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[Breakdown Epiphanies]

Hi everybody,
I have been working on the soundtrack for a game called Battle Brothers and the release on Steam EA is drawing near. We already got more than an hour of music recorded but I feel that the material still needs some polish.

You can find many of the tracks in this soundcloud play list:
https://soundcloud.com/breakdownepiphanies/sets/battle-brothers-ost

The game is a turnbased tactical/rpg hybrid taking its inspiration from older titles like the original X-Com, Jagged Alliance or Warhammer - Shadow of the Horned Rat. The setting is low fantasy/medieval and you captain a mercenary company.

I would be grateful if some of you took the time and listen to some of the pieces to give some feedback and criticism. I would be mostly interested in suggestions regarding the overall sound/mixing/mastering. This not only is my first soundtrack release but the first time I worked with orchestral arrangements so there must be tons of stuff that I don't understand yet. Of course we can talk about the compositions and arrangements too but I am not sure how much I will be able to change in that regard as the project is close to its release.

What needs to be done:
Remastering all the tracks and try to achieve even levels and a cohesive sound. Revisiting some of the mixes, especially the ones that were created early in the production process.

What has been done:
- Regarding libraries and instruments the orchestral stuff is mostly Albion 1-3 from Spitfire, then some instruments (mostly percussion) from the Kontakt library and Komplete 9. There are a few "booms" and transitions from Hybridtwo's Project Alpha in there, but not that much as we did not want to go down the "hybrid" route but aimed for a warmer orchestra sound. Some of the tracks feature acoustic guitar parts that we recorded in the living room "studio" (2 channels into a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 interface, one signal directly from the pickup and one recorded with a Shure KSM42 Mic).

Mixing:
- Up until now the tracks are mostly organized with an orchestra seating in mind. We did not use a lot of processing on the instruments. Strings are just eq-ed, brass have some compression on top of that and drums/percussion are often treated with with compression too + they. We did not use compression on the strings because I felt they sounded nice and had a lot of "air" to them as it stands, but that might be debatable.
Generally I felt that the instruments did not call for a as much treatment as for example a rockband setup. Levels and panning/three-dimensional space seem to be very important...

- Everything has a send that is routed through a channel with some glue compression and a reverb to simulate a room for the instruments (a big space from the NI RC 24). This signal is fed into the master out on a low volume.

- On the master out in the DAW we had again a tiny bit of glue compression and eq-wise a low-cut and a little bit of a boost in the higher frequencies starting at about 3.5khz

Mastering:
- We mastered everything using software (T-RackS CS) as we do not own an analogue mastering setup. The chain was EQ->Compressor (working around 1-2dB reduction)->EQ (for some boosting)->Limiter. I am still unsure on the limiting part, especially on the ceiling. At them moment some of the tracks are at a ceeling of -0,8db and few go up to -0,2. I am thinking to go with the lower levels. But on the other side that reduces the dynamic range.

So that's roughly it. I am still debating whether I should try out a different reverb for the Room-Channel, whether the strings need more processing, whether the drums should sound less bumpy and be more in the background etc. etc. 

Again thanks for listening and thanks for reading. I will be working on the remastering this weekend so any comments would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Patrick (one half of Breakdown Epiphanies)

[Barendhoff]

I'm afraid I won't be able to provide feedback this weekend already, but I'll try to give some next weekend. If not useful for this project, perhaps for the next! (:

[Breakdown Epiphanies]

That's ok, thanks for considering it! I know it's a big chunk of stuff to listen to. I was very impressed by your track in the feedback thread so I'm definitely looking forward to hearing your opinion.

[Jasmine]

Hey B.E.! Early congratulations to your first soundtrack! You have done an astonishingly large amount of good work, and I can't wait to hear more from you!

As far as the mixing, I haven't made it all the way through (had to stop at about number 9 due to other duties), but up til then, everything felt very even and coherent. Mixing levels, instrument placement. There were a couple of times where, had you planned it, different pieces could have easily transferred into the next with ease.

If I have time, I'll try to finish off with the last few and leave any comments I have in your Inbox.

[Breakdown Epiphanies]

Hey M4uesviecr! That's so nice to hear, I'm looking forward to your feedback. As it stands we will have a little more time to get everything finalized as the soundtrack won't be downloadable from day one but will go online a little further down the EA road. So we will be able to take the time necessary to make some adjustments here and there.
Patrick

[Barendhoff]

Hi Patrick! Fortune snapped a few items from my schedule, leaving me with time to listen to the tracks you've posted. :D

I agree with Mues: as a whole, the setlist sounds even and coherent, clear and clean. It testifies of professionalism to not just make individual compositions that sound good, but also maintain cohesion of composition, mixing and mastering throughout all the tracks. Well done! I particularly like how you blended in the bells in some tracks, as well as the spacialisation of the Undead track's bony percussion. As for feedback, perhaps you will find some general remarks helpful, although I should add that I am by no means a mastering expert.

At times, the high string section feels somewhat...invasive to my ears. For example, in the World Map Theme's last minute (2:45-3:30ish), the high strings play a support role; as such, while this is done to quite some extent already, it feels like they could be brought just an extra little bit further to the back. Not much at all: I reckon -1,5 to -2,5dB would do the trick, or perhaps a lower note velocity. (But then, I tend to prefer blending instruments into the whole rather than having instruments stand out, so this might just be my stunted hearing!)

Next, you have done a sweet job on humanizing the VST's. I do think, however, that a little more attention could be paid to the sustain sections. The transitions between some notes seem a little off. For example, in the Second Town Theme, the high strings (them again!) shift from an F to a D, but have a rather abrupt ending to the played F before the D comes fading in as the bell tolls. Most of the time, you've done this well, so I've had to actively search through the tracks to find an example; it's just in a few cases, like this one, that a listener might notice it.

There's also some room for further humanizing the string instrument playing at the end of Town theme. When the violin plays the same three notes at 1:54-56, it's the exact same sound three times over. Maybe you don't find it unpleasant, but if you do, perhaps consider slurring the three notes together.

Finally, is that a false note in Worldmap Two - slow rework at 1:34? Or 'intended dissonance', I should say; it doesn't sound out of place, and maybe I'm just hearing it wrongly. Just wondering.

Again, great work on the soundtrack and thanks for sharing! This is highly enjoyable music and, as far as I can tell from what the game's website provides, quite suitable. When did you start writing this?

[Breakdown Epiphanies]

Hi Barendhoff!
Thanks so much for listening to our music with so much care and attention to detail. This is more than I could have hoped for! I definitely hear what you pointed out regarding the higher string sections in the World Map Theme. I will consider dialing them a few dbs back as you suggested. I find the high-end especially tricky because it tends to get boosted by limiting/compressing in the mastering process and might sound too harsh in the end.

We will revisit the high strings in the second town theme too (those pesky strings indeed^^). I felt that they where so far in the back that no one would notice the lack of transitions there. I think we used an ensemble patch and in Spitfire's Albion they come without legato. I'll try automating the dynamics more. It might be worth redoing the part with legato patches, we'll see.

The Instrument at 1:54 in the first Town Theme is the Blakus Cello (simply amazing for being a free vst, I can recommend it wholeheartedly to anybody that has not tried it out yet). I'll revisit that part and fiddle around with the automations more. I got the full Blakus Cello from Embertone in the meantime but I think I will keep using the free version on this track because I like how we got it to fit in the mix overall.

Regarding the "Worldmap Two - slow rework" at 1:34 I think I will go with "intended dissonance" :D To be honest it does not even sound that dissonant to me but that might just be my brain playing tricks on me because I wrote it. I'll try and get more feedback on that. Maybe I will have to dial down some notes in the cello section. I think that is where the source of tension in the harmony lies.

I'm glad you liked the music overall. Work for this project started about a year ago. Both me and my colleague have "daytime jobs" so this was what kept us up at night. We did a little work on other projects but I'd say 80%-90% of our music making time was spent on Battle Brothers. As I stated in my initial post, this was our first time working on orchestral music so we had a ton to learn. For example I enjoyed the way you "blended" the instruments in some of your tracks immensly and that is still something that I would like to get a better hang of.