DamienFleisch's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[UneasyRevise]

Like I said in your thread, I like this piece a lot compositionally. It is very simple and minimalistic in it's mostly constant rhythm, but it is also filled with a lot of nice textures, especially in the middle section. I'm often drawn to music that has a dark and brooding feeling to it, and I also like me some good dissonance. That's what gives it that nice texture.

On to some minor issues with it. Pick clicking on Nylon strings is really audible and becomes kind of grating on the ears after a while, and it's pretty persistent through the whole song. It also sounds like there is some delay or something in some parts of the song that just may not be necessary. And because the tempo is somewhat free throughout the piece it sounded like it was muddying some parts up. I'd be willing to bet the parts where it's creating the echo and harmony towards the end could simply be played that way instead of using the delay to create it as an effect.

Now on to a proposal for you: If you could tab this piece out, or, even better, notate it, I'd like to learn it and re-record it for you (and for myself because I enjoy the piece). With a little bit of tweaking and some figuring out how to play the delays, I think it would sound really awesome. So if that's something you'd be interested in shoot me a PM and we'll make it happen!

MikeeUSA responds:

Thank you very much for your review, I very much appreciate it.
Here's an initial stab at notating the fret positions for the first part.
1st part starts like this:
Useing string 1(high E) and 2, 1 as drone string, 2 as fretted:
(string: frets)
1: Drones for all the notes on string 2
2: 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 (or so)(So: 5,4,1,0)
Next part going down:
3:333333332222
4:22
4:0 2 3 5 (then goes back abit up the string towards open)

Variation is to go up with fret 2 and 3 on 1st string rather than down.

There might be some error in this attempt at tabbing.

[Return]

Wow.....just. Wow. It's incredibly evocative. From start to finish I could feel it pulling on my heartstrings and hitting me in all the feels. As usual, your piano writing is great, and that cello is singing so beautifully alongside it. Really excellent piece!

Phonometrologist responds:

Thank you Damien-- I was hoping for that

[Suddenly all alone]

This is probably my favorite track that I've heard from you, man. Great job!

What especially stands out to me is the music box and the way that you layered it and added some delay/echo effects to it by the sounds of it. It takes a line that isn't very complex and adds another layer on to it that pulls me right in and keeps me listening very intently. It reminds me a little bit of this artist Cast in Bronze who plays this keyboard type instrument but instead of strings it's bells.

Awesome piece, keep it up! :)

Azhthar responds:

I´m just listening to the tubular bells cover from cast in bronze. That guy indeed is amazing! Thx for the tip ;) Also thanks a lot for the nice review. Actually I wasn´t so sure about this track at the beginning. Thought there might be to much contrast between the two parts...

[On The Glass Edge]

Absolutely awesome, man! Around like 1:00 the lead switched tones and it sounded like that tone from Veil of Maya's [Id] album. The mix is tight too. What did you use for your drums? Because they sound really good.

PirateCrab responds:

Haha, Veil of Maya may very well be one of my main sources of inspiration. Listen to the riff that's behind that lead tone as well ;)
Drum's are all done in S2.0 with the Metal Machine pack. I post-process everything with external plugins though because S2.0 built-in plugins fall short compared to some of the stuff you can get these days :)

[I Killed God]

The narrative structure to this piece is very clear and the contrast between the big intense sections and the intimate moments was clear and well executed. At the middle calm section I definitely had the feeling of like the hero reflecting on his motivations, and deaths doorstep, and then bouncing back to finally triumph. My one critique is that the brass sounded big but the timbre was a little dull. When brass are blaring away like that they actually have a very bright quality that can be tough to find in samples but a subtle EQ bump around 2kHz can help with that a bit.

Overall great composition though! Good luck!

Veneox responds:

Much Appreciated.

With the two weeks I haven't had a chance to fully equalize every instrument as perfect as I wanted before release, but will update the song after judging since the deadline is now over to fix such problems.

;}

[Revelation]

The production on this sounds pretty top notch to me. You managed to keep it building for so long and I thought that made the final peak super powerful. Had I been in a movie theater, I'd have been completely sucked into whatever trailer or action scene was happening.

Really great man, good luck!

[Pareidolic War]

There is something about the sound of piano with a heavy left hand that makes my soul smile and the piano in this really hit the spot. Off-topic, but, the other day I was at a chamber concert and this pianist was playing a bunch of Chopin with a delicate left hand (namely the Scherzo in b minor) and it left me wanting.

Also, I love the effect using a reversed sound to transition creates. I think you did it twice and both times it was very effective. The only critique I can come up with is that the string melody in the section after the solo piano could have come out more.

Awesome piece and good luck!

Phonometrologist responds:

yes I thought this piano called for this particular style of playing. Not to digress too much either, but I thought about in the past how Chopin's works are supposed to be played and I thought about Liszt as he did many of his stuff. Then I thought about Evegny Kissin as he has been compared to Liszt of today. If you haven't caught him in concert yet, you better! Chopin wasn't meant to be played with a soft hand, and Chopin himself wouldn't want it any other way if he could.

I'm definitely going to re-mix and master this track after the judging, and your critique about the strings is noted. Thank you very much.

[Focus]

Great song! The chorus part especially, at least that is what I thought of the part around 1:20 and the end as. The synth you used there had a liveliness to it that the samples just didn't have. Good jazzy samples are really hard to come by, Sample Modeling's libraries come to mind.

The solo section was very good, and sounded like a jazz players improv. Nice job and good luck :)

Nimble responds:

Sample Modeling's libraries are really nice, I'm going to keep a nice eye on them from here on out. Thanks for the listen, I really appreciate it :)

[Tree of Life]

This is such a beautiful song. The ambience is so well crafted it felt very much like I was lost in a sea of sound. I especially enjoyed the second half when your voices were doing a sort of call/response.

Very wonderful, and best of luck! :D

etherealwinds responds:

I'm really happy that you liked it. I enjoyed your piece a lot too. Best of luck to you good sir. <3

[Future]

I'm not the biggest dubstep fan but, man, I've heard a couple of your tracks and I really enjoy your music. There are a few things about this track that are really standing out to me:

1) The layering of sounds and harmonic progression, although a little muddy here and there, are really good and smooth.
2) The groove.
3) I especially like that the build to the drop doesn't just keep accelerating, and instead steps back at the last second. I think that it's very effective for making the drop feel super heavy.

Great track and good luck!

Pandasticality responds:

i tried making the drop feel heavy but not with basses, instead i wanted to try making it feel angelic for a lack of a better word, im not sure if it came out as i imagined but im still glad to see people giving such great feedback from the song.
im glad you enjoyed it, thanks for your kind words.

- Pandasticality