Music critique request

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dangu
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Music critique request

#1 Post by dangu »

Hi, I recently made several tracks for visual novels

https://soundcloud.com/daveglaze/sets/v ... vel-musics

Please listen to them and feel free to leave comments.
Just go all out, since I really need your critiques to polish my skill in making music
Thanks for your time.
Last edited by dangu on Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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sothcsp
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Re: Music critique request

#2 Post by sothcsp »

1. In Rain We Dance (revise) 9/10
- Beautiful. Very simple yet gives a very melodramatic or sad story. This is apparently perfect to use when the setting of a story is winter.

2. The Snow Fog 10/10
- Extravagant. I feel like I'm in France with those violins and flutes. Transcends a very happy yet calm moment. Opening apparently caught me off guard. I thought it was gonna be a sad song.

3. a boy in a house that no longer exists 8/10
- Sounds pretty playful if you ask me. Also, the piano is beautifully done. Although, it's one sounding.

4. Re:set Episode 1 8/10
- It was all piano and then electric guitar. You scared me man, it's 3:00AM here. The sudden transition from a calm piano to a very hyper electric guitar was extremely good. Although the voice was barely understandable. There was a voice but the lyrics were not there. It's as if the voice was eating the lyrics. And that is not what you want in a song.

5. To Those Who Dream By Night 7.5/10
- It's good. The chanting gave emphasis for a winter-like effect to the song. Although, it was one-sounding. The tone was like repeating itself. I'm talking about the glockenspiel. It didn't gave a heavy impact. It was like a song that kept on repeating itself.

6. Thoughts Around Every Corner 10/10
- Yes. It's quiet. Yes. It's simple. But I got to admit this might probably be one of the most unique pieces you got here. The tone is not one-sounding. The music score is beautiful. Gives a way to the feeling of a calm or sad story. The pianos were beautifully executed. The verses kept on changing with beautiful transitions and that is one of the things in music that I love so much. The weird background sound gives perfect contrast to the piano which I love. I got to admit, this song made me fall in love. I'll be honest, I can't find any flaws.

7. Memory Lane [Instrumental] 9/10
- Opening was like you're gonna die then BAM, you were reborn. Instruments mend well with each other. Sounds incredibly epic. The transition at the beginning was really beautiful and epic. This song might fit perfectly in a fight-drama scene of some sort.

8. Memory Lane [final mix] 9.5/10
-Same as the instrumental. The voice is clearer than the other one. Though, I can't understand some parts in there. The drums... I don't know what to say. The drums fit yet doesn't really fit in. Also those cymbals though, it sorta destroys the epic feel and replaces it with a BANG feeling.

Average of all 8 songs: 8.8/10 [Rating: Very Good.]

Sound Quality: 8.5/10
Instruments: 9/10
Musical Score: 10/10
Impact: 7/10

Overall: 8.6/10

Yes. All of these are honest. I liked most of them. Some are so beautiful that they are worthy to be called porn.

Have a nice day! :)

konaa
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Re: Music critique request

#3 Post by konaa »

First off, I think all of your mixing is incredibly fantastic across the board. Can you give me a quick rundown on that (programs you use, soundfonts, ect?). Compositionally I'm going to guess that you've probably got a pretty strong background with theory too?

Crtique-wise:

Personally I think your first song is a bit busy, to the detriment of the melody. It goes a lot of places really fast. Keeping in mind that I'm very much into melodies, I wasn't huge on the song itself because it feels more like a piano study than a song.

Second song is where that aforementioned mixing really shines. I love the percussion here especially. There's not a whole lot I find wrong with this track, actually. There's bits where the piano is way buried in the mix and I feel like people aren't going to notice it, but it comes through when it needs to, and it's not a huge part of the song when you can't hear it.

Third song: again, feels a bit like a piano study, but this time it's definitely got a feel that fits in with visual novel music.

Fourth song: I think this is probably the strongest melody you've got here (which is weird because I usually find instrumental music has the stronger melodylines). It's hella solid pop writing, and you've got that structure down to a science, but I'm not 100% on the sound of the guitar you've got going. It mostly sounds good, but in bits it sounds a bit synth-y and a bit cheap.

I'm not entirely sold on the feel of your fifth song. It feels like you don't go anywhere with your idea. The whole song seems a bit one note in that it starts, it goes, and then it ends.

Your next song (Sixth one?) feels like something that I'd write, so I'm maybe a bit biased, but I like it a whole lot. I love the minimalistic style, and I love the slow build that you have going. You've got them repeated piano lines over changing chords and ambiance, which I'm a sucker for. If I had to find something to critique about it, maybe I'd say that it spends a bit too much time in the refrain section.

With your second last track, the mixdown feels a bit less perfect that everything else, but I'm going to maybe guess that it's a bit older(?) This one's really attention grabbing in a good way with rhythms, and I love the texture. It does feel like you get into a stride and then become afraid to leave that stride with a b section though.

Oh, look at that, your last track, IS in fact a better mix of the previous. Was I right? Some things in this feel a bit wonky to me, which I think is a shame because the song is so close to being really great. It's still really good, but the drums feel completely devoid of any kind of groove. It's weird, because your other songs show that you've got no problem writing percussion. As it is though, I'm not sold on that snare line at all. Oh, and before you hit the climax or chorus or whatever, the chords seem a bit wonky at times. This is the one and only time where it feels like you're just pulling stuff out of air, so it stood out a bit more.

Overall, (like I said before, I'm super into melody lines), I feel like all of the melodies could be made better, but you've got a hell of a texture on every single song, that manages to be unique from the previous, but equally as lush. A lot of the songs do feel a but like they're afraid to break out of a chord progression, and I feel like they suffer from it. It definitely takes a lot of momentum out of the songs, which is a shame because they've got a lot of momentum otherwise. I hope it doesn't sound negative, I'm just trying to find things that could be improved on. I think it's all great, from a general listening standpoint. And if you wanna get music-snobbish on it then the songs have some impressive arrangements. There's a lot of stuff going on in all of these songs, and it pretty much all fits, and it usually doesn't feel murky or bogged down by the large arrangements.

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PurpleMind
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Re: Music critique request

#4 Post by PurpleMind »

As it has already been said, the mixing is incredible. What programs do you use for that?

The choice of instruments, the melody, the harmony... The stuff's awesome. Nothing more to say. Simply awesome. Keep up the good work. :D

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dangu
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Re: Music critique request

#5 Post by dangu »

wow. Thanks alot everyone.

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