So beautiful piece my friend, sounds really awesome and gorgeous!, like very much the electric guitar use, that is not very usual in this style of music but sounds very great. The percussions sounds wonderful realistic like the brass, and the arrangement in brass voices are very professional. A pleasure to listen.
Author Comments
Since Johnfn stole his Guac Compo audience, Arby decided to make a comeback whereas this time it’s a Salsa that gets too hot to be scooped up.
"The Chipsical!" is a musical adaptation of the true events surrounding the history of Chips Compo. Portrayed in this accurate narrative is the Guac Compo that symbolizes the competitions over here at Newgrounds, particularly the NGUAC. Since Chips had a lull around the time of the start of this year's NGADM, Arby figured this would be his opportune moment to showcase that truly great music is created by a community that identify as dip rather than chips. I mean that's where all the flavor is at! Though I should mention there's a caveat that as long as your recipe to create the dip doesn't consist of an octave that goes up and down somewhere, you're fine here. I suppose that's one for the chips.
If only the voice actor that played Arby would actually make a comeback…
And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, at least you know now how I feel about Dubstep.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On a serious note, I spent a lot of time studying the Salsa style before actually working on this piece in the DAW. I started practicing the Montuno rhythm via the piano, and then the chord progression came after that. Hoping it’s something my Hispanic friends could dig.
Phonometrologist responds:
I'm happy that you decided to stop by and leave a comment about it. I was curious to see what artists that actually come from this style would think. You're right that the electric guitar is not typical for this style of music. I was looking through a bunch of Salsa music to hear if there were any guitar parts, and I couldn't really find any for inspiration. I wanted to combine Salsa with what I'm more familiar with and that is Blues/Rock&Roll. Even the chord progression is more Classical influenced and I wanted to marry the different styles together while keeping it mostly a Salsa piece. For the guitar, we found that it works best if it followed the groove of the bass because the bass plays before the downbeat as it anticipates it. I'm sure you know this as this is typical in Latin music. But that is not so much the case from the background that I come from.
By the way, I've listened to several pieces from your Jazz band on Youtube, and they are a real joy to listen to. I have much respect for your playing and sound. I'm hoping to hear more from you in the future.
Salsa dance! Salsa chips! Salsa!
Damn, isn't this too light for your style? :O I was expecting dark and sad sounds.
Pretty awesome work. Curse the judges for failing ya.
Phonometrologist responds:
Yes it is too light for my "style." It almost reminds me of elevator music if someone can actually dance a salsa in one. Reason being for its creation is that it serves as another demo that 8Dio will be releasing sometime soon. I wanted to prove to myself that I can learn any style if I wanted to so I decided to study Salsa for the first time. I suppose I could try to study Dubstep too, but I'm afraid if I did that, I would then have to throw my computer in the dumpster.
Very different than what I’m used to hearing from you! I like the sound design in this piece a lot, although the rhythm at the beginning is a little hard-to-follow at first. The piano at :05 really helps anchor the syncopations in place, though. The vocals at :13 add to the thematic flavor, and the guitar at :28 is a really refreshing addition to the texture. The saxophone melody at 1:12 serves as a wonderful point of arrival, and I also love the bass line there. There’s room for a little more structural ebb and flow in the piece, although the solos at 2:01 help hit the piece home well. The ending also comes on a tad suddenly, but the percussion fill during the last few seconds helps. Overall, I love the compositional work here, and the production quality is strong as always with you. Another strong effort, Phono! ^_^
Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9.25/10
Phonometrologist responds:
Thank you for your review here for which I do not take for granted. Regarding the rhythm in the beginning, this was my inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi0aQ4PVAdI
There's not much critique here for me to gnaw on, but I appreciate the comments nonetheless. Regarding the ending...well.. you know
TEQUILA!!!
This is was out of nowhere. Nice work. It's always a challenge when you try something new.
Just an FYI, currently listening through a shitty computer speakers. I like the balance. I could hear pretty much everything clearly and my speakers didn't distort at all, which happens when certain frequency is too high.
The only thing I had a gripe was the solo part. The other elements in the track kinda overpowered the solo many times. Especially the trumpets. I would rearrange that part to showcase the guitar a bit more. This was a lot of fun to listen to. Kudos
Phonometrologist responds:
Thanks for stopping by and making the time. It's a fair point regarding the guitar. It was a thought of mine before I decided to upload this. Had a few people listen at home, and they didn't seem to mind so I just left it. Moreover, I didn't use the guitar solo originally as this is meant to be a demo for 8Dio. Perhaps I'll return to mixing this after the competition. Thank you.
This is very relaxing. I like some of the improv lines, and the chord progressions are wonderful. I think this is quite a danceable song, though I have no way to know with certainty :P
Besides the obvious points, a couple things I would charge are making the piano slightly softer (with EQ), and cutting out some of the bass’s high end. I think these changes would make the song much easier to listen to on repeat; I found it to be a little fatiguing as is despite greatly enjoying the composition.
I’m surprised by how well you can create totally different styles of music!
Phonometrologist responds:
Thank you. This is more relaxed than a typical Salsa that's for sure.
Regarding your comments about mixing, those are fair points. I'll probably return to this sometime with a fresh set of ears with your comments in mind. In the meantime, I did notice that because of the style, there's a lot of high end in general and that's new for me when writing pieces. It might be tiresome on the ears if listened on headphones, but this style is meant to be danced to over speakers in a room. And perhaps with tons of drinking involved as well. The Salsa references I used to arrange and mix this all were heavy on the bass and high on 1k &10k range. And the bass has some artifacts between 500-1k, because I was using an upright bass sample. I wanted to keep some of that acoustic/live feel in the bass. All fair, but I haven't gotten any critique from 8Dio about EQing these parts so I left it as is for them. The main thing they didn't want was the guitar solo at the end so I left it in the version for Newgrounds instead.
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Phonometrologist 
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