Reviews for Xyirx - Dragon's Heart

[rtnario]

That was...beautiful...

I'm currently looking for ways on how to compose orchestral music with DAWs, and so I thought that a good place to go to for examples is here. Went to the "Classical" genre and listened to some songs, but this really seems to be what I was looking for. Now for the review.

Like the summary, this really is beautiful. I'm taking a guess that you used Edirol Orchestral on this? The piano gives it away for me =) Although I still don't know how you managed to "fatten" the sound and make it more epic in terms of panning and EQ. It blows away anything I try out XD

Pros: I LOVED the progression of the song and its different parts, which gave even more of an impact because of the story. There's the appropriate tempo changes, the epic use of choirs, the powerful timpani "hits", the blending of the strings, flutes, oboes, harp and the REALLY well-placed mystical-sound-thing which sounds like a lot of chimes, or probably is. And especially the very main melody evident in the piano, which underwent variations all throughout the entire song.

Cons: ...um...I know it helps much more to give points for improvement, but for me at least, you made it really hard for me to find any to the point that I couldn't. Sorry? XD

Overall, that was perfect. 5/5, 10/10, fav'd.

But now I have to ask you this: how did you do all that? ._.' For one, it sounds so "mastered" without giving a single piece of evidence that it peaked. Another, the epic "timpani+cymbal+snare?" things and the timpani then the small two-note percussion after that makes it sound like it was made as a film score. I would really love to know, and would really appreciate it if you tell me how XD

Thanks for creating and submitting such a great song on NG. This deserves to be #1 in the Classical genre, I swear.

*downloads and analyzes more*

Xyirx responds:

Oh, this is probably the longest review I have ever received! Thank you so much for all the detailed analysis. I really appreciate it.

Now for your question. :)
"how did you do all that? ._.' For one, it sounds so "mastered" without giving a single piece of evidence that it peaked."

>> Well, I really have to admit that I don't know anything much about mastering stuff, but for this song, I remember lowering master volume in FL8 to half, then apply all filters (FXs) in my mixer. That also included my mighty friend, Maximus, which does a decent job on getting the song more "epic" but I never let it go 100%. I usually lessen its intensity knob to around 40-60%, most of the time. And after that, I export the song to amplify it later in Audacity. That's how I do my song.

--
"Another, the epic "timpani+cymbal+snare?" things and the timpani then the small two-note percussion after that makes it sound like it was made as a film score."

>> Do you mean the 2:35 part? If yes, that is the part where I combine a lot of percussions together. (And I like this part most too) It's composed with timpani, cymbal, snare and also bass drum which I borrowed from other soundfonts. The small two-note you mentioned is probably bass drum, not timpani.
When I use instruments other than ones editable in Edirol VSTi, I send its channel to mixer first, then simply use reverb and adjust the EQ a little bit to specify which frequency range it should fall upon. This can really make the instrument very epic and moving. Sometimes, I use a little bit of delay and flanger too, very subtle, just to make things a little spicy.

I'm not sure about "fattening" method you're talking about, but I guess what I explained above might answer it already.

I got the epic feeling of composing the song from Edgen. You can search this name in google, and his site should pop up the first or second. He's composed very suspending and emotional songs too.

Once again, thank you for your review. I'm glad you've enjoyed both the story and song. Hope you could find new techniques and produce great songs too. :)

PM me if you have any further questions. :D

PS. And yes, I used Edirol for most of the elements in this song.

[Axel1050]

Beautiful

This was a very beautiful this piece of music really goes in really well with the story line and this song does not need lyrics because it was beautiful without it and if you do it ruins the song I love it just the way it is keep up the good work dude this deseres to be number 1 on the classical list this is the BEST piece of mucic On newgrounds I LOVE THIS.

Xyirx responds:

I'm glad you've enjoyed both the story and the song. Thank you for reading it till the end too.

I'll keep producing good music too. :D Thanks very much for the review.

[lvl5drummer]

Great!

It was awesome! I could really hear how the story works in with the music. And i think that visualizing a scene and story first really help with creating a piece like this. Amazing!

<lvl5>

Xyirx responds:

Lately, I start to visualize things before going into the song. I think it conveys the message better. ^^ Thanks for the review.

[Sci-Fi]

very well done

very awesome story telling with it as well

Xyirx responds:

Thanks for the review. ;D

[Anamethatworks]

cool

the piano thing in the first part reminded me of neverwinter nights (videogame) which had awesome music making this even more awesome

I wonder how many times I can say awesome about this awesomely awesome piece of musical awesomely awesomeness

lost count.. but it was quite a lot of awesomes

Xyirx responds:

I never played Neverwinter Nights before, but I'm sure that it has great music tracks within it. :) Thanks a lot for the review. It really means something to me, each one of them.