MrMusicalLion's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Peace of an Ivory Tower]

Hmm. Not sure what to make of it. It's nice - it sounds pleasantly calm, and I like that. Yet.. I feel like the music could be phrased a little differently. I love what you wrote in the description - I can hear how you've tried to express that image musically - yet I think the music could be better if it were phrased differently.

So what do I mean? Okay well for instance, at the start.. I think it could sound a lot more thought-provoking if you subtly varied the length of the notes. For instance, the intro - the first 3 notes form an initial phrase.. if you held the 3rd note for a bit longer before moving to the note below it, it would give us time to think about what you've told us, musically.. it wouldn't need to be much of a change, just enough to make it so that the first 3 notes are distinctly separate from what comes next, to highlight it, as such. The sort of changes I have in mind, would be very minute, but just enough to make it all a bit more crisp.

Right now this is like a drawing which has faint lines - it's got all the right colours and shapes, but it could be outlined stronger so as to make it really stand out. To be honest this would probably be quite hard to do in sibelius, due to how you have to work with notation and so on. The changes I have in mind would be microscopic, i.e hemidemisemiquaver differences, lol.

Yeah. Well anyways good job, I like it but I think it could be more thought provoking. You have all the right stuff but more distinct phrasing would be nice.

For completeness.. I listened to the original. To be honest, I like it more but only because of the instrument choices. It's more 'full', so I have more to focus on. But I do agree, this is better in terms of structure/theory. This piece evokes a stronger feeling of solitude, that's for sure ^_^

Good stuff :)

CheckeredZebra responds:

Ha wow, I see exactly what you mean with slight differences happening throughout the piece. I suppose the 3rd note could become a bit longer, but in Sibelius it might look a bit like a mess, haha (adding a tie with a 16th note would be a trainwreck).

I think more dynamics would also help, as that's the only other way to artificially create a "feel" with robot sounding MIDIs.

Anyhow, thank you =D You've given me a lot to think about! Critiques like these are always helpful.

[- LD - Baal's Rise]

Marvelous. I like especially how it loops perfectly, pretty much.
In the interest of being thorough and critical, I will avoid giving this a 10. As much as I want to, there are several things that could have been executed better, I think [There always is, really.]

In terms of voicing and choice of instruments.. superb.
Structure of piece.. equally superb.
The area that I think you could improve upon, is depth of detail and phrasing.

I might sound insane for saying that as it sounds fantastic yet there are things here and there that could given slightly more detail, which would polish the mix so to speak. Silver is a precious metal indeed.. but even the finest things can be made to shine with more brilliance. ^_^

For instance, the strings could have been panned in such a way as to create a Call/Response effect, So, at 00:16-00:18 I would put the strings towards the left, with the last note panning towards the centre. Then, the next part of the phrase, [00:19-00:21] I would pan towards the right, initially, but moving towards the centre again. The overall effect would create a dynamic, immersive atmosphere that would make the music feel so much more alive. Basically the melody would zig-zag across the mix, tying everything together. I know you did pan the strings at some points yet I think it would have been better if it were more obvious/frequent.

As it stands, this piece is definitely tempestuous yet by freeing up the instruments to wander about the horizon a bit, it would add an extra level of chaos. The result being that it would take people off guard - making the music a lot more potent, overall.

Indeed you made this at 4am which is quite amazing really, considering how well this is made already. Anywho. My idea/point really, is that this piece would benefit from subtle atmospheric detail.

Aside from my inventive ideas - what do I like about this most? Well I love the Brass sections. They're quite delicious! They convey a perfectly sinister mood without sounding clichéd.

Well done ^_^

Breed responds:

Touchee

I did seem to overlook some stuff. It's to be expected at 4am =P

In regards to your panning advice, it definitely is an interesting idea, but I pan all my instruments to be an accurate portrayal of an orchestra sitting in front of you rather than doing fancy stuff.

I'm in agreement though that the atmosphere needed a little more work in general. Maybe a few extra embellishment instruments. A little bit of polishing on some of the string phrasing wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks for the great review.

Cheers!

[Nocturne]

Marvelous work; I thought it was very Chopin-Like, indeed. Overall fantastic. I'd have done things slightly differently at times - but that's me, and this is your work, not mine. But, if it were mine..

00:34 Slightly more rubato, right hand louder, left hand more romantic/nimble, to contrast more with what was played before.

1:28 I would have carried on with the chords going up and down the piano at the same time, for perhaps 5 more seconds - a more powerful crescendo could have been attained, which would have acted like a spring board into the latter section of the song.

2:10 You ended the piece here, but I think it could have gone on - a return to the original melody would have been nice, with slight tweaks of course - and then repeat the crescendos etc and THEN end it. Just to give the piece a bit more depth/dimension.

Anywho this is me in my nitpicking mode, I truly think you've done a fine job here; I don't like most of the piano that is posted on here - it's tasteless and sounds more to me like a little kid playing with a toy, but this indeed is not in that category!
Bravo. ^_^

BlazingDragon responds:

00:34 You are right in this regard. In my mind, I hear this piece being much freer. But this is totally sequenced with mouse clicking and not performed by me. Admittedly, I grew lazy and wanted to move on to a new project. Shame on me. >.<

1:28 Ah, a keen ear you have. My professor actually made the same recommendation, and I very much wanted to extend that phrase. Especially due to how different it is from the rest of the piece, I wanted to give it more time to work into the listener's ear. I tried so many different things, and none of them came out right...I got a bit sick of the piece and gave up in order to get it done by the deadline. Shame again... :(

2:10 I originally planned to make this more like a three and a half minute piece, but I've never been good at crafting long pieces for some reason. A weakness of mine that needs overcoming! I absolutely agree with you though.

The sad thing is that I thought about every criticism you mentioned while composing this but did not address them. That's kind of embarrassing. :p You do provide excellent advice though. thank you for the constructive review!

[+Complexity]

Reminds me a lot of Olafur Arnalds. I assume you're using FL? Sounds like it, at least. I like the piano intro. Maybe there could have been a pause after it before bringing in the other instruments? It's not my composition, of course, but if it were, I would have let the piano decay for a bit more just to let it sink in, and start off the violin on it's own intro melody, like it's replying to the piano, then bring the piano back in with it's bass riff. That way the music would kinda interact more with the listener before diving into the music. Silence is really key with pieces like this, as the listener needs time to think over what they've heard.. plus it allows you to make each instrument shine more, by having the stage to themselves for a moment, so to speak.

I really don't like the strings that you used for this. They aren't bad, as such but they don't fit in with how the song feels, I think. Those string samples have a generic twang to them that I can't ever get my ears to like. The strings should be played lower.. they play high up and well it sticks out like a sore thumb, we already have the piano playing higher notes, which work well with the violin, why not give the lower notes of the piano something to harmonize with?

Well anyways. As for what I think of the music. I hope I don't sound too blunt when I say that it sounds generic. I think that you could add some more flair here and there so that when I hear this track I'll remember that 'Oh this is Sadface-music's sound' Nothing much, just little things here and there. For now.. it's well made, but I wouldn't really remember this track, if I'm honest.

Well aside from this criticism, what do I like? Well, it's got clarity. I'm not straining to follow the music at any time, it has varying sections so the music doesn't sound like it's running on the spot, the piano sounds nice, as does the violin. I think I'd like to hear more little miscellaneous sounds just to add a bit of dimension.

Well done, regardless :)

sadface-music responds:

Haha, I was wondering if anyone was gonna call me out on those strings... The ones you complained about are indeed fake synths. Was too lazy to use real ones :p Made on Reason 4.0

[Disk00's New Life]

Very Zelda-ish

It reminds me of zelda, I think it should be in the Video Game section.

The music would work nicely as background music looping in a friendly forest based village/area in a game.

There is part of the music that loops, which is too repetitive and it makes me want to stop listening literally 10 seconds in. It sounds a bit too whiny and harsh to keep my attention. Which is a shame because the rest of the music is fine. The part I am referring too is the melody/pattern that starts at the very beginning and runs the whole way through. If you could change that and make it have more of an airy sound to it rather than a harsh sound, it would be a lot better I feel.

The other instrument choices are fine, and they work well to create a good storytelling atmosphere.

disk00 responds:

Thanks for your input, I never did think about it being zelda-ish. but now that I think about it...yeah.

I kind of agree with your other point with the looping thing. Not sure why I did that? But if you look at my other uploads. ( anywhere actually) Im random as all hell..xD i have no pattern.

I have already removed the original project, ill see what I can do about quieting that though.

[What is This!]

I listened to it all :D

It would be interesting to add a melodic bassline to this.. i.e a wet/smooth repeated note just to keep the listeners attention. Nothing too imposing - to preserve the mood.. something very subtle and low-key is what I have in mind. Ever played the game 'Uplink' or 'Darwinia'? This would suit such a game [Almost. This is slightly too happy for those games]

The music was quite random, I liked the ambient and atmospheric nature of the track, from the beginning it caught my attention.

The piano track is a nice touch, perhaps it would be better to add a slight bit more reverb to it or change the type of reverb, because it sounds a bit too close, it would be better if it sounded a bit further away. Or at least, if you could make some of the notes sound further away than others, to give a sense of echoing depths...

Overall I quite liked this. Definitely original, although it is similar to some Swedish ElectroPop & IndieRock.

P.S Nice snail :P

-Review Request Club-

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks man! I could probably do with a bit more lower end :) But I'm glad it caught your attention. I'll take your advice about the piano riffs into mind with my next project. I'll have a look at some Swedish Electropop now. Haven't listened to much of that :P

Oh, and yes. The snail is my mascot I guess. Maybe I should nickname myself something to do with Snail. But that might be too yuck.

Thank you for the kind review! :)

[Lost Spirit]

Needs a little bit more Sugar & Spice

The part of this music that I liked the most, was the way that parts of the mix would drift in and out of the background, it gave me this feeling of when you're doing one thing but your mind is elsewhere in a land of its own. The choice of instruments was good; the beat was steady and kept me listening. The multiple layers kept me interested on several different levels.

I found that the music was a bit repetitive from time to time. I would have liked to have heard more variety in terms of Texture [different combinations of instruments] and Melody.

I think the Bass could have benefited from a bit more of a punch, I love the beat yet I want to really feel it hit me from time to time.

I feel that a few more musical SFX would have been a nice addition - to add to the atmosphere. I once made a piece similar to this [It was Dance style, same sort of tempo]. For the background layer I recorded a thunderstorm from the inside of an insulated metal box. I then took that recording and reverbed it until it had a very nice ambient feel to it. This then served as a perfect atmospheric layer that just filled in all the little gaps in the music so that there was always this sense of vibrant activity.

I like the energy and constant upbeat nature of this track. It is uplifting and makes me want to do something. Yet I can't see myself remembering this music when I walk around, the tune wouldn't catch in my head. A stronger melody would make this more memorable.

Nonetheless, in spite of all this, the music is well worth listening to.

Keep up with the Ear Candy ^_^
-Review Request Club-

TheBellmaker responds:

I would love to use custom sfx in my music, but unfortunately I've got no decent recording equipment :(
I've noticed a lot of people who have pointed out the lack of an outstanding melody. I'll definitely keep that in mind for my future works. Anyways, thanks for the review, and hopefully my three help you out!

[Waiting For The Madness [WIP]]

This got me from the first second

Why not a 10? Because I feel there could be a bit of EQ work here and there. How about a bit of slight distortion added into the vocals at times? I mean very slightly.. nothing to make it sound robotic etc but just enough to convey madness.

I truly love this track. The lyrics are fantastic and it speaks realms to me. This is the sort of track that I'd hear on an album and it'd make me instantly want to buy it without listening to the rest of the songs.

Great vocals
Great guitar
I like that subtle instrumentation in the background .. the flutey organ sound..
I think perhaps pizzicatto strings could be added to this at some point. You could get some interesting percussive melodies blended in with that. Just a possibility, that's all :) I think it would help with re playability, to add subtle extra melodies and rhythms here and there so that the listener can latch onto something different each time.. you have so much room to work with here, i.e the idea of madness.. you can add ANYTHING with that sort of theme.

Anywho
Wonderful work. As a WIP it's fantastic.
-Review Request Club-

StickyRemnant responds:

Let's be honest, you didn't give me a 10 because you're a fascist! ;)

Seriously tho, thanks very much for the high praise and expecially for the suggestions.Suggestions are gooooood

I'll give the strings and extra melodies a go and will definitely look into upping the madness stakes. I instantly thought of adding some TV static type sounds here and there to simulate a break in reality. May mess about with some time stretching as well.

Thanks for the great review. Hopefully you'll like the next version even more

[Stargenx - Monolith]

I felt enveloped in the depths of the soundscape

I like the feel of this piece. The feel is very good.
Yet I feel that there is somewhat something.. that needs to be reworked upon in this music.

It reminds me, in a sense, of the music you'd hear on Age of Empires etc.
I feel like it's very mellow - a bit too mellow. The grand chords/feeling coupled with the drum, lead me to want to hear some almighty crescendos etc yet I find that the music never leads me to such..

I feel like there has been a damping field placed around the music and that I am hearing only half of what it has to offer.

I suppose the best way to describe it, is that it is like a beautiful masterpiece in the making, which has the right shape outline, but the outline is sort of faded and the colours used are not very contrasting. Bring this piece to life in every way it can be, and it will be truly majestic!

In terms of composition, this is very good. I feel that the instrument dynamics could be varied a bit more, that you could use a bit more silence with which to highlight the more important levels of the music - a lot of the time the background was entirely filled out with a bed of strings, sometimes playing the solo instruments over an empty canvas, really grabs the listeners attention.

Good work, Keep it up
5'd too, this deserves more than a 2 that is sure..
-Review Request Club-

Stargenx responds:

Thanks for the review and the rating! I'm working on new techniques. ^^