Very beautiful voice!, You have great a future in this :)
Reviews for "Ascension"
headphoamz responds:
Thank you Joseph, means a lot to me! ^_^
Your voice is absolutely HEAVENLY. Soothes the soul (Well mine anyways :P). Amazing job, keep it up!
headphoamz responds:
Thank you so much Shrimple, very nice of you to say :)
Hi there!
The Good:
-Okay, you definitely have some really nice singing. Going to comment further on this a little bit more since the vocal solo is the main focus.
-Wonderful chords overall. Very well-constructed, nice progressions.
-Transitions are fine.
-Mixing's good, there's nowhere which feels too empty this time.
The Not-So-Good:
-Remember, with singing you typically need to articulate a bit more so that people can understand the lyrics. With this solo singing it was a bit more of an issue. Some of the words seemed a bit slurred. There's another issue which is simple tremelo off the note - that happens sometimes as well.
-Alright, nitpicky thing regarding the piano/voice combo. It would have been great if, since the voice were centered, the piano were as well. Center the actual instrument some more, then let the reverb fill out the sides. The reason is because then it sounds more like the singer is actually PLAYING the piano - and that gives a stronger "wow this person is skilled" effect IMO.
-I personally did not like the other orchestral instruments. They seemed a bit over-the-top for a 'solo instrument' singing piece. The only one which *could* have fit IMO was the backing strings, and even then: They probably should have been more subtle. ...oh, also the break at 1:45 was definitely the cheesiest part of the piece, not to mention the weakest part. Similar to last round, actually.
-Eh, the piano being almost entirely background chords doesn't sit well with me. Could be because I'm a pianist, but it would have been very nice if the piano had a bit more to do and more of an active role. There are plenty of arpeggios, basslines, trills, ornaments... plenty for a pianist to do over the top.
-More cheesy in the outro, dangit.
Overall: Score of 8.8/10. Ay. I feel mean giving this and all the nitpicks, it's the lowest score I've written down so far. DEFINITELY not going to be the lowest one this round though, the first three pieces have just been so good! In any case, sorry if the nitpicks seem to be a bit much, but I can see a lot of room for improvement in this piece. I think that you can do much better than this!
headphoamz responds:
Thanks, Skye. We might have disagreements over this, but I understand where you're coming from. Keep on keepin' on.
This is an NGADM Round 4 review.
--
This feels a lot like your style. I think for Round 1, maybe Round 2, and Round 3, you were diverging across various styles, and now you've hit home again. You're good at loads of styles, but this seems like your niche to me. Beautiful composition in both the piano and the vocals. I love your chords. They make me curious - have you ever formally learnt jazz or at least classical theory?
One of my absolute favourite things about this track would be what you've got going at 1:44. What a beautiful momentary instrumental section that not only breaks up the monotony of having you singing in a ballad manner all the time, but has a way of communicating just as well as the lyrics do. Not even going to bother giving my analysis of your singing voice by the way. You know very well I think it's omgfkhdsuafghsg.
I was saying in the judge Skype chat earlier... how is it possible to find anything not to like in this track? While etherealwinds had some issues that were pretty apparent (to me, at least), this track doesn't actually have anything that I can call "bad" (well, apart from the occasional clipping in the track).
The only thing I can do at this point is compare it to etherealwinds's track. Like I said, I think your track doesn't have levelling issues or whatever - everything is tastefully done and highly indicative that you know what you're doing. However, I feel that compared to etherealwinds you played it a bit more safe. His track had more focus on using instruments to build an atmosphere, plus it was more original.
Because of that dilemma between your track having less issues than etherealwinds's, but his track being more original and thoughtful in terms of atmosphere, I think I'll have to give you both the same score. Brilliant work.
Score: 9.6/10
headphoamz responds:
As always, thanks for a detailed and descriptive review, Step! :)
I would love to hear you sing Elizibeth's Song from Bioshock Infinite.
Beautiful voice though, you need not ruin it with auto tune in other songs, it is perfect as is.
headphoamz responds:
Thanks very much!