samulis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ambient Ambience]

Dayumn... ole Hans won't know what hit him... it was probably a fart.

[Theme Tune]

Damn, makes me want to break out my 1987 Technics SK-700 and jam.

[\W/ Afterthought]

I'm going to buy you a stereo piano sample library one of these days... :P

SkyeWint responds:

All I gotta do is keep making piano pieces with this mono sample, eh? <3

srsly though this is great free piano soundfont.

[Automaton]

"Today, on How It's Made: Robots."

"The process begins with the technician selecting a sheet of steel that will form the outer body of the robot. He finds a piece that is large enough to form all the pieces needed for the exterior. Next, he uses a laser cutter to form the components needed. This process needs to be performed twice for each robot created, once for the main body and again for the peripherals."

Really man, sounds like background music for that show, ahha. Great work, and might I say, a style of thing I don't hear a lot from you, but still has that "steampianist" sound to it.

steampianist responds:

im reading this comment with a female voice that has a canadian accent

[Hollow]

It has an interesting modal sound to it... are you familiar with modal harmony? If not, it might be something interesting to explore around with. It almost has this non-western tone, like one of the Hurrian Hymns, such as the one utilized (with no relevance) for the theme of Charlemagne for Civilization IV (https://youtu.be/wqjgPBITiX4?t=83 or https://youtu.be/wqjgPBITiX4?t=183). Notice how the non-western non-standard scale steps and substitutions really color the sound of the piece. (if you're interested in learning more about the Hurrian Hymns, check out this: http://individual.utoronto.ca/seadogdriftwood/Hurrian/Website_article_on_Hurrian_Hymn_No._6.html - scroll down a bit for the musicy part).

I felt the use of effects and synthetic tones made the hybrid sound quite pleasant. I would recommend perhaps a bit more reverb on the choir and putting a bit more distance between the choir and the listener; right now it just feels a little close in the mix.

Compositionally it is quite nice. You have some good use of contrast. For even more, you may even want to consider some modulation or temporary tonicization in the middle... some tonal wandering is never a bad thing for audience retention.

NicholasCabraja responds:

Thanks man. I will certainly check out those links! I'm quite shy on the reverb on most of my tracks, but I'm trying not to hold back on it. The tone your hearing is from Logics Pros modal synth sculpture. :)

[[SS]Life Is Good]

A little tuning issues as said, but other than that quite tight and a lot of fun.

[Your Father's Blade]

This is a NGADM Round 3 Review.

First, a breakdown of the score:
Production: 28/30 (Great)
Composition: 23/30 (Above Average)
Orchestration: 13.5/15 (Great)
Originality: 8/10 (Above Average)
Interest: 13/15 (Great)

Total Score: 85.5/100 or 8.55/10 or 4.5 Stars (Above Average).

Rubric (w/ basic judge comments and explanation of categories):
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/020112da245797b7369703b108762403

==========
The Good:
- Virtual instruments were pleasant sounding and used in a way that reflected their strengths carefully.
- There was a clean, clear, emotional arc to the piece.
- Production was for the most part realistic and very solid.
- The introduction and submergence of instruments within the texture was very carefully done and quite seamless. Nothing was jumpy or sticking out both orchestrationally and production-wise.

The Not-So-Good:
- Not a lot of harmony or counterpoint in the piece as a whole, mostly just unison or octave lines until around 2:30, then we get a very small bit. The optimal method to counterpoint is motion while one line is stable, so one line moves up to a whole note, then once it gets there, another line comes in and plays around, and vice versa, which you did around 3:15ish.
- The climax was not much of a climax... more like... the track got louder and more busy. The lead in was awfully long, maybe consider having two climaxes or having the lead up shorter and more concise? Also consider how to add more contrast between the leadup and the climax so we really feel it. Probably the best piece of advice: have a key change when the climax gets going in earnest (2:55). Try a few different modulations until one works (up a third, up a step, etc.). This practice of modulating essentially flips over the audience's "getting bored" hour glass, much the same as a very contrasting section would.
- With composition, consider having more variation with your chord progressions. There's a lot of fun things you can do with harmony- using 9ths, 7ths, secondary dominants, etc. I'd be glad to write in more detail about all the fun things you can do harmonically if you'd like, just shoot me a PM or something. Another good thing would be allowing more tonal ambiguity- having major chords in your minor key sort of thing. Getting your father's sword is a ceremonial, proud moment, but here it sounds like your dying, bleeding father is embracing you on a battlefield while handing you his sword and telling you to go fight for your family and kingdom.
- Think of more suitable ways to use percussion. You don't need to create a click track for your string players, they are perfectly capable of counting for themselves. We can borrow from Romantic and Classical traditions regarding percussion for this; consider using percussion not as a rhythmic/textural element, but as a functional, transitional element, like slight little accents here and there to follow the motion of the piece, and then utilize it in a modern rhythmic sense during the climax (starting at 2:55) to accent the change. This will give your piece more emotion and more dynamics. Also consider more varying percussion than taikos. Consider shakers, tenor drums, marching snares, bodhrain, etc.
- Regarding rhythms, consider experimenting with syncopated motifs on the drums. Often times it's what beats they don't play that are the most important of all.
- Brass were too quiet in the mix at 2:55. At that volume, they would have drowned out the entire rest of the orchestra without much effort, from experience. Chants are a bit too loud, even ignoring realism. I'm not endeared to chanting in music, but it can have its uses I guess. I would have prefered maybe some textural tenor and bass sustains going on in the background, like a pedal or something.

If one were looking for typical, modern trailer music, this would be it (albeit ~2 minutes too long). It more or less is exactly what one would expect to hear in a trailer for a game or movie today. If that is a good thing or a bad thing, that is for you to decide. My only advice is to not isolate yourself in one sound, especially if that sound is the most popular one, because all styles are fads and if you just follow the herd, nothing will distinguish you from John Doe who also makes traileresque epic cinematic music. However, it means you will probably have an easier time finding work until this certain style of cinematic falls away. There's nothing wrong to either approach, it's just a fundamental choice you have to make as a musician and as a businessman.

My two cents: think about ways to push beyond cliches and expectations and you will in turn have your own expectations broken as to what you can say musically. If you love this type of music, then don't just embrace it, elaborate and build up on it. Bring in more varied vocabulary. Hans Zimmer didn't get where he is by just doing the "in" thing, he took the "in" thing of the day and put his spin on it. That became wildly successful and now everyone else is doing it too.

Food for thought.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

EvilRaccoon responds:

I appreciate the comments, but the more I read form you, the more contradictory I find what you are saying, so it's almost impossible to determine what to take from it.

Harmony wise I had a lot going on, I'm not sure if you just picked up on the lower bass lines and thought they were repeating, but there is a break in the middle. Personally I thought the climax was there, and never just got busy. The voices came in, the percussion changed and strings pulled frontal. I didn't feel a key change would have been appropriate because that eludes to a turning point where my concept was growth and maturity.

I know you seen it as a proud moment, but I didn't want to go cliche. The title is "Your father's blade". The implication in the title is then that the father is no longer with us, and it was made to sound like the son is mourning. So it's not a cliche take. The blade is passed on by someone to his son to take on the burden, who trains with it. That's why it sounds the way it is. It's not a happy moment, and thought that was evident. In fact quite the opposite when our character is forced to embrace a destiny that he didn't want. For reasons above the track isn't full of pride because it doesn't take on the normality you would expect. I didn't think I had to spell it out. The key I felt was in the title, "Your" as it implies the father didn't pass it on himself.

You point out that it could be a trailer track, so then it should conform to trailer track timings and duration. However, later you suggest that i should push beyond cliches, and expectations and to embrace it. You compare my tracks to classic and contemporary practices saying that I could be more like the fundamentals of other musicians and businessmen. Putting them under the Not-so-good. Yet, completely contradicting yourself, you've told me that I've to push beyond cliches and expectations. So which is it?

I know you're still learning and studying. But you've told me that I've to push beyond the boundaries while maintain conforming to those cliches of classic and contemporary. It doesn't make sense.

[404]

This is a NGADM Round 3 Review.

First, here's a breakdown of your score:
Production: 18/30 (Average)
Composition: 27.5/30) (Great)
Instrumentation: 13/15 (Great)
Originality: 9/10 (Great)
Interest: 13.5/15 (Great)

Total: 81.0/100 or 8.1/10 or 4 Stars (Above Average).

Rubric (w/ rough judge notes and explanation of categories/score):
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/1bf2f7bf24ec92d1d83524315a3ca657
=========
The Good:
- Great composition! Really enjoyed the melodies, harmonies, and flow. There was definitely a lot of detail insofar as the writing is concerned.
- Instrumentation was quite solid, although I could have seen more use of other horns to flesh out the horn section (a 5 horn band perhaps).
- The actual playing on the live parts was clean and well done.
- Yep, sounds like Camo finally got off his bum for this contest. :P

The Not-So-Good:
- MONO drums... They sound like they were recorded with a single SM-57 on the other side of the room... very thin, no presence, very weak. HUGE loss in effectiveness of the song... and the saxes... yeah yeah, you know.
- I felt the mix wasn't very tight. Some of the instruments were way in my face (guitar, that clicky clack keyboard thing, etc), others were a mile away (drums, bass). Bass was weak, sounded less like a bass and more like a chill low pad, need more pop and impact.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Sam

camoshark responds:

Hey Sam, glad to finally read your review, I was starting to think you might have forgotten! :P

Regardless, I agree with pretty much all you're saying, except for the bit about expanded brass arrangement. What we were going for this round was a different texture than standard large-scale fusion arrangements, and we intentionally created very little harmonization, despite the fact that there were always two instruments playing the theme. It's a style of sound that is more common in more modern fusion songs, and it'll probably sound better when I actually get a live sax (working on that as we speak) to play.

Regardless, it's more of a matter of taste at this point, and I'm glad you kept it as a minor remark rather than pulling points off for it. We're working on making a version 2 for this, and all points mentioned here and on other posts are being addressed (what with being blatant production errors due to lack of time and all), so expect a big upgrade in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for chiming in!

[Hope]

This is a NGADM Round 3 Review.

First, here's a breakdown of your score:
Production: 27.5/30 (Great)
Composition: 27/30 (Great)
Instrumentation: 14/15 (Great)
Originality: 8.5/10 (Above Average)
Interest/Emotion: 13/15 (Great)

Total Score: 90.0/100 or 9/10 or 4.5 stars (Great).

Rubric (w/ rough judge notes and explanation of categories):
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/c09dc842e3774c0d231d578e6824d132
=========
The Good:
- Very tight, locked performance!
- Foot-tapping/head-banging galore. There were some great ideas in the track, and a good deal of contrast between elements as well, keeping listener interest (at the expense of confusing the listener at points).
- Production was fairly solid.

The Not-So-Good:
- Overall the track was not as interesting for me as a listener as your previous round's entry. Like Elspeth (headphoamz), I had some trouble remembering the track afterwards.
- Some tighter/cleaner transitions might be nice, as it tends to jump around a bit. Perhaps this is a stylistic or personal choice, but some killer transitions can't hurt regardless of genre.
- One thing that may help make the track more memorable is a more distinct form and a more definitive ending. Forms don't have to be super limiting, but having contrasting sections that are related and transitioned between clearly is enough to create a thread throughout the entire piece.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

[Imminence]

Pleasant composition! I really enjoy the step-ish harmonies (some nice juicy chords in there!) and the orchestration is pleasant. Perhaps an oboe, flute, or soprano sax playing contrapuntal lines with the piano would be cool.

Would have brought out more of the tone of the marimba and less of the hit (use a softer dynamic layer or EQ? Try ribbon mic setting too.) and brought up the gain a little more.

The track reminded me of this piece from Civ III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2b7TQpyQY8

9/10 will think up civ references again.

Step responds:

OHAI. Thanks for reviewing ^_^.

"Pleasant composition! I really enjoy the step-ish harmonies (some nice juicy chords in there!) and the orchestration is pleasant."

I laughed at the Step-ish harmonies comment since it's so true. This is indeed reminiscent of previous harmonies I've done.

"Perhaps an oboe, flute, or soprano sax playing contrapuntal lines with the piano would be cool."

I tried to include some woodwinds in there but I just couldn't get them to fit... woodwinds are probably my weakest point, both in terms of amount of woodwind samples I have and in terms of how to write for them. I agree it would definitely fit though - the melodies have a lot of space between each note, so something else to fill it in would've been great.

"Would have brought out more of the tone of the marimba and less of the hit (use a softer dynamic layer or EQ? Try ribbon mic setting too.) and brought up the gain a little more."

Good thinking. Agree with you here too.

"The track reminded me of this piece from Civ III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2b7TQpyQY8"

Damnnn that track is awesome. And I am definitely hearing the similarity... it's almost uncanny and some points. TOTALLY GONNA SUE CIVILISATION FOR COPYING ME.

"9/10 will think up civ references again."

0/10 would file lawsuit again.

Thanks again for reviewing ^_______^.