Breed's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mihai Sorohan - Solitude]

Love the duduk

I am absolutely in love with that old Armenian instrument....I first heard it in the score for the move 'Gladiator.' It makes for a wonderful sorrowful timbre. I think you could work on the articulations of the duduk a little more, because some parts sound a little sampled (but actually its pretty good for what I've heard of the duduk). I also think the strings could use a little more stereo seperation, it kind of sounds like they are all centered. Also the attack of the strings could maybe use a little more time since its a slow piece. I do like the harmony you have going in them though.

Do you have any plans to extend this piece? It ends pretty soon for not being a loop in my opinion.

Overall great!

Cheers!

sorohanro responds:

I plan to do some more stuff with it but at the moment the biggest problem I have with the strings, way to "fat", too big, to "Hollywood" and not matching the soft timbre of the duduk.
I'm in need of a more thin sound, more like Baroque chamber music. If you know a library with smaller ensembles and no vibrato please let me know.

Thanks for review.

[NP - Death of a Dream]

VoP Reall adds a level

Things I love:

Great dynamics in string sections. Rich harmonies. The VoP vocals really add to the emotion and quality of the piece. The darker rougher sounds in the piece are a great timbrel switch.

Things that stuck out to me that I didnt love & my reasoning/suggestions:

Starts at mezzo piano to rise into forttissimo at that first crescendo when it could really benefit from it all being knocked down a bit. I'm thinking piano/pianissimo upwards to forte would level out the dynamics of the piece a bit more while still giving the same powerful crescendo. It also has really straight rhythms (nothing off the quarter note accents), and a few rather sudden pauses. Think of each instrumental pause like you would the end of a word, the last consonant is pronounced at the start of the break. If you extend the midi note like a 16th or 8th note past where you had them, and put an automation with a quickly downward volume in the last tiny bit of it,. it would sound a lot more natural. The horns/drum at 1:14 come pretty unexpectedly unless you know the piece ahead of time. Something like a fast rolling drum crescendo or upward gliss or vocal clip with an automation from zero volume to yell into that would make it feel more like it belongs there, and would have the same power and subido forte effect as apposed to making people jump a bit. The mixing on most the instruments I love, but I feel like the choir could be spaced on both sides as they normally sing above the center stage rather then off right. Or as a contrast put the VoP vocals on the left to counter the choir being on the right.

Overall though this is a pretty damn impressive piece with great emotions and imagery. I'm excited to see how our songs match up to the judges.

Cheers!

ProudAardvark responds:

Hey, thanks for the review man. Yeah I agree re: the string parts, I didn't have time to switch over to a performance legato so these are using pads even though I have the automation set up for a perf. legato patch. Good points!

[LO - Bang-O-Rang (MD2011)]

LOL

We both have a dubstep song called bangarang with symbols voice in it =P

Oakwood responds:

Are you kidding me? -.-' Well at least yours is signed to a label :P and mine is made for Madness Day.

[Wind Sentinel]

. . .

Beautiful harmonies you got going mate. Might I suggest varying the velocity and volume of the strings more. Simple automations with a small wave like in and out of each note would really smoothen up the piece; maybe use a harmonic exciter on them too-- it would give it a wider fuller sound without muddying up the mix. Love all the electronic elements. The beat has a little bit of a lack of flow to it, but thats because of the syncopated kicks. Usually I leave the syncopation up the the hats and snares in a context like this. Would of like to hear an ending fill to the amen samples when they drop at the end, and a cadence to finish the piece instead of the dominant chord.

Overall quite enjoyable,

Cheers!

RetromanOMG responds:

Woah, this review made me realize how little I knew about music production.

Let me Google half the things you just suggested and I'll see what I can do, lol.

[-YRX- Shimasen N Bass]

. . .

Did you mean Shamisen? oops!

YouriX responds:

LOL. But cant change it now. Its been used in a flash game. XD

[A Trial of Tenacity]

. . .

WELL ITS BEEN A YEAR

But I don't think my aural skills are good enough to be criticizing your counterpoint just yet. It would take me forever without lookin at a score, but I do love your choice of harmonies and as usual you have catchy melodies goin on!

The imagery I get isn't exactly anger driven, rather action/adventure like some kind chase followed by a battle montage or slow motion scene of a stare off between the good and bad guy. There are definite themes in each instrument. The good guy seems to get the brass section (french horns?) while the bad guy has all those short marcato strings.

Love the little arpeggiated instrument that sounds kind of like a harpsichord. At first I thought it was just an ostinato but I hear now thats changing around: good for you cuz pedal points are overrated haha.

Anyways it's a great little piece. I wish I knew more about some of your harmonies in this and in 'Up Through Ashen Skies'

Cheers!

TheBenjerman responds:

Hey, completely missed this post for some reason. Thanks for the review! Some of the fun chords in this piece were short common-tone modulations, and Up Through Ashen Skies was almost entirely diatonic if I remember correctly. I'll have to return review your stuff as soon as I find the time.

Cheers!
Ben

[Dangers of Marijuana]

...

I wish I heard this before I died from ODing on marijuana...blast!

EricFreeman responds:

llololooololol

[Tonight - Re-Collect]

. . .

I see you've been jumping outta the IDM & DnB world quite a bit lately my friend. Chord progression is definitely very progressive feeling(that sounds redundant), so a wise choice there. The white noise seemed a bit too...white noisey? Or maybe it was just a tad high in the mix for me. I think a little longer kick would fit better, yours is mixed well and is nice and punchy, but a bit short sounding and perhaps even a tad too punchy. A little more definition in the low end would be nice too. Overall though its a solid progressive standard. It has a lot more energy then your tunes in the past did. Definitely see your improvement here.

Cheers!

pichuscute0 responds:

:D Glad you like it man. & Haven't talked to you in forever. xD How ya been?

But anyways.. The whole high end thing is kinda on purpose. xP But maybe I shouldn't be doing it like that lol. I've been experimenting with new ways to master my stuff on the last couple tracks I've made. And I think you're right on the kick. Probably won't change it now, but I'll remember for my new stuff.

Anyway, I'm glad you like it. I'm definitely trying alot of new things recently and trying to get better at a few other genres. I feel like DnB may not be my thing XP
Sooo, thanks for the review man. :D

[Bagattella di Estate WIP]

Love the quirky feel

Newgrounds hardly ever gets really bright sounding pieces like this. Everyone here seems mostly interested in dramatic minor pieces. I love how you were able to avoid the cliche corniness that I always get trapped in while trying to write pieces like this. Also the orchestration is really well done. All around great piece.

I really feel that we could learn from each other if we collaborated on a track that has aspects of both this kind music and my own high tension specialty. I'd love to see how other composers approach composition of this style as my only collabs have been with electronic artists. PM me if interested.

5/5 9/10

Cheers!

blackattackbitch responds:

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really the collaborative type. I just don't have the focus for that kind of stuff.

And don't worry, your main style is pretty much the same as mine, except I tend to focus on action rather than drama. This piece just came to me randomly about 8 months ago, and I decided this was too good to leave alone.

When I upload the finished version, I'll connect it to my main style and you'll see how easy it was to write this.

Thanks for the review and as always, I'm glad you liked it!