BlazingDragon's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dreamworld]

Excellent work on this, my friend. Your use of string ostinatos mixed with electronic elements sounds somewhat reminiscent of Hans Zimmer, and your driving percussion carries hints of Danny Elfman, yet the whole track screams "Bosa".

This piece is especially cool in how progressive it is. From the pulsing electronic sounds at the beginning to a piano interlude and then an glorious choir/brass doubling, this music explores a great deal of colors. This, however, might also be the weakest point of the work, as none of these ideas are fully fleshed out. You have at least four different sections here that could be fleshed out into individual tracks, yet the whole piece is just over two minutes. With some more time to develop, this would go from 'awesome, man' to 'stunning...glorious'. The piano would benefit from a little more velocity editing, and the ending could certainly be more impacting by holding out longer. Perhaps if you made the penultimate chord twice its current length, the ending would feel less abrupt. It's a very common and effective compositional device to slow down the rate at which chords change at the end of a piece to make it sound more final.

I'm sure time was an issue and you would have liked to have worked on this more. I certainly feel that way about my AIM submission! Still, I would be dishonest to say that the brevity of this piece does not diminish the emotional impact and story telling. Overall, fantastic work full of a variety of moods and great transitions! Can't wait to hear more from you. :)

Bosa responds:

You are amazing, BlazingDragon -- thank you sm! I do indeed have a solid plan in mind to revisit this song, and I promise I will diligently pay attention to detail and pour my heart and soul into it!

[My Story]

Man, this is excellent! I love the blending of strings and synths in this piece, and the way you keep building and adding layers is awesome. Everything has just the right amount of reverb. :)

At 1:32, I really wanted to hear a piano in its high register playing a countermelody. Also, it would really be nice if there was a contrasting 'B' section with different harmonies and then a return to the theme you have here. Just extending this and making a new ending would be nice. I don't really like the way this stops.

Really excellent track! I can totally imagine it being used as an anime closing theme.

KgZ responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I was aiming for an anime- like theme.

[Futility]

Ahhh....The piano in this is so incredibly beautiful. There is nothing quite like high, atmospheric piano parts, and the parallel fourths added a likeable color. The synth pad contributed a very fitting warmth.

I do wish that this was longer. I can imagine a beautiful cello line singing over the top in the next part, along with some subtle harp and violin harmonics for a chilling effect... But this is your song, not mine. :)

You should try more like this. I'd love to hear you make another piece in this style but with vocals sung on pure vowels with a healthy dose of reverb serving as a sort of organic pad. Not overbearing, but ethereal and lush. I love hearing the voice used as If it were an instrument.

Keep it up!

etherealwinds responds:

You've given me a lot of nice ideas for another song!! Thank you Trevor. All the best :)

[Prison of the Mind]

Not sure how music theory friendly you are, but I love how you switched from Dorian in the beginning to mixolydian and the very end. What I mean is how the harmony has more of a bright, major feel starting at 2:36. You have a very simple accompaniment pattern going throughout, but your harmonies and the counterpoint you use is lovely. :) I especially like the interplay of vocal parts around :30.

If I were to complain about something in this, it would be the electronic part at :42. While it's not bad by any means, it just feels so out of character for this piece. A totally subjective opinion, but I think that combination of electronic and celtic doesn't jive as executed here. Why did you make the beginning of the song like you did? It's cool but seems like a separate entity from the body of the piece.

I recommend that you add some more effects to the tracks of this. A little more reverb on the vocals and perhaps just a tiny bit of delay on the accompany would be so very nice. Also, please put lyrics in the description next time?

Lovely track and wonderful singing. It's always a pleasure listening to your music. :)

[Cafe de Paris]

Beautiful work! I adore your lush harmonies and colorful piano runs. The whole atmosphere of this piece is wonderfully relaxed. It put a smile on my face. :)

A couple of things:

-The piano, while really intricate, sounds too "square" at many points. I think the mood of the piece would be enhanced if the piano hung a little more out of time. For example, there is the ending run at 1:31. I really wish it would have a bit of a ritard and hold out for a couple of seconds.
-The cymbal roll(?) at :27 just isn't working for me. Maybe making a decrescendo by playing with velocities would make it sound more natural.
-Maybe a tiny more reverb on the accordion would sound nice, and again, a less quantized feel.

I really love your progressions, especially the one that goes in a couple of fifths around 1:19. This piece is really gorgeous, but it just feels too rigid much of the time for me. I look forward to hearing more from you!

Voted 5/5 :)

SoundChris responds:

Hey there BlazingDragon,

thanks a lot for leaving your thoughts here! First you are absolutely right if you call the piano a little bit "square". When i created the track i just had the basic logic pro piano samples and didnt add some reverb ore something. In the meantime i have purchased lots of sample libraries, new hardware and improved my skills - i have also discovered that you can manipulate the timecurves and the velocities within logic by the track automation system etc. I am still some kind of sound editing noob, but i hope to become gradually better :)

I will keep your constructive critiques in mynd and try to take them to heart!

All the Best,

Chris

[The Princess is Not Dead]

I can imagine how the Ravel piece inspired this. Quite beautiful. A few thoughts:

-I like the general atmosphere of this piece. I felt waves of melancholy wash over me as I listened. There is a nice variety of instruments and subtle mood changes throughout.
-In general, your melodies are a bit on the weak side. Although you keep a continuity going throughout the piece with repeating chord progressions and smooth orchestral transitions, I don't know if there is one distinguishable, main melodic idea. It's like you are using the orchestra as this nice background pad and improvising melodies over the top for a few minutes. The melodies aren't bad, as they fit within the harmonies and are pleasant. But they don't build on one another or develop and therefor do not have any staying power. I've listened to this a few times now but cannot think of what the primary melody is. If you just want to create pretty background music, this is fine. But if you want something that will really stick with people, you'll have to give more focus to melodic development. Take a motif and reuse throughout the piece. Trade it off between different instruments. Make variations on it and elaborate on it. The point is to give the listener something to grab onto and remember.
-I REALLY like the timpani part starting at 1:55. It totally changes the feel of the piece and adds a feeling of resolve to it despite the sadness. It makes me think of someone facing some seemingly impossible obstacle knowing that they can't turn back.
-I do like some bits of call and response that you use between instruments. An example is the flute and :44 and how the guitar responds to it a few seconds later.
-Starting at about :26, you have a couple of woodwinds playing right in the same range. I think this sounds muddy, and it is kind of like the instruments are stepping on each others' toes. Try putting one of them in a higher register to create clarity.
-Read some orchestral scores and examine what the strings tend to do. Whole notes are well and good, but they do get boring for players. Around 1:36 was a nice exception, but strings can really do so much more than block chords. They can do pizzicato, tremolos, play countermelodies, double melodies by octave for support and all kind of other cool things. They can do pedal tones and inverse pedal tones...Oh, the options!!!
-At the very beginning (and throughout), I would turn down the volume of the harp and up the winds. The harp is nice and colorful, but it isn't exactly the most important element in the texture. Bring the melody to the foreground.

This is really beautiful. Do try to focus a little more on mixing and melodic development though, and study as many orchestral pieces as you can to learn what each instrument is capable of. This will help you tremendously. :)

Keep at it!

Krichotomy responds:

Thanks for the mega review!

This piece is supposed to have somewhat of a backgroundish melodic-ambient feel, hence the weak melodies. It is supposed to feel unresolved, hence the lack of a clear theme. It is supposed to take a place side-by-side with a few other very different musical pieces. I was trying to make a good theme that sticks with the listener, but it may be good that I didn't totally succeed given the purpose of the piece. I'll keep your advice on mind as I continue to compose stuff.

The muddy sound of the two instruments at 0:26 is completely intentional. :)

Melody was not the focus of this piece, so I think the winds should stay at that volume. The harp really is too loud.

Lots of good advice there (and encouragement) - thanks!

[Alone with my Sorrows]

Some really cool ideas in here, but it sounds really mechanical. To add some expression, try a few of the following.

-Change velocities from note to note. No piano player makes everything the exact same volume, even within a single measure. Crescendos and decrescendos make such a huge difference in communicating a musical idea.
-Tempo. Everything in here is perfectly in time like a robot. edit the tempo event and draw in some changes to make the music breath. Slow down a little bit at the end of phrases. At parts like 2:01, start fast and slow down toward the end of the run to be really dramatic. Oh my gosh, it would sound so awesome to do that...
-Simulate the sustain pedal. Pianists hold down a foot pedal that makes notes ring out, creating some really lush, beautiful harmonies. One way to simulate this in a sequencer is to drag each note value out so that they keep sounding after being initially played. Make the notes hold out until the chord is done (probably one whole measure for most of this piece) so that it sounds nice but does not become too muddy. Pedal alone will take this from being okay to great.
-Using velocities, bring out the important parts and lower the volume of the less important parts. For instance, the trill at :46 could come down a little bit because it is a decorative ornament, and the left hand could come up. In other spots, the melody could come up and the left hand arpeggios could come down in volume. This will create clarity and a sense of texture in the music.

What I do like is how effectively you utilize different registers of the piano. You use the entire range of the piano to evoke different tone colors. I also like some of the transitions and runs.

Take the time to make it sound more human and it will sound ten times better. Keep trying your hand at piano pieces! :D

(I still voted 5/5 on this, because the arranging is pretty good. I just wanted to give you some helpful tips that have been good to me in the past)

Shanath responds:

Ahh, those are great tips, thank you! I don't really have access to a midi keyboard that often so I've only uploaded two songs or so, so far where I'm actually playing. I usually just use a mouse and click away if I don't have one available at the time to use.

I'll try to incorporate your suggestions in my next piano piece. :3

[Bloody Dance]

Sick bass and guitar work! I love the aggressiveness and complexity in this piece. It sounds well mixed. The chromatically descending chord progression at 1:09 is awesome, and I really dig the rhythmic interplay of the guitar and rhythm section.

I am confused about the transition to the orchestral part though. It certainly wasn't in the original and just sounded like a lazy transition to be honest. The transition at 3:16 made much more sense to my ear. Really, the orchestral section from 2:15 to 3:15 feels like the weakest part of the piece to me. While I do like the piano part in there, the rest of it is really 'flat' orchestration, consisting pretty much of block chords without anything too interesting happening. Since there is little similar thematic material there in relation to the beginning of the piece, the orchestral section feels like an entirely different, disjunct piece. I think if you used some kind of common element such as a rhythmic motif, chord progression, or melodic riff to relate the orchestral section to the original piece, it would sound more interesting.

That said, I really like what follows such as the change in the drums at 3:54. The high register piano part starting at 4:11 is also really sweet.

Overall, I REALLY love what you've all done and give you a 5/5 vote and 4.5/5 stars. There is so much good stuff in here (I like it better than the original), but I feel like the middle section and ending each hold back the piece a bit.

Keep making more music!

Shanath responds:

Hehe, I'm glad you like it so much. :3 As for the middle section I don't really like composing my covers exactly the same as the original if I can help it so there's that. Haha, maybe I should have taken a bit more time with that section.

Anyway, thanks for the comment! We all appreciate it.

[My Piano Skills]

Supposing this really is live, you sound like a robot. No phrasing, no dynamics, no sense of balance regarding texture, and no pedaling. Being able to play fast is pointless if you lack basic musicianship to evoke emotion. This is a immensely powerful piece by one of the most incredible composers in history, but this is a parody of it. It's like peeing on the Mona Lisa. :-/

And besides, what is up with all that clicking?

If this is a real performance, the only impressive thing is how you've managed to make it sound so incredibly inhuman. And you could at least credit the original composer in the title/comments...

[Histoires]

This is a lovely, lovely performance. You are very soulful in your playing and have a great sense of development that many people lack while improvising. Everything here is melodic and pleasing to the ears.

I love those VI, VII, i progressions. They are a little cliché, but for good reason. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing them!

I agree with HFX. You should do more live recordings.