descara's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Falcon Armada]

Hah, I love the jumpy feel and cheesy orchestral hits of this track. Ending is hilarious. The synths are great, good job.

I think you should clean up the intro somewhat though, there are some unnecessary dissonances that don't really do anything but muddle things up. Also, the Dm/A begs to be resolved to an A. Trust me, it will really heighten the intro and increase cheese levels immensely.

Sorry though, this is nothing but plain 4/4, albeit with something of a swing feel to it ;)

DuttonsaysHi responds:

Well thanks for the analysis man!

And I get what you mean, I plan to go back to it some day anyway. There's a few things in the melody at 1:30 that I'd like to change up, as well as some stuff in the end. So I'll twiddle with the orchestral opening as well :D

And yeah that's the point :P using 4/4 on a 3/4 time signature gives it that swing. completely intentional. Thanks for the review man!

[-Orr- The English Kingdom]

Marvellous energy in this track. It didn't really give me King Arthur vibes, but great nonetheless!

The piano somehow felt a bit oddly placed in the mix at times, and I found myself really wanting more of an accent on the first of the fortissimo chords rather than the same dynamic throughout them.. but in general the production is just wonderful. Makes me want to have Hollywood Strings and Brass, now I just got EWQLSO without close mic positions. FML.

DavidOrr responds:

I used (and still use) EWQLSO for several years, and it's still a solid product even 9(?) years after release. Hollywood Strings and Brass are wonderful tools, and definitely have a more authentic, organic sound to them. They're very versatile, and the level of articulations included is quite deep. The only downside is that they're extremely taxing on the computer though (HS more so than HB)!

Great idea about the accented notes -- I'm putting those into a revision as I write this :). The main reason the piano is in the piece is because I originally scored it out for small ensemble (Piano quintet plus flute, horn, and one percussionist). I had the opportunity to rehearse, conduct, and perform the piece. During the process, the piano felt like such an integral of the arrangement that it felt wrong for me to take it out as I orchestrated it.

Thanks for your review!

[King Samulis]

Great track!

A few things I reflected over:

I've heard a few of your tracks, and it'd be nice to see you expand colour palette a bit - some soft woodwind harmonies could definitely have found their place in this track. Also, perhaps some more varied use of brass in general - piano brass harmonies can be very suspenseful.

The production of the track is splendid, no worries there. There were a few times when I'd wished the lead instrument was more humanized, but not often.

One thing I reacted to about your arrangements - there's some, but not very much contrary motion. Parallel motion and overall direction can work as a great build up device but contrary motion can give this very satisfying, solid feel. I don't know if it's something you keep in mind while writing, but if you don't, start to, it pays off!

One last thing, and it's a bit of a matter of taste - but to me the raised 7 - raised 6 movement at 0:39 really stuck out in an unsmooth way.

Okay, time for me to stop nagging about silly things and listen to it one more time!

Bosa responds:

Thank you for the advice, my friend. These are all things that I need to work on in the future, and I appreciate your experienced input. It's good to hear from someone who knows a bit about music structure.

[Density]

The material in the seperate parts is really nice, but I feel that formwise, it doesn't really work as a piece - the sections are too similar for me to really experience this as a theme with variations. At the same time, the transitions are a bit too clumsy to really work as a "normal" piece. I'd either try to make it flow better as a regular piece (I experienced the 1st A-section as an intro to A' more than anything), or really, really change things up between the variations.

Hope this doesn't come off as condescending or anything, but have you had any references you've been looking at for the theme and variation form? I find the 2nd mvt of Schuberts Death and the Maiden as well, of course, as well as Bachs lesser known Aria Variata to be good, very cohesive examples.

[Towers - Castle Exterior]

Quite nice! I liked the writing, and the mix is pretty good. However, the midi programming is a bit of an eyesore (earsore? :P), with hammering of notes at the same velocity and lack of expression data/aftertouch on the clarinet (and bassoon, though it's really the former that's noticeable) getting rather tiresome. I dunno, maybe you were going for a retro-ish feel, but right now it feels too synthish to be convincing as realistic, while being too little synthish to add any charm to it. Er, I hope that makes sense.

Aside from that, I felt the orchestration was a bit at times - when things got a bit more intense around 01:00-01:20 it'd been nice if that'd be reflected in the orchestration, perhaps doubling of the bass line in higher registers or a more grandly orchestrated melody.

Ironclover responds:

I love your review, The thing with the Clarinet is that I wanted a Monotone feeling to it. Admitting I do think it sounds too synthetic. I aimed for a Medieval Electro-Classical theme. Thank you c:

[Instinct]

Love the writing on this track, great dark atmosphere! The mix felt a bit off - the leads are really, really loud compared to the bass, especially around 00:27 and around 01:00 where the same synth comes back. Not as bad on my speakers, but somewhat jarring in k240s.

Bass had a bit much noise on it for my taste, could've perhaps been taking down just a notch.

Awesome track anyhow! Favourited.

z-raven responds:

ah yeah, i had some problems mixing the bass at certain points. still working on it for my next tune. :)

[Dreams of Promise]

First off, you really have to get new strings. There's more than decent-sounding free soundfonts, take a look around the audio forum and/or google for a bit and you should be able to find some.

A little about the composition:

It has its qualities, especially the first piano section. The chromatic movement is very well done - however, chromatic, falling lines like these are hardly uplifting! Still, a nice touch, and it does give the track that airy, dreamy feel you talked about, just not in an uplifting way.

The beginning is too thinly orchestrated - it really needs something to glue it together, as the arpeggio strings can hardly stand on their own. Something as simple as long, sustained notes, either in a low or high register would really enhance it.

In the middle section, where the arpeggio stops, the track loses much of its momentum, though this wouldn't be that bad for the first few measures if the piano could be heard more. Again, the orchestration here is very thin and rather unconvincing - add notes in the strings to fill out the texture!

One last note - the track is very, very quiet. It doesn't have to be super-loud, and of course there should never be clipping, but it certainly should be louder than this! You can always compare to other, similar tracks to get a hint of where it should be.

I hope you aren't put of by the critique, but rather that you can take some of it with you to your next track and keep on improving. You clearly have some good musical ideas, which really is the most important part!

SmashedFish responds:

Alright, sorry for the slow response- things have been busy, and even when they haven't, all that's pretty overwhelming to someone who knows next to nothing of musical composition. Regardless, though, I am immensely thankful that you've taken the time to write such an in-depth criticism out. I've a question about it, though- regarding the soundfont, how might I get a new one with Anvil Studio, or should I get a new midi editor altogether?

[[I.H.M] Freedom's Call]

It's a pretty nice, mellow piece, but lacks a bit in execution. First and foremost, I felt the 1-5-8 figure used most of the time in the would-be left hand (lower register) got very tiresome. Instead of jumping your figure around with the chord changes, treat every note in the "arpeggio" as a voice and voice lead the chord changes properly!

Apart from that, the harmony was at bit a tad clumsy - th

AzureDragonFlame responds:

Thanks for the criticism, really.

To be honest, I wrote this song a while back for harp and oboe, but one day I was suddenly possessed to turn it into a singular harp piece, thus I switched the oboe VST to harp without remorse or any editing. By that point I was too lazy to change up the harmonic line to fit a little better with the change. But thanks to this piece I've learned my lesson to take a little more care with the actual melody while switching up instruments.

[Nerevar]

Really epic! You seem to have a knack for brass. And it's way more than acceptable. ;)

Some things I reacted to:

The french horn sounds somewhat unrealistic, either due to overlap in notes or too extreme reverb... not very noticeable at all most of the time, but when it's unaccompanied it stands a bit.

The cellos at 00:34 are just beautiful and great textural variation!

At 01:20, I felt the solo horn-orchestration got a bit old - strings here, as mentioned in an earlier review, would really heighten this part.

Bosa responds:

Thanks for the advice. I agree with you, as strings at that point would have really increased the dramatic feel of this song.

[Night in the Forest 1]

Nice, definitely conveys that sense of isolation and despair you were going for! I really like the flute at 01:19, very mystical and desoate.

Some things I reacted on:

The mix felt a bit odd, the woodblocks sound very "in your face" while the rest of the intstrument have a lot of reverb on them. The orchestration is very nicely varied, but the more majestic sections I felt called for more middle register, though it's perhaps a mixing problem as well. The track could have really used some humanization of the MIDI - some randomness to the velocity, expression/aftertouch at the very least on wind instruments etc, either through hand-editing or a keyboard.

jpops0702 responds:

Thanks for your review. I will keep your comments in mind in future projects.