oh jeez this is great.
The sounds, the mixing, the vocals are all great.
The form of the piece is great.
The panning is weird, but justified.
The overall experience is for the most part, great. Reminds me of a certain MMO.
There are very few errors that were barely noticeable in the first place. This is definitely going into my NG music :)
I'm posting a few comments on some of the NGADM auditions that particularly stuck out to me, and this is one of them!
Felt the need to drop by and let you know that I think that both your singing and mixing/recording thereof have improved tenfold since my last encounter with your music. This is the first thing that stuck out to me when hearing this track while sifting through the 200 auditions! On the one hand, it's not perfect. Things like 1:12's clipping on that high note, and some lack of clarity at 2:38 with all those vocal harmonies, indicate that there is still room for improvement. On the other hand, former problems I had with your singing (bad recording/mixing quality, iffy higher register) have all but disappeared! The singing in this is mixed tastefully and sounds crisp, and your higher notes sound absolutely wonderful now, complementing your strong lower register, instead of falling behind it.
Of course, the other things that you've usually nailed in your music have once again been nailed right on the head. The composition is beautiful, both in melody and harmony. I especially love how subtly you introduced the other instruments with the prolonged note on "autre", and how the song effortlessly transports itself from one mood to another, from a solemn, solitary and intimate mood to a truly uplifting turnaround at 1:44. Oh, not to mention the divine atmospheres you've created at the very beginning and at the very end!
I feel like the main things holding you back are your instrument samples and mixing/levelling. My advice for the contest is for you to hold on to your signature weapon - your command over real instruments (primarily your voice). They elevate the expression of your music in a way that mere soundfonts unfortunately can't do. In any case, no matter how far you make it in this contest, let me just say I think you've already come an insanely long way since the first track I've heard from you (Propter Te). Best of luck in Round 1!
Great! I really liked Links Awakening as a kid and this gives me some definite nostalgia. I liked the vocals a lot and I felt like they added a bit to the song. Although I doubt you did this intentionally, I liked how they weren't in my native tongue. Whenever someone adds vocals to a song that didn't have vocals before I usually end up thinking the lyrics are really dumb. You sidestepped that issue nicely. :-)
I always was a little conflicted about the wind waker melody. The first bits of the melody (the 2 lines that start 'Je sommeille') I always really liked, but the part at 1:14 never made any melodic sense to me (at least if you're keeping the first half of the melody in mind). You do as good as you could, but it's still weird.
One thing you might want to think about is that the volume levels for this song are kind of all over the place. The volume difference between, say, :15 and 2:00 is quite a lot - I turned up my headphones pretty loud at first, but later had to turn them back down. Maybe you did this on purpose, but you should just keep it in mind.
I thought the mixing of the song was well done. At points like 2:00 it feels very well developed.
I found myself really hoping for a section - maybe just a small one - where everything really bursted though. The whole song sorta felt like a build up to a climax that didn't come. The point at 2:00 was closest to what I wanted, but I felt like it needed more somehow. (Or perhaps it should just have come at the end of the song?) I don't know.
This is somewhere between an 8 and a 9. Really awesome work - a reinvention of a classic!
Cheers, thanks for the review! :D
1) I imagined the climactic finish was in Section II, around 2:59. This is, quite literally, where all the instruments I've used come in (except for the ocarina). My original idea for the video (which is no longer in place) was to have the Instruments of the Sirens show up at various points in the piece depending on which instruments actually played in the song.
That being said, the mixing follows that sequence. If I'm not mistaken, it may be the order in which the instruments appear in a circle on Mt Tamaranch. Panning in a circle was quite tricky, admittedly, and since the first time I handled a sequencer (Logic Pro 8 it was back then), I had never panned in a circle... until recently.
2) Volume levels, you're quite right. The volume starts bursting out at 2:00, I see it in the waveform on Audacity. This is something I must tend to.
3) I wholeheartedly agree about the melody. The last few lines of it, I was thinking, 'Totaka, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?'
4) The thing about the melody is that if we were to go on a purely speechlike basis, English stresses the first syllables in words most of the time, while French stresses either the second or last syllables in words. Given how the melody actually goes in this piece, I thought, French would fit. When I first thought of singing to the melody of the Ballad of the Wind Fish, literally the first line that came to me was "Je sommeille, je sommeille dans cet espace". It wouldn't have fit in English, I doubt it would've, if I were to go with a rough translation of the lyrics at hand.
Once again, thank you so much!
I'll give you my full critical review. Especially because I love the Ballad of the Windfish so much, that I must be critical. :)
VOICE: Your voice is great. Get a better microphone. I don't know if it also has anything to do with the reverb used, but it sounds like you are singing in a box.
FIRST PART (calm): I feel like something should be adjusted about the high pitch "tubular bells" or whatever they are. I do not know what, though.
SECOND PART (fast): The rattlesnake tambourine thing sounds awkward because of the fast perfect unrealistic(?) rattle. The background sounds work well together. The staccato bowed string in the background is great.
ENDING: Everything about the ending is perfect! It gave me chills. The vocal harmony, the harp work, the string backing. I guess the ending "tah" sound of the last "t'attendent" seems maybe too loud?
OVERALL: Most of the tune is far more "happy" sounding than I personally prefer Ballad of the Windfish. But that's preference and has nothing to do with my rating of this track. You did good with it. I think most of the track sounded kinda "flat" and I /think/ I know why; In many places as the piece swelled and flowed the instrumental and vocal volumes didn't change much. Sometimes the vocals even got quieter as you sang the more "intense" notes. Notice how from 3:00 to 3:20 your voice is the same volume even though the piece goes from the intense final swell to the slow and calm ending. Anyway, great work, and once again, I love everything about the ending. :)
Yay, thanks for the review! ^_^ It's a joy to hear from you once again. If you can PM me pointers to these questions I'm about to ask, I'll be grateful.
Is it the mic's omission of the low frequencies that makes me sound like I'm singing in a box though? It could be the case. Step has the same mic as I do and he tells me that that Samson Go takes out some lower frequencies when it comes to voices. The reverb is set to 'The Venue', which is what I put for nearly all instruments to varying degrees. So fairly wet signal. D:
Tubular bells, I think I have the answer too: omission of low frequencies. The bells as they are sound very tinny, and yes, I agree. They need some bass to them. Any good bell samples to recommend?
The chimes: Nimble also told me the same thing XD It's been quantised so much that it sounds unrealistic. (We know what this means: time to get myself an actual tambourine!)
Voice swells: Thanks for pointing that out. I think some volume control in that last section is due.
Glad you enjoyed it, all things considered! Admittedly I was going with what the original Gameboy sound had in mind, and imagined all those eight Instruments of the Sirens were playing. I mean, they've got a drum in their mix! XD And broken chords! But hey, this is just one rendition out of many, and many others sound more solemn and have been successful. x