Well, this was one of the most delightful songs I've heard in a little while.
Extraordinary because it excels in the one thing that makes classical truly great - the superb emotional impact it can bring. It's no wonder at all that this made front page, it's truly magnificent.
Bravo, sir, bravo, and don't stop composing. Please.
Reviews for "Sanctuary"
Step responds:
Hey, thanks for the review!
I'm really amazed by the feedback I'm getting just because of the frontpage. In about a week, the views rocketed up to over 3,000 and the favourites are already over 70. I've had two other submissions frontpaged before but none gave me this much recognition. I guess it must be the hype for the redesign or something!
Anyway, I'm really glad you liked it.
Well, that was highly enjoyable.
All I can say is, congratulations on winning first place in the competiton, haha. :D
Step responds:
Ha ha, very funny! Oh God, I wish :P.
Thanks for the PM. Certainly well worth my time to have followed the link and listened. Never cease to surprise.
Well then.
This was certainly worth listening to. Since you mentioned Land of Kings, that's an excuse to reference about that song in this review. I'll try to stay focused on this one and include everything that I'm thinking; it's been some time since I reviewed a song.
The Strong parts:
-I really enjoyed the way you worked the dynamics. It was a welcome break from most songs on NG or otherwise that seem to hold the same volume throughout the entire piece. What appeared maybe three times in Land of Kings occurred in what seemed like every other measure here. At 2:14, for example, I thought the song had ended. Nope! Just a great decrescendo.
-Reverse cymbal crashes :D
-The tempo variation worked well and appeared frequently, giving the music a more flowing feel as opposed to a strict straight-tempo piece. The piano at the end, for example, had great tempo shifts. Speaking of which...
-Piano! Wouldn't be a Supersteph song without it. Well, it could be, but I just really enjoy a good piano like that.
-Balance between parts. For example, you mentioned putting in a timpani roll at the end. It was perfectly-volumed (For lack of a better way to phrase it) in that it was just noticeable but stayed underneath the piano.
-All the little things. Like the flute.
-The high-intensity percussion (Even at the properly-balanced low volume) gives great mood to the song, especially at the part starting 1:07. While I'm on the thought of 1:07...
The nitpicking, because the "Weak" list is non-existent.
-That...that snare roll at 1:06. I realize that, unlike Land of Kings, its actually the same snare sound as in the rest of the song. But akin to Land of Kings...it just feels so out of place! I'm not talking about the song as a whole, just that tiny minuscule roll at that point.
-The crescendos at the minute marks are a touch overbearing. Considering the majority of the song is at a relatively soft volume, those crescendos are too sharp (not out of tune, but as a vague description for the effect) and quick, and hit too loud of a volume.
-The higher pitched brass instruments also felt sharp (Again, not out of tune, but the sound). The specific part is at :58, and in this string-dominated (in my opinion) song, is rather bright as opposed to a more mellow sound. This is to a lesser effect at 1:30 (I'm assuming some brass instruments like trumpets are playing there), but is still present with a sunnier sound than the rest of the song. This doesn't seem to occur in the section surrounding 2:00 (But the crescendo there at 1:59 does).
Odds and Ends
-At :42, there's a little (Baritone Horn?) "Mweh" sound. Really tiny. And it doesn't (To the best of my knowledge) appear anywhere else in the music. Is that intentionally there?
Wrapping it up
The nitpicking is close to half a star, except that the rest of the song is easily five and a half, so it evens out. Good luck in the competition!
Step responds:
Wow man, long time no see! Thanks so much for the massive review. I'm really glad you stopped by and reviewed because I used to love your reviews!
"This was certainly worth listening to. Since you mentioned Land of Kings, that's an excuse to reference about that song in this review."
Haha OK. I only mentioned Land of Kings to state how bad it is compared to this in my opinion, but I guess it does give you that excuse :P.
"I really enjoyed the way you worked the dynamics."
Thanks! I seem to be working more on dynamics. As you said dynamic changes in Land of Kings were few and far between, but I guess the more experienced a guy gets at music, the more important he finds it to add dynamics.
Also I'm glad you like that decrescendo at 2:14. It's one of my favourite parts too!
"Reverse cymbal crashes :D"
YEAH.
"The tempo variation worked well and appeared frequently, giving the music a more flowing feel"
Good to hear! This is the song of mine which definitely uses the most tempo shifts. I also focused on playing (on my synthesizer) the harp at the beginning and the piano at the end with a more rubato feel and tempo variation. It makes it sound so much more realistic in my opinion.
"Piano! Wouldn't be a Supersteph song without it."
Haha yeah. I was tired of spending nearly three minutes and a half without piano and thought "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE" so I added a piano solo :3.
But in all honesty, the two reasons why I added it was firstly because I may (probably not, but maybe) use this for an important school project related to music, and my friend told me that if you make a song and play with it yourself in front of the examiners, you'll get more marks, so since I knew how to play the piano, I wanted to add it somewhere.
The second reason was because I wanted to showcase the melody of the intro one last time.
"Balance between parts."
That's mostly thanks to EQing. Before I had no idea how to do it but now it becomes second nature to hunt down those nasty frequencies to get a nicer, more balanced sound :3.
"All the little things. Like the flute."
People are saying this has quite a few small details in it, so I'm glad to hear that!
"The high-intensity percussion (Even at the properly-balanced low volume) gives great mood to the song."
Lol I've got to be careful with that percussion. The VST I'm using has drums so powerful that if I go overboard with adding hard-hitting percussion to a slightly more soft song than this, I'll have earthquakes playing with my song rather than drums.
"That...that snare roll at 1:06."
You're not the only one to mention it. SBB said it sounds too loud. What I'm thinking of doing is making it fade in rather than just pop in out of nowhere.
"The crescendos at the minute marks are a touch overbearing."
I see what you mean. I did turn them down before but I suppose it wasn't enough! First time I tried something like that, so people will have to bear with me :P.
"The higher pitched brass instruments also felt sharp"
Hm, that might perhaps be due to too much high end frequencies on the trumpet. I'll look into it if I manage to find the time to edit this song.
"At :42, there's a little (Baritone Horn?) "Mweh" sound."
I'm not sure what you're hearing. It might just be a harp note, since there is a harp note at 0:42 which sounds a little like a soft horn. It might also be some reeeaaally subtle drone effect that you're hearing, because I think I had an ambient drone playing during 0:42. It's definitely not a Baritone Horn though, or anything similar. At least I don't think so xD.
"The nitpicking is close to half a star, except that the rest of the song is easily five and a half, so it evens out"
Haha, thanks so much! I very much appreciate this massive review. Thanks again, and thanks for the luck!