DavidOrr's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[*+ *...Frozen...*+ *]

Great stuff!

Awsome playing, another great piece to add to my collection! The only thing I noticed was that the guitar was slightly off of the drums occasionally, but only very very slightly, not a big deal at all.

Very well done!

5/5

DarKsidE555 responds:

What a nice suprise that you reviewed this! ^^

I listened to some of your stuff awhile back. Love the "journey" tune you made. Fucking thanks for the 5, much appreciated. Yeah, you're right with the guitar but it was mainly just a test not a "real" serious tune at all but I came out pretty good to my suprise! ^^

Your collection!? Cool, I'm honored. :D Thanks man!

[Imperion]

Nice work!

I frequent garage band and have a pretty good idea as of what will get to the top or not.

The piece had a great feel to it. My biggest complaint is that is sounds really, really compressed. Some things sound like they are getting drowned out, and its got that sound. Reviewers on Garageband seem to be pretty harsh with production quality, so I would suggest going in and adjust the compression a bit. It's important to have a really hard hitting beat which it sounds like you've got, but it is clipping. If your not using a compressor I would go in and check adjust the kick drum. Also that choppy, distortion-like sound that pans around during the break is clipping like mad too.

Anyway, besides the clipping/compression issue, this piece has a lot of potential. It can be hard to pick out a lead melody at times, so don't be afraid to bring back a few of the synths to let one shine (also would help with clipping issue). The ending should fade out a little more gradually, use a fade out Pattern that starts gradually, then gets faster, and then slows down again.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great piece, I'm just being extra hard because you want this to get you recognized.

I 5'd it. I hope you get some more feedback, I'm sure other people have other ideas too.

Good luck!

dj-padman1 responds:

Thanks man, I appreciate your rapid response!
I was a bit concerned about the compression as well. In my mind, I kind of like a bit of audible pumping, but I'll go ahead and make it a bit more restrained I guess.
The kick drum has been run through an overdrive, so it will a bit gritty, but I hope to dear god that it isn't clipping! I'll have another look.
Is that sound (snare i think) that comes up in the break clipping? I ran it through an overdrive to begin with, I must revisit that one. Thanks for the observation!
Hmm..I agree with you about the clarity of the lead elements. Sometimes I just want to go all out and make it sound as big as possible, which is probably a bit unsound!
Well, thanks heaps for your useful advice!

P.S I'll just point out that I do have an intro and a fade-out, its just that the file was too big to fit so i just grabbed the middle 4 minutes. :)

[Grieg - Notturno (4:40)]

Nice work!

Simon F covered a lot of great points you need to consider. The biggest issue with this is the dynamics. The left hand should be a mere murmur, not to have a voice of its own, but to supplement the melody. In general, your attack was a bit too piercing, but that could just be the piano and recording.

Nocturne means "Night Music". You should keep this in mind when interpreting phrasings, and the dynamical contrast of a piece in general. I try to picture music that is going to lull someone to sleep, or perhaps being with a special someone in a romantic setting trying to win their heart with beautiful music. I'm not sure your putting your mind in the right place. If you create the right image in your head, that will show you almost instant improvement. I'm not saying there is any 'right' image or 'right' interpretation (one of the beauties of art in general), but you have to make sure what you do is correct according to the time period and style of the piece.

Your left hand overpowered the right several times, to the point where you couldn't really hear the melody. It is a lot harder to play quietly than it is loudly, but once you gain full control of your hands, your playing will benefit extraordinarily.

Despite all of the criticism, you're no doubt a very good pianist, this isn't twinkle twinkle little star, after all. Whatever you do, make sure you make the piece your own, and play it that way, too.

Keep up the great work, I really hope you put more playing up on newgrounds!

(5/5 no doubt)

WinTang responds:

I guess I rushed into submitting this - I hadn't properly mastered it yet and I didn't really understand the VST I was using, either. When I finished recording, I was so happy that it came out in one piece that I kinda overlooked the whole interpretation part :)
Well. Not really. But still, all your points and those of Simon_F are very valid and this could have been done a lot better.
Thanks a bunch for the review and now that I have 2 months off, I'll definitely be submitting more piano-based stuff.

[Without Limits (Fixed)]

Nice work!

This piece has an awsome feel to it. The melodies work well together, and nothing really seems out of place.

What you need now are some new samples. What are you using for a sequencer? Your piano sound is a bit tinny (try EQing out some of the really high end). The drum beat fit the piece very well, despite the simple beat.

Great work, can't wait to hear more from you!

nightvision responds:

I really appreciate that from such an esteemed piano player as yourself. My Thanks.

I agree, I should have done a better job in equalizing it. Hopefully I can improve on that for the future since I wont be reposting this song.

[J Marsh - New Daze]

Good work

Well, nightvision said basically what I was going to say. It's great that you are starting to put some of you work up onto newgrounds, you should have started sooner! I'd love to hear more stuff from you, this all sounds very polished.

Keep it up!

Doc-Marsh responds:

Thanks. I will, no doubt.

[J Marsh - That High Up]

Nice stuff here!

Interesting intro, I loved the hectic drums. I would have introduced a melody a little earlier, but that is my own personal taste. Everything goes together very well, and you use a nice chord progression.

This piece has a nice feel to it. I think you should introduce somthing new in the drums eventually though, because they begin to get a little boring. That's really the only criticsm I have, the other aspects of this piece are killer!

5/5

Doc-Marsh responds:

Thanks for the feedback. The original tune was 7 minutes long as a mixable track sooo it was a little tricky to clip it to work out ok. The drums got a little on the overboard side imo. I got a few too many tracks in there and it got hairy, hehe.

[Hero's Theme (w.i.p)]

Not classical, but well done nonetheless!

Your piano part was very nice, although the sound (as arbiter said) was being choked by the limited polyphony. Very driving piece, and certainly worthy of a 5. All of your stuff has a lot of potential, all you need are better sounds :).

What do you use as a sequencer and what are your samples?

cornandbeans responds:

:D

I use FL studio 6, and I used a pianissinum?.. I think for the piano. I have a ton of soundfonts, I mostly use them for samples. Thanks for checking it out! :D

~cornandbeans

[{Event Horizon} fixed]

Nice job!

The intro didn't do it for me, but the rest of the piece, wow! To be honest, I was expecting a beginner, unpolished sound judging by the intro, but once you kicked in the melody I was hooked.

You have a knack for writing driving melodies, they all are catchy and very easy on the ears.

Great work, can't wait to hear more from you!

cornandbeans responds:

:D again

The intro, yes it was bad. I'll have to work on that. Usually the beginning and end of my songs are really stinky. :P I'm glad you stuck around for the rest of the song :D Thanks again for the review!

~cornandbeans

[Night Strike~]

Great job again!

You use FL? Most FL songs have that FL Studio sound to them, but not yours. This stuff is top notch! Someday when I get my own sound production team (hopefully) I'm going to drop you an e-mail!

It's funny in one of your reviews that you mentioned StarCraft, because the opening voice sounds like a soldier from the game. Am I right?

Anyway, great job on this song, can't wait for more stuff from you!

cycerin responds:

Close, it's an unused sound file from CnC: Generals (same voice actor as for the Aurora Bomber)with some spastical flanger and shit on.

Sound production eh? I'm currently doing sound effects for CnC: Shockwave, a highly popular mod for that game. If you need anything you think i can help with, just drop me an email or PM. I dont have enough soundwork to do these days anyway. :)

Thanks for the compliments as always.