Krayon's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Launch]

Good, very good.

Very good, I really like the way you've done this, especially the drums! Great use of instruments, choirs etc, just a few niggles though.
The drums could be a bit smoother in a couple of areas, or more correctly you should have several different types of drums going. The one's that you have don't go well as a complete rhythm set, but rather go better a tempo setter, one beat per bar sort of thing, you should have another set of drums on top of that acting as the beat section that carries the melody a bit more, perhaps a rolling tampani with a set of smaller djembe, or similar african type drums. That would be much better.
Otherwise it's excellent.

EvilRaccoon responds:

Yeah, you are absolutely right, I shoulda had more percussion in there. Thanks for your helpful comments. I appreciate the time taken to write them. :D

[Battle of Mount Meggido]

hmmmm

I'll ignore the dodgy attempt at a biblical representation or the use of biblical themes and go straight to the song.
For a battle of gods and demons, especially armaggedon you need a lot more in a song then this to really capture epic. You had a decent idea, but it fell flat because of the following reasons:
You probably busted the decibel range on your program so the drums sound supressed and they cause the song to fall flat.
How many violins did you use? Too few anyway, for epic you need HUNDREDS of instruments, or heavy control of the instruments, that means lots of articulation, crescendo and the like. You really need to pull out the feeling behind something, and that often takes more skill then most people give credit for.
Choirs are an excellent idea but you really need a lot more bass then what you had, something ground shaking, rumbing, thundering in our ears. That especially goes for the drums, make them thunder, those ones sounded like cheap twenty dollar drums amplified a whole load of times.
You need more instruments and more control over each instrument section, ie weave them in and out of each other, epic is complex, thus the epic songs also need to be complex. This one's far too simple.
Some of those instruments were mildly annoying with the length they went on for in a sustained note, I'm not sure it's possible to make a violin sound on one note for 30 seconds and it sounded jarringly unrealistic, it really grated on my nerves.
I couldn't pick out the Gabriel section, there wasn't nearly enough contrast or feeling or the sense of loss as a being of unimaginable power is struck down.
The choirs need to be less sustained, use more stacato, shorter notes, hum haaa, hum hum haaaa, sort of thing not haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa onwards to infinity, and punctuate the notes with drums and short bursts of violins, chellos and other strings.
You don't have any brass! Where's the brass?!! Where are the brazen trumpets?!! The earthquake trombones?!! The horns? The Saxaphones? You can't do an epic piece like this without some sort of bass brass in there.
And finally, you need to work on the intruments, they sounded tinny and unrealistic, you should look for some proper instrument packs.

LacrimosaMuse responds:

i should have kinda explained the process behind the piece to avoid bad scores for no reason, i had to copy it onto Sonar using drag and drop, this explains why the choir can only do voice ahhhs, the violins sound like vibraphones, and the timpani are just snare drums EQd down alot. Needless to say, crescendos and sticattos, and overall complex dynamics were out of the question. the decibal ranges and the chimes/timps were created after the song was finalized on east and west. with that aside, however, thank you for your review, ive been working on rewriting the song on a different program to use more brass and keep the timps on a decent sound, ill let u know when that comes up
(btw, saxes are woodwinds lol)

[Heartbeat by Ereez]

Good, very good.

This didn't affect me a great amount, but nevetheless I can hear the feeling behing it. Good job.
A few tips, that guitar could be built on, it would add quite a bit to the song. You could add a few extra instruments in the background. You lost a point from lack of clarity with the guitar and for being a bit repetitive.

Ereez responds:

Thank you, for the compliment and tips.

[Dragon's Final Battle]

Good but...

As far as classical goes this one's alright. But there are plenty of places where it could improve. I had to deduct marks for clarity, origianity, lack of variation and poor use of classical instruments. I say that because you could have used way more instruments in this, also, the ones you have are either muffled, or don't sound like their originals, sorry but this sounds quite a lot like the electronic/techno version of RaustBlackDragon's "Dragon's final war".
The general instruments are muddy and... are those trumpets? While being a good idea, need more melody backing.
Otherwise it passes.

DJAirWave responds:

Electronic version of Dragon's final Roar? In my humble opinion, I think it sounds more realistic than the original. I don't think there is any problem with my song. The melody is just fine, and the clarity is proficient. Sorry, I have to disagree with you, but thanks anyway.

[When Gods Do Battle (full)]

Wellll

It's alright, but for something as epic as gods battling it falls way way short.
Quality of the instruments leaves a lot to be said, the general theme was alright but it was a bit too repetitive. Too quiet too.
Advice, have you ever heard even ten brass together? In harmony? It's incredible, now put that up to about 300... Use them in the begginning, longer notes with plenty of volume increase, which for the life of me I can't remember the technical term for.
Those trumpets need way more work, clear them out, they sound like they have rags stuffed in them. More articulation. Pup, pupup pup paaaaah, not wip ruprup raaah.
Definitely needs a major overhaul on drums, stronger, louder, more of them. Deeper ones too, some big tampani on the Dom Dom Dom and smaller ones in the background on a fast beat. Then a medium range set for the middle range complexity.
Whatever that electric section was... It was the only part of the song that came closish to epic battle, but it's too different. Knock it out, use the ideas I suggested before.
That quiet bit at 1:44 and after, knock it out. It doesn't belong in an epic battle. All of it, basically, after 1:44 the song becomes irrelevant.
If you want the electric part you need to tone it down and meld it into the whole song, listen to any Nightwish, Kamelot or Within Temptation song for ideas, in fact listen to Gaia Destruction from Nightwish, there's a collab on that here somewhere.
Basically you need to get more instruments in, clear out the ones that are there and use more longer instrumentation. Pull out those notes with a thundering drum track!

masterjiji responds:

i had it that quiet because GarageBand is only so good of a program, and with the guitar section at the end, the overall volume would have spiked to the point of ridiculous distortion.
getting louder is called a crescendo.
in respect to the trumpets, that was the only sound provided by GarageBand, and the sound fx i had to work with (distortion, amp sim, phaser, etc) were NOT going to help.
my idea of the song is this: think of a duel between (sorry to stereotype) Goku and Frieza from dbz. in the first sections with the horns, they pretty much just fight. at the f horn section feature, Frieza nails the hell out of Goku and therefore thinks he has won. at the part with the harp, Goku gets back up with the "you're goin' down, motherf**ker" look on his face, and pulps Frieza during the metal section. this actually works even better with the final version of this song i have posted.

the longest review i have ever gotten. for all the helpful criticism you gave, i was kinda hoping for more than... a 4.

[Frivolous Scrolls Battle Theme]

Hummmm

It's alright, as far as battle music goes I suggest you try a different medium, piano and normal drum kit just doesn't carry it. Some people can, this didn't quite work. Sorry. Reasons:
Notes weren't nearly smooth enough, nsaty pause at 0:07, and the second piano wasn't smooth, it was too choppy, the pauses too distinct. There isn't enough blending.
That backing paino needs way more work, it's slightly annoying with all those high notes, it clashes too much, now I know about disharmony, increasing by an octave etc but that didn't really work. It breaks up the flow.
If you want to do 3 different pianoes, the idea is to get them to either flow together and complement each other, or you do the much harder thing and have them playing in 3 different timesets and weave.
There was a decided lack of feel. Not enough depth or scope, also the variation was very limited.
THe drums are way too quiet and merely hold a backing place that doesn't really complement the piano, increase their volume and get a better beat, that one is far too generic.
The solo at 0:50 needs way more work, it jarrs and doesn't carry the song very well.
Lastly you need a more defined melody, this one sounds like a perpetual solo.

PianoFortress responds:

"I suggest you try a different medium, piano and normal drum kit just doesn't carry it." -The request was that I do it piano only, so I actually wasn't able to "choose" at all.

"Notes weren't nearly smooth enough, nsaty pause at 0:07" -can't hear a pause there.

"and the second piano wasn't smooth, it was too choppy, the pauses too distinct." - I agree, the last part from 1:39 has some bad timing but no the whole song.

"That backing paino needs way more work, it's slightly annoying with all those high notes, it clashes too much" -yeah, I know ppl who would agree there but I also know ppl who aren't annoyed by high notes. Guess it's different taste.

"If you want to do 3 different pianoes, the idea is to get them to either flow together and complement each other" -hmm..that was my intention.

"Not enough depth or scope, also the variation was very limited." -ok, let's see what we've got: 0:00-0:41 intro, 0:42-1:00 building climax, 1:01-1:18 bridge/kind of solo, 1:19-1:38 another climax, 1:39-1:57 bridge 2, 1:58-end outro. I'm happy with the variation of the song. don't know what I should change there, frankly.

"THe drums are way too quiet and merely hold a backing place that doesn't really complement the piano, increase their volume and get a better beat, that one is far too generic."- no, drums are fine as there are. if I make them louder it would put the piano into the background. Yeah, the beat could need some work. I'm not good at putting drumpatterns together =(. So, this time I've went with a basic beat.

"The solo at 0:50 needs way more work, it jarrs and doesn't carry the song very well." -well...zero123 for example liked it very much.

"Lastly you need a more defined melody, this one sounds like a perpetual solo."- I'll keep that in mind when I do another 2 or 3 piano song.

Well...that's it. Thanks for the constructive criticism.

[Amarilli, Mia Bella]

Well well well.

Well well well, it would appear that not only has your singing improved but your studio mike has arrived... and all I can say is. You Shine. I have to agree with executioning, you so sound a bit like Tarja Tarunen, but in reality, like any good singer you sound like Simone Simons, Evanescence etc etc, to be straight, you have a unique voice and that's what makes it beautiful. If I had any decent music production software and the instruments I'd ask you to collaborate a song with me but I have neither (I too am a broke college student), and I doubt you have the time to do it and that you would agree so I won't ask.
If you say you could do a few of Tarunen's songs better, I know you aren't being arrogant, prove it, I would be happy to compare =).
Enjoy what I have now, most certainly!
A piece of advice from a tech geek, much of what is commercial in the computing world has a simpler, sometimes better freeware or open source counterpart. Don't buy anything until you are absolutely sure that you can't find an adequate free program.
For example (this was a quick google "good free audio editing software list") and I found these in the top three:
http://www.wavosaur.com/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_aud io_software
Editing the keywords, make sure you are specific and the more words the better, but just be straight with google, and you'll find most of what you need.
Try getting a mate to do an acoustic guitar song with ya (there seems to be no end of decent guitar players out there, which is quite disconcerting if you want to be good like me and you keep finding someone better).
erm more comments... No this song does not suck and the audio clarity is absolutely fine, I have no problems and I'm really picky about that, to point of refusing certain speaker makes and headphones, and editing the sound controls on my computer to get the right sound out of my speakers.
Anyways, you've outdone yourself this time and I look forward to more from you in the future. I understand you do have problems with recording etc, so take your time, that way it'll be better ;) ... supposedly.
Good luck and keep up the good work, you have a singular voice that is rare these days, train it well, practice and keep it limber, you'll have it for the rest of your life. Make it worth it, make people remember you for not only your voice, but your personality, sing from the heart. Always sing from the heart. The human voice is singular in all musical aspects in that it can cut right to the heart, it can invoke emotion in ways that no other instrument can.
Sing from the heart, sing about your life, your pains, your joys, your insights into God, life, religion, humans, and other big questions. Don't ever let it fade because life is tough, it is often in our toughest moments that humans can shine, that they can break their shackels and FLY!
Man! I got a bit carried away there, sorry =S. I hope you aren't annoyed. Don't usually do that, only when an artist particularly catches my attention, which you did.
Again good luck, good life, good health and sing from the heart.
Sincerely Krayon.
p.s. no there are no overt intentions in this review, I realise on rechecking that it may seem as such. I was merely stating what was on my mind at the moment. I often find that things like this are.... just the right thing to do, if you catch my meaning.

LadyArsenic responds:

^ ^ Well, Krayon, I have to thank you for your kind words. I do indeed have a unique voice, as most coloratura sopranos do. I love doing collaborations; especially the singing kind. No one ever seems to want to sing with me! D= It's a little upsetting.
But anyway, this was surprisingly not on my studio microphone. That has not come in yet, to be honest with you. This was a standard crap computer mic. XD;
Anyway, thank you again for wishing me luck. I shall work very hard and maintain my voice as much as possible. I'm going to be entering MANY competitions this year, and hope to win a bit of gold, if you know what I mean. ^_^ I'm not annoyeed with you at all. This was very inspirational and even touching speech from you, and I'm glad you were able to share it with me. As for doing Nightwish covers, I actually will be. ;D Coming soon, love. Coming soon. I'm actually helping out a band for Battle of the Bands by singing for the song Nemo. There may be a recording of it later on. Anyway, thanks yet again! You're always a great help and such a love! Thanks for listening! <3

[-+[Morning Mist]+-]

Sweet.

Apart from being a bit on the faint side, I couldn't hear it properly the song was great! Much better than many of your others, pity you didn't sing. You should listen to a few of Edgen's songs found here:
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?
PID=325687&T=2459
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?
PID=325687&T=2459
Keep it up and do a bit more like this in the future, I found much of your other music to be a bit tinny, and jarring without smooth implementation of instruments... except for the vocal pieces! =)

LadyArsenic responds:

Yes, I know it's not my best. If I had the equipment that I wanted then my songs really would sound so much better. True, I used MaestroRage's library, but I didn't ask him to fiddle too much with it, poor soul. He has more than enough on his plate as it is. I actually was going to sing in this one near the end! But alas... One can't sing unless one would have a microphone, which I no longer have. But worry not! A beautiful studio microphone is on the way, and I can't WAIT... I've never had a studio mic before! <3 Anyway, thanks for listening!

[Following Your Heart]

Nice.

It's nice, I like it, it's nice and simple, but me being a person who likes a bit of background in a song I had to deduct marks for not adding in extra instruments. All you really need is a keyboard, you have the rest.

Jabicho responds:

Hey thanks! yeah I always wanted to add some more instruments I'm gonna get a keyboard soon =D

Thanks for the review!

[Orions Theme.]

Great job!

Great job, love the style and instruments. Go Zelda! definitely Zeldalike, I can hear the choral parts too. I like it. Yeah I know endings are terrible aren't they. So I'm afraid I'll have to dock a point until you learn to make em better =), probably should have done a fade out type ending perhaps. More appropriate I think.

Orion928 responds:

lol, thx 4 the review and constructive criticism. ^__^
there arent any choral parts, i think it just sounds like that because of the reverb environment i used. Imrelatively skilled with a reverb engine and know how to get the right chords out of certain environments using the overtones in a clarinet and trombone (you can thank my physics and band teachers XD).

I really didnt realise how zeldaish it actually was when i made it lol, but zeldas awesome :3 .