samulis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[XS - Sanctuary (NGADM14)]

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review.

First, here is your score breakdown:
Production: 21/30
Composition: 22/30
Instrumentation: 10/15
Originality: 8/10
Interest/Emotion: 9/15

Total: 70/100 or 7/10 or 3.5 stars
========
The Good:
- I really enjoyed the choices of chords you used.
- You had a pretty decent blend of organic and synthetic elements.
- Production was solid throughout.

The Not-So-Good:
- I would really like to have seen more variation in the piece... have a really chill section with maybe a choir and harp or something just to really contrast all the other stuff.
- The piece didn't really flow between parts and had all these sudden jolt-y leaps between parts and ideas.
- Some parts of the piece are just sort of "grooving" with no one really playing a melody out above everything else, as if this track was supposed to have lyrics on top but you forgot to add them. Having a strong, clear melody that is above everything else is important for creating the space and asserting the texture of the piece.
- I would have liked to hear other things than just the same EWQL SO staccato strings patch over and over again... why not have woodwinds? brass? pizzicato strings? legato strings? There are tons of different textures within an orchestra, so definitely consider experimenting with more ways to use and blend them together.
- The "climaxes" in the piece are all kinda the same sort of thing and none of them really "get there" for me. Consider having a more full climax that is really filled-out but not too crowded.

Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis

Jimmypig responds:

Sorry for the late reply! I remember reading this and thinking "I'll have a real read later when I'm not busy!" and then I forgot completely -_-

I totally agree with you though, good intention but left it a little bland. I always do because I worry about over clutter!

Thanks again.

[Lunar Event]

Did you know that male giraffes use their necks to fight each other an assert dominance?

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review.

Let's start by breaking down your score:
Production: 25/30
Composition: 26/30
Instrumentation: 15/15
Originality: 10/10
Interest/Emotion: 8.5/15

Total Score: 84.5/100 or 8.45/10 or 4 stars.
=======

Good Things:
- HUGE amount of creativity, especially in the sound design. It's great to see someone work so hard on a piece, and it really shows!
- The atmosphere is great, and the sounds are very intuitively blended together into a coherent work.
- There's a great deal of diversity in the piece, even with the minimalist vibe going on. I really like the flow between parts, it all just made sense.
- The piece felt like a more techno approach to the music in Age of Empires I and II. I definitely recommend checking out the music in those games.
- $60 DAW? You making good music on it? Sign me up! :D

Not-so-good Things:
- I agree with Step that there really isn't a lot to love about this piece aside from the technical mastery displayed. It doesn't really say anything, which is fine for some applications where more emphasis is put on technical prowess than saying something.
- Related to that, the piece gets pretty dull after the fifth time or so.
- I think more experimentation with arpeggios and textures that move in and out (crescendo then diminuendo) might be worthwhile. It would be nice to have more parts that just kinda came into being and then went back out.

Best,
-Sam

secantwave responds:

Thanks very much for the thoughtful review! I agreed with most of what you had to say. I know that the time limit of the contest, combined with personal obligations, meant I didn't really have the opportunity to develop this piece as much as I would have liked. I'm planning to come back to it later and finish it for real.

I'm particularly glad that you liked the sound design and the atmosphere; I was very proud of it as well, and my main goal in creating the piece was making a rich atmosphere. One of the advantages of working with Mathematica is that there's a lot of flexibility in generating basic sounds, which can be improved further by combining it with other applications like Audacity. (In my view, this counters the main disadvantage that it is, by any measure, kind of insane.)

Thanks again!

[Rising to the Challenge]

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review.

First, let's break down your score:
Production: 27/30
Composition: 26/30
Instrumentation: 12.5/15
Originality: 8/10
Interest: 14/15

Total: 87.5/100 or 8.75/10 or 4.5 stars.

======
The Good:
- GREAT composition and production! This piece was really great sounding and feeling. As step said, everything just kinda fit.
- Makes me want to train like Rocky.
- It made me tap my foot so hard my roommate had to tell me to stop.
- DEM ARPS BRO.
- Super well organized with the melody, transitions, variations, etc. The flow of the song was natural and very clear.
- COWBELL REPRESENT!

The Not-So-Good:
- Although this song is AMAZING on the first play, after the fifth time, it starts to get less enjoyable. Not sure if that's just me or what, dunno. It's still good, just not as awesome was it is when it first starts.
- Despite the diversity in textures, the song never really backs off for a long enough stretch. It would be nice to have a longer chill section in the middle to give the listener a chance to recalibrate than what is in there right now.

Keep da musik flowin, bro!

Spadezer responds:

I'm flattered. I'm happy to get such a good response from you. The good that you liked seemed to outweigh the not-so-good. I'm glad you think this is worth 8.75. I feel silly for not having enough volume dynamics in this song since I know better than that, but I do agree with you on every point.

I can't wait to see what you think about Time to Fly :)
-Spadezer-

[The Abyss]

This is an NGADM round 1 review.

Your Score Breakdown:
Production: 27/30
Composition: 28.5/30
Orchestration: 14/15
Originality: 9/10
Emotion: 12.5/15

Total: 91/100 or 9.1/10 or 4.5 stars

=======
This track really was one of my favorites out of the contest. I really enjoyed the combination of various influences. I could hear a bit of Russian Romantic (mussorgsky-esque) and some Impressionist and post romantic. Then along came the cinematic part... which was another story, but I will get to that in a bit.

My first point of awesome was the inclusion and detail of woodwinds in the first part of the work. There's a lot of nice runs in there and some good use of orchestration to paint the intended picture. I really felt it had a great set of textures for the most part.

The big problem here is that the piece is not memorable. I can listen to it and I can't even remember what I just listened to. My memory sucks, but this isn't just a matter of that. I can remember that cheesy pop song I heard earlier on the radio. Just because you're writing scary music doesn't mean there is no need for any memorable phrases or something that stands out or really has a sense of "you" to it.

A slightly smaller but also important issue is continuity. You start off with this great impressionistic-style piece, an then transfer into this brassy, almost modern climax. I don't ask that you write a piece that sounds like a period, heck no, but when you do mash up stuff, make sure both parts are equal. The contemporary action-horror cinematic portion was very basic- brass tropes, drums, some runs. Lots of big bold noises played very loud and without any resemblance of effective phrasing as present earlier. It just kinda pops in our face and goes BWAAA BWAAA BWA BWA BWA BWAAAA. It doesn't really make me feel anything, it's just a bunch of obviously sampled instruments and the effect, the texture the first half strained to produce, is shattered on impact.

This piece made me think a lot about some old Bernard Herrmann music (guy who scored all those old Alfred Hitchcock movies like Psycho and Vertigo), the "grandfather" of the "horror" music in movies. Herrmann managed to create very powerful pieces without losing the effectiveness of emotions to just blasting brass, and without sacrificing the quality of his composition. I think taking a listen to his work may help you come up with different ways to approach the climax of this sort of style without having to lean back on tropes. He also is a certified black-belt at leitmotifs and their effective use, so maybe there's something in there that will help you come up with ways to make your music more memorable. (examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMTrVgpDwPk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC5AzFc3coo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCMMDvDUXzA, etc)

The thing that makes horror (or all music for that matter) music effective, and is something that really defines why your first half is super effective, is tension and release. Being able to grab the listener's heart and release it is a very challenging thing to do, but with effective use of dynamics, tensions, and textures, it is considerably easier. Also important an hand-in-hand is the dynamic of the textures and orchestration you are using, notably for the climax. Blending instruments via doubling or harmonizing in thirds or sixths is a hugely effective and powerful art that is mostly ignored by many today. Consider an example from Vertigo, composed by Bernard Herrmann: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytC5jUBpMls

In this scene, the main character is waiting for his love to emerge from a bathroom (silly, right?). Yet, we hear this great tension and release, and a buildup as she approaches, finally releasing in a full-out climax, featuring a resolution to major, with a central motif throughout it all. If you don't have this little earworm in your head for at least a day, I would be quite amazed. In the world of music, tension and release is the most powerful force in existence. Consider ways it might apply to creating any emotion or texture, not just love or fear or anger (although tension that doesn't release or fails to resolve can create feelings of desire and longing). Even in scary music, feeling the tension and release is important to stir the emotions of the listener. ;)

I hope at least one thing in here will prove helpful. As the doctor recommends, take with a grain of salt, after lunch, and KEEP COMPOSING! :)

DamienFleisch responds:

This is a really great review, thank you. I am actually very familiar with Herrman's work as he is one of the first composers who inspired me to pursue a career in scoring. I wasn't referencing him very much in this piece, although now that you have mentioned it that may have been a good idea. With this piece, I had intended to have some of our friends the Russians, and a good deal of Britten. Even Herrman's less rhythmically intense scores (like Vertigo) still have much more energy than I wanted for this piece. But I do hear the similarities listening to that main title again now with the big chords in the brass.

I understand and agree with what you mention about the earlier parts vs the later parts. The fact is I started writing this piece right into my DAW, which I don't always do. If I had gone into the sequencing of it with a better idea of where it was going, I think that would have helped it a lot. What happened instead was that I got through the first half or so of the piece and realized it was rambling and lacked cohesion so I had to do something to pull it together. What I came up with is more of a band-aid than a cure, I suppose. This is definitely another piece that I plan to revisit in the near future. It deserves to be longer and it deserves the attention and detail the beginning has all the way through to the end.

Thank you for your words!

[Dance of the Poltergeist]

This is a NGADM round 1 review.

Your Score Breakdown:
Production: 24/30
Composition: 24/30
Instrumentation: 13/15
Originality: 9.5/10
Interest: 10/15

Your Total Score: 80.5/100 or 8.05/10 or 4 stars

========
This track was da shit bro, in a good way. I really enjoyed the "polka" elements (sounded almost a little more ragtime to me, esp. with the syncopations). Definitely reminds me of Steampianist. ;)

One of the best parts of this piece is the flow. I felt that out of all the entries, this one had top-grade flow between ideas and parts. Everything felt like it happened for a reason and that it made sense, however strange the piece. The diversity also made the apparent lack of a contrasting section more tolerable.

I felt that the sounds fit rather nicely. However, it should be noted, I know very little about chiptune, 8-bit, or trance. The mix was acceptable, but not mind-blowing. Since you are just starting out with stuff like chiptune, I feel with some more time, it will improve for sure. Keep experimenting with different blends and textures you can put together and contrast! I really liked the trance components, and I think you could do even more awesome work if you explore more ways to blend between trance and other genres.

(this is what Ragtime is btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgda3qc8S0A, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8IM5-wUdng)

Azhthar responds:

Thx a lot for the detailed review. Glad you liked the ideas. I´m also glad you liked the sounds I used because after Step´s review I was a bit unsure and experimented a bit with different chipsounds. Actually I did not find any other sounds which fitted better to that piece than the original ones I used but I definetely understand that these sound quite raw... Yep, I sometimes like to mix genres a bit. You are right that since this was my first experiment with stuff like chiptunes I definetely should learn a lot here productionwise. For the ragtime ctually I don´t really agree or maybe I don´t see what you mean. I have always the feeling that polka has more of an offbeat feeling while ragtime is more a backbeat... The tonematerial is also a bit more blues related I guess.

[Tree of Life]

This is a NGADM review.

Your Score Breakdown:
Production: 27.5/30
Composition: 25/30
Instrumentation: 13.5/15
Originality: 9/10
Emotion/Interest: 14/15

Total: 89/100 or 8.90/10 or 4.5/5 stars

======
Let me start this review off by saying that this is one of my absolute favorite entries in the whole contest. Not only does it have a fabulous emotion to it, but it just has all these wonderful tasteful ornaments and some great contrast and shape overall. My favorite points were around 1:14 and 2:21- jaw on da floor!

First off, MAJOR kudos for the vocals. Tuning, phrasing, and performance are all very good. My only comment is on the production side of the vocals. Your own voice can end up sounding a little flat and mid-heavy at points, maybe consider trying some EQ or other options. Also, although a luxury, recording in stereo might add an interesting feeling of scope to the vocals more fitting of a world or ambient feel. I also feel Merry's voice could be very slightly louder.

The main thing that I think could benefit this piece is a larger climax, maybe the addition of more instruments would help achieve this. I also suggest considering adding a fitting drum, perhaps a frame drum or bodhran, even a tambourine. I've done a few collabs with Camoshark over the years and that has suitably convinced me of the need for [tasteful] ethnic drums in world music. The light percussion is nice, but could definitely be supplemented with more instruments, especially around transition points like 2:21.

The mix is quite pleasant. I do feel some more time could have been put into the middle-ground and background of the piece, which as it stands is rather simple (not necessarily a bad thing). Perhaps the addition of some recorders or flutes to play along with the vocals would be an interesting addition.

-SG

etherealwinds responds:

Thank you for the review! I definitely have a long way to go in terms of learning to mix. Hopefully next year I'll have learned a lot more. I actually did make some percussion for this and ended up removing it because I felt it didn't suit the piece and overwhelmed it a little. I think I've just gotta learn to balance it all!

All the best :)

[Pendragon Legacy]

Nice, but sounds nothing like medieval/renaissance music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XvVtszPyTs

Sounds like the Civ III Japanese music though!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgT4TE9ILT4#t=86

Good piece, aside from having Super Slidy Violin syndrome. Might want to take that part to a doctor to get fixed.

ChronoNomad responds:

I don't believe that I ever actually purported this to be either medieval or renaissance style anywhere, so the argument feels spurious. I don't really want to sound like this or that or be pigeonholed because hey--it's all been done in one way or another. I want to sound like myself and share the crazy, offbeat, and sometimes confusing music that's rattling around inside my head. Does that make sense? I hope so. Musical interpretation can be anything the artist wants it to be. I like to call that freedom of expression, and I subscribe to it heavily. :)

Not that hearing that it sounds like something out of Civilization III bothers me, mind. Fantastic music, that! Pendragon Legacy is something of an amalgam I suppose, and using unexpected musical styles to portray things in a way that they wouldn't normally be portrayed is actually quite fun. The soundtrack from Samurai Champloo comes to mind. It definitely doesn't fit in with Edo-era Japan in a traditional sense, but that's one of the things that makes it so unique.

All that aside, I can certainly admit that the violin suffers from more than a bit too much slide. SSVS is a very serious issue, and it is one that I hope to have gotten out of my system now. Nevertheless, I am very glad to hear that you enjoy the music regardless of its shortcomings, and I appreciate your review. The YT links were also a nice touch. Perhaps I should focus on doing something with a decidedly Japanese flavour at some point in the not-so-distant future...

[Sorcerers Path - The Forest]

Great work as always man! Love the vibe. Just two things... I think the sound effects are a bit too prominent and the loop isn't very clean. Consider adding a tad more reverb to the sounds or sinking them down a bit in the mix, especially the cicada.

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot sam! Hm i dont really know if the sounds really are too loud - i will check that again. Thanks for telling me :D

[Not all of me shall die!]

Sounds cool, I really like the vocals at the start! The track does seem a bit too "simple" and "normal" compared to a lot of what you do though... none of the lines are remarkable on their own. Of course it sounds very good, but I'd consider some ways you can push beyond stereotypes, especially when working with vocals. :)

Emid responds:

Hey Sam, good to see you :)
I understand what you are talking about and 100% agree. I don't know how to retrieve all the lost parts, strings lines, counter melodies, effects, and a dark part in the end that were not there when I re-opened the project after system shut down. I would love to have a chat with you regarding vocals whenever we both have time. But am too sad to upload an unfinished product though. Thanks for the support and comment, as always Samulis.

[Fathers Day Ragtime]

Tune is called "Paper Moon". One of my favorites!

Great work as always Chris. :)

SoundChris responds:

Thanks sam. Wow - i really have to say that this is a funny surprise - always thought my father composed it (what he generally did many years ago) but now i know that only the lyrics were recreated by him :D

Thanks for telling me!