Brilliant
A wonderful mesh of wonderfully harmonized orchestral percussion with melting drums and really magical strings which change the flow really well and carry on with the percussion like butter on toast. This reminds of the film called Mummy. It has that dessert feel. Definitely could be in a movie.
I appreciate the kind words and the reference to buttered toast :D.
But jokes aside, thanks for the review, I'm really glad you liked the song. I'm quite happy with the drums I did here, although I didn't work on them as hard as I did on other things in the song, I must admit.
Thanks again for the supportive review.
Spectacular!
This song has a wonderful, and strong ethnic feel to it. Kind of pulls you into a desert type setting. I can definitely relate this piece to many movie and video games. :) That's a good example of musical imagery, which you have wonderfully demonstrated. I can just picture a long journey across a vast desert with shifting sands.
The sounds you used worked together well. Again, I bring up the ethnic aspect of it, because that is my favorite quality of it. Those shakers and miscellaneous percussion totally make all of the difference.
Now, I've never been a fan of slow ambient type stuff, so I'll admit that the beginning didn't really pull me in like some songs do, but I think that the climax of the song really made it all worthwhile.
Well, all in all, this piece was very well made. Can't really find anything wrong with it, since music is not my real expertise. I think it's a really nice quality song with a lot of potential. :) So much accomplished in a song, even though, as you say, classical isn't one of your main genres, and that you're deaf in one ear. You still managed to maintain a flawless stereo sound anyway.
Also the whole thing seemed to come together nicely. It was a good idea to start off slow and hide the real prize for last..although, I would have done the opposite, just to change things around. ;)
Anyway, I should probably cut this short now. Great song! And the best luck in this competition! :D Oh yeah, and keep up the good work too.
Cheers,
~S
Wow, thanks for the very detailed review! Also sorry for the late response. I seem to have had the swine flu, and while I'm still not feeling that good, I've got better.
"This song has a wonderful, and strong ethnic feel to it. Kind of pulls you into a desert type setting. I can definitely relate this piece to many movie and video games. :) That's a good example of musical imagery, which you have wonderfully demonstrated. I can just picture a long journey across a vast desert with shifting sands."
Thanks! Like I already said to megakill, a desert was definitely what I was going for. I've made an Egyptian-like song before called 'The Ancient Curse', and while I didn't work on it nearly as much as I worked on this, I got some inspiration from it. I've got some experience with ethnic percussion too so I put that to good use, as I did with my new VST Ethnoworld 3 which is awesome.
"The sounds you used worked together well. Again, I bring up the ethnic aspect of it, because that is my favorite quality of it. Those shakers and miscellaneous percussion totally make all of the difference."
Great :D. Although for some reason my cousin didn't like the sound of the shakers much.
"Now, I've never been a fan of slow ambient type stuff, so I'll admit that the beginning didn't really pull me in like some songs do, but I think that the climax of the song really made it all worthwhile."
Yeah admittedly the intro was the thing I worked least on when making the song. Usually I make songs with a specific intro in mind, then I evolve the melody from the intro, or in some cases the melody in the intro is the main melody. For this song I had the melody figured out first and I put it into the first pattern of the song, and then I made the intro. I was so excited to get to the main melody at 0:34 that I half-arsed the intro :3.
"Well, all in all, this piece was very well made."
Thanks!
"Can't really find anything wrong with it, since music is not my real expertise."
Ah, is it art? Because your art is very good.
"I think it's a really nice quality song with a lot of potential. :) So much accomplished in a song, even though, as you say, classical isn't one of your main genres, and that you're deaf in one ear. You still managed to maintain a flawless stereo sound anyway."
Glad to hear that (the fact that you said I maintained a good stereo sound I mean, not the stereo sound itself because I can't hear that :P). I did absolutely no panning of my own at all, so that good stereo sound is pure luck I guess.
"Also the whole thing seemed to come together nicely. It was a good idea to start off slow and hide the real prize for last..although, I would have done the opposite, just to change things around. ;)"
Ah, in my case I've got the mentality that all climaxes are at the end, although sometimes I don't end my songs with climaxes, but rather play the climax , then the song goes silent and I end the song softly.
"Anyway, I should probably cut this short now. Great song! And the best luck in this competition! :D Oh yeah, and keep up the good work too."
Thanks again for the really helpful review!
Interesting
Oh, this is...very interesting (in a good way). It captures various moods and yet, the transition from one to another is smooth. Good job!
I'm happy that you found the transitions smooth. It's always something I work hard on (actually I'm really fussy about transitions in my reviews).
Thanks for the review!
Wow!
Hey Supersteph54,
--Production--
Pretty fantastic. I don't know what you meant about lack of panning because the sound fills both ears up pretty nice. Not a heck of a lot of panning is required to do it correctly, by the way, and you've got it pretty down pat. The sounds meld together beautifully in a composition that is original and nice.
--Experience--
I was led from the original epic beginning to more oriental territory (almost Arabian), and then to a more medieval (?) type sound. I guess that scale that you discovered has a certain type of Middle Eastern feel about it, because it's very captivating and nice on the ears.
--Style--
The orchestra is very full and beautiful; there is no lack of instrumentation here. It has beautiful drums too, as well as good build-up and transitions. The interesting modified D harmonic minor scale also provides a catchy motif to remember the song by. Not many songs have that same quality in it, so it is differentiated from the rest.
--Wow Factor--
I was pretty wowed by your orchestral skills. There was a large variety of sounds being employed here, to great effect. From first listen, you can discern that a lot of effort goes into this song. It's not just thrown together, but masterfully composed.
--Personal Tilt--
I was looking for things to be negative about in this song, but couldn't. This song is a very emotional and good song with a specific purpose and niche that it can fit into. Very well done, steph. Proud of you :)
--Production-- = 19/20
--Experience-- = 20/20
--Style-- = 18/20
--Wow Factor-- = 18/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 18/20
OVERALL SCORE: 93/100
Benjamin
--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--
Wow, man. Thanks for the really big review! Oh and sorry for the very late response...
"--Production--
Pretty fantastic. I don't know what you meant about lack of panning because the sound fills both ears up pretty nice. Not a heck of a lot of panning is required to do it correctly, by the way, and you've got it pretty down pat. The sounds meld together beautifully in a composition that is original and nice."
Thanks! The thing is, I didn't actually do any manual panning/stereo separation. If you look at my project file in FL Studio, you'll see that the panning knobs aren't even touched. I guess the stereo sound that this song has is because the software I used, East/West, is just so darn brilliant :D.
"--Experience--
I was led from the original epic beginning to more oriental territory (almost Arabian), and then to a more medieval (?) type sound. I guess that scale that you discovered has a certain type of Middle Eastern feel about it, because it's very captivating and nice on the ears."
Haha, the scale is actually pretty simple, it was just a mistake I did when playing D Minor, so you can't really say I 'discovered' it :P.
I was never that good at adding any foreign influences to my songs and making them sound decent, to be honest, so this might be one of my first songs which does so.
"--Style--
The orchestra is very full and beautiful; there is no lack of instrumentation here. It has beautiful drums too, as well as good build-up and transitions. The interesting modified D harmonic minor scale also provides a catchy motif to remember the song by. Not many songs have that same quality in it, so it is differentiated from the rest."
Thanks for the compliments! I'm quite proud of the melody I did here, even though I think I could've thought up some more melodies.
"--Wow Factor--
I was pretty wowed by your orchestral skills. There was a large variety of sounds being employed here, to great effect. From first listen, you can discern that a lot of effort goes into this song. It's not just thrown together, but masterfully composed."
Haha thanks! I'm actually really surprised that so many people like this song. It's one of my first orchestral songs.
"--Personal Tilt--
I was looking for things to be negative about in this song, but couldn't. This song is a very emotional and good song with a specific purpose and niche that it can fit into. Very well done, steph. Proud of you :)"
Emotional? Never actually thought of it like that. I'm more of an atmospheric type when it comes to making music, rather than emotional.
Well anyway, thanks a million for the massive review, and again, sorry for taking so long to answer!
Excellent piece of work!
I was tempted to join that Orchestral NAC as well, but when I heard the other songs (including yours), I was quickly discouraged =p
I like the Arabic feel it has to it. You don't hear that very often, and it's not one of the easiest things to master.
There's a good amount of variation and the melodies are interesting and nice to listen to. Harmony is good, though not extraordinary. Percussion is nice, though it could've used a slight boost now and then.
Something it does lack however, is a good climax. I was expecting one at 2:14 and onward, but it just wouldn't come... Instead it was followed by another build-up, and another... That is however my personal opinion =p
Tempo changes are nice, which I rarely use in my songs xD Although you say orchestral isn't one of your main genres, I think you're very talented. Too bad you're deaf in one ear (then again, look at Beethoven). No panning isn't necessarily a bad thing though ;)
All in all, a grand piece of music. 9/10, 5/5!
Thanks for the quick response, and the lengthy review! I really appreciate it.
"I was tempted to join that Orchestral NAC as well, but when I heard the other songs (including yours), I was quickly discouraged =p"
Haha thanks, but you shouldn't have been. Someone like you could probably make it to the finals with their eyes closed ;D.
To be honest I didn't work on it as much as I hoped I would. I spent a lot of time working on it in the timespan of a few days, rather than spread out my time and worked on it gradually, so that might be one of the reasons why this is lacking intricacies such as the lack of a decent climax and harmony that isn't particularly good.
"I like the Arabic feel it has to it. You don't hear that very often, and it's not one of the easiest things to master."
I agree. Actually I was lucky because I had experience with making use of bongos/congas in my songs so it almost came naturally to me in this piece.
"There's a good amount of variation and the melodies are interesting and nice to listen to."
Thank you! To be honest I thought I could've varied the melodies more, so I'm surprised to see you found it varied enough. Then again I'm obsessed with variety in my songs.
"Harmony is good, though not extraordinary."
Very true :(. I'm musically inexperienced and don't know how to harmonise that well. Harmonising is pretty frustrating for me because I don't know what chords, melodies and keys sound good with each other and when I try and make up my own and see if it works out, I'm usually met with dissonance, and I have to constantly do trial and error to get the right sound, so you can imagine me yelling 'SOUND GOOD, DAMMIT' at my monitor...
"Percussion is nice, though it could've used a slight boost now and then."
Yeah SBB mentioned that too. I'll keep that in mind.
"Something it does lack however, is a good climax. I was expecting one at 2:14 and onward, but it just wouldn't come... Instead it was followed by another build-up, and another... That is however my personal opinion =p"
Sorry :P. Yeah I just half-assed a climax at the end (at 2:47) and I agree it doesn't sound all that climatic. Maybe if I add more percussion elements I could give it more excitement. Too bad when my computer died it took most of my project files with it...
"Tempo changes are nice, which I rarely use in my songs xD"
Hey, you're the first one to mention that in a review. Thanks :D.
"Although you say orchestral isn't one of your main genres, I think you're very talented. Too bad you're deaf in one ear (then again, look at Beethoven). No panning isn't necessarily a bad thing though ;)"
I appreciate the support! To be honest I've always wondered what it would sound like hearing sounds from all directions, but hey at least one ear works so who am I to complain :3.
"All in all, a grand piece of music. 9/10, 5/5!"
Thanks a million man, I'm really grateful for the wonderfully helpful review! Maybe we can trade reviews again sometime?