DavidOrr's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[{Mara's Realm}]

Wow!

Wow, this is great! I loved the instrument combination! The entire feel was great, and the drums really augmented the entire track. I have a sweet tooth for strings, and I certainly got a nice helping of them in this piece!

I would suggest integrating some electronic sounds in this. An arpeggiator in the background could give this piece more body. The reverb seems to be turned up too high, which gave the track a relatively thin sound. I'd get a stereo imager and try and spread the treble out more (but keep the bass less panned and more in the center for a solid foundation).

Keep up the great work, I'm really impressed!

5/5

cornandbeans responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I was aiming for a castlevania/final fantasy feel here. I included an arpeggio in the main verse, it's kinda soft and in the background, so you might not pick up on it.

ah... I searched around for a stereo imager... do you have any good ones to suggest? Thanks for the review, man. It's always appriciated. :)

~cornandbeans

[DJ Comet-The Source]

Very driving!

I wasn't a huge fan of the very very beginning, it sounded very bland. I would have added some reverb or an echo to that, until the drums came in.

Once the drums came in though, the piece really started to grow on me. Try throwing in an actual melody, I think it would help keep the piece more fresh. As of now it seems to be the same thing just layered with different instruments.

All in all though, this was a really solid piece. I loved the flucuation in feel.

5/5

[_-={The World's Truth}=-_]

Nicely Done Maestro!

Great to see you back! You have improved a lot since you posted on MaestroSorrow! Do you have new sounds? It's either you have new sounds or know how to use your current ones better (or both).

Beautiful mood set in the piece, but watch out for clashing notes. There were some sour notes at the beginning, but they weren't a very large flaw. Mainly when the organ came in. When dealing with multiple voices like that, the easiest option for a note you want to hold is to choose a note from the current interval chord. At any rate, the piece had a lot of imagination behind it, which really shows your potential.

I liked the choir sounds you have, what are you using?

5/5

MaestroRage responds:

Yeah, I have new sounds, but i've decided to use all the sounds I have at my disposal, sometimes, you gotta use the old stuff, cuz it beats the newer things. I'm sure you're Casio 310 can relate ;).

I realize and understand how to hold a note, but with that many voices, I got too lazy to go into each channel and alter accordingly. Maybe the song was posted before it was really done, but I wanted to put it up anyways. I kind of liked the raw qualities it had of being unrefined.

As for the choirs, they are PlugSound CD 6, "OOh" and "Aah", Papalmedia, and a good deal of reverb!

Thanks for the review David, greatly appreciate it ^^.

["Alone" remix (-OCON-)]

Nice work

You have a knack for arranging pieces. Everything went together well, nothing sounded out of place at all. I really enjoyed your melody work. The ending was a bit abrupt, but if your cpu was at 95 I suppose it was for the better. Did you try restarting your program? often times clearing the ram of all the samples and reloading only the ones the computer needs can help performance.

Anyway, the piece would have been stronger with a thicker low end. If you could lower the bass drum and fatten it up, that would really add a lot to the piece. Also, the claps could use a little extra spice. Adding a chorus or some reverb will give them a more full sound.

Good job! You get a 5 from me. It would be great to see you bring in more reviews for your music!

cornandbeans responds:

Yea, tell me about it. It took me forever to even get one review. :P back in the day. I kinda slopped this one together, though... at 3 in the moring... so I left out a bunch of stuff that I would have usually done. Thanks for the review, though! I'll see if I can't work some of that stuff you told me in a new song.

~cornandbeans

[{Away From Reality}]

Nice job

I enjoyed the melody and the overall feel to the piece. Also, the piece was written well.

I would advise you to run the piece through a compressor, and also try to minimize audio clipping. The bassdrum really had some maximizing issues.

At the beginning, the strings would have been better had they fade in gradually. As it is, it's more of a punch in the face than a happy intro.

That said, this piece has some great potential. Try varying up the drums a bit, work on balancing parts, run it through a compressor, and this will be a really neat piece!

Keep up the great work!

(I'll give it a 5/5 for the sake of exposure)

cornandbeans responds:

Thanks, I really appriciate the review. I see your point with the strings, I start out with an idea in mind and change it over the time I work on the song. It's still on 4 right now, but thank you so much for voting a 5... I need all the exposure I can get. And thanks for all the other helpful comments, I'm always looking for ways to improve. I'll check out some more of your work today.

peace,
~cornandbeans

[_-/| A Shimmering Lake]

Nice job

Another nice piece by you! You really sound like MaestroSorrow. Judging by his success on Newgrounds, that certainly isn't a bad thing!

You have quite an imagination! What you need to work on is your melodies. You have a lot of counterpoint (I hear four different parts at once I believe), which is great, but the thing is they started to clash. You need to pay close attention how you form melodies so they don't clash.

I would strongly recommend you study the species of counterpoint. I gave Maestro the exact same advice :). You have a great imagination, you just need to perfect how you use it!

You're certainly on your way, keep up the great work!

5/5

MaestroSegments responds:

Thank you David, you're words are always sincere and helpful.

You seem to have caught onto my weakness incredibly well. You see, I love to layer melodies, countermelodies is the reason I now live, forget sex, forget everything else, if it's not counter melody layerable, it's not worth my time >:(!

But jokes aside, i've been seriously debating if I should get some form of official trainer. It worries me still that i'd become some kind of drone, but I fear i've hit the end of this road, I don't think I can improve much more like this.

It's time to take it up a few steps eh?

Thanks for the review David, always a pleasure.

[*+*_collision_*+*]

Nice job

You have a strong sense of rhythm, which is always a good thing. You were dealing with a lot of syncapation and never lost your time. Kudos there!

The track was a bit soft in terms of volume, but everything was clear and easy to comprehend. I enjoyed your playing, you certainly aren't a beginner!

Great job, keep up the good work!

5/5

DarKsidE555 responds:

WoWzerz, glad you liked it that much man. Kudos for the Kudos! ;)

The track really came out great but I have to thank speedy for his cool backing track that he made. The drums really kick ass!

Thanks for the review and vote man!

[Strawberry Jam (Orgasm Ending)]

What the hell?

Why does this have a score of 1.67? It looks like you were hit by two zero voters, which sucks.

I really liked the piece. I think there may have been a bit too distortion in place (do the drums have distortion?), but overall a very solid track.

The chord progression was pretty original, which is always a nice thing to see. Looking through all your other tracks, it looks like you can write music in a variety of styles, which is very commendable.

Keep up the good work!

5/5

I'd love to get your opinion on my audio, but only if you have the time!

Keth-Andril responds:

Thanks!
I was trying to get the hang of the Slayer plugin on FL6 when I did this so everything sounds really distorted.
This isn't the actual version of the song though, I have a full version with solos and stuff
I'll check out your stuff sometime
Thanks for the input

[Great Percussion Loop]

Well...

I'm not sure I would call this loop GREAT, but you have a lot of great ideas implimented throughout. At the beginning your beat emphasis kept changing, which was probably the biggest drawback of the entire piece.

I'd also recommend reducing the use of the kick drum at the beginning. In general, the kick drum is used to emphasis a beat, which is very difficult to do when it's playing eight notes. The work should be in the mid-upper frequency drums, the kick drum should be used only to accent particular parts, or help build up to a climax.

With a little work, this could be very nice!

I'll give it a 5 for the sake of exposure. I'd love to get your opinion on my audio, but only if you have the time!

KittenInAStocking responds:

Thank you! I will definitly review your music!

[The Cemetery Of Spirits]

Nice job

I enjoyed the compositional quality of the piece. It was pretty interesting, although you could stand to use a little more structure. I would suggest trying to take a specific theme or melody and develop it throughout the piece.

You captured a very serene feeling with this piece, which displays your control over the instruments you used. I wasn't a fan of the drum, it felt very...blah (I can't really think of a better word choice). Something with a little more body would work much better. An do give it an even more serene feeling, I'd cut the use of the bass drum in half (gives it a lumbering feeling).

keep up the good work!

5/5

medieval7 responds:

Thx mate, i appreciate your review