this music got some emotion
i really like the music it really calm me down when im down about something anyway you got a great imagination i like your work as well amazing job keep it up dude
Reviews for "Ironesque Valley"
FatKidWitAJetPak responds:
The imagination can truly be a powerful thing. I'm so glad you enjoy it :)
Nice, but...
... I can only bring myself to like the 3:50 - 8:00 part. The rest of it is too quiet, too slow for my tastes. I know that you were trying to convey depression and such, but the aforementioned part is already pretty dark, like an rebellious struggle in a dystopian future. Makes me imagine a mixture of Doom with Half-Life and other dark games I have played.
All the rest is very grim-sounding and makes me imagine an empty landscape in some far-off planet. I suppose you have accomplished what you set out to do, express your depression in your music, but I don't want to be depressed so I don't like it! In fact I don't think I've ever experienced clinical depression. If it's as bad as your piece makes it to be, heavens save me if I ever do!
~Pig
FatKidWitAJetPak responds:
Well, I don't want to nescesarilly make others feel depressed... at least not for the entire song. I simply want people to feel a sort of unknown, distant calling from their subconscious. You would be surprised at what sort of new feelings can be created when you sit back and open up your mind a bit. Don't be afraid of the feelings, just let it all sink in. I think many people will stray away from these feelings, however, and start to think about the song on technical terms. Being depressed for me now is simply a calling to make more music and write. It is a feeling of isolation and dark structure, but I seem to have grown accustomed to it.
Wow.
As others have said this is rather strange and "unsettling" but really, really well done. I've also been through some kind of depression recently and you've described the feeling very well. Good job and keep going!
FatKidWitAJetPak responds:
I think that sometimes we like unsettling sounds. I simply compose what I feel, so I guess I feel unsettling at times.
repost
I really like what you did, cause in my opinion it's really setting a kind of dark mood. what I mean is I can imagine games like half life and such with this kind of music on it, possibly even this track ^^ I get a sort of... how do I put it... "lost in space" kind of feeling, cause it really got me "drifting", by which I mean that I ended up in some kind of trance. I'll bet putting this on my iPod *clicks download* to listen to whenever I feel like laying down in the grass field near my house and "drift" away. so keep up the work and I'll consider buying your CD, in case you'd be able to ship to europe, and I can afford it ^^'
PS: I'd appreciate it if you listened to my music too, and gave me me feedback and/or tips? it's not much yet, but there's more coming :3
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FatKidWitAJetPak responds:
I think that in the future, I would absolutely love to compose ambient tracks for games. In fact, I have looked for games here on Newgrounds to compose for. The eery sounds of Silent Hill are my favorite. Sure man, I will give you some feedback. :)
Your song, my review.
0:00-3:50ish, neat pads/sound scapes, samples used. I feel as if the clips of (unsure what it is) clicking/scraping could have been cut up and separated panning wise. Parts sounded smooth, others bit rougher, sounded like some granular editing/bit map editing took place. If so, kudos for delving into it. If not, well it sounds like it. I was fond of the hints of bird-eque nature sounds throughout. I found myself thinking a very sharp plucking ound could hit at an ymoment with a long trailing reverb, and fit in perfectly. I wasn' given that plenitude.
3:50 transition feels more like the swap over from one song to another then that of a coherent blend. One section fades out while the other fades in, and it isn't the smoothest of swap up. I think simply entertwiing the patterns more so and twining the fade in/out of the instruments to be a bit slower/individual from one another would make up for it.
One of your synths post 3:50 has a gritty edge to it, it sounds like a square wavey sound. Unsure if I like it, the high pitched arp has a bit of a tinny edge too.
4:30 roughly reminded me of Secede.
5:35 might be my headphones, but low ends are hardly present. The soft change in synth filters and compositional movements are nice. I feel things could sound fuller, but I'm kind of a turd-meister for always trying to buff things up in that reguard. Minimalisms not really a strenght of mine. :P I do feel however the arpping nature and continued playstyle alot of the instruments drone on a fair bit, that something that was more sporatic could give for a pleasant contrast that wasn't chosen by you.
7:05 your arpping main lead has a note that cuts like 1/16th of a note off. Its a bit of a hitch.
7:53 once more the transition from driving arps to sustained note feels a little too unbuilt up to for my liking. The following airy sounds after though work, its a smoother transition from held note to wind, then that of arps to sustained note. I don't know what to suggest other then simply a more layered approach to the transition. Say having a clone of the instrument playing a droned note slowly fade in, while the arps fade out, so it isn't purely a playstyle change, but one of volume/reverb drness or something else as well.
9:30 sounds like PWM / binaural beat modding, or intentional destructive harmonics. Its neat. I feel as if production wise the distorted shifting sound could be much more engaging if it had its higher frequencies reverberating or delayed so to fill up the high end a bit more.
10:40 bit crusher movement is evident, and has some clicking. It sounds like the steps of the automation can be heard, and the clicking sounds like the plugin doesn't support the automation. It sounds good admittedly, but it similarly to me sounds like some mistakes
11mins ish, I like the eerie ambiance an awful lot.
11:45 drop off is really nice a change from the elevating sound. I felt pacing wise there could be a bit of a gap after that of near silence before the introduction of the next section. This transition while I don't fully agree with the pacing/timing (given the last sentance), does maneuver much more smoothly.
13:40 there is a detuned sounding siren. Very nice. Alot of the sounds used throughout are very muffled, reverbated, obcured in some way. Long sustained, long to drone out. I really wish there were more sharp sounds that were in a psycho acoustical foreground, it would make the peice far more captivating I think.
15:38 vocal synthy blip is almost one of those sharper sounds I was hoping for.
Song ending as an individual piece is kind of weak, but given its ambient, they tend to be dependent on what follows after.
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Work on transitions more. I know working on a long peice can often become cumbersome given the sheer girth, and to listen to and evaulate your own work becomes awfully difficult, but it is absolutely necessary. Not all transitions in this song were equally strong as they could have been, and I think for fulfilling a strong ambient peice, there needs to be a high level of attention focused on cohesion.
FatKidWitAJetPak responds:
wow. That's the longest review I have ever seen, thanks a whole lot! Anyway, I'll try and cover everything you said in a short summary...
Basically, I see you looked into this track on an extreme technical level. The thing is, I purposely put in seemingly mistakingly created sounds on purpose. I personally find it to be as coherent as possible. Since it is a ambient / experimental track, I tried to stray away from normal expected structures and techniques. I also wanted it to sound fairly random at points, representing my bipolar attitude. This song eerily describes BPD, a chemical bipolar disorder I was diagnosed with earlier this year, in musical form. It is also a sort of journey track, telling a story depending on how the listener feels. Not everything is suppose to be perfectly pieced on a technical level. Although, spent the majority of the time mastering this track.
I really appreciate the review, and will certainly look into high pitched pings for distraction elements. I am trying to use only my ideas, however, and will therefore try to simply develop a more memorable and recognizable melody in my next track, although I purposely didn't include very many recognizable melodies in this song to replicate the deep and dark drone feeling of the ambient soundscape I was trying to create.
Thanks again!