Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

soundcloud.com/bragatyr/cross-counter-b ... ocal-cover

My sister is, unlike me, a very talented singer and I've been trying to get her to do some video game music for years, and it finally happened. The song is Cross Counter, from Breath of Fire II, which some of you might recognize. I wrote the lyrics and of course recorded the instruments and left all the fun vocal stuff to her. Our version is called We Will Take You Down because it's about the ubiquitous RPG theme of kicking enemy butt and taking names, as well as rescuing pet animals in this case. I've always wanted to try my hand at turning an instrumental video game track into a song with words, so hopefully this is the first of many. I normally post on Youtube but we haven't had a chance to do a video yet so I made a Soundcloud account and put it there, where the sound quality is better.

Please check it out, and I mean that, because I know I always say that but in this case the song means a lot to me, and let me know what you think.

Niiiiice. You totally went there, you took the vocal step. I am in complete admiration.

I'm absolutely certain you'll have more than enough praise so mind if I give you technical comments?

Also: do you think it's possible for me to acquire the mp3 so my comments can be even more precise? And also because: awesome.

I actually just set the track to allow downloads, so it should be downloadable now. But yeah, I'm all for technical comments if you have advice about the mix or recording process. I had some trouble getting the sound levels right with this one and I had to reduce the volume on the vocals a couple time, which may not have been ideal.

Dear God... It's not even the same song, the sound quality is completely different.

Ok, I'll write my comments. Want them here or in PM?

So I took a gander. First thing first - your sister has a lovely voice! She really does. And the music under the vocals sounds good, and I like the lyrics you wrote. So well done on all that.

But now criticism...in my opinion, there's too much vocals, and the music gets a bit lost and buried. The vocals are also too bright, if that makes sense/is meaningful to you. Not sure if that can be mastered to something better or if that's your sister's singing style. As for the technical side of those improvements and others, I'll leave that to Aero, as it's his expertise.

I fiiiiinally got a chance to give this a listen (yay!). I'm not familiar with the original music, but I definitely like what I heard. Not only does your sister have a nice voice in terms of quality, but I could tell that parts of the vocal line were quite challenging (with the melodic leaps and funky intervals in the middle), so give her a thumbs up from me. I especially enjoyed some of the harmonies you created in the vocals + accompaniment.

Like WB, I wouldn't have minded hearing a bit more of the instruments. Also, in a perfect world, you'll one day make this into a full-length piece with a beginning and an end and all that other good stuff so it doesn't just sound like an excerpt. (Because all of us clearly have enough free time to do that sort of thing....)

Thanks to everyone for checking it out. This one was a lot of fun. And augmented, thank you for pointing out how difficult the vocal line was. My guitarist friend surprised me by noticing the same thing. I can't sing anyway, but if I could I imagine that part would be pretty hard, ha ha. But seriously, it made my sister's day when I told her that a former music teacher with a spectacular ear had those nice things to say.