Reviews for Pendragon Legacy

[SonicYM2612]

Hey man, this piece of music is very epic, very worthy of the description. :D
I was amazed at the percussion sounds mainly, and the other instruments that sounded very realistic. The style is impeccable. I just have a few criticisms (I can already hear you booing at me lol).

I would have loved to hear the percussion with some reverb, as it sounded pretty flat. Another thing is that most of the track was very pan-pot stereo sounding, not real spacial which takes away a lot of the realism for me. I think you should experiment more with stereo expansion and panned reverbs/delays like I have recently, it really brings out some awesome sonic qualities that makes listeners think the sounds are actually directional, as long as not over-applied.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with my comments hehe, but it's definitely worth a try. And it's not even hard to do really. If you need suggestions on plugins or methods and such, you can always ask. ;)

I will give this 4.5 my friend, great work as usual, just those little details hehehe. :)

P.S. If you don't mind me asking, where are all the instruments from? I would like to see if I could use them, especially that percussion. ;)

ChronoNomad responds:

Boooooo~! :P

Just kidding, Sonic. I definitely appreciate your feedback, and I certainly can't complain about a 4.5 stars out of 5...that would be crazy. :D

I actually used the Fruity Convolver plugin alone for the percussion, while most of the instrument tracks also have applied Stereo Enhancer. I did add some more effects here and there, including additional reverb to the perc, and it just ended up making things sound muddy unfortunately. So, ultimately, I ended up removing the reverb and some of the enhancer effects in order to preserve the crisp sound of the instruments themselves. There are still plenty of panning delays, most notably on the ocarina and harp, I believe...though on most of the other musical instruments, as well to varying degrees.

You want to know which instruments I used, eh? I can definitely help you out with that. The percussion is all SquidFont; the Orchestral Kit that comes along with all the instruments is pretty doggone fantastic, I think. Interesting fact: this is the same perc section that I used in my Anthem of the Adventurer track from the 2014 NGADM!
Ocarina and Ocarina Glissando were used to get the perfect sound there, as well as a smattering of Ocarina Staccato. No pitch bending was necessary since the gliss version has it right at the beginning.
The Celtic Harp from the "DSK World StringZ" VST was used liberally throughout the piece, the Vocal Oooh used are from the kbh-real_choir SoundFont, the violin is simply called aaviolin and I'm kind of in love with it lately (in case you didn't notice), the Fiddle and French Horns are both from SGM-V.201, and I used both the Cister (basically a renaissance era guitar) and Dudy (a type of bagpipe) instruments that made their first appearance in my other NGADM hit, Tir Na Nog. ^__^

[MrBellington]

Hi there, broadly enjoyable piece of music. Definitely has that sort of medieval vibe going for it, and I could even hear it in a video-game. The ocarina melody is lovely, and well-orchestrated with appropriate grace notes, and I wish the main body of the track had riffed off that a bit more. It wanders through some kind-of-nice ideas, never becoming unappealing but never latching onto you in quite the same way the beginning (and end) do with that quite nice female choir and ocarina.

I think this track loses a couple of points on the production side, the middle of the track could definitely do with a neater mix. I would've personally had a bit more weighty bass presence, and more crucially filled out the sound more, it's a little empty.

Good effort none-the-less and I enjoyed it, looking forward to more.

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks for the in-depth review, MrBellington. I appreciate your feedback and candor regarding the music. While I certainly see what you mean about a lack of bass presence, it really didn't fit with the theme and overall vision that I had for this piece. Parts of this are meant to represent music on the move; instruments that can be played while traveling or upon the field of battle, and to that end there aren't a lot of deep instruments that fit the bill. And while I love many-layered orchestral compositions, I always intended this to possess a simpler sort of less-is-more approach.

Anyway, I'm glad that you enjoyed it, and there's plenty more music in my repertoire for your perusal. Thanks again!

[Mattashi]

Very beautiful melodies, I loved that Ocarina? melody. Reminded me a bit of the Braveheart theme.
Good job :)

ChronoNomad responds:

Thank you very much, Mattashi! Yes, that is indeed ocarina you are hearing, and I am glad to hear how much you enjoyed it. For you to say that it reminds you of the Braveheart theme even a little bit is a great compliment. Your review is greatly appreciated. ^__^

[retrohGamr]

Just imagining a scene in my head where some kid is growing to be the warrior he dreamt about as a younger child. Beginning with difficulty but later improving greatly. His years growing larger and his skills increasing. He's becoming the next hero of his world.

All it needs would be a great narrator and an animation!

ChronoNomad responds:

Many thanks for the kind words, retrohGamr, and welcome to the Newgrounds community! Your vision of the tale is most assuredly similar to my own. Ah, if only I had the time or Flash skills required to animate such a tale... I would, however, be quite happy to lend my VA talents to the narration if someone did deem to undertake this quest.

I truly appreciate your review and the fantastic score that you have seen fit to bestow upon my person. May you be thrice blessed on your own legendary journey through life.