madboss's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

["Emperor's Daughter" - Reason3]

Really good!

You know I'm composing symphonic music with Reason 3.0 and a lot of people saying to me that this program is not the platform for classical music. But I disagree. I make classical music with it and the piece you made here proves the programs possibilities in this genre.

The first that caught my ears is the... ehm... dulcimer? And I could hear that you wanted to achieve a kind of japenese feeling in this song with the flutes and the dulcimer. You succseeded - I think the song really has this mood.

Another thing: this song has a lot variety like it'd be always changing and don't have repetitive part - so great use of themes and instruments. Only some minor dissonance can be heard in the dulcimers melody - but that's not so disturbing. The gentle violin was also great sounding

Overall: great song, great composition. A question: did you use other refill sets than just the Orkester Soundbank? Because the sounds I could hear are all from there.

XayberOptix responds:

Reason is no doubt a very powerful music making tool! I started with vesion 2.5 and upgraded to version 3.0. At first, it's very intimidating to use because there's sooooo many knobs and sliders everywhere (not to mention all the wiring/cables on the back of the rack)!! But once I got the hang of things, I started to become more and more creative and productive. I created a few other orchestral pieces as well. If you haven't heard them already, try them out.

Yea the dulcimer was a really diverse instrument to use. I could bend those notes and make them sound like the "real thing." :) The strings sound incredibly real because I layered many of them together making it sound like a "group" of them playing. The other elements are quite breath taking too! The guys at Propellarhead really knew what they were doing!!

If you're a symphonic composer, I would recommend getting the "Strings" refill!! It's definitely worth it! I use instruments from it on a regular basis. :)

Thanks for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed this piece.

[All Around the World_]

That's it!

You know when I was listening to the shorter version I thought you could extend it more. And this is the way I imagined it would be perfect.

Great job: loved the melody flow - almost like a beautifull filmscore. I have no comlaints about this - now it's perfect. Congratulations for this great work!

5/5 from me. Keep up the good work!

Turning-Japanese responds:

Congratulations for being really awesome.

Thanks for your feedback madboss, it means a lot. I'm gonna get an update on your stuff as well. See you in the review pages!

[Quest of Eve]

Again varied themes

Well hello again Bosa. It's been a long time since I was last here. So I thought I check the latest submission of yours.

Again you put a lot of mood into this one. And again (after "The Picture Player") you succseeded with it.

The moods are really coming after and from each other. The nice smooth intro with the female voice was great! And when I've heard the slow string... You got great talent creating such beautifull melodies.

The part in the middle: it reminded me of Christopher Young works - with all that crazy instruments and insane chrods. I think you made it great - next time make a bit more longer and give some drums to it. It'd be more powerfull and frightening.

The slow string part at the end - brilliant and uplifting. Have no words to say - just great. I love your slow string melodies.

So again you amazed me with your song and skills. 5/5 - keep up the good work!

Bosa responds:

Christopher Young? I'll have to read about him immediantly!

[_-={When Demons Cry}=-_]

Reminded me of Memoirs of a Geisha in mood

Well as I mentioned in the title the song had an eastern, rather japanese feeling of it - like a samurai would face a demon of the ancient world...

The mood is absolutely relaxing and you've used the instruments really well - especially the dizi flute (if I'm spelled right).

Loved this one. Not only because it was clear, had a catching melody - I loved it because I see that you tried to make something else than a grand and epic song. As I'm listening to it the japanese mood is simply hitting. I think you wanted to achive a mood like this. If yes, you succseded my friend.

I've no complainments about it: great song! Congratulations! An easy 5 from me.

MaestroRage responds:

Indeed, I wanted to try and put some oriental flavors into my stories. I've been neglecting stories from all across the other side of the globe! I mean what better place to find stories of pure and strong hearts, or vengeful black souls then over yonder in Japan and other Oriental times where the sword was wielded with both a passion and with rage.

I'm glad you liked the piece Madboss, it was a undertaking this one was! Thank you for the review ^^. I'll hit you back soon I swear!

[Bella Rosa]

Good work!

I loved this piece - had a lot emotions inside I think. My favourite part was the constant high tone melody in the background - like it'd be raining or something. You put that melody in great harmony with the other parts. Nice job, good melodies and a really good flowing structure.

I had only one problem: after my opinion you should have made the hey hits more softer, smoother. The songs characteristic I think requires a more softer melody-play. The song in this way is a bit too hard, harsh - and the melody not referrs to this.

But anyhow good job, I have only this minor problem with it. Congratulations and keep up the good work.

Turning-Japanese responds:

I'm glad you liked this piece - the motif in the beginning was my favorite part too. You're right about the harshness of the sound; I blame the velocity more than the composition, but I may re-submit this piece with a new piano plugin I recently came across.

Thanks for the review!

[_-={These Angels of War}=]

Grand and epic

Hy there maestro - sorry for the late review but I got stuck in some work recently ... but as I can see you'll have to spend an awefull lot of time if you want to response to all of the reviews.

But to the song: the start grand. The use of brass was great. Also the choirs were outstanding. After the start was a small part that really had some arabic motifs - as the drums had in the background. The last part is a mistery for me: what kind of instrumnets or instrument-combinations did you used to make it? Anyhow it gave another arabic twist to the song.

Nothing else to mention: greatly composed, dinamic and epic. Congratulations!

MaestroRage responds:

Hmm lets see. The instruments near the end were solo violin with Dizi flute combination. The Dizi flute is of oriental origin and has become one of my favourite instruments. My only problem with it is the fact it has a somewhat limited range (barely 2 octaves), which I guess isn't bad, but i'm used to throwing notes up and down octaves like madness!

In any case, i'm glad you liked the piece! The choirs were quite a feat in themselves, mixing this and that, and very soon I plan on adding more to my library. Always on a hunt for more instruments :D.

Thanks for the review ^^

[Half Symphony]

Nice medieval atmosphere

Hy there!

This is a great song and I loved it. I could feel the progression how the whole stuff developed and fullfilled a circle and made the song a whole complex.

The start was great. Set the medieval feel for the whole track. When the choir came in was another blast. But my favorit point is the flute melody - good flowing especially in the middle part.

Don't have much negative opinion and impression about the song. I liked it how it was.

Good job - and make more classical stuff in the future.

[_-={The Metal Visage}=-_]

Another fantastic piece

Hy there Maestro!

Again you made a crystal-clear sounding and uplifting track! I bet that it'll be used a lot of times by flash artists.

Unfortunately I can't imagine any story to the track just some pictures flashing into my mind in random order.

So let's see the song itself:

Nice beginning - the electronic effect was a bit strange from you and I thought no you'll try something different but then the string came in and made clear that you'll bring up a full classical piece again.

Great bulid up - the full sound before the rushing action part is uplifting and epic: the moment before the storm.

And than a laugh: and the action starts. A simple but effective part you made here. Did you used a bagpipe or this kind of instrument in the background? I couldn't hear it clearly.

The ending with that choir is nice altough I think you made better choirs than this - I think the Spread of Chaos had some better ones if I remember well. But this one was great as well - brought the mood that you wanted to share.

So there's nothing else left to say: congratulations and keep up this amazing quality in your work!

MaestroRage responds:

It's true madboss, the choir work in this piece wasn't great, but it wasn't meant to be. Simple long notes to emphasize the feeling. It was also meant to be significantly longer, but I didn't want to cut up the song and risk having people know only half the story. My aim with this track was not the music itself, but I wanted to share the story, and so with that as my goal, I tried to build it all with this one piece.

The instrument you heard before the laugh was actually a high pitched violin.

I don't mind if you didn't see any image to the piece, I don't expect the track to invoke stories or the such for everybody, we all know music is a very subjective craft, what one may think is amazing, another may think it crap, and so forth. I'm glad you wrote the review and let me see your thoughts anyways, thank you for that.

Thanks again for the review, i'm glad you liked the piece madboss ^^.

[Shadows of Fire]

Great!

Hello ConSoul!

This is a great piece of music you have here! Great orchestration - when the orchestra is going with the choir and with tha fast string it's absolutely great. Some parts reminded me Danny Elfman. So this music has a great feeling.

The work with the fast strings is great! I liked the staccato brass as well. The whole orchestra sounded alive. The beginning was one of freaking one. But then came the action. Great job!

What program did you use? Because the whole song sounded alive and really clear.

So 5/5 from me - keep up the good work!

ConSoul responds:

East West Quantam Leap Symphonic Orchestra and Choir is what I use for the strings, winds, brass, choir, and some of the percussion.

I mix everything up with Audacity and I use WordBuilder to put lyrics to the choirs.

If you'd like a more detailed synopsis of my equiptment just visit my site!

[The Picture Player]

I love this one!

Well hello there again Bosa. Looks like you're a really fast composer. It's not long time passed when I reviewed Vu Bakveesh (The Hard Worker)and now you already have two new ones.

And this time you got my points with this one. I could absolutely imagine a story for this. The story is this:

An old man is trying to find a film tape - he's falling all around in a comical way. Than he finally got the whole stuff working and starts to watch a movie from his good old times - from the cheerull times (I mean the piano here - loved it.) The detuning of the melody was a great effect made me imagine this story even better.

When the slow string part came in I can imagine that the old man is starts to feel sorrow for these times that passed or the movie has raised beloved and painful memories from his past. Maybe he's a world war 2 veteran and he has remembered his comrades after watching some cheerfull films of the good old times with together.

The last part with the bagpipe was really uplifting - like the old man would smile and think: rest in piece brothers I'll join you when my time comes and we will meet each other...

So Bosa: this time the contrast in the track worked out really well for me. I loved it - again as always the slow string part and the slow dramatic melodies were great and uplifting. And this time the cartoonish/comical music was fitting to the whole composition as well. So you got my 5 that's for sure. Great job!

Bosa responds:

Thanks, man. I originally meant it to be comical to hopeful, and you matched the story quite well. This took some work, but I managed to play it out perfectly and the way I wanted it. I'll be sure to check out some of your stuff.

-Bosa