Esn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nocturne Ab Min. No.2]

...

00:00-00:16 - excellent start. Catchy melody, emboldening and interesting accompaniment.

00:16-00:32 - repeat with another pattern behind, also very interesting. Nice progression.

00:32-00:40 - a bit of a loss of energy here...

00:40-00:45 - picks up nicely

00:45-00:49 - I would've liked more of a contrast here - even more peaceful before the resumption of energy at

00:50-00:55 - I liked this section

00:55-1:09 - I guess this is the transition into theme 2... it's ok, though it sounds a bit too much like the beginning of a new theme for me

1:10-1:20 - a nice theme 2

1:21-1:53 seems like a repeat of 00:17. I would've liked to hear theme 2 develop more before repeating that; we only heard it once...

1:55- theme 2 again

2:17 - it seems like it's going into theme 1 again, but you actually cleverly make it go back to an inventive and interesting extension of theme 2. It goes through some interesting key (I'm not sure which) before going to the conclusion. I would've liked to see this extension the first time around in the middle of the piece, since I feel the first introduction of the second theme was far too short for comfort.

Really, the piece has a bit of an odd structure, and isn't quite as balanced as it could be...

However, you suck less than me (see my comment on your recent news post), so take my opinion with a grain of salt. :)

The playing (if playing it was) was quite beautiful, and the sound quality is great.

NickPerrin responds:

Excellent review, probably one of the best I've gotten. I will take this stuff into account. Thanks a ton!

[Lounge Jazz]

Excellent song

I can't really find any faults with this one, other than wishing it were longer. I even like the "piano from backstage" sound. Great harmonies, great melodies, great instrumentation. Fun and pleasant to listen to. What is there to say? This is definitely one of your miniature musical gems.

MJTTOMB responds:

Lol, miniature indeed.

Thanks, man.

[Overture - Mjattie]

Good!

Nice variety, good build-up, good use of main theme in different variations. Fun and pleasant to listen to. The one thing I would have suggested is to have that brass instrument that goes "Do-La" periodically continue on and play a melody at some point instead of always not playing anything after that.

mjattie responds:

well, it's a french horn, and it goes further without gliss but you don't here that... you only hear the glissando

[Moving on...]

This isn't ambient

This might be a better fit in the classical section.

But regardless, I think that this is a really well-constructed and catchy piece.

The only thing I can really suggest is to make greater use of melody, particularly after the 3-minute mark when the piece nears its conclusion and you have all of these dramatic chords. If you had had a melody playing above them at the same time, that would've been simply sublime. I know that at 3:15 you had something kinda melody-like playing up high (broken chords basically), but I think that you could've put another, louder, slower melody even higher than that for a truly dramatic effect.

Other than that, hmm... well, one more thing: the sound of the guitar(s) here is ok, but it sounds a little too sharp and shrill. Something a little softer sounding, if possible, would be better.

Farmin responds:

Thanks.
I agree with you on the classical section, i dunno why i put it here.
The guitar sounds shrill because i used electric strings on my acoustic which was rather silly, it's slightly smoothed out with some eq work but it could be a lot better.
Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it

[Will Make a Way]

Very beautiful!

This is a fantastic mood piece. I really loved your harmonies and how you had the different parts resolving their notes at staggered times. I did the same thing in my piece "Sonata for Strings in C+".

It also sounded just a tiny bit foreign (maybe Middle Eastern) to my ears.

uziwave responds:

yeah that's right it has some Middle Eastern Touch.
And thanks for this review and it seems that you have a high sence of Art.
because you were able to recognize the different parts resolving their notes at staggered times. and that's good for you.
Thanx.
Uziwave

[River Song]

Imaginative

I could really see the river rushing past. The texture (the feel) of the song was very well-done.

The chords kept things pretty interesting too, though there was one just before 0:50 that seemed to go nowhere, and the ending was a little too repetitive.

A nice and unique piece, overall.

By the way, did you use the GPO to make the instrument sounds? I only own Finale 2007, so I don't know if this applies, but you might be able to select different "playing styles" for the playback. The sound wasn't bad, but it probably could've been a little better too. It sounded like all of the dynamic highs and lows were equalized, for some reason.

Mattmaestro responds:

Hey, thanks for your feedback.

No, actually I did not use GPO. I borrowed Finale from a friend and for one reason or another I don't have the GPO installed on my computer. All I can use is 'Smart Music,' I believe is the name?
So yeah, I'm not sure where I can download or get Garritan Personal Orchestra but I want to. The sound quality with that is superior.

[Crazy Voice Trumpet Solo]

This was hilarious!

Seriously, thank you for bringing some levity to my day. :)

That was just awesome, really funny, and the trumpet imitation particularly was spot-on. The "9" is for some slight scratchiness in the sound, especially in the low register.

sorohanro responds:

thanx for review and good marks, as for the the"slight scratchiness" in low register... well, i don't really have a good voice, i had to retune some sounds :))

[Dream Machine (feat. Bamsukka)]

Nice

I have no idea how to review an ambient song, to be honest. I've never made one, and I don't listen to ambient music usually (my attention span isn't long enough. I don't really like using music as just background noise, but prefer to give it my full attention). The structure was quite hard to figure out. I vaguely noticed about three different sections, though I'm probably wrong about that.

But in any case, this was quite pleasant to listen to. The overall sound texture throughout the piece was very nice, and I liked the little barely-heard background sounds that you had in places.

Gillenium responds:

Thanks for the review! Yeah, this is one of my most "ambient" ambient songs... if that makes sense. Everything fades in and out and the structure is difficult to figure out. I like it that way, though. This is a song that you can sit down and listen to with full attention, because there are so many parts. Plus, it can put you in a dreamlike state! It does that to me anyway..

[clarinet short solo 5]

Quite nice

Here's your main problem, I think: the sound quality stinks. That's probably a big part of the reason why the score was 1.90 with 5 votes (although judging by the score of my own recent submission, many people who browse the classical section don't actually like classical music, or perhaps they just vote 0 to strike down competitors). Anyway, if you want, you can send me the MIDI file and I'll try to create an mp3 that actually sounds a little more listenable. :)

As for the piece, it seems pretty nice to me. Some fairly nice harmonies, good melodies, good development. I thought there could've been a bit fewer dissonances in the first half, but that's personal taste. ;p

sirkirby3 responds:

hey thanks for the review. the wierd this is, I was listening to your music right when you sent this review. no joke but anyway I use finale song writer to create mp3's and i know finale is not the best for this.

I dont think you can fix the sound because finale uses two files" BAK files and Finale Notation files" and i am not sure what those are or if they are fixable.

but its true that people dont respect this kind of music. the second they see "classical song" they vote 1 or 0.

[_-={Mighty Hails}=-_]

A generally good piece

Sorry I haven't been reviewing your songs much lately, Maestro. To be honest, I find it pretty difficult to give proper reviews to songs which really deserve a thorough analysis. I have the same problem with reviewing Simon-F's submissions. But be that as it may, I'll just try to give some of my first general impressions.

First of all, I thought that the ending was appropriate. I also loved those angry voices that you used at certain points in the song. How did you do those?

The piece overall was a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I love some of the subtle sound effects that you managed to achieve. Sound design seems to really be your strong point. And it had some very effective moments. On the other hand, I ended up feeling slightly bored in certain parts. The middle, in particular, I felt could have used some more energy. You had those angry voices yelling every so often, which was good, but everything else was pretty slow and mellow. Some more energetic drumming or faster melodies (though I notice you don't seem to do those much) in the middle would have been wonderful. Also... the melodic progression was sometimes a little unclear, although this could be my fault for not noticing it.

Unfortunately, the piece as a whole seemed a little static to me; there was little to move it forward harmonically or rhythmically. Despite the occasional spark of energy, it didn't really go anywhere. Your sound design is brilliant, but I feel that here you focused on sound design (which is definitely important) at the expense of the harmonic and rhythmic aspects, which are at least as important. If your song still sounds good as a crappy MIDI file, you'll know that you've succeeded. ;)

Anyway, it's still a nice song overall, hence my score. But I think there's some room for improvement. :)

MaestroRage responds:

the angry shouts are a patch from the VST library Symphonic Choirs. There are four patches, Bass, Soprano, Alto, and Tenor shouts. These are bass shouts, as they depict soldiers best imo.

Yes this song is slow, and mellow throughout, because the underlining emotion I wanted to highlight at all times, was sacrifice. The story used for it is the telling of their youngest warrior, to the older, disabled older brother. Who was unable to join the fight with his younger brother due to his limp leg *the older brother is the bassoon, and the younger brother here is depicted as the panflute*.

"The fight was great, the fight was bitter, and though his youth kept his fear close, your brother kept his wits closer. Slashing, tearing, fearfully running into the enemy, one at a time."

The telling of his story begins when the panflute plays softly, this is where the news is brought out, your brother has not returned with us. When it becomes more aggressive, the slow motion story of his slashing hopelessly against wave after wave of enemies, taking hits, arrows, and hammers on an already battered, and partly broken body unfurls.

The arpeggiated brass depicts a scene where the general, close friend of the boy runs to his dying side, screaming "DON'T GO! STAY WITH US!" the choir that joins them shortly after, depicts him holding the young lads head close to his heart, screaming at the heavens.

With the angry screams that follow, they are back. The panflute, the memento of his brother given to the older.

I did not intend to go that much into detail ESN, but I hope it helps you understand why I did what I did. So many times I felt it was the perfect place to break off and bring in some fire, but every time I chose against it.

Thank you for the review, i'm glad you liked it! I apologize for the late response!