BlazingDragon's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Medieval Cowboys]

I could dance!

This is really nice!

The balance that you have is wonderful. The snare throughout the piece is at a superb level. A lot of people seem to overdo the snare, but you have it sitting at such a place that it enhances the texture without being distracting. The same with your use of marimba/mallet instrument.

The orchestration is really nice as well. I love how you double the piccolo and strings around :45 seconds in. On a different note, the subtle string patterns (like the grace note sounding thing at the beginning) make for a believable emulation of performers, even using virtual instruments.

Your use of dynamic contrast is also very thought out. It gives a certain organic feeling to the piece. You must have spent a fair deal of time on this piece. How long? What VSTs did you use?

I love this. The melodies are fun, and the instruments dance about one another in a fantastic manner. Wonderful! I can envision this in a professional film or video game.

Tomppaah responds:

Thank you very much! :)

"You must have spent a fair deal of time on this piece. How long?"
I sat for about 2 days straight on this one. :D I'm almost kinda sad that it's over, becouse it was so much fun working on this ;)

"What VSTs did you use?"
Everything you hear is EWQLSO :) I love that sample pack to bits!

[Jazz/Blues Improv Piano - AJ24]

Way too much 'verb!

Woah my friend, you have got way too much reverb on that piano sample! It makes the music sound like it's underwater.

That aside, I REALLY dig this. The licks that you use are awesome, and you've got a pretty colorful harmonic palette. Your playing is varied and articulate with great dynamic contrast. Just get rid of that stinkin' reverb! Well, that and I would have ended at 1:38 without the frilly thing at the end. It's too square. :p

Where did you learn to improv? I wish that I could play like that.

ajgreen24 responds:

You just made my day. I know this is one of my earlier pieces. im going to try my best to explain something that well somebody could write a book about. this cool lick you hear is something that has actually been lost to me. it was time when i didn't know much about music really, little knowledge and little rules. i played what i thought music should sound like after listening to oh so few songs. i was a musical idiot with the ulitimate creativity. ok so the reverb thing. ill agree that this was a little overboard on the reverb, however at the time i was trying to find a big concert hall feel but a clear and bright piano sound. something like your song called lullaby. this is incredably debatable. harmonics... interesting my music is made of harmony not really much melody but then agian classical is really non-meoldyish. i cant really say yeah ill do this or that for one thing i have no idea how to play this song it would take me a month to figure it out. the most intresting part. where did i learn to play improv and the answer is simply i didn't. i have self taught my self, basically everything with some help like somebody telling me - hay your playing in a minor. me - i didnt know that. ive been evidently playing since 5 however. the pace has picked up my freshman year of high school and has been going on for like the last 5 years. its really been intresting. if you like my work you can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/coldpiano . its very diverse from classical to like synth pop. if you dont like a lot of reverb you will hate piano doodle 3 with a passion. but it is like 12 minutes of pure i think awsome ... just listen to it. i know Im the king of long worded replies, but Keep playing my piano friend. thanks for the review.

[Fox Dog Hymn]

Ending a bit weak, well done otherwise

My only gripe is with the ending. I felt that it would sound much stronger with a perfect authentic cadence (I assume you know some music theory, but I could be wrong). As it stands, the end sounds a bit weak and unsatisfying to what built up to it. Great job though. I enjoyed the loveliness.

Bezo responds:

Music theory is my bitch. It's a hymn. It has to end on the plagal cadence. Geez. ;)

[Annihilation: Overture]

Cool!

You've got some great stuff going on here! Your orchestration leads to an epic sort of sound, especially with the choir toward the beginning, ostinato bass lines, and brass. I liked the change of pace when the drum set came in.

My constructive criticism:
You have a piece of music that is over nine minutes here. In the age of television and infinite 30 second commercials though, the average listener's attention span is going to be far below that. In order to not lose people's attentions, an important principle should be kept in mind- the longer a piece of music is, the more structured it needs to be in order to make logical sense and keep the attention of the listener. Musical form is a study in and of istelf, but this can mean developing a theme and bringing it back every so often to provide your audience with something familiar which to grab hold of. It also means creating variety- a lot of the texture in this is very similar throughout. Try using a bit of counterpoint, changing these range that the melody is being played in, etc.

My other constructive criticism would be to pay more attention to phrasing. You have logical notes and rhythms here, but you need to make it musical in order to really touch a person emotionally. Have you instruments crescendo up to the top of a phrase and decrescendo back down. Use some tempo changes to keep the music from being too rigid. Tweak velocities to make the instruments sound more human and realistic. All of these little details take a long time, but they add a heck of a lot in making an amazing result. They are what make a piece go beyond 'cool' and into 'emotionally powerful.'

I really dig what you have going here and hope that you keep creating music. Keep it up!

5/5 and 9/10
Trevor Crookston (BlazingDragon)

OrphenFire responds:

Wow thanks for this extremely helpful insight. I'm working on phrasing. I'm learning how to make a computer generated "instrument" sound human, and it isn't easy lol. What you have to say is very helpful. The theme you hear beginning at about 1:17 is the main theme that I do come back to in several of the pieces after this. I use it again in Act 2 and Act 3, but those two compositions are not uploaded to NG as of yet... ;)

[-Breach Birth- [Tamadrum]]

I'm floating

Lovely soundscape. It's a perfect "get lost in my thoughts" kind of song.

-Good attention to details (Velocities, etc)
-Cool sounds. Are those bowed crotales at the beginning?
-Love the subtleties such as the low, muffled, percussive bass sound and the cymbal-like thing.
-It gets really cool at :54 when the percussion picks up and. The muffled piano sound creates a great timbre.
-I liked the difference in pitch between the cymbals at :55 and those at 1:22. It added a varying color that was well placed.
-The first note had good attack and demanded attention. Nice.
-The fade out ending was very fitting. Nice again.

This piece brings a strong image of water to me. Just floating through an ocean of colors, with gently pulsating lights enveloping me. It feels sort of hollow, but relaxing. Strangely meditative.

A little short, but a great ambient track nonetheless. My only critique is that at 1:08, it felt a bit odd when the cymbal fell out. I can't even explain why. It just felt a bit off to me. Keep it up.

Tamadrum responds:

Why hello there handsome! :-) Muchas Gracias for the review. That was very in-depth.

[<MWA> What if...]

Beautiful, albeit unvaried

I like the track a lot! It is ambient, relaxing, and emotional. I have listened to it on repeat for probably twenty minutes, and I'm still enjoying it.

Pros:
-Great playing. Phrasing is good and contributes to a sort of swaying feel. Little pauses here and there are nice. The dynamics are varied. No noticeable mistakes.
-I adore dissonant chords like those at 1:57 and 2:37. Very diminished sounding and haunting.
-Good quality. No sounds distortions, etc.

Suggestions:
-For a three minute piece, it was not varied as much as I would have liked. The left hand accompaniment figure was consistent through the entirety of the piece and could have used some modification for interests sake.
-The same chord progression and style was present through the entire piece. It would have been nice to hear some sort of contrast in order to break monotony. The piece is wonderful as background music, and if that is all that you want of it, you've done fine. If you want this to be a piece that people really listen to, though, there needs to be contrast. There are several things you could do. Broaden the use of register and extend more into the piece. Change the rhythmic patterns. Use counterpoint. Use more than single notes in the right hand. Use some block chords. Change tempo and dynamics. Create an entirely different middle section that stands apart stylistically. There are tons of options.

Peaceful, contemplative, lovely. Lulling and repetitive, though. I would have liked to have heard a bit more of a climax, but this serves as good scene/background music. Probably more fitting for the ambient genre due to minimalism. Nice job, and keep it up. I'd love to hear more from you! :)

mjattie responds:

THANKS blazingdragon!

suggestion 1: true, but I wanted to keep it simple, though you're right, I did it the lazy way, but I made a piano sheet for it, so I had to stick to what I wrote.
suggestion 2: true, but well, I really wanted to keep it simple (that's what people also like to listen to (I think) :P and I'll be studying composing for the media next year, so I'm also trying to make something that'd fit under a movie.

My next song, will be my biggest ever, the first 2 minuits will be build-up and then there will be a surprise :P well

I'd really like it if you'd check it out (a) (I'm quite a big fan of your stuff, I found out about it last week)

[<} Esplode {>]

Bland but potentially cool

I like the syncopation and assortment of sounds. This is certainly an aggressive piece. Here are a few suggestions:

-I realize that this is not a melodic or harmonic piece, but it gets repetitive and grating on the ears. Try tweaking the velocity of each note in order to create dynamic contrast. For instance, I would lower the volume of the subsequent two notes following the very first of the piece. That would give it a falling feel.

-With a piece like this, you have to be creative to remain interesting and capture audience attention. Try panning individual sounds to varying speakers. This will create a 3D soundscape that is much more pleasing to hear.

-Try changing up the rhythm. You have one or two basic ideas that you repeat a lot, but they get old. Try adding triplets or new material all together.

-Do more with effects. Add a bit of reverb to certain sounds, and maybe put a bit of delay on others. Nothing overbearing, but enough to make a more colorful piece.

Keep working at it and composing. This is unrefined but has rhythmic potential.

[*- Orchestral Demo -*]

Inspiring

This is beautiful! The melody is so sweet and the chords are so lush....I love it! It sounds like film score material to me. The oboe in particular is fantastic. What did you do to compose this as far as hardware and software?

Now hurry and finish this gosh darnit!

Jebbal responds:

Ah I've had this all in my head for years and I'm finally starting to make it happen. I agree, I'm going for a movie music feeling! This is all done with fl studio and edirol orchestra, but I'm probably going to start over and use eastwest stuff. There are lots of little velocity and volume automation clips to help it sound more realistic.

And I will not hurry! I'm going to take my time! lol

Thanks for the review!

[Sadness and Sorrow Remake]

Fantastic!

This is a solid arrangement. I love the orchestration and fresh transitions. The block chord strings create a nice, simplistic backdrop and I enjoy the character that the choir adds. The harp is nice and I rather enjoyed the timpani.bass drum roll. The quality of the piano sound is quite rich. I just wish I could afford EWQL. :P

I like the major chord at 1:31. Also some of the original chord progressions. However, I'm not a fan of the counterpoint around the 1:49 section in the winds. It was subtle and quiet, but the secondary melodies clashed at points to my dislike. It sounded too busy at some points. With the original song, I composed very simplistically, just three chords and a nice little melody. I like your interpretation, but it is just a tad too "busy" for my tastes.

Great job on this! Keep up the excellent work. :) Have you taken any music theory classes before? I am also a sophomore and am taking music theory I at the moment (Though I wrote the original "Sadness and Sorrow" years ago before I knew much).