madboss's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[_-={The Spread of Chaos}=]

Wow...

Looks like you held back some big shoots recently... Before this an epic dream was that made me say: great. And now here's the new big shoot.

Well wow... I'm listening still to the track and I'm totally under it's effect: the energy the epicness. Another great job I must say.

The beginning with the sting made a tribeish feel for the whole song. And then came the massive choir support - absolutly great sound and feeling. I've heard such massive epic sound from soundtracks. And the big-big cilmax after this... now that was another hit.

The big bells were also effective at the end...
So for me this song is perfect from the beginning to the end... I wish I could make so clear sounds as you can. Congratulations maestro - another fantastic piece!

MaestroRage responds:

Oh my good sir, I didn't hold back nothing, i've just had a whole crop of unfinished pieces, that slowly are coming into completion, luckily two were finished rather close to each other, I don't think there will be anything for a few days.

The choirs, oh how those choirs made me weep :'(, they were so hard to equalize properly, and I still don't think I did the best job I could, due to my lack of knowledge in that department this was the best I could do for now. I'm sure i'll look back to this in a few weeks and be like "I can't believe I DIDN'T do that!"

My personal favourite part is when the panflute comes busting in with the violins, I just really like how that part came out.

I'm glad you found the song enjoyable madboss, this was one of my largest undertakings, and truly it taught me alot in the process of it's creation.

Thank you for the review ^^.

[_-={A Place for Dreams}=-]

Epic dreams

Well well... it's always a great event when the maestro submits a new piece - and you haven't made us dissapointed!

I liked the song very much. Nice melody - I could imagine this music in a fantasy movie or even in the Narnia movie. I see you changed the bells to kind of music-box sounding instrument. Nice - brought some childish feeling. Altough the string and brass sound set a contrast to it with it's epic-sounding. And I must say great use of brass instruments. Almost sounding like real. I'd have samples like that but I have to cook with the stuff I have.

The choir was a great choice - made the childish and the epic feeling more stronger in the same time. Also I have to mention the great work with the stings. There was a vibration in them after the choir part - really stylish.

After all this track is rather epic like than childish/dreamy. I could easily imagine the full orchestra's pounding support with the whole child choir.

Anyhow great job - stylish, complex, good melodies, good structure. I have no critics to come up with. Nice job as always. Congratulations!

MaestroRage responds:

Thank you madboss, this song does have quite an epic side to it, and as you mentioned it's not very dreamy, for not every world is asleep, not every world that is left is left in ruins and desctruction.

And most definately not every world is left alone at all. I have over time created a giant canvas of a world for myself, I frequent often, with it's own cultures, peoples, landscapes (a few that I visit again and again and put more details into it every time), and so for these worlds that still live, this energy, this epic power I gave in this song, goes out for them.

My mind functions in strange ways, forgive me if I ranted ;). Thank you for the review madboss, always a pleasure to read from you. I'm glad you liked the piece.

[Waltz of Sorrow]

Nice but not really sorrowfull

This is a nice piece you have here. Altough I must agree with Fuoco that the main theme is really close to POTC theme. And because of this the song doesn't serve the sorrowfull image that you'd like to show.

I think theres a bit problem with the volum levels: the aggressive part is way too loud and the other parts are on a way too low level. I've almost jumped out from my skin when the thumbling part came in - almost from nowhere.

Another thing is that I think you should have the song more waltz like: only the last part had the complet waltz rhytmic. The first part was also good but with the full rhytmic was the best.

So it's not a sorrowfull song but it's quite nice - especially the softer tunes and the last waltz part. Personally said I didn't liked that short loud middle part but I could understand why you've put it there. I think it breaks the sorrowfull image and turns it to a fight scene - and the melody has a bit heroic edge so another hit to the sorrowfull feeling.

Don't be dissaponted - the song is nicely done tough. Not bad job! Keep it up!

MusicalRocky responds:

Lol don't worry, I didn't expect everyone to get that sorrowful image I was going for. Not everyone has my mind :D.

Again with the POTC, eh? I don't hear any resemblance (and I'm very familiar with the score). Oh, well. I thought the theme was original :(

A problem with the volumes, you say? Well, I purposefully had the beginning and end at a rather low volume because the man is playing very softly. I wanted to make a distinction between the sorrowful part and the wrathful part. The fortissimo helps with that lol. If I had kept the whole song mezzo piano, the bridge wouldn't sound too angry at all. Just different. I do appreciate your advice though.

This piece I set out to write a waltz in E minor, but I didn't really focus on the waltz-like left hand throughout. Truthfully, that is a predictable aspect of waltzes that I was trying to avoid with this piece.

I was visited with the image of this man, and I used it, for my own purposes, imagining what he might play upon sitting down at his piano. He sort of improvises the main theme (very slowly and without a set tempo). Then he (rather timidly) adds the left hand chords, which adds more depth to his sorrow. I think if I kept the left hand playing that waltz beat the entire time, the focus would be shifted more to the rhythm, and less on the melodies I was trying to show. You'll notice that the emphasis is on the first beat though. It still has the 1! 2 3 pattern throughout. Don't think that I didn't enjoy writing the truly waltzy part though.

I didn't try to break the sorrowful image during the bridge; the sorrow and anger are intertwined. I am truly sorry for doing that. I have not done my job if you do not see what I see with my music :(

Thank you very much for reviewing. I hope to improve in the future.

Rocky

[-Orr- Christmas Eve]

Absolutely A.W.E.S.O.M.E

Man this song is something outstanding! If I would be someone who always fonuds something little wrong in everything - I wouldn't find anything negative in here...

Really well done. Stylish - from the flute vibration to the fast paced part. Great, epic and full with energy, joy and excitement of Christmas.

I could imagine a title for this like: "Epic Christmas". It really had an epic edge in a positive way - I could imagine this song in a movie for a scene where the whole world is shown how everybody celebrates this beautifull event.

I say this rarly but I think this song really deserves this: this is a masterpiece. You really put this together. I don't know how many hours are in there...

So absolutely great job. You could be proud of it! Congratulations!

DavidOrr responds:

I like the flute trills too. The piece is pretty epic, perhaps too epic, but that is subject to opinion.

This didn't take me very long to write (only about 2 days or so), but I have never been so intensely involved with one piece as I have with this. I felt physically and mentally exhausted when I finally finished it!

Thanks for the review, glad you enjoyed the piece :)

[The New Music Generation]

I liked this very much...

... altough this kind of classical music is not my favorit. This song reminded my to these old cartoons I've seen when I was a child. And the song also has a bit cartoonish feel. And this is a positive thing. I think making an epic battle-track is easier than making things like that.

So the feeling of the track, the structure and the melody was absolutely ok. I liked the constant pizzicato strings in the background. It gave a kind of journey-mood to the song.

Maybe you should get better samples - but I think the song is great in this way as well. Great job!

DaVince responds:

Thanks for commenting on the song. If finding better samples is all the critisism you have, I'm pretty happy. :)

And new samples? Hmm, I actually got these a short while ago and they're plenty good for me at the moment!

[for Emily]

Nice and unique piece!

Hm... it's a recent tendency that many audio artist submit a solo piano piece to AP but the most of them are uploading sad, relaxing, gentle or some epic pieces.

But this is some way other and I haven't heard this kind of emotion in music these days: your music is full of energy, happiness and funnyness. I think this is missing from todays music - and you catched this emotion really well. I could easily imagine a silly, funny but nice girl to these chrods. Really good job!

So the melody and the structure of the song was absolutely ok. But I think you should be more aware of the volume level. Some parts were too loud - this makes a distortion in the sound and reduces it's enjoyability.

But besides this it's a great song. There should be more like this I think. It gives energy and happiness the one who hears it. Congratulation for this one. Keep them coming!

WAAANIMATION responds:

Wow thanks for the review, you made my day :D

Will

[Survivors of Guilt]

Hm...

Well... yes you've mentioned that it's choppy. There are so rough cuts in the melody that they are quite disturbing for me. I think for a relaxing and calm classical audio requires a constant melody, avoiding any such hard changes.

Are you working with FL? If yes you should out some attack on the samples. You'll see that it'll make them sound more softer and peacefull. They will come in with a bit fade in - I think a calm song could use this.

The drum beat I think was a wrong choose for this. Some solid snare or softer drum could be better. But the other instruments were fitting into it I think. In case of choir I say the same as for the strings. Bit more attack on them.

But don't be dissapointed - I think you got good melody writing skills. I liked the melody - altough the first half had a dissonant moment (as good as I could hear). The ending of the song - viewing in the perspective of the melody was greatly done.

So summing up: I can feel that this is an early classical try but it's not that worst. Keep practising and things will improve.

scoutzero responds:

Thanks! I felt the drums were also a bit off, but I am still trying to gather better samples. Thanks again for the review. :D

[Crying Chorale]

Need some work

Well this song has a quite nice melody but I think it could have been better with some smooth changes:

- I think you should find a better choir sample for your work. This one is easily to hear that it's not real. But if you don't have time to look around here's a suggestion: increas the attack on the choir and make slower melody for the choir. The choir will flow in slower and it'll bring a more realistic feel.

- As I mentioned above this song would be better with a slower choir melody. I'm not saying that this isn't good, but I don't feel it sad.

- The same thing goes to the strings as for the choir. Slower melody with more attack on the string-samples.

These are my suggestion for improving this song. Otherwise I can say that the piano and the bells were ok. The song was a bit repetitive but you've variated enough the instruments and the structure that I couldn't feel it so. The melody was also ok.

Not a bad work I think. With some practice it could be much better I think - so keep it up!

[Arlulu]

Really enjoyable

Well if you really improvised the melody you really have good improvisation skills - I loved the melody especially in the beginning.

The whole track was really enjoyable and kind of relaxing. I see a tendence on the AP's classical section that a lot of artists are starting to submit a lot of music like this: a solo piano piece. And they getting better and better.

Like yours. I don't really have any negative critics with this track. Nice and relaxing piece with good chrod progression - congratulation!

Sevanimation responds:

Ha thanks for the positive critique!
Just so you know, "Arlulu" is the word for "water" in an aboriginal language, somewhere in the Australian outback (I learned that in school XD)

The intention of the song was for it to sound like water going down a gentle stream, and suddenly it gets thrown into a lake/ocean near the end as I repeat the original idea, only with more emphasis and elaboration.

[wish...]

Dramatic but the volume level...

... well it was waaaay too loud. In my opinion the song could be much better and enjoyable if the volume level of the piano wouldn't be soo loud. I understand what you tried to achieve - showing dramatic and a kind of epic emoitions.

But because of the loudness the sound made a distortion and made it less enjoyable.

To say something positive: I loved the melody - it's really good and absolutly fits for the title and the song description. The structure was also good: no boring, repetitive parts there was always something changing.

But that volume level needs to be fixed. It could be a 9 or even a 10 score for it. But keep it up - this stuff and you have potential in it.

BenInkEntertainment responds:

First of all, thank you for your comments on the actual music. But yeah, the volume, it happened when I was downconverting and I still couldn't figure out how to save the sound quality. Until I get a real mic the only thing I can suggest is turn your volue down :/