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deadlyfishes

7 Audio Reviews w/ Response

All 14 Reviews

Hey Helloyourbored,

I really enjoyed this fan rendition that was inspired by Tales of Zale! If you are not familiar with who I am; I'm the composer on the Tales of Zale series, and I wanted to say you did an awesome job with this piece.

I really enjoyed the atmospheric themes here. There are some varying moods here which is quite fitting to the Tales of Zale universe. It's really emotional and heartfelt throughout, and there is a lot of musical ideas here which is also great.

It was somewhat difficult to focus on the music with some of those sound effects, but it did help the entry sound more cinematic, making it sound like there is another media counterpart to go along with this piece, which is essentially what film music is.

The samples are not top-of-the-line, but I could hear through them and can really identify your talent in composition. Someday, when you get some really great sounding orchestra libraries, you'll be making high quality cinematic works in no time!

From a compositional and thematic standpoint, I do think there is room for improvement in terms of establishing a solid thematic musical motif. It's great as background music as it goes on, but a lot of character can truly shine when your piece of music has a very enticing musical theme/motif, even if it is very simple. In cinematic music, this is very essential as thematic elements help to support and compliment the story and plot of it's visual counterpart. Even if you are not writing to picture, keeping this in mind will help you create some wonderful cinematic pieces.

I enjoyed your track and I hope you continue to explore your creativity.

-Matthew

Irish-Soul responds:

I would just like to say that I am 100% honored that you left a review on my song! I have seen other music you make and it is very impressive. I also saw the FL studio makeup of the actual ToZ 2 soundtrack. The skill you have is truly amazing. I aspire to have the skill level you are at. I can also understand why there would be such difficulty implementing this into the actual episode.

I am sure you went soft on the review for my song, for I'm sure it had many other mistakes. I have never made a cinematic song before so this was a HUGE learning experience. GarageBand was one of the hardest obstacles to overcome. I would also like to thank Hikuaran and yourself for this opportunity to join the contest with a song. Thank you for leaving information for a beginner!

As far as musical motifs go, I also agree. Next time I make a cinematic song (Or most songs for that matter) I will focus on creating a motif that will be strong. Thanks for pointing that out or else I may have never noticed that.

Thank you so much for leaving a review!

Very nice game themes here. Guitar playing is very solid and the lead melody works extremely well for what you're trying to accomplish. I think adding more layers should've came in a bit earlier instead of at the very very end. I'd personally like to hear more variation in the middle, or maybe some sort of development or "B Section." Other than that, this should serve it's original function as game music very well. Great job!

Blacklawn responds:

I didn't want to stray too much away from the main theme, but you might be right.

Wow, well that was pretty intense... Everything was really well done! I didn't know really what this was at first, but I was taken in within the first few seconds. Things got real for sure! I never really heard much like this before, and I must say this is really awesome! I want to mention some specific things from the story, but I don't want to spoil anyone.

Amazingly, for the length it was perfect how everything came together.

VoicesByCorey responds:

I'm really glad you enjoyed it Matthew! Hopefully we can have you work with us on the next project!

I came here not expecting what I just heard. Maybe it was the fact it was labeled as "Other - Misc" but genres can get kind of silly... Anyways; Right off the bat, the soundscape you created along with the somewhat detuned piano synth worked really well together. I am usually off-put by some detuned instruments unless I really need it for a film or game project. Bring in the powerful lead pads into the beat and things really take off. The complex sequence of sounds are pretty stimulating, and kept me interested, waiting for more! The subtle low bass going on during the quiet transitional section was pretty awesome. With my sub turned on it really kept that part alive. Having this beat vamp out to the end was a good move to end it. Usually tracks will go back to the heavy "chorus" section but I think you did enough to really get the point across here. Sometimes I like to make "extended" versions or other versions of my tracks, wouldn't hurt to try that out right? It could give your work more versatility in terms of usability. This is awesome BFP, you should really stop by in the review thread more often, people really enjoy your work!

Back-From-Purgatory responds:

Glad you liked it, and yeah, I'm trying to be a little more active on the forum in general. I get kind of distracted then end up only really dropping by to make sure no one is breaking any rules then off I go again.

But yeah... More is coming, I've got a couple more projects I'm currently actively working on that will hopefully be up soonish.

Thanks for the review.

I think what you have here sounds really nice. I understand you're just using soundfonts but I try to see past that when listening. You can still make your piano and whatever sounds still sound emotional. Even if you are playing in the notes with a MIDI controller or not, there's a lot you can do with velocity editing and automation. I think some of the textural sounds-capes you have created using orchestral instruments fits well with the music. It may be a little pop-ish for my taste, but it sounds nice and that's what really matters. I feel there is a lack of melody and with this very strong chord progression, there is more than enough room to come up with a simple, yet effective melody for your piece.

I know for one, I am not the kind of person to go back and fix things like that since I just take it for what it is and move on to another project.

Take it or leave it, that's my two cents.

I would really love to hear more from you. See if you can spend some time trying something a bit out of your comfort zone. Push your boundaries a little, who knows it might spark something great in your writing.

If you need any technical or music related advice let me know, I'm always glad to help.

Krichotomy responds:

I just placed all the notes with a mouse. I do have a keyboard that I can hook up to MIDI but the keys are just ON/OFF buttons so it doesn't allow for much expressiveness. I intended to go back and vary the volume of the piano notes but the project files don't work right anymore.

I'm not aware of soundfonts having a velocity adjustment.

This music is intended to just be variations around the main note progression and I didn't want any melodic elements standing above that.

Out of my comfort zone = jazz. Grin.

Thanks for the advice and the offer for more advice.

Using random ideas isn't always a good thing...

Looking at what you said:

"I don't like repeating things, even if it's what is suppose to do. I like creating a random approach and keep everyone questionable, on what to expect."

So, I was thinking about some basic foundations on repetitions in some of the earlier music eras. In classical styles, motives or repetitious musical phrases are often "repeated" in the context of motivic development. Maybe they made the repeated part twice as long, twice as short, upside down, backwards or any combination of those. Also, changing the melodic shape into a whole new mode such as major/minor or any of the 7 diatonic modes. Now I know I'm getting way into this because I understand we're just talking about electronic music here, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to avoid repetition. It's DIRECT repetition that usually makes a lot of electronic tracks sort of stale... Now, maybe you could have certain ideas and bring them back in a whole new way, but keeping the "soul" of that idea intact.

On a technical note, I hear that you mostly just use the presets of NI: Massive. They are tried and true of course, but professional composers/producers such as myself are starting to pick up on who is actually taking time to make their own synths rather than just picking presets. I am guilty of this as well, but I try my best not to do this.

In conclusion to all of this, looking at song formats, layouts and the idea of a "theme" will help you in any genre of writing. Even if that "theme" is not something melodic, especially in the case of dubstep.

Now, I hope you don't take offense to the rating of 7/10 but I feel that 10/10 is given way to easily these days. Honestly listening to this I could hear that you could do so much better and that you have the potential.

I hope you take this review into consideration, and with all this in mind check out my first dubstep track I've ever done. I have been doing many styles over these past couple of years; orchestral, classical, rock, electronica and with my years of study and experience I tried to make some simple trance/dubstep.

Check it out here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste n/443429

Keep up the good work!

-Matthew

flashpantss responds:

Thank you sir, and actually, just to let you know, not all are presets lol. They just happen to sound the same. And I'm not mad I didn't get a 10/10 or you rated it 7/10. It's probably the right number for this, since in fact it does everything you say in the review.

I find everything you said in your review true. Repetition is not bad at all.

But thank you for the review.

Musically inept; an example of bland production

At first I notice the bland and generic use of preset-like synths. It doesn't sound like you actually mapped out those 16th notes yourself, because the harmony you imply is overall, monotonous. Moving on to more layers which again are the same type of preset-like monotonous synths. There is no real connection between the change of texture and is still overall the same harmony. The drums are from the popular drum machine, the 909 drum samples. Although drum samples and loops are pretty similar to one another, this one in particular is really uninteresting and does not spark any interest whatsoever to the listener. The only thing that could possibly grab anyone's attention is the title of the song "Awkward Sex" At the 0:50 mark, a sine-wave like synth is brought into the mix with atonal harmonies, probably not intentional since atonal music takes a lot of understanding of tonal music so that you could avoid any tonal center using only non-related pitches in a way that creates "textures" rather than harmonies. Throughout the rest of the song, new synths which are also presets pretty much follow the same natural minor harmony that you've been implying the entire time. No real melody is established and no interesting harmonic chord progressions are introduced although sometimes great music that stay within one chord can be very interesting, sadly I cannot say the same for this track. To be fair I'm giving this track a 2 because you stated in your author comments "I could listen to this on loop for quite a long time." If you made this for yourself to listen to and enjoy on loop that is good that you are making music for the right reasons. Also, people who think they could enjoy this more than 30 seconds should not be making music, but trying to learn and understand it more so that they don't get reviews like this one.

TheDevilWearsWill responds:

I think its pretty darn good for having fruity loops for only a week. I enjoy criticisms when I know they would help. It just seems like you're comparing me too much to everyone else, maybe even including yourself.

Experienced audio professional with more than 10 years of demonstrated history of working in the video game and film industry.

Matthew Pablo @deadlyfishes

Age 35, Male

Music Composer

Berklee College of Music 2013

United States

Joined on 5/15/11

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