descara's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[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.

[KKS - Wings of Discovery]

Nice and mellow! The clarinet really needs some expression (either recorded with a keyboard's expression wheel or hand-written in Cubase/etc) data though, woodwind with a flat, even tone sounds incredibly synthy. The rest of the orchestra also feels a bit unnatural, some randomness in velocity values goes a long way to make it live, though the best thing is recording the parts with a MIDI keyboard if you ask me.

The panning feels a bit odd, especially with regards to the strings, it almost feels like the same sections come from different sections at different times, and the stereo image feels a bit wide and chaotic. I'd recommend trying out a more traditional seating plan (L - R: vln 1, vln 2, vla, vlc, cb) and going from there, perhaps it won't work with your goals but at least you've tried it! Otherwise the mix and production feels quite nice. I like your reverb!

The re-orchestration of the melody with strings provides a really nice variation! Overall though, the track gets highly repetitive, and a lot of the segment goes on for quite a while without something to really keep the listeners attention. At 03:38 for example., one would perhaps expect something like a second theme, related to the first theme. Hearing the same theme, especially with the melody again carried by strings (albeit with some extra "fills" from the rest of the orchestra?), is a bit dull.

At 04:40, the piano, and later the flute, provides some much welcome instrumental variation, but some thematic variation would really lift the track.

Just some thoughts that I hope you think are constructive, still a good job with the track!

KKSlider60 responds:

Thank you for your detailed insight!
Of course they sound synthy, I don't have a private orchestra in my garage nor Two Steps From Hell doing music for me (and even then it would still sound unnatural). XD I didn't want it to sound realistic, rather dreamy and abstract like the rest of my tracks. The legato strings suffer from velocity and attack jumps I cannot control and I am well aware of it, as well as some other samples being rather flat on their own. I just hope for a future upgrade, and well, I tried to bring the best of what Reason can do. :)
Thanks again
KKS

[Rabbit's hole]

Nice

Relaxing and soft, but it's very reverby and the playing could really use some tightening up in some parts - did you record using a click track? Even if it might be boring it's good practice.

Liked the writing and melancholic feel to it anyhow! Great for this chilly October day.

Shadeborn responds:

tnx)...I used Adobe Audition to record it...and yes, some reverb...maybe alittle much of it)...For october days...yes...you feeling it like I do, man!)

[NP - Kayle, the Judicator]

Omnious, dramatic and inspiring all in one!

Very nice build-up throughout the track, but it's got an overall quite tinny quality to it which kinda hinders it from being the epic it ought to be - I'd experiment with reverb settings, perhaps especially early responses and EQ settings.

Would have loved to hear what you had in mind for the ending but a deadline is a deadline!

ProudAardvark responds:

That's what I get for trying to mix on headphones at 1 in the morning! An astute comment, seeing if I can't fix it up a bit before the deadline here. TY!

[=WannaDance?=]

Pretty neat stuff

Liked the drastic transition in mood, however, regarding the intro: not a huge fan third chord voicing. Not sure, but sounds almost like 2nd inversion (with a 4th between the lower voices?) which makes it rather uneven and all. Having some trouble making out what happens on the two last beats of the last measure but it's a bit jarring as a first-time listener.

As for the rest, I'm not very knowledgable about techno, but it sounds pretty good to me, except the wub could perhaps use a little less of the lowest low end and more low mids, on the breakdown first and foremost. That, and some parts felt like they could just a tad of support in the lower registers, not neccesarily something bassy as the wub, but just a little something - the 01:43 part for example, was nice in itself, but felt slightly off coming from the 01:31 which wasn't very bassy either.

And on a totally random note, are you stratkat from UG?

Daydream-Anatomy responds:

Thanks:3
I know what you mean with the spectrum being a little empty during what I'd call the 2nd verse, I might fix that, this is just a loop with the outline for the song it in, though I won't make any drastic changes if I decide to build upon this. But I think I might like that part how it is, idk.

And yea I'm stratkat on pretty much everything, UG, psn, newgrounds, other stuff idr.^^

[Stargenx - Lux]

Very lux indeed

Love the sweet but mellow feel to it! The use of iv (unless my ears are betraying me) is great and gives it a bit of a flair towards the end. Only particular thing that bothered me was the ending, it kind of jumped at you all of a sudden. A slight ritardando and a bit subtler voice leading would've really made the end shine, I think.

Stargenx responds:

Thanks for the review! Endings are hard sometimes.