Viperodriguez's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hero's Tribute]

Seems solid

There are some tweaks I think you should look into. Be on the look out for balance and blend. When arranging classical pieces it's important to remember balance, think of it like a balancing a scale or playing Jenga, you don't want a song to be too top heave (meaning higher pitched voices) or too many low voices either, you have to find a common balance in between. Another thing is blending. You have to take into consideration what instrument voices can do and what they stand for and try to find a way to blend them with other instruments. Example, flute and trumpet, they both are soprano register instruments but a trumpet is naturally stronger than a flute. Trumpets are usually used to carry the melody or theme because they can overpower most instruments, on the other hand a flute is mostly used for embellishments or counter melody. A lot of times when a flute has the melody all the other instruments usually back off in volume to accommodate the light sound of the flute.

Now with that being said. there's nothing wrong with your instrument choices. In fact, I think it's quite good. Some thing I want to point out though is that from 32 seconds in to 43 the reed sound seems a little over bearing. It sounds like you have two different voices playing the same note, maybe lower the volume on one of the voices or change the pitch of one of the notes to a different note and make it a harmony. Another thing that struck me is that at 1:04 a brass sound comes in (a trumpet I think) and kinda gets over powered by the choir, I don't know if you want it to be that way but to me it feels like the trumpet is caring a melody if it is you might want to push the choir back by lowing the volume on a them a little. Another thing is that if that is a trumpet, then it's going way too high right at the end. I think it would be cool to make it a trumpet fanfare right there at the end by adding a harmony to that line at 1:04. That's what I have to say. Sounds really good, good luck with you song and thanks for sharing.

Also,
what software do you use? if you haven't already done so you might want to look into using the Graphic Equilizer if your software has one. I also want to offer you my ear as a sounding board so please feel free to ask me any questions about the development of this song, I really want to see this be something really great.

later,
Jay

blackattackbitch responds:

Man I really gotta thank you for the nice long review. And I'm taking all of those into consideration. In reflection, I really wish I had more time to work on this, but I gotta finish this by the 24th. And I gotta do that in between work, christmas shopping, and general errands. Btw, that reed sound is actually a french horn section. Yeah I need to turn that down. And yeah, I have an affinity for powerful choirs, so I have a bad habit of turning the choirs up too loud. And it does overpower the hell out of the trumpet. I realized that when I took the choir out and left just the 5string soundfont and the trumpet pretty much overpowered the strings. I'll probably end up doing this section over again, but that depends on how much I can finish in these next two days.

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I'm taking all of them into consideration. Damn, this time constraint is making me nervous as hell. And I'd hate to enter this contest with merely one song too, I need to make another one by the 24th. Maybe I should stick to just this one, this one is fine.

Furthermore, Imma make it a point to check out your songs. I held off on it because your songs were listed as rock and I generally am not a rock fan. However, i remembered that I should appreciate all music no matter the genre.

Cuz no matter what genre it is, if it's a good piece of music, it's a good piece of music.

[Out of the Abyss...]

Quite a beast

Classical is a whole different animal from contemporary popular music. I think you did well on not relying on drums, you mostly used them texture and emphases. Classical can get away with not having a drum beat because they got a conductor to keep the time. As far as finishing it I think you should hold of from this until you get the urge to go back and to it again. It very healthy to take a break after completing something, take a break from it work on other stuff and then come back to it and revise and tweak things. Nice effort and thanks for sharing.

blackattackbitch responds:

Thanks for the reviews. I think the main reason classical can get away with drums is because it's definition as a genre is pretty loose, which gives the composer a wide range of styles to work with. I'm gonna do what you said though and keep this one for later work. Considering how well my MAC8 is sounding as of so far (that's another work in progress), I can tell that I will be able to turn this particular song into a beast.

I want to change a few things about this song though:
The tambourine sample.
The low orchestral hit sample.
Some of the chords.
The string staccato samples.
Definitely the tuba sample.
The choir at the beginning. It sounds too synth.
The envelope of the brass staccato sample.
You know, just general things to make it flow better.

[Talk Some Sweet Talk]

Cool tune

The only thing that sticks out it the choir voice with the high C#. One of the things we have to look out for is if a voice or instrument choice works with the over all song. some instruments I think could be changed. However if you like that voice you could try to minimize the volume or defuse it with harmony. Another thing you might want to try is adjusting the channels so certain parts can be heard in the right or left speaker. Towards the end where every thing comes in it gets kinda' busy. If you shift the speaker channels it should reduce listener from being overwhelmed. Great work and thanks for sharing.

blackattackbitch responds:

Thanks for the 10 even after pointing out all those problems. Next time, I'll definitely not use that choir voice. Thanks for the in-depth review and I'll take all of that into consideration for my next song definitely.

[Piano in WTF Minor]

I love this

Oh wow. Very dark and compelling. It's like Renaissance Nouveau. It's like something out of psychedelic Victorian film. I think if Bach where alive today his work would sound something like this. Very well done sir. Thanks for sharing.

Gozchev responds:

Thank you, I cannot express to you how awesome it feels to have my first complete piece complemented in this manner. Though I must say, Bach's works are pure genius and if nothing else, are simply more thought out than this. But again, the first reception has made my day, thank you.

[Turn Here]

Kind of agree with Hyper-Freak92

However, I think this is interesting. To me the bass sounds like something out of Oingo Boingo. Now if you structured this chaos then nice work, but if you kind stringed this together randomly then you might want to look into chord progressions. Well with that being said keep making music and thanks for sharing.

Kuebic responds:

I agree with both of you (Viper and Hyper) and thank you both on such awesome comments.
The song is not a TOTAL mess that I put together. Perhaps it is my fault for not being specific in the comments: the bass notes were the only thing added randomly. The song structure was based off the random bass notes that start and end on a C, so the guitar chords are based off the C scale. That was about as much of the chord progressions there were to work with. This was only an experiment that I was amazed to see work out so well.

I really enjoy your comments, and I'd like to see more comments from you.

[Unheard Of v.2]

Pretty good

The first thing that struck me is the bass. If someone was to play that line I think the poor guy might get a cramp. I think you should rearrange the notes on the piano as some parts are too low to register a good pitch for chords. Another thing you might want to look into is harmony, you have to look at the rules you set for song with your chord progressions and try to fallow them to have good intonation. Unless of course you want that kind of tone conflict. It's good, I like the structure. But I think it could improve if you adjust the pitch of the piano toward the beginning and tweak the toning and harmony toward the latter half of the song. Pretty nice work and thanks for sharing.

Kuebic responds:

Thank You for leaving a comment (no one ever does) and I appreciate comments. Your input is really helpful and I thank you for the time put into making this helpful comment. I'll try to follow these guidelines in my later musics. Thank You Once Again!!

[Lost In Thought (jazz)]

Really nice

I love it. Some parts sound like a lot of the sruff you can find in today's R&B music. The drums where a nice touch and really helped to define the songs. As for titles some things that come to mind are "The Day She Left", "Lost in a Park", "Raining in the City", "Pouring Love". Just some random ideas I hope will help you out. The tune is distinctly sad. So you might want to go for a bluesy title. Really nice tune. Wonderful work and thanks for sharing.

Tamadrum responds:

Thanks man... I particulary like "Lost in a Park" I'll keep it in mind.

[Jungle Bed]

Very interesting

This reminds of War's stuff from the 70s. I like how you blended together the analog sounds with the synthetic. If the world could some how live with nature and technology in harmony I'd imagine the music would sound like this. Makes me picture jungle terrains with metal houses in the trees. There's a lot of middle eastern and african instruments and I admire how you found a way to arrange them together. If only our society can be as culturally harmonizing as this tune. Very nice work and thanks for sharing.

Soundshifter responds:

this have to be the most beautiful analysis of any song song i've ever heard. thank you sir. i can tell you have a warm heart just by that review. rhank you very much, peace.