Reviews for ~SW~ Astral Nation

[Bosa]

Quite splendid!

From start to finish, I noticed how... different this song is. The idea in itself was quite intriguing enough for me. Even though you took a journey through different styles of music, you still maintained the same theme throughout the song, which was well done. How brilliant.

I already discussed mastering with you, sir. But the quality of the programs used is another matter. They were quite average, I suppose, but you utilized them to their full potential without making them sound too synthy (to coin a phrase). The bagpipes were a nice touch, but not very realistic for my tastes. I did like the playing style of the guitar. Anything that resembles the early 90's is fine by me. The guitar reminded me of the midi instrument, but not too much.

I am reminded greatly of Age of Empires, or the Civilization games. I enjoy your work sir, and I give to thee four stars along with a five vote.

SkyeWint responds:

Good day sir. Thank you for taking the time to review, it's helpful to understand how you were judging!

To start out - I definitely wanted to try something "different". No point in doing the same old thing that everyone else is doing. Having the same simple theme throughout the piece was done to tie it together - as nice as pure soundtrack is, I prefer to have something to keep a piece together throughout many changes - it's all one piece.

We did indeed already discuss mastering.

When it comes to programs, I would have to disagree with you. While the orchestral instruments in the first few parts were from Edirol and therefore average, the strings, piano, and instruments in the second half were mainly from Omnisphere - I would not call Omnisphere an "average" program. I do agree about the bagpipes, they weren't used realistically. It was not precisely my intention to use them realistically, but I can see how there would be points taken off there, it's a very stylistic choice and so far it's been fairly controversial among people I've shown this to. The guitar was actually one of my lowest-quality instruments, seeing as it was a simple soundfont. The reason it may have sounded higher-quality is because I ran it through two Guitar Rig amps (another VST on the level of Omnisphere).

Age of Empires and Civilization could have easily been some inspiration for the idea of this piece. I'm not sure what really inspired it exactly - it's very rare I manage to pinpoint the original source of inspiration for many of my odd pieces.

[Theatr]

Wonderful journey, Skye!

The music matches up very well to your imagined civilization building. The amount of time you spent trying to polish and remove impurities really shows in the way one section flows smoothly into the next with no drop-off.

The only problem I had with the piece is at 2:09 when the male voice comes into the song. It fits the section nicely and enters with a fair amount of attention and command. The problem I have with it, is that around 2:20 the voice kinda "clips" (my word choice, not necessarily the proper choice) from one note to the next when it would normally roll into the note. It also happens again at 2:35 after the very subtle (and excellently done) half-stepping softer notes.

Overall, an excellent piece that reminds me a great deal of the EA game "Spore." I actually had a few images of the various stages from the game go through my head as each section of the song was playing.

SkyeWint responds:

Good morning, Theatr! Wonderful review!

Transitions have always been a huge thing for me. I've always strived to make each section of any song flow cleanly into the next - this was a bit more difficult than most and I'm a bit less content with the transitions, but they were still one of the easiest parts for me... ^_^`

Aaaah, you noticed the problem with the male voice. I totally understand that. I love that vocal sound, but the attack on it is just totally inflexible. If I had lowered the velocity, it might have solved the problem of the attack, but then there wouldn't be the quality of the rest of the sound. Tch. Sorry about that one. :< Not much I can do to fix it.

I'm glad you had pictures in your head of the game. Hope they were enjoyable!

[SourJovis]

Long reviews. Sorry I won't write anything that long. I just wanted to say how much I liked this song. A journey through sound.

SkyeWint responds:

Yay. Thank you!

[stunkel]

Well, everyone is posting incredibly long reviews on here, so I'll do my best to live up to what they have written. I don't leave reviews very often so sorry if it's not so structured or too much babbling and having no flow. But here it goes!

This song is interesting, you decided to create a story or some sort of score with each part of the song. Pretty original idea, kinda inspires me to write something like that... And for the most part I could imagine the vague (not a bad thing!) storyboard of the song. First hearing this song, Steps "Ecosystem" came to mind instantly for some reason. I'm not sure if that forced this on me, but I felt like it made this song feel more jungly than anything, and I think it was the use of instruments that lead me to that, but again, that's just me. Particularly at 0:40, I guess I just imagined it to be a little less tribal, and more of a development phase. Not exactly sure, but it really isn't that big of a deal to go on about it.

Now what is just awesome about this song, is that it has so much damn variety! I can find so many genres in this. I feel secret agent, jungle, tribal, future... just too many to name. Just the amount of different instruments and variety... just awesome. And being diverse is a great thing to apply to your music, so nice on that :3 I was a little surprised when you said you only used 38 tracks... I know that already is a lot, but by how many different parts to the song there are, I expected way more. But that doesn't matter, it all sounds awesome and the little stuff like that means nothing :P

Now this song is just a masterpiece of a story. And I hate being critical after you spent a whopping almost 86 hours on a piece?!?! (WHAT?!) But there are some parts where the emotions could be a little stronger, I know that isn't what you were going for exactly since you had the story in mind. It only occurred in certain parts, but I didn't really feel the song hitting me so hard in that sense. It would have been nice if I was moved more by the melodies.

Now I'm just gonna babble on some random stuff that I enjoyed. Instruments are awesome, dynamics are awesome, so many ups and downs with the song and so much space and room for the imagination to explore. So much diversity, so much... so much... EVERYTHING! You have captured just about everything a song needs to be.

Soooooo overall, great work, just some minor tweaks, but they were all opinion based so it might just be totally biased to what I look for in a song. And good luck in the Dreams of Splendor contest, you will be a very tough competitor!

4.5/5 stars
5 star vote

-Stunkel

SkyeWint responds:

Hey there! I'm a bit too tired to respond in depth to your review, but I'll respond to what I can think about.

Not surprised it reminds you of Ecosystem initially - that part is based off of Ecosystem.

Only 38 tracks? xD ONLY? That's as if I said "only 86 hours" - I normally only have something like 12 max. Keep in mind though, that's not all the percussive instruments. The sounds at about 3:18 or so are all grouped, so is the orchestral percussion.

Yes almost 86 hours. Want a screenshot? I'm totally fine with criticism though, that's great. I'd love to know what parts you thought could use stronger emotion. Personal stuff is still useful to know even if I disagree with it.

Thanks for the great review! (yes it was great)

[KrisKrosNL]

Perfection.

Yay, my internet isn't being gay atm so I can listen & review the final version.

I'd like to say that this is one of your best works yet. The quality is awfully pro-style, the composition throughout the song is splendid (it tells a series of stories). The instruments are all panned accordingly. No repetition. Just an excellent piece. Damn, I need to get some good headphones to enjoy this more. I have nothing technical to provide since I already did that via PM. :c

Here's my impression on the song as a whole:

The first 1:30 minutes reminds me of a tribe game where a tribe builds pyramids while you have to take out gems in a gem box. 1:42 onwards reminds me of a medieval setting, I can't remember what it was but it feels nostalgic. Around 2:50, it reminds me of industrial England with Scottish people working in the coal mines (lol why am I thinking of this) and then an old British band playing for a crowd outside. After the 4:00 minute mark, it reminds me of the Aztecs being invaded by the Spaniards (I don't know why).

So then you have this awesome climax that starts at 4:35. For some reason, it reminds me of the Spaniards defeating the Native Americans.

And then you have the empty quietness of death...

----

Yeah, that sums up what was going through my mind. I'm sure you'll do great in Bosa's contest. Good luck!

As for the score, 5 stars out of 5 and thus a vote of 5/5 and favorited. Yay for you!

- Chrausner -

SkyeWint responds:

Oh my gosh you think this is perfect? Yessssssssssssssssssssss!

I hope you noticed that I fixed two of the things you had mentioned - the sound of the anvil is lowered, so there shouldn't be as high and shrill of frequencies at around 3:18. Also, in the part at 4:35-4:52, the flute was lowered in volume so it wouldn't be as invasive.

Those impressions of yours are really nice, thanks a lot for sharing! I found your thoughts on the last ambient section to be the most interesting. It's almost a creepy way of interpreting it, though it also makes it sound as if death is a soothing and calming thing.

"I'm sure you'll do great in Bosa's contest."
I REALLY hope so! ^_^ Thank you so much for the review!