, replacing some samples and then calling it a remix. It's a re-orchestration if anything, but not a remix. And if you just take an existing MIDI file, you are not even applying any of your own effort because someone else already spent hours transcribing the original song into a MIDI file (or capturing it from MIDI hardware).
If I was to remix this song myself (which is not completely unlikely, because Stunts is a big part of my childhood), I would take a completely different approach: I'd probably choose instruments which are close to the original instruments, but higher quality. Maybe I'd go for something more similar to the FM Towns version of the game, which featured studio music as CD audio instead of MIDI / Adlib music. Maybe it can serve as inspiration for creating your own remix, too!

[MusicNewbie]

Roger that. Thanks for all the pointers. Stunts is a big part of my childhood, as well.

So, in general, Windows sounds aren't the best for making these remixes. I'll try with the game that you linked to in your post, though, I don't know if there's a soundfont for it.

Basically, the main reason why I remix using MIDI files is because I feel it is the easiest way. For instance, I use Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Soundfonts in some of my remixing projects, though, it can be a little bit frustrating at times, mostly due to one instrument making the entire song sound squirrelly. In those cases, I simply try to isolate the problem by muting the other Channels, and experimenting with other instruments.