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King Bosa ruled on the great throne of Bosania for many years, in the frigid depths of the Northern "Orchestralian" Lands of Newgrounds. He grew tired of the great reign- years before he had been the grandest of all the Classical Warlords, conquering many great lands and leading his kingdom to great glory; but now, he grew weary of the great burden under him and thus, one day, found his horse and rode off into the glorious sunset (the short hiatus the past few months) to return again one day when the land of Bosania needed him most (a.k.a. this contest)... when one man would ride against the far northern land...
(see Bosa's entry for the continuation of the story- http://www.newgrounds.com /audio/listen/497963).
I had a great deal of fun yesterday when I listened to Bosa's piece... so this morning I threw my plans of a peaceful violin concerto out the window and drew up this piece.
NB: It is best to listen to this piece fairly loud so you can hear all of the various underlying elements (timpani especially).
more tuba, otherwise pretty amazing
samulis responds:
lol, glad you find it pretty amazing. I certainly could have done a better job if I had more inspiration and less of a thing for tonal poems back then...
It thought this song had a sufficient melodic variance to it, like following different parts of an adventure story. I get the feeling that this was what you were going for. Samples were decent, but I feel that what you lack in sample quality, you make up for in compositional skill. Great job!
samulis responds:
Everyone always says my EWQL samples are decent. Must just be my mixing and selection. >_<
Glad you liked it, thanks man. :)
samulis vs. Bosa... FIGHT!
You did a lot of things right in this, including great composition and mixing, everything felt natural, and the section where the staccato strings come in is nothing short of epic. And while the feel of it was fairly cliche, I think you did well to make it your own, and the transitions between sections felt very natural and clean.
Complaints? The solo violin (That is a violin, yeah?) really... really felt like a sample, every time it played a note, it felt very robotic. It rose and hit vibrato in a very unnatural way, it was especially noticeable when it would switch from one note to another as it would just cut off in the middle of a vibrato very abruptly.
As well, while I do think this is a well done piece, I didn't find it all that memorable, the pace at which it moves is both a blessing and a curse... while it doesn't stick with a theme long enough for the listener to get bored, it, the lifted staccato section aside, doesn't really do anything all that memorable either.
All that aside, I did enjoy listening to it, and gave it a 7.5/10.
samulis responds:
Thanks for the review.
I actually really enjoyed the violin sound I used, but I guess that isn't true with most everyone. XD
In the future, I am considering writing a nice, well-formed, melody-based piece so all the classical nuts will not kill me for my excessive cinematic feel.
Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.
The Good:
-Lovely melodies.
-Really well-done staccato strings at around 1:06.
-I like how you slowed the tempo down to reach 1:40.
The Not-So-Good:
-Many of the melodies are meandering and 'meshing'. 0:40 is a point where the phrase just seems to continue awkwardly for no reason.
-The pause at 1:01-1:05 is very odd, there's barely any buildup before the explosion at 1:06.
-The end of the song seems as if it's at 1:54. After that, since you seem to have gone for a more dramatic ending, it really needs to have MORE drama. Percussion would have worked well.
-Speaking of percussion, where is it? All I've heard that's very audible is the tubular bell and some cymbals, no snare, bass, or toms. As awesome as tubular bells and crashes are, it feels like you need a bit more.
Overall: It's alright. Kind of boring without the percussion in there to back up the melodies. Unfortunately, I don't have a ton to say - songs that are this meandering are fairly difficult to review well. The score I'll give it is a 7/10.
samulis responds:
Because the lack of percussion is such a large thing, I'll put forward my two cents with my response to yours since I know you're going to read this and write a message to me about this. :P
All in all, I generally dislike bringing in large amounts of percussion in an emotional song because they can cut up the expression and ruin the effect of "loss" created by said rambling melodies (yes, the rambling melodies are intentional). I honestly could see a way to bring in bass drum as helping up the timpani, but a snare would probably give the piece a harsh militaristic sound. Perhaps I could bring it in during the 7/8, but I would need to find a way to introduce and remove it. Toms might work in the 7/8. At best, anvils would be next on my list to add because they could augment the tubular bells in the 7/8 with a harsher, darker feel. I will agree that I mastered the timpani too quiet.
Might I summarize by saying- I am sorry I don't listen to hard rock with drum kits that blast your ears off. :3
I think I should do a study on drums... last time I did that everyone told me it sucked. XD
If I work on this more, I will do more of a buildup at 1:01... perhaps get a cymbal in there and make a roll there.
Thanks for the review!
-Samulis
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