This is a very cool ambient piece. The pad you use blends really nicely giving an ethereal sound. When you have music that uses fairly repetitive motifs, I think that it’s okay for them to not need center-stage the entire time. So when the drums came in and seemed to be the furthest forward, it didn’t seem wrong and in fact gave some energy and direction to the previously floaty and directionless music (which by the way is excellent for Silent Hill). When the strings came in, everything was very clear with minimal mud. I wonder though if the EQ was a little tight for some of the strings, especially the viola. I also struggle with trying to cut frequencies to make room for other instruments without sacrificing resonance and sound. In my mind, part of what makes instruments sound authentic is the overtones they produce. When high frequencies are cut, it is cleaner, but those overtones are potentially lost, consequently making the instrument sound more synthetic. I think that what you created is authentic to the early Playstation Silent Hill sound and that’s fantastic since this is what you intended. I just wanted to offer my thoughts based on the specific feedback you were asking for. I am by no means an expert on EQ, at the same time, I am a firm believer trusting our ears to guide us in the right direction. As far as the beats go, with the headphones I’m using, they sound fantastic - they are clear but don’t stick out. Great work overall and thank you for sharing both of your submissions!
Ah the strings were super hard to work into the song! And I know some of that tightness is also from the fact that for one of the instruments I used mellotron strings instead an orchestral sound like the rest—the reason being I wanted the sound to be synthetically similar to the strings used in Theme of Laura from SH2 and also sound kind of like an airy guitar?? Something like that, it was definitely more of an ear decision than a thought one but I agree something about it could’ve been done better lol
Thank you so much for listening and for your helpful feedback, I’m glad I managed to achieve the style I was going for and that the beats aren’t too aggressive :)