Reviews for RAC5 Born Again

[jkap1]

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I am really struggling with how to rate this one, so I'm giving the standard cop-out "9" rating (sorry). I want to give +10s for the really good live instrumental performance, and for the overall concept - which is killer. But then there are small nitpicky things that keep it from being a 10 overall IMO. Stuff like the drums being mixed a bit too loud without enough dynamics, etc. But should I let small things like that take away from what is really a good, innovative, and well-preformed piece that's perfectly in the spirit of the contest? I dunno. Hence: "9". GL though! :)

SoulSecure responds:

That's fine, I have some problems with how I mixed and made it too (like putting reverb on the "ooh ooh" part gave it less impact somehow and I was too lazy to fix it). About the drums: I don't usually use drums in my music so I'm still learning about what sounds good. The problem is that I have so many influences that sometimes they clash. The reason the drums are so loud is probably because of my experiences with hip-hop and rap where there aren't very many dynamics or variations in the drums and they are usually loud, but I also did this intentionally because the instruments can drown out the beat sometimes. Also, I'm a stings musician so when it comes to making drum beats on the computer, I find it to be an agonizingly monotonous ordeal and so I get really lazy.

I also have a problem with the first "chorus" as I like to call it (since it occurs twice). The guitar at that point doesn't feel loud enough even though it was just supposed to introduce that guitar riff for the next time I play it, where I have overlapping guitars.

To sum it all up, I'm an experimental artist and when I make my songs, things just happen. This is the first time I've done a song like this and when I started out I wanted it to be a rock song. Start with sanshin and drums, add some neat bass lines and keyboard, then at the end I put in the guitar. This was a long process and I think I worked longer on this song than any other but as always it came out being something totally different from what I had intended.