INFO TO THE SONG
----------------

Remix Title:
Cliff the Great Crusader

Original Title:
Warrior's Village

Witten by:
Konami Kukeiha Club

Remixed by:
Trenthian

Engineered by:
Roland Löhlbach



Original MP3 File:
Suikoden_Cliff_the_Great_Crusader_Original_Mix.mp3

Engineered MP3 File:
Suikoden_Cliff_the_Great_Crusader_OC_ReMix.mp3



INFO TO THE MASTERING (19SEP04):
----------------------

Snap from the Mastering Setup:
Suikoden_Cliff_the_Great_Crusader_OC_ReMix.jpg


A word from the engineer:
The original mix was produced with Fruity Loops 4 Studio and rendered down with a RMS level
of about -6dB. The track was mixed a bit too strong in the "presence" range and a bit too
less in the bass range which made the song too agressive towards hats and the bass and 
basedrum just flat. The more I heard it, the more it hurt my ears. A "remastering" would 
have been difficult that way to get some decend standards, so I started with lowering the 
track of about -6dB (peak) to have a nice basement for afterediting.

Now I could work on the general sound. I lowered the presence of the hats with a graphical
30band EQ (around 8k to 13k Hz) of about -3dB (to make it less agressive) and raised the 
bass kick of about +3,7dB. The middle section from a range of 400Hz to 1,6kHz was lowered 
around -0.2dB to -0.5dB. To get a more "warm" sound I used a Saturation tool before the EQ.
This made the song more attractive in general and not an "ear-destroyer". The hats however 
still went a bit wild, so I held them back with a de-esser after the EQ.

Thanks to the volume lowering, the "slight clippings" from the original mix aren't really
noticable anymore and the song got back more of it's dynamics. The overall loudness itself 
was a bit too quiet at this moment so I raised it back of about +2dB to get into the 
K-System standard (K-12).


Additional Info (aftereditings 21SEP04):
I found some flaws after listening through the track again. I acidentally mudded up the 
sound, so I raised the upper frequency ranges of about +0,5dB max again to get back the
"nouances". The overall loudness still was too low compared to other K-12 material I did
before so I raised it to another +1dB. Now the peak doesn't go over -1,5dB (before it was
something like -3dB to -2.3dB). The bass however is still intensive (on purpose) that I 
had to limit the recording to K-12 max, even if the overall track sounds like a K-14 mix.


Have fun while listening. ;)





APPENDIX:
---------

What is the K-System?

The K-System in short is a standard set by audio engineer Bob Katz that indicates certain 
loudness levels. Those loudness levels are guidelines for other audio engineers to get a 
hot, but still dynamic mix and is a war-declaration to the volume war on the modern media.

There are three K-Systems existing:
K-20	-	indicates mixes that use a full dynamic range, generally classic material
K-14	-	recommended for Pop/Rock Mixes. Also known as "CD-Ready"
K-12	-	indicates the "broadcast ready" standard

To others this system might sound like a loser volumetechnically as most of the productions
never really go over +0dB peaktechnically (if properly mixed in K-12 the peaks can reach
+1dB to +1,5dB max which can be controlled with a softlimiter easly without noticing... 
in other words - clipping issues are gone), but "soundtechnically" it's a winner as the 
K-System goes back to the quality of sound and dynamic that were known from the mid 90ies. 





Credits:
Text written by Roland "Compyfox" Löhlbach
www.studio-compyfox.de