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secantwave

52 Audio Reviews

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This is an absolutely gorgeous piece. Takes its time to develop, certainly, but it flows completely smoothly, and it's got a vague, hazy tone that I love in ambient music. You've managed to balance the focus on sound and the focus on notes very well. And when the higher melodies come in late in the piece, they've got a wavering, glitchy sound that is just brilliant. I would offer a longer review, but I can't think of any way to criticize this.

Fubaka responds:

Thanks for commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed this track.

This piece is really awesome! The drum sounds in particular are amazing throughout (I would agree with Reinteck that they deserve a higher position in the mix), and I think you nailed the industrial, mechanical tone.

It kind of takes a while to settle into a coherent groove at the beginning (although maybe this was what you were going for--the beginning is certainly also the most "industrial"-sounding part). The backwards piano (I think?) loop underpinning the whole thing makes a great foundation on which to build the rest of the song.

If you're going to build on this from here, I would suggest adding in different backwards piano (I think?) loops later in the piece, perhaps in different keys, and making the different sections of the piece more distinct, as it kind of blurs together in the middle.

Still, rad sounds throughout on all of the instruments, and amazing job conveying the dark tone.

DexiAntoniu responds:

Yes, the beginning I'm most satisfied with, lol.
I definitely agree with the points you have given! And I am of major gratitude for this review, I'm very very glad you liked it.

There were some very nice, energetic melodies and creative chord progressions in this piece. The piano melody that appeared at 0:34 was brilliant--you had a nice powerful tone on the piano, and the chord progression jumped around in ways that were surprising and satisfying. Similarly, the light piano melody that closed the piece was very catchy and provided a nice contrast to the rest of it. Overally, I thought the piano parts were some of the best bits of this piece.

There were also a couple of areas which I thought could use work. I felt that sometimes the drum patterns got a bit monotonous: when a piece is so high-energy and driving like the melodies and harmonies of this one were, the drums need to be dense and exciting to match. (On the other hand, I tend to be kind of obsessive about detailed drum patterns.)

The structure of the piece was also sometimes confusing to me. At times it felt like there were multiple different songs going on here: even when the chord progression stayed the same between sections, like at the end of the intro at 0:10, the shift in the tone of the instruments was disorientingly sudden. And at 2:16, the reverse happened: the instruments you were using suddenly shifted to an entirely different progression.

One of the most noticeable examples was at 2:52, where you transferred to the quiet piano ending--the echo of the guitar solo lingered and created an offputting dissonance with the incoming piano, which I see as a sign that the two parts don't fit together ideally. The main thing to keep in mind here is introducing smoother transitions between the parts.

I don't want to come across as overly harsh, because this piece was jam-packed with excellent melodic ideas, which had me nodding my head. However, I think it would be improved by more fluid transitions, to make these ideas complement each other rather than clash. More detailed drums might also help. All the same, good job.

This piece seems a little bit unfocused, but it's still quite good--you're putting a lot of interesting ideas together in ways that would not occur to me, quite successfully.
I actually appreciated this piece most in the less epic/cinematic portions. Especially the beginning, the ambient strings, understated electronic percussion, crackly noise, and strangely wailing female vocal made a sublime combination, and I was almost a little bit disappointed when the more dramatic drumming and horns came in. However, they ended up contributing effectively to the piece as well.
After a while, though, I found the many different phases of the piece to be somewhat confusing, and they didn't always transition very well. The sudden jump from a major to a minor key at 1:10, the equally sudden replacement of those lovely crackly drums with a choir at 1:59, and the emergence of the acoustic guitar at 2:32 only to be replaced with a drum set at 3:05 were all somewhat disorienting. I definitely appreciated that you put a lot of different styles and sections in this piece, but I think that it would be more effective with smoother transitions and/or longer time allocated to them.
Something else that I really appreciated was the subtle and tasteful use of electronic sounds in parts, including the beginning drums and the appearance of a fuzzy bass synth at 2:25. This helps add diversity to the sound. The piece also certainly succeeded in being stirring and epic throughout, conveying a lot of different moods.
It may seem like I'm being excessively negative in this four-star review, so I want to clarify that a piece with too many different styles squeezed into it is far, far better than a piece that just picks one theme and sticks to it. I think that the multi-phase approach is a great one, but it would be better if the piece were longer, so that the different phases had room to develop and smoothly transition into each other.
Very good job, overall.

WhiteNoiseWave responds:

Thanks for your Reviews, we found your criticisms very constructive and we will take them into consideration as we more forward.

Thanks,
White Noise Wave Team.

This is a pretty nice piece in parts, but I felt that there were a few areas where it could be improved.

One of the things that stuck out to me especially was that the underlying rhythms didn't have much variety. The simple 1-2-1-2 drumbeat in particular got a little boring after a while. While I certainly appreciated the parts where you attempted to diversify it (1:58, for example) it would have given the piece a lot more energy (and perhaps motivation?) if you had made the beat more complex.

I also felt that the sounds that you used would have benefited from some additional diversity. You had the same sound providing the melody throughout the piece, the super-reverby piano sound. This might have been more effective for just a small portion of the melody, or as a supporting instrument, but when it's the lead for the entire piece, I feel that it wears out its welcome pretty quickly--for the same reason that I wouldn't exactly want to eat an entire cake made of frosting.

Another side effect of using a similar set of sounds throughout the piece was that there wasn't much sense of contrast, or tension and release. The piece just sort of seemed to drift along at the same level of intensity throughout, and by either shaking up the sounds you used or including a more subdued section you could improve on this. As it is, it gets a bit boring after a while.

I don't want to sound like I'm trashing the entire piece, because there were some aspects that I quite liked. The sound you used for the bassline, and the rhythm you applied to it, were both highlights that I think have a lot of potential. In fact, most of the sounds you used were very well chosen (I'm not as much a fan of the super-reverby piano, but that's mostly just personal preference--I tend to favor a dryer production style.) I also quite liked the tune of the coda at the end, and I would have liked to hear you expand on it.

Anyway, to summarize, you've got a good array of sounds in this piece, and you're doing interesting things with your choice of bassline. But I feel that for this track to really shine, you need to incorporate a more diverse variety of sound, particularly shaking up the lead instrument, and you need to elaborate on the drumming a little bit. Of course, I would also say that, if this piece succeeds in motivating you, you've already accomplished what you set out to do--this is just what I'd do to make it more motivational to me.

CeeeX responds:

A huge chunk of text that I loved to read; it's constructive stating what the good and bad parts were.

Too bad you didn't like the kickdrums that was repetative, but that wasn't my main focus to the whole song.
It was the melody you had to focus on or else it'd be a mess to make variety to each instruments!

But I'll keep your advice in mind though, who knows I might change it later!

Thanks for the feedback!

This is a very nice track. I particularly like the very muted tone on the piano that gradually sharpens as the piece goes on (although at the very beginning, it seemed to be clipping or distorting a bit--it could be just me, but you might want to look into that).
Overall, the track has a very dark, intense feel, and another important element supporting this is the super-punchy drums, especially the snare that kicks in at 1:11. When this snare starts appearing in more diverse forms like the buzz roll at 1:53 or the weird echoey variant at 1:58, it sounds really awesome.
Mixing piano with dark synthesized backgrounds like you do here can easily go wrong, but you seem to have handled it quite well: the instruments blend with each other perfectly.
As for what could be improved, there's not much I can come up with off the top of my head; I would agree that the fade out is a bit strange, especially since you end the piece for real in the middle of it. More supporting instruments, or even an additional melodic one, would serve the piece well, and help make that dark atmosphere richer.
In short: nice use of piano, excellent drum patterns & tone, cool atmosphere, and no major complaints. Great job!

But why eggs?

Blackmajiick responds:

What, you don't like eggs?

Fixed the ending :)

This is a very well-composed piece, and I particularly liked the chord progression you used. I can see from your interesting commentary that you put a lot of thought into this aspect of the piece, and it paid off: the progression doesn't repeat to the point that it becomes predictable or boring (something that I have seen in a lot of Newgrounds artists) and it evokes a lot of different moods, sometimes stirring, sometimes more wistful. The voicings you used for some of the chords, especially at the beginning, were also quite interesting and helped keep my attention.

I liked that the piece had a clear structure to it. When working with a solo instrument, it's tricky to vary the tone of the piece to create a consistently engaging experience, but you managed to keep the piece engaging by starting out very understated and bringing the intensity up and down in a way that stood out.

Another aspect of the piece I thought worked well was the ambient noise supporting the piano at the beginning. Backing an acoustic instrument with a synth pad like that doesn't always work very well, but you kept it very tasteful by making it very faint, acting not as an outright harmonic support, but more of just an ambient drone.

In fact, one way in which I think you could have improved was by either continuing the drone, bringing it back later in the piece, or perhaps getting rid of it entirely--the thing is, it appears at the very beginning of the piece and then just disappears, which is kind of disorienting. Either removing the drone or making it more present would, I think, help the flow of the piece. (I'm a bit biased here, because I love minimalist music and drones, so I would just spread the synth over the whole thing--but that's just one way of doing it.)

The one other thing that I thought was a little bit inconsistent (and it's a very minor thing) was the presence of swung notes at 2:23 and 3:54. While I appreciated the rhythmic variation they brought to the piece, it was again a bit disorienting because no other rhythms of that type showed up. So, again, either adding in more swing or varying the rhythm in different ways would make the piece feel more consistent.

Really, though, I'm dwelling on small details here. Overall, the piece has a beautiful chord progression, contains an engaging set of variations on that progression, and combines a complex variety of moods. Great job!

Phonometrologist responds:

Thank you for spending the time in writing your well thought-out review.
I find it interesting on your remarks about the "swung notes," because it is true what you said. As I was writing, I was particularly concerned about the lack of variation in the rhythm. Often times when one is listening to music, a stream of consciousness starts to enter into the mind that will detract the individual away from the music. And so that is where a composer seeks to maintain some kind of balance to keep the listener engaged some how.
For example, Beethoven has his usual method where the classical musician can always rely on a sudden outburst of a forte-fortissimo passage that he has written into the score to wake up the crowd.
So, I used the varied rhythm to distinguish between the two themes to grab attention to it, but also like you said, to give the listener an impression of not knowing where the piece is going--even if it is only for a moment.

The other thing that you mentioned, which I agree with you on, is the use of the pad. However, I wrote the piece before I had in mind to use the synth. If I tried bringing it back somewhere or even tried maintaining a drone, I thought it probably would have muddied it too much. The beginning is the only place where the bass notes and chords don't change constantly as the rest of the piece does. Just didn't think there was enough time in between notes to fit a slow moving synth pad underneath, and It wouldn't sound as good if I increased its attack. And I certainly didn't want to get rid of it lol...It was my Goldmund impression regarding the synth, so it was kind of a learning tool for me.
Thanks again.

Great work! I like that you were able to show virtuosity in this piece without being crazy-energetic throughout; you started out fairly sedate and managed to slowly increase in energy, including a sufficient variety of techniques that the solo didn't get boring.

I would have to disagree with Biggyzoom in saying that I think the tone of the guitar could have been better: it was quite distorted, which didn't jell at all with the smooth, chill background. This got better when you spiced up the background a bit at 3:34. This is a pretty minor quibble, though--and the background works really well otherwise. I especially love the interaction between the guitar and the light touches of synth in the background starting at 3:34.

Very pretty piece, but still exciting in parts!

MrMaximus responds:

Thank you so much. I've learned, from playing with jazz cats, that less can be WAY better. Still trying to apply this into my playing.

This is a pretty good ambient piece. I especially like the midsection where the drums fall out and the sample of speech kicks in--the sample is well-processed, eerie but still calming in its own way, and you've included some chords which are unusual without disrupting the flow of things. Also, although I found the drumbeat in the first section a bit boring, I like the splashes of percussion you added into the final section--they added a lot of variety.

The biggest issue here (as I see it) is the fairly sparse arrangement, and a lack of variety other than that described above. Of course, when you're creating a piece as chill/dreamy as this, some sparseness is required, but through most of the beginning and end, the main melody that stuck out to me--the part of the piece my brain focused on--was the opening chords.
Additionally, these chords never really changed in their notes or their timbre, so the whole thing seemed a bit excessively repetitive. Introducing a gradual change in the tone used to play the chords, adding new chords to the progression later on, or placing a simple melody higher in the mix would help this. (Similarly, the drumbeat in the first section didn't really change at all, but this wasn't as much of a problem, because it improved a lot the second time around.)

In summary, I think you need to introduce a greater variety of synths and/or vary the melody a bit more. However, this piece definitely captures a chill atmosphere, and the chord progression is quite good--it just needs some augmentation.

Canas responds:

Thanks for the review

As far as the sparseness goes, that's kind of the point. Although I do agree that some variation is necessary, and i've already begun adding some extra layers as well as changing the pace midway through the song. Thanks for the constructive critcism

Typifies my appreciation of your music.

Waterflame, there are two phrases in your description of this piece that just generally encapsulate what I like about your works.
"I tried to mash up bigband and swing elements to a jumpy electronic beat."
I love this, because nobody else would ever attempt it! Although there are certain genres that I appreciate in particular, I feel that some of the best music comes from dabbling in the overlap between types. Personally, I thought that the swing feeling didn't come through very strong, but this is hardly a problem; first, combining the loosely syncopated beats of swing with the organized rhythm of electronic music is virtually impossible, and also merely the attempt itself produced an interesting, effectively unique, and overall pleasant-to-listen-to piece!
But also, the fact that your music "variates and shifts all the time" is terrific. Repetitiveness in a piece is usually good to avoid, and by constantly changing your style, you make most of your music more compelling to hear.
Sorry for gushing so verbosely, but I felt like I needed to mention this. Technically, this piece is quite good. I especially like the sound used for the bassline, and how several similar sounds to it get to overlap with unusual rhythms at 2:58. The various snippets of melody that appear on top of this bassline still have a jazzy feeling within the structured environment, creating spiffy contrast. I especially liked those starting at 1:13 and 3:56. As I said above, this doesn't really seem to give a big band feeling, but that's pretty hard to do without an actual big band, so excellent job overall.

Age 29, Male

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