DavidOrr's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[_-={The Desire to Destroy}=-_]

Wow!

Man, if there is ever a "most improved" award, you'd definately deserve to get it. You've improved leaps and bounds these past few months- everything is balanced better, clearer, and you seem to have a better overall understanding of how the orchestra fits together.

First off, a question. What drums are you using? I love the samples, they're extremely powerful and crisp. You use them really well!

Second, a suggestion. At 0:41 I believe you have parallel motion in a manner in that sounds awkward (Jumping from a B dim to E minor). It does fit the atmosphere set by the piece, but it may be something you want to take a look at. Other than that, I don't really have any suggestions.

Third, a congrats. You've got a really good shot at the competition! Even if you don't pull the winning prize, you've made more progress than any one else I've listened to on Newgrounds in a long while.

Keep up the astounding work!

MaestroRage responds:

Hey David!

It took a while to get used to using headphones over earphones, but with only roughly a week passed, i'm already able to do more with them then I was with the years of earphone use! I can't wait to get me some slick speakers someday!

The drums in use are as follows *All from East West Orchestra by the way!*

- Taiko Drums *that stick clicking sound*
- S Wagner Bass Drum
- Roto Toms
- Timpani Hits
- Head slamming against wall *not really in song, but dents were planted everywhere!*

I know exactly what you mean at 0:41. I personally liked it better like that, the jump in my opinion added just a little extra spice!

Thanks a lot David. Coming from you thats a real compliment! Like most contests I did it for the experience. Fighting against you, Winter, and Rocky, has really pushed me several nights! I am grateful to have had this oppurtunity! I'm glad you liked it!

[Fttd Cc Edit]

Nice Job!

First off, you've got a great imagination. I could really picture two figures facing each other preparing to fight to the death. Kudos there- you know how to show scenarios through music!

The entire piece didn't feel quite as "in your face" as I think it could have. I think it's because of a little too much reverb. Your sounds are a bit washed out (are you using Reason?). To help counter this, I'd try and decrease the wetness of the reverb. If you feel it's too dry after tring that, play round with the room size a bit. That'll help get you that big sound I think you're looking for, but still maintain clarity and fidelity of the samples.

I love the harp and mallet instrumnet you used (Are they vibes? The sound slimiar but have a different tonal quality so I'm not sure). They really helped add to the originality of the piece. I'd consider bringing out the brass more, and perhaps trying to fatten it. Giving it a bigger sound will help give the piece a more epic feel, if that's what you're going for.

Overall very well done! I'll be watching you!

[Pink Panther vs Fur Elise]

Very creative!

I've gotta agree with Maestro on this one. I love the intertwining of the two pieces! Very creative, and well done. Some of the transitions between the two pieces could have been a bit tighter (sometimes it sounded like you didn't quite know what you wanted to do), but at any rate, this shows a lot of imagination.

Keep up the great work!

The samples are pretty decent as well, what are you using?

sorohanro responds:

thanx for the review and nice marks
i usually use Reason and trumpet i record myself
one thing i hate about music programs is that i can not change tempo or measure in the same project...that's why also the transition betwen 3/4 and 4/4 is a little bit rough ...anyway there is supposed to be some "cadenzza" of piano or fluggelhorn.
but for that i need my midi keyboard(the song is not made on my computer)
i wrote everything with the mouse >:( grrrrrrr!!!!!

[-[ Tetris 230 ]-]

Nice work

You certainly keep the original feel of the Tetris theme, which can be difficult when remixing something. Kudos there!

The drums and cymbal seem a little over the top in places. I think that hi-hat hits are too rapid, and the drums are random. My main suggestion is to go and redo sections of the drums to make them solidify the foundation of the piece.

Have you considered lengthening it out a bit and introducing a new instrument? It's something to think about, as it would not only add a layer of complexity, but would let you add some more of your own ideas into the mix.

Keep up the good work!

DSMagnum responds:

Well, the hihats were hard at such a fast tempo seeing if they were in 8ths, it would seem too, but in 16ths that would seem too fast. I just went with what I thought was better. The drums overall were really hard to do at such a fast tempo. If I ever make a slower remix, I'll remember not to make them so sparatic.

I was thinking about lengthening it, but it would've been hard with the limitations I have. If I get the full version of Live, I'll make a longer version.

Thanks for the review. I'll remember these things for my next piece.

[Rucklo - EmoBitch (NoVox)]

Nice Work!

I loved the glitchy feel of the track, it felt like a hybrid of dnb and glitch music, which I really thought was a nice change from the typical dnb. Also, loved the strings scattered around the piece.

I felt as though there was no real climax though. The music kept building and building, but it never seemed to really bust out and smack me in the face, which would be a nice addition to the piece, and add diversity. Having a thicker drum beat in places would help quite a bit.

Great work overall, keep it up!

5/5

Rucklo responds:

Glitchy, eh?

The first half of the song actually IS the climax. The full version (too large for NG...) is 1.30 BEFORE this version starts. If you or anyone else would want it, just PM me... Check a lower quality version on my myspace www.myspace.com/rucklo

But you´re definintely right about this song not "smacking" hard enough. To get that I would have to build the song differently, and then mix it alot better. It´s actually something I´ve been thinking some of last few days, so thanx for brining it to my attention from outside my head :)

Thanx for the good review mate!

[_-={The Spread of Chaos}=]

Nice job!

Nice job, lovely feel. You have less dissonant notes than you used to, which is good to see :)

I have two main complaints here. One, you have too much reverb. The second is that the piece is a bit thin. They go hand in hand, actually.

I would recommend taking out some of the reverb to give it a cleaner sound. You will then see that there are parts that are very sparse. Try beefing the piece up by adding harmonies to the piece. It seems that all I hear is drums and a melody, with an occasional counter melody. Adding more underlying parts will add a level of professionalism to the piece. Try adding some long tones in the bass to give the bottom end a little more presence, which could help compensate a decrease in reverb should you decide to try it out.

As always, nice melody work, and the piece had a nice flow to the piece. Certainly sounds like it could be a tribal piece, you've got quite an imagination. Maybe you could add some tom hits to give it a more war-drums sound?

Once again nice work, keep it up!

5/5

MaestroRage responds:

brilliant advice David, as you have noticed already, due the insane level of reverb that I used, adding any more countermelodies was not really an option, originally there was so much more, but it became a mess, a huge... huge mess. This I can attribute to those heavy drums at the beginning, it just sounded so good all reverbed and delayed that in order for the other instruments to... merge with it (if you know what I mean), they too had to be reverbed. However I will have to try all of these ideas out, for I was pretty stumped on how to go around equalizing and arranging this.

Thanks for the review David, truly it helped me out, and hopefully it will solve the issues at hand here, and I won't make the same mistake again. I'm glad you enjoyed it ^^.

[The Purest of Winters]

Great Job!

Hey MMD glad you came back to submit another piece! The sound quality definately improved, no doubt because of the use of Reason 3.0. It sounds as though the piano is from Reason, too.

It was a very gentle, inspiring piece. Everything flowed together extremely well. Also, it's neat how all of your pieces have that "MMD feel" to them. Very nice!

My biggest complaint is that you didn't use quantize your stuff! Many different parts were off very slightly. I'm guessing people aren't picking up on it too much, but you should really use quantization. Now that you have the ability to snap everything into perfect time, you can bring everything to a new level of professionalism.

Other than that, I don't really have any complaints. There are a lot of subtle parts in the pieces, which is really the sign of a maturing composer. Well done!

Keep it up man, I'd love to see you submit things like this once in a while!

5/5

MilkMan-Dan responds:

Oo... this is a treat... I love your work David... simply envy alot of it.

You'll have to pardon my lack of the use of quantization. I'm waaayyyy to use to writing all the tracks to a piece in "real time" and doing it over and over to achieve any level of guantization. Having just gotten familiar with Reason... I'm still trying to figure out how everything works. But I promise... if there are ever any future pieces on my part... I'll learn how to use my new euipment properly in that regard.

Fortunitley... unless your ear is trained to search for that kinda thing... it generally doesn't take away from the piece (I hope).

lol... I am glad I still bring that ol "MMD Feel" to my music... I don't do it intentionally.

Happy Halloween and later a Merry christmas to you Mr.Orr

MMD

[Lethargic Colours]

Very beautiful!

You are quite a good pianist, better than many of the ones I've heard on Newgrounds, so props for that. The piece was very calming and serene, I can certainly see this being written about someone you have feelings for.

I would suggest you work on your finger control more. Some of the notes seemed a little too loud (sudden spikes in loudness here and there). If you digitally recorded this, it would be quite easy to go into a piano roll and just notch down some of the offending velocities.

Great quality, great piece, great work!

5/5

Sevanimation responds:

Hey thanks for the review!
The way I recorded this was non-midi... You see, I hooked my MP3 player up to my keyboard, so the recording quality was not too great, and I could not hear what I was playing, so it was a little difficult to have COMPLETE control over what it sounds like, but you know...
Thanks so much for the positive feedback man! It means so much, especially coming from you.
Cheers,
Clayton

[_-={The Epic Christmas!}=]

Hahaha!

Props for originality man, this piece is very unique! The laugh is hilarious! I actually half expected you to throw in a few "lol tanks" somewhere in the piece somehow.

Very colorful percussion, it gave me the impression of elves working on toys vigorously. I think I heard a dog at the end, which I really didn't get. Perhaps you could shed light on this one?

This had an electronic sound to it, which kinda disappeared as the piece progressed. I think the strings could have been a little more forceful when playing.

5/5

Ahahahahaha!

MaestroRage responds:

You like the laugh too eh >:)? I as well enjoy the laugh, and for some reason I especially like the very beginning, I feel I did a damn good job being Santa's voice. I was totally seeing him stroking his beard while he was saying that, a twinkle of black anger in his eyes :O!

The percussional work, ugh, the song was fun to make, but how the percussionals made me suffer. There was a total of 5 different percussional kits not including the anvil and bells. I think this may be my most advanced percussional work to date. Yes they were indeed meant to give the impression of overdriven elves.

As for the dog sound... this is news to me. There wasn't actually any dog sounds. Maybe the beginning of the whip sound? I don't know what to tell you man, but you're the second person to mention dogs so I suppose thats what it sounds like.

There was not actually any electronic instruments, perhaps some poory used synths :P. The kick and some of the snares did sound a little electrical so reverbed up, they may have been amplified.

As for the strings, you're probably right, however I wanted the percussion to stand out more above anything else in this scenerio, and so the strings had to remain quieter.

I'm glad you enjoyed the piece, thank you for the review ^^.

[The Friday Night Blues]

Very neat!

Nice job with this! I can see the silent film statement. Nice piano playing, too, although I would work on your rhythm.

Great clarity, what samples are you using? It sounded pretty realistic. I'm going to look for more stuff from you!

Keep up the great work!

5/5

Take a look at something of mine if you get the chance!

Sevanimation responds:

Hey thanks for the positive review:D
About the recording, it was a direct recording from my keyboard to my MP3 player, and then I transfered it from my MP3 player to my computer...
I will be sure to look at your stuff as soon as I'm done this review.

Sevanimation