madboss's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fall Of The Last City]

Fantastic brass!

The brass brings the song on it's back I think. You made a fantastic job with it's control. I loved the part after the first choir section. Great feeling, almost like LOTR.

I think the snares are a bit lound and not really classical like - at least they should be a little in the background and the toms you layered upon them should give the main rythm.

The jazzy 4/4 beat part was a bit wrong indea in my opinion. It's not really fitting into the mood of a fallen city. It's nice still but not so sad as the title requires. And I would delete the cyms out of it - now they are really not fitting in here after my opinion.

The choir is also great - fantastic sample as the brass too.

So overall it's a great track with some dissonance in the style-elements but it really has some great strengths (brass, choir) - so I must say congratulations!

mechanoid-9 responds:

Wait a sec, this song tells the whole story of the fall, not just the mourning and despair after. The intro is when the defenders prepare for their last battle. The snares start- they see the enemy approaching and take up their positions. The fast beat starts- that's when the battle begins. The fast violins are also supposed to create a battle feeling. I imagined this through the eyes of one of the defenders; when the beat stops, he is knocked out... The next thing he sees is the total destruction, enemy troops executing survivors, fires burning everywhere... that's the second choir/harp part.
I dunno about the cyms, maybe you're right. I put them there to make the percussion sound more flowing, to add movement to that part. Snares are too loud I agree. As for not classical like... I do not usually follow genre rules strictly, just think about the flanger beat part in Final Conquest.
A wad of thanks for the review, glad you liked da song.

[Rave Abbey]

Good old times...

Hy!

Man, this beauty reminded me of the good old trance tracks of the end of the 90's. It's a great nostalgic feeling. So I love this song.

Great melody and structure - it's like a club mix version altough I think you repeated the main melody a bit too much. But who cares the song rocks and I love it especially with the piano in.

Great job you got a 5 from me. Congrat!
(Szép munka volt!;)

mechanoid-9 responds:

Thanks a lot. I'll check out some of your stuff again soon when I have time. Yeah it also reminds of of some classic not too old trance. Repetitivenes is one of the main problems I usually encounter- the thing is, when I make up a really good melody, I get addicted to it and don't like to change it much through the song.

[_-={Crumbling Cathedral}=-_]

Fantastic!

I start with my overall feelings of this track than I'll sink into the details. Great! The live vocal lifted the whole thing to a higher dimension. Fantastic vocal sound - I bet she's some kind of professional singer - and also fantastic instrumental arrangement. The organ sound blowed up everything (almost took every space - only the big bell could complain with that.)

Some detils I want to mention: the start is a bit sudden for me. A softer fade in would give a more mystical sound.

The string staccato sounded almost a synth - I almost fell down to the ground of it but after that I had to realise that they are really strings. Well they sound a bit strange but it's okay.

After that the big part the vocal is a bit in background. I can imagine that it's a hell of a job to EQ the vocal sound with all the other instruments (especially with the organ) - so considering this the current arrengement is more than great.

The reamining part are without any problems for me. Great job - really a Cathedral feeling took shape.

Man, I'd shake your hand for this song. Brilliant work - congratulations!

No question: 5 - keep up your fantastic work!

MaestroRage responds:

you have observed pretty much every weakness I myself saw in the piece, but really could do little about.

The strings, when played high, especially staccato do sound synthesized, because the sounds are so short, and so high, it is difficult to make them out as unique sounding notes, which a real orchestra would have portrayed, but sadly with VST's you only get 2 different sounds tops.

The Organ... yes you saw how that organ ate up ALL the space, so I tried to tame it as much as possible while still giving it that feeling I wanted it to give. I felt the volume levels here were decent, maybe it could have been made a tad quieter, but it was just so hip :D!

The vocals, were very hard to bring out from behind all the instruments. The beginning was easy as all the instruments could be played softly, but when the energy levels rose, the difficulty level of making the voice audible rose with it. Doable, but difficult, a lot of event handlers needed to be thrown in that segment.

I am very glad you liked it madboss, I am a very big fan of your music and style. Thank you for the review!

PS. The singer isn't professional (yet), but damn she sure is talented eh?!

[As You are the Beauty]

Not bad

The start had a promise of a great adventure - but that high violin was a bit ear-hurting and as I could hear there was some dissonant parts of it. But the pizzicato and the marc strings were great.

And after that - the brilliant slow strings are coming again. You are really a true master of those strings! I love your slow string melodies. I think this melody was a bit close to one of your earlier submissions but it is still a beautifull one.

The ending was a bit strange - like it'd be a completly different part from the overall composition. I'd suggest to end the melody and that snare in one time, like an uprolling and grand ending of a beautifull track.

No other comlaints - but these two problems are the fault of the lower points. Still I think this is not a bad track and the slow string part is great and moving again. Keep up the good work Bosa!

Bosa responds:

Hey, madboss! I believe you're right. However, newgrounders around here are usually young and like fast paced tracks. Yet, it's people like you that seem to turn things around for the better of things.

[_-={The Dead's Witness}=-_]

Great and intensive

Hm great song. I loved the staccato choir. Gave a lot of passion to the song - like the ones give it in the Last Samurai score. Great job. I also loved the drums - dinamic, deep and gave the dinamic to the song.

You had agan an amazing quality brass and violin in your command. I liked the chymes under the female choir. The female choir sounded a bit like a synth but it gave the power for the song.

The whole song reminded me to a trailer music for a new samurai-emotional-action movie. Like summing up a story in a way of an audio. Great and powerfull. Great work, congratulation!

MaestroRage responds:

The Staccato choirs were something I liked a good deal as well. The first version of the song had them going off every 3 seconds, but then of course I got worried it would wear itself out WAY too quickly. It used to be like that with bells for me, always with the gonging of big bells, it drove some listeners crazy i'm sure, so more discipline this time >:(!

The female choir does sound like a synth, however it was the only one I had, and therefore had not other female choir to mix it with (I will usually mix and blend a few choirs together to try and make it sound like a real choir), but as you said, it got the message across the way I wanted it, so it stayed.

I'm glad you liked the chime thingies, because I love them too, it just sounds so... strange.

Now I guess my next project will be giving this Samurai in this song a story. It feels empty not to give one.

In any case, thanks for the review madboss, greatly appreciated. The songs inspiration came greatly from your piece "One more time", so thank you for putting that bad boy up here. I'm glad you liked it ^^.

["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!