samulis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[String Section]

This DEFINITELY is NOT classical mate...

It's not half bad... except "orchestral" and "beat" being next to each other makes me uncomfortable, no offense. Welcome to the orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGBDWE R-wUI. I recommend you check out some pieces like that if you want to write "Classical"... if not, "videogame" is much more applicable to this style... or rock even, as your composition is closer to that too than to classical. I don't mind that you use orchestral instruments, but the fact that you call this classical is frightening.

Some good things I heard- your mastering is pretty good. Normally you don't compress orchestral, contrary to every other genre out there- instead of blowing eardrums, your goal is dynamic range (so when the eardrums ARE blown, it feels nothing like the part where everything is quiet and calm).

In addition, your opening motif/melody on strings has potential. In classical theory, one of the big ideas for a piece is to take a basic melody and vary it- it's called theme and variation. Try that out if you're interested in Orchestral, it's a really cool technique for writing good length pieces.

The one thing that really gets me about this is the drum set. Orchestral percussion is about transparency and subtly influencing the rhythm and motion of the piece- cymbal rolls into transitions, bass drums keeping a pace in some certain spots, snare drums providing a counter-rhythm or strengthening a fast melody, and so on. Traditional rhythm for jazz, rock, electronic, and so on is the opposite of that- it's about spelling out every. single. beat. and. making. it. clear. you. don't. miss. any.

Your general flow is very flat for an orchestral piece- you essentially have the same ideas going over and over again. This is expected for most modern music, but is not good for orchestral at all! Orchestral music is about change and variance (this isn't just a generalization I am pulling out of my ass- go listen to some, either in video games or film scores or works by classical composers- all have the idea of dynamic contrast somewhere in them).

The other thing is the form. Classical songs come in two flavors- art music and programmatic music. Art music follows specific forms, while programmatic music is about expressing an idea or telling a story. The general forms for art music are close to that of your standard popular music, but the way the music flows between them is very different. The A theme is completely different from the B theme, and often the B theme is even in a different key! There are transitions (not bridges), but no choruses. Any repetition is done through a theme coming back later, like A-B-Trans.-A, a simple "Binary" form.

Classical music is a whole different world than electronic- there's a reason I don't much write electronic and mostly favor game/film score music- it's just too big a jump to be comfortable writing both popular and traditional music. In addition, Music Theory plays a much much larger role in classical music than in popular music, so that's something you'd probably want to look into. If you're interested, I know some good sites to start looking at. :)

All in all a decent piece with a wrong label but good production values.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

jcblue22 responds:

first off thanks for taking out the time to do such a long review with such helpful advice i jus started with mixcraft and right now i jus need as much advice and feedback as possible

i changed the Genre and sry for the blown ear drums

[Image to Words]

Very good, as always. :)

Good work on dynamics and working in the upper register of the piano- a really gentle part, much the same as on Harp. Reverb is good.

As an orchestral nut, I gotta take of 0.5 for not arranging this for full orchestra- it's too beautiful to be cherished by one instrument alone. :P

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

stunkel responds:

Thanks man. Love it when I get reviews from you :D

I gotta be honest, this was all just an improv. I came up with that main melody and then improved the rest. Kinda just wanted to put something out!

And maybe for my next song I will improvise a song and then make it into a full song :3 Put a nice piano version, then a fuller orchestral version. Thanks for the review though man! I'll do my best to keep composed :p

-Ryan

[- MB - The Black Wind]

Good to see some videogame by the traditional NG'ers. :D

A thoroughly creepy yet enjoyable piece. If only you could find a Glass Armonica sample... that would sell this. Also, consider waterphones. Gorgeous little bastards for creepy music.

Strange dissonance at 2:39 in your trombone line... doesn't seem fully right even with a strange piece like this.

Amazing work as always!

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

Breed responds:

Hey Samulis,

Looks like we were both last minute submitters to the contest =)

A glass harmonica is a cool idea. I do already use tons of metals and upper register instruments though so im not sure where I'd fit it. I was looking for a smoother resonant instrument like that though, so maybe it coulda been a good legato line to counter the crotales.

I thought of waterphones and I avoided it for one main reason. That being that I was trying to maintain a tonal feel to the piece even considering the dissonance of the progression and melodic lines.

I thought about changing the melody at 2:39 but it kinda grew on me so I ended up keeping it. A little strange here and there is ok as far as my style is concerned =P

Thanks for the compliments and your time to review the piece.

Cheers!

- Breed

[The Uncharted Voyage]

Getting Deja Vu... you probably showed this to me before or something.

A nice Spanish feel, fitting of videogame/cinematic, which seems to draw heavily from either Spanish or Celtic. Reminds me somewhat of the Spanish music in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors soundtrack.

You, my friend, should check out Era: Medieval Legends at some point. I have a feeling you would find use for that VI.

The second half presents a typical videogame feel to it. Nothing particularly interesting about it, tbh. The slow part when everything drops but strings and timpani is pleasant. Good work on this as a whole.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

deadlyfishes responds:

Line cliche melodies sound the same because of it's very strong harmony. I showed you something that had a similar chord progression as a C Section. Thanks for your comment! It was an intense last minute effort!

[The Nine]

A good cinematic-style piece... an awful lot of Cinematic in this contest, not much traditional classical. XD

Good use of brass rips. I also especially like how you create a nice stable rhythm with your marcato strings "pumping" in the background.

This piece would be neat to see a Marching Band arrangement of... it has a good feel for that.

The only thing I miss is a good melody. It has a lot of good effects and showing off in it, but not much expressive or otherwise compositionally complex features to it. Music can be both melodic and chaotic at the same time, the two are not mutually exclusive. ;)

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

SHmusic responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback - I really appreciate getting your take on the piece and your thoughts on what could be different/improved upon :) Good stuff! Thank you :)
I checked out some of your music too and I'm really diggin it! Keep up the great work!

[The Forrest Fights Back]

Very fine cinematic music. What libraries are you using?

This piece could benefit from a few harp glissandi or the like. Although their a bit cliche, they add a really nice feel. I really like the dark turn around 1:25 when the harp FINALLY comes in... consider experimenting with other motifs common for harp, as merely arpeggios does the instrument quite an injustice to its true value.

I really like your work on the orchestration in this- very clean, very well executed. The composition is also quality, but I find the cinematic nature causes the piece to become less than memorable- it doesn't have much of a melody- most motifs are founded in the harmony, such as the staccato flute line that surfaces from time to time.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

Niadroj9986 responds:

Hey Samulis,

Thanks, im glad you enjoyed it! I'm mostly using Spitfire Albion, with most of the melodic percussion coming from Kontakt 5.

You make a good point on the harp, i'll definitely be working on integrating more articulations and techniques with the harp in the future.

Thanks again for the praise on the orchestration, and I can understand your qualms on having the piece be more memorable. That being said, as you mentioned I was working to create a scene rather than to only define a person, place or thing and using motifs in scenes are usually saved for parts of significance. The only motif I wanted to push for was the "heroic" theme of the forest, showing up @ :28 and then the full reprisal from 1:41 to 2:16. But maybe I could've made that more apparent lol.

Would love to hear your thoughts (Gonna check your stuff out now)!

~J

[Begin The Adventure!]

Good work on this. Sounds almost like something that should be arranged for a marching band to play in regards to the content.

I like the realism you put into the voicings of the instruments- most people would probably just load up a staccato patch and gogogo! You clearly put a bit more effort into making things sound as clean as possible.

Your pizzicato cellos seem a bit close in the mix. Consider adding more reverb/a reverb with a larger impulse and make them a little quieter- that would give a feeling of distance.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

Michael-Flaherty responds:

Thanks for the kind words. I decided to have those pizzicatos pretty close because I was going for a more cartoonish vibe, those I suppose I veer a bit away from that during points of the song.

[To The Death]

Wahooo! Another Finale 2009 user. Glad to see I'm not the only insane person around here. :D

I really like the use of dynamics and tempo here. Garritan really has stepped up the quality of their samples since last I used their instruments, sounds very nice, although I think you should try other options for reverb- the convolution reverb isn't very attractive mix-wise- it's really only good for emulating an enclosed recording environment (i.e. making it sound "worse" to make it sound more real).

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

LeoMDK responds:

Thank you for the review and compliments/critique -- much appreciated! Do you have any suggestions for what I could use for reverb besides the built in "ambience reverb" thing that the Aria player comes with?

[A Titan Rises]

Wooot! Fellow Finaleites!

Good work on this, fellas. I like the feel- very powerful and relatively dark yet seemingly triumphant. You have a very fine control of the dynamics of your instruments and that really helps the piece- transitions are nearly flawless. There's very little to improve!

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

SmithBA responds:

Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it.

[Sadness Is Gone]

I love the chords you use in this, very emotional. It has a post-romantic feel to it, like something I would see a 1920s film or such. Excellent use of harmony to create a strong emotional pull. :D

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

JosephAS1 responds:

Thanks dude! :)