SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Roma [Int.]]

Alright, since this is a sectioned piece... SECTIONED REVIEW TIME! Yaaaaaay. Confetti and all that. Anyway. On to the review!

Movement 1 - THE GOOD:
-I love the theme, very glad that this section has a more thematic idea tying it together - it keeps me from getting bored or feeling as disconnected as your other song I had reviewed did.
-While the end is not part of the theme, it works quite well for the "story" feel, and the dissonance in the strings really drives the feel of that part home.
-Nice use of a light timpani in the end of the section. It filled out a part of the mix that most people don't use.

Movement 1 - THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-I was a bit confused - you had said the section ends joyfully, but it doesn't quite end in the way I was expecting. While it ends in a major chord, I was expecting something a little more... 'completing'. That might not have been the best word, but I feel like there should have been a little bit more of a tune there to truly 'finish' the section. Other than this, I have no criticism of this section.

Movement 2 - THE GOOD:
-I very much like the high strings with the low strings - leaving out strings in the mid section creates an interesting atmosphere, particularly with the harp to balance it out.
-I love that light percussion used in there.
-The dissonance is once again quite fitting and well-done.
-Wonderful transition at 3:00-3:06. Wonderful.

Movement 2 - THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-The theme isn't quite as prevalent in this movement as in the previous one, and is a bit difficult to decipher, it mainly seems to be wandering (you know what I'm talking about, I mentioned this in the other review as 'rambling' - need to use vocabulary :D) and disconnected in the middle - though part of it does make a reappearance, which is good.
-I notice an odd buzzing sound from about 1:52 to the end of 1:56. Don't know what's causing it, but it doesn't quite work with the orchestral-ness of the rest of the song - though it is in tune, ironically.
-As JosephAS1 said, the strings at about 2:06 just randomly end, which sounds quite surprising and doesn't *quite* fit, though it isn't overly bad. Fading out a little bit more would be nice - that or a reverb'd end.
-Toward the end of this section, right after the transition I commented on, the background for the theme of Cacus seems to not be overly well-done. I'm not sure how you would improve this though, and it could just be a little personal nitpick - feel free to ignore this if you think it doesn't apply overly well.
-Also toward the end of this section, I think it could really, really use a stronger percussion section - after all, it's depicting a battle. If you don't like putting strong percussion in with the other instruments, then perhaps a percussion solo?

Movement 3 - THE GOOD:
-While there's not too much to this section, it certainly fits exactly what you said.
-I love the choir sound in the middle of this section.

Movement 3 - THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-I think the choir, while sounding awesome, could really use a bit more to do - choirs can sing more than large notes, after all.
-The bass percussion rumbling in the middle with the choir makes it difficult to hear the staccato bass strings.
-This section is, well, too short. It's really good for its length, but could definitely stand to be extended!

Overall song - THE GOOD:
-Wonderful melodies, very fitting for the story (or stories, whatever) that you were painting with the music.
-The dissonance is extremely well-done and is also quite fitting.

Overall song - THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-Generally the same things as in your other song, the themes aren't very well-developed and could stand to have a lot more buildup to them.
-The sections are a bit too short sometimes, and don't have the best endings they could have.
-A few little program errors, I'd guess, as well as issues with fadeouts.
-Need more percussion in some sections.

But still. This is awesome, and much better than a lot of what I see on new grounds. Good work!

...and I just about filled the character limit - only 5 characters left. :D

-Swint-

samulis responds:

Thanks again for writing such an excellent review, I will be sure to return the favor when I have some time. :)

The little audio glitch with the buzz is something I have been trying to get rid of for a while. It only is added in the final rendering of the song and seems to be caused by sustained notes on either the violin harmonics or contrabass/double bass. Finale is much harder to work with VSTs in that most real DAWs, as it isn't designed for playback but rather scoring and orchestrating.

I am glad you found the dissonance to be effective. I honestly love using dissonance whenever possible to create tension.

I really love that you took the time to judge each movement as its own section and thus focus on the flow of each movement. I do know the second is a little weaker than the rest (ironically, I wrote the second movement first and then decided it would make a better second movement and wrote a new first movement). I would have done more on the battle, but I didn't want to stretch out the material too long, as I was afraid the feeling of conflict would get lost if it kept going and going.

The third movement honestly should be longer, including the killing of Remus by Romulus and the killing/ascension to the heavens (depending on which legend you are familiar with) of Romulus. After my next piece, I might come back and revisit that third movement or perhaps even work on additional movements.

Thanks again for giving such detailed and constructive critique. I will definitely be working on more melody-based thematic music and trying to keep making things longer (For some reason, I seem to like writing short pieces much better, but there's no reason to not try).

[The Noble Cause (song)]

Hello there! I heard you wanted a review! Therefore, in the interest of bettering musicality...

DA GOOD:
-That intro is very nice.
-I very much like the instruments you've used, they have a quite realistic quality. What program did you use for this? If I remember right, you use Sibelious, correct?
-The overall tunes are quite good.

DA STUFF THAT COULD BE IMPROVED: (Since I assume you are not looking for mixing advice as much, I am going to point out more compositional issues for the most part)
-First of all, I agree with 'supaman321', the percussion was a bit too quiet. I understand if the crackles are unwanted, but mixing can generally help with that. Not sure if you can mix in Sibelious though - if that was what you were using, then I'm sorry. But honestly, the percussion was almost barely detectable. Not the pitched percussion, but the unpitched percussion.
-Also on the topic of percussion, there doesn't seem to be that much unhitched percussion, period - percussion, while not strictly necessary, is still an important part of orchestral music, and if you're using an entire orchestra, try to give the percussion players something to do. One thing I'd suggest is trying to pretend that you're actually writing for a real orchestra (if you aren't already). Think of each player, you don't want them to get bored. ;)
-I notice that there doesn't seem to be a specific 'theme' for the tune. One part of music is that it should have some kind of theme to latch onto - as it is, this piece kind of just... goes. WIthout a theme, songs generally are more 'rambling'. There does seem to be more of a theme for the first minute and a half, but after that, it just... goes kaplooey.
-The transition at about 1:45 seems a tad off and sounds pretty ad-libbed, I think it could be refined and improved a little bit. I HIGHLY suggest using some more cymbal rolls. You aren't that bad in this regard (unlike Step), you can squeeze a few more in there.

OVERALL DIAGNOSIS:
Dude. You are talented. I really, really would like to see you learning a little bit more composition, getting a slightly better program to make music with (like Step - FL Studio + EWQL instruments works great), and just a little bit more attention to detail in general, because you could quite easily be one of the best musicians on NG. :)

...and actually about this song rather than you - it's great. Could use slightly better instruments, though they are definitely very high quality. As I said, it could use a bit more percussion and a slightly more consistent 'theme', but those are relatively minor quibbles. Good work!

Hope this was helpful!

-Swint-

-Review Request Club-

samulis responds:

Wow! Thanks a ton for this excellent review! You give a lot of great comments that will certainly help me improve with future works... each piece is yet another step closer to quality music.

First, to address my setup- I use Finale 2009c (rather outdated indeed, but an industry standard in the eyes of composers who write for players) with EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold and a few other EWQL packs I have acquired over the years. Eventually I hope to move to a program which is more of a DAW, as Finale is limited in its ability to create a good virtual performance.

On the subject of themes and motifs, I honestly should stick to those more, but my musical style tends to ramble a lot naturally and I find using only a single theme very boring, even when thrown every which way to make a piece longer. Perhaps one of these days I will stand back and plan out a piece using motifs and exactingly direct it before I even put down a note, but for now, I like letting my muse guide me to the finale, wherever it may be.

If you are interested in motifs in this piece, there is one key motif. You can hear it introduced by the flute in the beginning, and it is further elaborated when the horns and trombones bear the melody after a B section (~30-~1:00) and a short transition phase (~1:00-~1:10). A period of thematic motion leads to the finale (~2:10).

I really used to use percussion much more, but I have toned back in recent times. I am not sure why... I honestly should try to use percussion more.

I don't know a ton about composition aside from what I have learned in Theory I and II and my own personal study (through writing dozens of pieces and analyzing many great works). I do plan to go to college for music composition, more specifically perhaps film scoring or such if possible.

Thank you for your AWESOME review, If you have a classical(ish) piece you'd like me to review in return as a thanks, just send me a message!
-Samulis

[Feast]

STEP. YOU HAVE MOAR MUSIC. I LIKE IT. I SHALL GIVE REVIEW.

'Da Good:
-Sweet tunes *usual*
-Sweet mixing *usual*
-Sweet instrumentation *usual*
-Sweet percussion *again, usual*
-I really liked the realism you tried to give it with the little slides and trills every once in awhile. Very nice.
-Loops perfectly. Sweeeet.
-OMG YOU KEPT THE WIND CHIMES AND CYMBAL ROLLS DOWN. HOLY CRAP.

'Da much-longer-not-as-good-improvement-s ection-that-I'm-going-to-get-very-nit picky-in-so-sorry:
-Ok, so you tried to make it realistic. Now I'm going to have to poke you for that. The stringy instrument from 0:39 to 0:49 seems to be somewhat unrealistic and harsh to my ears.
-I think the tunes were extremely similar throughout. This is particularly noticable from 0:29 to 0:39. I think that it could be improved by having a bit more of a solo on the long whole note - could work on the Zourna, but I think that part's fine. It's mainly the flute-ish instrument (which has a little whine that was a bit harsh, similar to the stringy instrument from 0:39 to 0:49) that could use some more solos other than the single one with the stringy instrument.
-I feel like there should be a little bit more variation in the background percussion, awesome as it is. It's mainly the same basic rhythm (though there are a lot of patterns, as I saw in the screenshot) throughout. A change to another type of rhythm would be nice, as well as keeping interest for longer. :D (not that it matters too much, it keeps interest pretty well anyway for a minute-long loop)
-The string slides, while awesome, feel a bit odd when they're going down at first. This doesn't really need to be changed, but I thought I should at least tell you that it's a bit jarring at first listen. ^_^`

Overall, you get a 4.5 star review, a 5 star vote, and my official stamp of awesome on this song, because honestly, all I had to criticize were little nitpicky things that don't really need improving - just a little tweaking.

...oh, also, for some reason I think that it would be really awesome if you added a guitar in. *blink*

-Swint-

Step responds:

"STEP. YOU HAVE MOAR MUSIC. I LIKE IT. I SHALL GIVE REVIEW."

You don't just radiate awesome. Awesome seeps out of every pore in your body. Man, I love your reviews, thanks so much!

"-Sweet tunes *usual*
-Sweet mixing *usual*
-Sweet instrumentation *usual*
-Sweet percussion *again, usual*"

Woo :3. Although I'm going to admit from now, I really didn't mix this much. This is just a loop that plays in the background so nobody will pay attention to the music much, therefore I did the mixing quite quickly and carelessly. To be honest, the whole loop is quite half-assed. Only took me four hours!

"-I really liked the realism you tried to give it with the little slides and trills every once in awhile. Very nice."

Haha great, and the awesome East/West sounds didn't fail to deliver either!

"-Loops perfectly. Sweeeet."

Awesome. That's a must since this'll be looping for an incredibly long amount of time so it's a good idea to make sure it flows smoothly when it loops.

"-OMG YOU KEPT THE WIND CHIMES AND CYMBAL ROLLS DOWN. HOLY CRAP."

YEAH. WHO AM I AND WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH STEP?

"-Ok, so you tried to make it realistic. Now I'm going to have to poke you for that. The stringy instrument from 0:39 to 0:49 seems to be somewhat unrealistic and harsh to my ears."

I thought you'd mention that. To be honest I didn't want the flute to play its second repetition on its own so I just kinda threw in a random instrument to help. It didn't really fit well in here (if you head over to my track 'Morocco' and go to 0:26, you'll find it fits a lot better here]. I think it's more of a problem of context rather than the actual sound itself. I might try and change it to a less harsh articulation in East/West.

"-I think the tunes were extremely similar throughout. This is particularly noticable from 0:29 to 0:39. I think that it could be improved by having a bit more of a solo on the long whole note - could work on the Zourna, but I think that part's fine. It's mainly the flute-ish instrument (which has a little whine that was a bit harsh, similar to the stringy instrument from 0:39 to 0:49) that could use some more solos other than the single one with the stringy instrument."

Like I said above, this is only background music so I really didn't focus much on intricacies. You're totally right though, but basically here I just wanted to establish a general sound rather than actually make a complex, changing melody. In fact, the leader originally thought I'd make this with just drums, so the fact that I added melodies on top is already a step above. I wish I could vary them all but a guy only has so much inspiration juice xD.

About the whiny sound of the flute, I see where you're getting at. Some EQing should do it.

"-I feel like there should be a little bit more variation in the background percussion, awesome as it is. It's mainly the same basic rhythm (though there are a lot of patterns, as I saw in the screenshot) throughout. A change to another type of rhythm would be nice, as well as keeping interest for longer. :D (not that it matters too much, it keeps interest pretty well anyway for a minute-long loop)"

Uh huh, I focused more on adding subtle fills here and there than actually changing the sound of the drums or the basic rhythms. I dunno, I might try varying them a little more but I wanted to this to have a certain consistency in the drums so that they can flow better, if you get what I mean. Changing the rhythm in the drums is pretty easy in a full-blown song, but it's harder in loops I find.

"-The string slides, while awesome, feel a bit odd when they're going down at first. This doesn't really need to be changed, but I thought I should at least tell you that it's a bit jarring at first listen. ^_^`"

Haha yep, they are a little jarring, it's true! I just hope it doesn't stand out too much in the stall.

Regarding the guitar, there is an oud which is similar to a guitar, but yeah an actual guitar might fit. Moroccan music is inspired by Spanish music after all!

Anyway, thanks a lot for the awesome review and, of course, the stamp!

[Jinn's Calling]

Now THIS is a good loop.

THE GOOD:
-*Insert usual compliments about diversity of sounds, good mixing, and cool tunes here*
-I love the ambient feel of this. It's really good. Maybe you should try doing stuff like this more.

THE BAD:
-Length. But hey, I'm assuming you spent like, a half-hour on this, tops. And it's a really good 20 seconds.
-...2 wind chimes in 20 seconds? Really? You know that just trading off a wind chime for your usual cymbal rolls won't make me not notice it... :P

Not too much I can critique in this, so only a short review.

Good work!

-Swint-

Step responds:

"Now THIS is a good loop."

That is very good to hear :3.

"-*Insert usual compliments about diversity of sounds, good mixing, and cool tunes here*"

*insert multitude of thanks and showcasing of gratitude*

"-I love the ambient feel of this. It's really good. Maybe you should try doing stuff like this more."

You know I've always wanted to make a progressive ambient track. I've tried a tonne of genres already but if there's one I haven't tried yet, it's ambient. It's got an entirely different approach from a lot of other genres and it's probably quite hard to make too, but hopefully I'll be able to make a full-blown ambient track in the near future!

"-Length. But hey, I'm assuming you spent like, a half-hour on this, tops. And it's a really good 20 seconds."

Well I'd say about an hour or two was spent on it. I didn't want to make this longer since it'll only be playing for a few seconds while the spirit is saying something to travellers :P.

"-...2 wind chimes in 20 seconds? Really? You know that just trading off a wind chime for your usual cymbal rolls won't make me not notice it... :P"

My God, you read me like a book. D:

Although I admit I did want to make the wind chime sort of signify a rise in intensity; perhaps I should have just added it to the second half of the loop only instead of the first and second half.

"Not too much I can critique in this, so only a short review.
Good work!"

Thanks a lot dude, I really owe you!

[Dance of the Jnun]

Feedback? Sure thing, why not?

I only have a short amount of time, because I should totally be practicing my driving, but I'll give a short review in that time.

DA GOODZ:
-Great sounds and mixing as usual.
-Good tune once it gets into the song.
-I love how it's more ethnic-sounding while still being dance-like.

DA NOT-QUITE-AS-GOODZ-AND-COULD-BE-IMPRO VED-STUFFZ:
-The first 10 seconds seems a bit random, after that it picks up and sounds really cool.
-Could use a bit more variation in the tune, though this is just a minute long, so it's not too bad.
-Speaking of it being only a minute long, it needs to be longeeeer.
-And of course, there is the classic overuse of cymbal rolls that you always do. I detect one at 0:10, one at 0:30, and one at 0:50 (well, approximately those times). Interesting that you'd space them out at about 20 seconds apart. :>

Now, this is really good so far, and the main thing is - EXTEND THIS PLEASE. You'd have to put in some variation with the tune, but judging from your previous works, that shouldn't be a problem.

Also, trying out new scales, eh? Fun fun. :) Hope you enjoy it - I highly suggest using jazz scales, they can produce some really interesting results, especially when it's classical orchestral jazz. :D 7th and 9th chords are pretty!

8 stars because it needs to be extended. Desperately. Oh, and the little weird intro bit. But that's not as important.

Keep up the good work!

-Swint-

Step responds:

Whoa man, I haven't seen you in ages! Thanks a lot for reviewing, your reviews are AWESOME.

"Feedback? Sure thing, why not?

I only have a short amount of time, because I should totally be practicing my driving, but I'll give a short review in that time."

You rock :3.

"-Great sounds and mixing as usual."

That's great! People have often told me my mixing is good and I honestly don't know why. I know VERY little about mixing and when it comes to EQing I just go with whatever sounds good. I guess I'm just lucky! As for the sounds, East/West of course :P.

"-Good tune once it gets into the song."

Good to hear. I had had that tune in my head for nearly a week.

"-I love how it's more ethnic-sounding while still being dance-like."

Really relieved that you said that because that was precisely the one thing that I was worried about when I set off to making this track. I've got to thank East/West Ra's wide variety of ethnic instruments and the awesome phrygian scale for making me achieve that ethnic sound.

"-The first 10 seconds seems a bit random, after that it picks up and sounds really cool."

Ah, that was intentional. I wanted to achieve a similar effect to the intro of this song.
http://goo.gl/iRpyY

The song had originally began at 0:10, but the team leader of the school project I made this for asked me to add around 10 seconds before the track starts which are softer and slower than the rest of the track and will play while the dancers are getting on stage. I thought that I should try and achieve an effect where the intro is a sort of jumble of instruments and then the track gradually starts making more sense, if you get what I mean... you probably don't, haha.

"-Could use a bit more variation in the tune, though this is just a minute long, so it's not too bad."

I agree with you on that. My simple answer to that is... I was lazy :3. I didn't really have any bright ideas on different melodies to use in this track (I wanted to add a new melody after 0:45 and then re-introduce the main melody for the ending, in fact). So instead of doing that, I did something else.

I'm sure you noticed that despite having roughly the same melody throughout, there's a lot more variation in background elements. Alternating melodies supporting the main melody and drums are much more varied than the actual lead melodies themselves, so I think that sorta kinda maybe makes up for the same melody used for a whole minute.

"-Speaking of it being only a minute long, it needs to be longeeeer."

True dat! Still, the team leader asked for around three-quarters of a minute for song duration, so I'm already pushing it a little. This is for a dance that will be used to support a play that we'll be making for the project, so even though I want to make it longer, that'll be stretching the dance out for too long I think.

"-And of course, there is the classic overuse of cymbal rolls that you always do."

ARGH you noticed!

Dammit man, I swear I'm trying to use them less. I really am trying xD.

"Now, this is really good so far, and the main thing is - EXTEND THIS PLEASE. You'd have to put in some variation with the tune, but judging from your previous works, that shouldn't be a problem."

I might revisit this sometime but it'll be in the distant future. I still have three more Moroccan tracks to make before mid-May, so it's going to be tough!

"Also, trying out new scales, eh? Fun fun. :) Hope you enjoy it - I highly suggest using jazz scales, they can produce some really interesting results, especially when it's classical orchestral jazz. :D 7th and 9th chords are pretty!"

Oh man I LOVE 7th chords. I swear sometime I'm going to make a chill-out ambient/experimental track with heavy use of piano and fill it with awesome 7th chords.

As for jazz scales, I'll have to ask camoshark about those. He knows jazz more than the back of his hand.

"8 stars because it needs to be extended. Desperately. Oh, and the little weird intro bit. But that's not as important.

Keep up the good work!"

Thanks a lot for the review dude. I really love your reviews.

[Brooding]

Ambient? This seems less ambient than some of your other songs, actually, rather than being the most ambient. I suppose it has less percussion than some of your other songs, which would make it more ambient, but...

Ok, the first thing that struck me was how in the first minute, it really has a soundwash that overwhelms.

Let's see now... normal sectioned review? I think so.

THE GOOD (also the short section where I say what I like quickly):
-Amazing ambient percussion.
-Amazing background soundwash.
-Nice tune and melodic ideas. Particularly beautiful background melodies here for me: 1:37-1:36.
-Nice idea with the distorted pad towards the end.
-Cool pluck-like effect at about 1:17 and in one other area that I can't be bothered to find the time of right now, since I'm a bit pressed for time. But the message gets through, hopefully.

THE NOT-AS-GOOD-WHICH-I-THINK-COULD-PROBA BLY-BE-IMPROVED-AND-HERES-HOW (Also the-really-long-titled-section-that-I -drone-on-in-frequently):
-I noticed a bit of a mixing issue with the kick drum that's somewhat reversed (I assume you used WaveTravlr - I think that's the name of it xD). I'd guess that it's a bit too quick of a low frequency - it cuts out some of the other frequencies for the half-second that it goes. I love the effect of it, but I think there needs to be a little bit more mixing - I'd guess toning down of the low frequency on it a slight bit, checking for some higher frequencies in it might help as well.
-The overall atmosphere of the song doesn't really change overly much. It's really, really pretty, but just goes on and on. I think a break down or a slight tempo change is in order. A chord change would be lovely.
-The cool distorted pad towards the end stops suddenly, and goes into an ending that does seem somewhat uninspired, though it is one of your better ones and certainly isn't bad. I actually like the last strains of the chords, and it definitely works for one of your mainly ambient songs.

Overall, once again - awesome job. Just a few things that could make it better - and the biggest one is more a tip for artist style overall than this song in particular - I'd gotten it myself from my composition teacher a little while ago, glad I can pass it on. :P

G'day, and good luck in the future! Looking forward to more of your work!

-Swint-

RunningShadows responds:

Hey thanks for the review again. Maybe I should of said spacey or dreamy instead of ambient.:) I used gross beat on the bass drum to get the cool reverse effect, will have to check out the mixing on that. I do agree that it may be a tad repetitive. Composition teacher you say? I've really been meaning to dive into a music theory book I bought, now that it's summer I have no excuse. Hopefully our songwriting will improve a bit with this, also got a massive book on mixing so it should be a productive summer.

Seriously, thanks for the reviews!

[Caecilian]

Ok, honestly, when did I forget to fave you as an artist? You have some seriously original stuff going here. Now, before I review this specific song, I'd like to diverge into a few comments on your overall style. I've noticed that all of your songs, while being highly original and all having unique aspects, are all similar and made in the same way - there's a consistent feel to all of them that has not changed at all (except in Eternity Remixed, but I won't get into that in THIS review).

I think the main thing that ties them all together is the format of the rhythms - the main backgrounds are all fairly linear "one-two-three-four" flows that can easily be felt. Just as something for you to think about - maybe try making something with a different flow, no easy flow like that, but something a bit different.

The other thing is that the instruments in all of your songs (aside from again, Eternity Remixed) are really, really similar. Maybe try using some different pads and try to give a feel that's more "celestial" rather than "deep" at some point, or make a more driving song? :) Just a thought.

Now, the song...

THE GOOD:
-Very nice dissonant melody.
-I. Love. That. Sound that's behind the longer guitar theme, you can hear it mainly at the end (though it's not the hissing, it's in the recording of the guitar before - just harder to hear). I also love the initial pad-like sound that opens the song and plays a major part in it. It is just so dreamy - I feel like it's some guitar feedback that you made into a pad, though I could be wrong.
-Chord progression sounds really, really cool.
-The main theme in the guitar is also really good.
-Sweeeeeet break at 1:52. That was VERY nice.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-I feel like the end is weak, considering the rest of the song. I mean, I love that guitar there, as I had said before, but there's not really anything to back it up at the end other than the hissing and the background noise. It also seems to come in at an off-beat time, which threw me on my first listen.
-The drums seem a bit dull. I mean, they're good, but they're a bit too background - I'd have liked for them to do something interesting at one point. Same goes for the bass. This isn't the biggest thing, and would be quite difficult to pull off without making it feel disconnected from the rest of the song, so don't pay any mind to this if you think it's insignificant. :P
-I'm not sure what the main point or theme of this song is, it kind of just... goes. It's beautiful, and makes for some really nice background, but I'm not kept as interested as I could in what's going to happen next. Again - this is fairly insignificant, because it is still quite interesting.

Honestly, the most not-so-good thing about this is the ending. It's too long and dull for the rest of the song. :\ But other than that, great job! I look forward to seeing what else you'll come up with!

-Swint-

RunningShadows responds:

Yet another incredible review, I can tell that you love to write! Yeah we get stuck with the whole 1-2-3-4 with four chord changes kinda thing a lot. Now to get on to the technical side of the song, I really wish we were capable of turning the guitar feedback into a pad, but alas we did not. It did take quite a bit of tweaking with a VST though. That has given us ideas though, so thank you! We also do love to make dreamy, melodic sounds and that is what we base our music around for better or worse.

Yes, the end is a bit uninspired and long, totally agree there. As you can tell and have pointed out quite a bit, we need to work on ending our songs in a more unique fashion. Thanks for complimenting the break at 1:52 by the way, that was one of my personal favorites.

The drums are simple and do repeat a lot, same goes for the bass. These are flaws, not sure if it's due to laziness or not feeling inspired, but we need to work on that.

I'm glad people seem to have taken a liking to our music, it's pretty flattering. I think this is our third account now because every so often we make a song that blows all the old ones out of the water. Looking bad, they're all terrible, so it's nice to see positive reactions. Not to mention the fact that when working on your own music you become blind to how it sounds to others; some of the worst songs I've made I thought were the best things ever while working on them.

So again, thanks for the massive review, it helps a lot.

I'm gonna have to take a look at some of your new stuff and write up some constructive reviews, we are in a bit of debt.

[moodcraft - Moodcraft]

Hmm... It sounds cool, but there's a bit of a problem.

Good stuff:
-The sounds are awesome, I love the bass, too. Guessing Buoy did that.
-Rhythms are good. They keep some interest.
-The break from 1:08 to 1:25 is awesome.

Not-so-good-stuff-that-could-be-impro ved:
-There's just about no discernable change for the first 1:08. This really takes out almost all of my interest almost instantaneously. After 1:25, it just gets boring again, being pretty much the same only with a guitar solo over it.

Things I recommend:
Since your sounds are great, you need to work on the composition. While house music does generally have the constant pulse beat, it doesn't need that all the time. Having the beat be this constant, I see more in Trance or Dance music. Try varying the beat a little bit - you could add something on the off-beat, flip it and have the kick on the off-beat to mix it up a bit. Just a few ideas.

Another thing is similar - the baseline could use some variation. It's an awesome bassline, but holy crap, it never has any variation at all. Makes the song kind of "dead" to not have any variation in what seems to be the main feature and tune of the song.

After this - I'd also recommend changing up the 'feel' of the song a bit, giving it a bit more of a high and low. As it is - it's a flat line with one little blip in the middle.

This song is good, but it's dead - needs a lot more variation. I can't see that it has too much potential without reworking the base due to the problems I had mentioned.

Good luck in the future though, you have a nice solid base of sounds and mixing to spring from!

-Swint-

moodcraft responds:

Talk about repetition, you go on about the same thing for paragraphs ;) But I agree with all of that, of course it's not that serious a project though: we were 6 people when we made this (I and another guy was doing a kinda informal Reason course that ended up with me and Morten going on on our own). This was the first thing we did while I was teaching people a few tricks and we were really just starting to get our hands dirty. We spent maybe one session on it and I only submitted this to have something up. But thanks for the feedback sky :)
- Jonathan