Summer Night

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Summer Night

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Author Comments

Short ambient jazz track made for the NGUAC KO round.
I used Audacity and FL 12.
VST used : Morphine, Broadcast, Hardcore
Samples from Universal Soundbank.
Drum samples from drumsamples.org
I recorded the bass and the guitars.

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Spadezer

2018-08-14 21:59:56

This is an Official NGUAC '18 Knockout Round Review

Beginning Comments: There was a lot of different directions you were hinting to got to at the beginning I thought. It took a while to get going, but once you did I could get a nice relaxed and jazzy vibe out of this.

Production / Mixing: It's very clean. The Rhodes I felt were a slightly too forward but the rest of the mix was good. Well balanced and easy to listen to. Considering the style, having it be easy to take in is a necessity.

Composition / Structure: The intro went a little longer than I would have liked, but there was a healthy variety of voices used to set the stage. The song as a whole felt a bit free form. Not saying it lacked structure, but the theme had a tendency to morph and float as it progressed. I was a tad dissapointed at the end too, because I could have seen this developing a lot more.

Sound Design: The variety of instruments used at the beginning was a bit to take in, but it was pleasant. I didn't feel overwhelmed, and I like how they developed towards the main groove starting at 1:09. I really enjoyed what you were doing after that point. The only complaint I have is I thought the beginning piano was recorded. With everything else sounding so real and crisp, I'm surprised by the quality of the initial piano. It doesn't sound like it's in the same type of environment or with the same microphone.

Ending Comments: I enjoyed this. Not a bad piece, but I would have liked to have seen a little more development.

Score:

Production - 0.5

Composition - 1

Structure - 0.5

Sound Design - 1

Replay - 0.75

Total - 7.5

*Disclaimer - to make judging consistent with other judges, individual category scores are multiplied by 2 to make a total possible 10 points.

EdKempeper responds:

Hello !
Thank you for this constructive review.
Yeah, I recorded the piano and I tried to work on the sound, but it was really hard (it sounded very "distant"). It doesn't fit really well with the other parts of the track. Same thing for the guitars.
I'd like to mix it on Cubase, but it doesn't work anymore on my new computer.... Not eassy to mix on FL ! :p
And the structure of the track is not clear, especially the last part wher the drums stop...
Anyway, it was an experimental track, i should have posted something I master instead of it.
Thanks again for your review !
Ed

Kwing

2018-08-08 17:16:32

The first half of this works as an ambient piece. The second, not so much. I really like the slow building intro. The piano melody at 0:55 struck me as rather simplistic and boring, and I feel like a few alterations to the chords would have made the whole piece a lot better. The guitar outro was really nice, but with all other layers of the track fading away, it felt like a complete non-sequitur, especially since that instrument isn't heard until the last 1/4 of the song.

EdKempeper responds:

Hi !
Thank you very much for this very detailed review.
Yeah, there's a problem with the last part of the track. There's a lot of problems with this track.
I had some ideas, but with my "tools", it was hard to make them real...
I chose this song for the KO round because it was different from my other tracks. I'll try new things, new VST and new way of composing and mixing for the next ones.
Thanks again for your review.
Ed