this will be a nice edition to my Move Something playlist . I will be combing through more of your audio. Nice Job
Author Comments
Pheidippides. The man who, from Athens, ran to seek the aid of Sparta whilst under the looming threat of the Persians. Pheidippides ran 250km to request the Spartan's aid, and upon returning perished. Though, it was not in vain.
The first Persian war, the battle of Thermopylae, was the Spartans' best effort at aiding the Athenians. With a force of 300 Spartans fending off thousands of Persian invaders, victory was though impossible. Thousands of Persian soldiers were killed before the Spartans succumbed to pure numbers. Though the time they spent fighting had bought enough time for Themistocles, Athens' leader to built a mighty fleet of triremes.
The second Persian war was fought at Salamis: a small inlet attached to the coast of Athens. The Persians, once again, sent an enormous force. But, the Athenians had a plan. They sat and planned on an island off the coast of Athens, while in sacrifice, allowed their great city to be burned down. A messenger was sent to the Persian king, Xerxes, to tell of fighting amongst the Athenians. Xerxes, no doubt thought it to be a grand opportunity, as he sent his entire fleet to the small island. Much to their dismay, there was no fighting at all. In fact, the Athenians were perfectly organised, and ready to fight. Now, the Persians were trapped in this small inlet; ships being destroyed by the formidable force of triremes. With so many lives lost, Xerxes was forced to recall his men, and order a retreat leaving the Athenians with victory and control over the Agean sea.
In case it wasn't clear, I enjoy history. Now, about the song... Don't even say it, because I now this sounds like one of EnV's melodies xD It's happened to me many times, that I make a melody I enjoy and as composer's deafness sets in, I don't realize how similar it sounds to someone else before it's too late. So, I hope that doesn't deter you from enjoying the song, because I did not try to do this, I assure you. xD This is still, by far, my longest song with the most diversity throughout. It maintains the same melody and progression, but I tried to change up the style a bit. (second half of drop 2 is the best ;D)
Anyway:
Constructive criticism and feedback it always welcome and appreciated.
Thanks for listening, cheers c:
This piece is pretty nice. One thing that I have to criticize is the clipping. I heard a bit of it when the piano at about 0:32. Just make sure you're lowering instead of raising the volume and it will help you get a clearer mix. Another thing to do is use limiters. They should only be used when necessary as they can mess with some frequencies and make it not sound as good as it normally would (although I rarely hear a difference sound-wise, limiter or not). Another thing that you could improve on is changing the melody. I thought it was kind of hard (at least for me) to listen to the same melody for a whole 8 minutes. Maybe throw in a few harmonies and add some more variations to the melody.
Also, I don't think it's a bad thing to sound like EnV. His music has a pretty nice feel to it, which I quite like. It's not like your're copying him, so don't worry about it when your tracks sound like his :)
MollusK-Music responds:
Much appreciated for the tips and criticisms! I've been working a lot on some of those very things, so hopefully you'll stick around to hear some technique revisions.
Cheers c:
Oh yeah, I remember who pheidippides was, he was the messenger who ran all the way from Athens to Sparta and then back, and then died suddenly of exhaustion just after yelling "Nike!" the greek god of victory.
Anyway, I really love what you have here. You are extremely improving with your melodies, chords, and rhythm. What really made me attached to this song is the 8bit part at around 3:19. I absolutely love your synths there; especially that short plucky arpeggio at the beginning of every few bars. If I'm correct, (I recognize because I've done it before) did you use the serum noise oscillator with a volume lfo? If so, great job; if not, great job as well :) And best of all, it has a very nice contrast, but not too much so that it doesn't fit.
Having said that, I think it has a couple of minor problems. The very beginning of the song, there are the lowpassed chords and the drums. The drums are the main issue in this part, because they, especially the ride, are outlandishly high frequency compared to the soft chords, so i think a simple lowpass filter rising with the chords should do the trick.
At around 1:18, I'm not hearing much low end. I don't know if that was intentional, since the main drops come later, so I don't really know if you were trying to make like a drop or not.
Other than that, there isn't much else that really stands out to me as a problem, so amazing work, man! Can't wait for your next upload :)
MollusK-Music responds:
Yes, that's the one xD
Regarding your criticisms, I agree with both. That first section at 1:18 you regarded was not intended as a drop, in fact I greatly considered taking it out since it had little purpose. But, I left it in seeing as the chords were barely introduced. The drum-chord contrast issue is mainly due to the fact that I had to use my headphones for that particular section and I felt that when the filter was allowing more high-end it sounded too distorted. I found it quite peculiar as it was a rather soft sound, but I decided - most likely against all better judgement - that I should keep the automation rather slight.
Anyway, I'm glad you think my melody is getting better. I have been working a lot on various "Audio-fuckery" projects to work on certain aspects of my music; whether it be melody, sound design, structure, drums etc. Through that I've also discovered some love for more acoustic, unconventional drums. Which is why I have scoured the internet trying to find out where to get some high quality claps, similar to those used by Stèlouse and MYRNE. Yet, I really want to couple them with a nice, analog kick. So, maybe look for a future bass track with those... idk yet.
I'm really glad you liked the 8-bit section as well. If you are wondering, I did use a noise oscillator to make those whitenoise drum sounds. Everything else was essentially made with a square wave. I avoided filters for most of the sounds, to keep it as genuine as possible. Again, I was considering making a chiptune track at some point.
Either way, I'm glad you liked it and I appreciate the feedback, as always.
Cheers c:
The Fastest Fish who Ever Lived...
You've toned down the chords which is nice, except in the drop, which is not nice. I didn't really like the piano melody, which wasn't helped by the fact of how robotic it sounded. Speaking of which, I ESPECIALLY didn't like the robotic lead in the second lead. While the retro part after that was cool, it really didn't fit the style of song. The drums were pretty cool, and I'd love it if you could direct me to where you got them. Okay, now back to the problems. The melody is way too repetitive. There werent enough variations and the dynamics and flow of the song were kind of off. You should also focus on using more types of percussion (yes i know its a house song) as you only really need that repetitive drum pattern in tbe drop. Usually I would give this sort of thing a four stars, but I'm giving you an extra half star because of the extra though you put into mixing. Remember to use automation clips if youre putting patterns from the drop in quieter parts of the song, and vice versa. Luckily for you, if you don't go into music production in the future you can always go into writing. I honestly hope you don't cos then I'll be lonely. Great job mate ;D
MollusK-Music responds:
Yeah, I'm still kicking myself for leaving that section in at 1:18.
Sadly, I can't tell you where I got the drums, since I actually can't remember for the life of me. Most of my drums, including snares, claps, hats, percussion, are all in the same folder :/ But, If you'd like, I could send you a couple.
Anyway, I appreciate the feedback.
Cheers c:
Damn, that is quite a feat! I barely even know where to start.
Well, first off, a general overview of the song: you were able to make an 8 minute piece not very repetitive amazingly well. There were some parts that I personally felt went on a little long, but honestly I've heard 3 minute pieces with more repetition— including my own— and I would probably chalk that up to my own personal pace for rapidly shifting music anyway. It did remind me of EnV, as you said, but only stylistically. The melody seemed original, unless I'm not thinking of the song. And I like EnV, so... good job...
For the record, I loved the retro part— I felt it was just what the song needed to keep me interested, because I had (after all) already sat through 3 and a half minutes of the same melody. All the synths and other sounds were great... not much I can say about that, as you know.
I'm gonna put in some suggestions here, but I'm not taking off stars for them because their just to try to elevate your music to a new level of awesomeness: first of all, I'm impressed that you used that same melody and chord progression for 7 minutes and 56 seconds, but I don't think it would've hurt to have a key change, or even a new theme somewhere, just to mix things up and give it a certain flavor that I think it could use. (I know I'm one of the few people who cares about that sort of thing judging from other Newgrounds reviews, but whatever.) Another thing you could try is harmonizing with the melody (having the melody overlaid above the original at intervals), which might or might not mean anything to you, but if you're curious on how I'd be happy to explain.
Wow, this ended up being a really long review. My point was, you've come a long way from Kraken, that's for sure. I'll be outraged if you don't get as famous as EnV someday, at this rate. Keep it up.
Cheers c:
MollusK-Music responds:
Haha, thanks! I'm really glad I was able to keep you interested and that this was pleasant to listen to. I've been looking into trying to add key changes to songs for a while, but I've never been good at transitioning from one key to the next. Now, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by harmonizing the melody. I mean, I think I have an idea, but I would be really interested to hear about it, for future projects. So, if you want to share your knowledge on that, I'd love to hear it. I'm glad you liked the retro part as well, that was a total 'pioneer's voyage' for me, musically and sound design wise as well. Luckily all retro music is square based, so that made it real easy to design the sounds. The drums are just made with white noise, anyhow.
I'm happy to hear that I'm improving and I plan to keep doing that. Maybe some dubstep or more future bass next.
Cheers c:
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