00:00
00:00
Back-From-Purgatory

160 Audio Reviews

82 w/ Responses

Eerie, yet uplifting...

I like the sound you were going for in this piece, it sounds like you were pretty well spot on with the overall sound you were going for... It was pulled off quite well, I was especially fond of the "slidy section"... as I'll call it... starting at around 0:42. It felt pretty unique as far as orchestral scores go, and gave the overall song a nice eerie undertone. Instruments sounded excellent, mixing was great, and your use of lifts didn't sound overly forced.

What bugged me about this the most, was that when all is said and done, I didn't find it at all memorable. I really do think this would work really well as an insert in a movie, however, on it's own, it needs something else to make it truly great.
Some of the lifts I found, while feeling natural, felt a little out of character and unnecessary for the area of the song it was in.
I also found the song felt very redundant, while the melody is nice, I think it is a little overused, or relied on too heavily to push the song forward.
And I was pretty disappointed with the ending, as it just sort of... stops.

Either way, I enjoyed listening to it, got a 6.5/10 from me.

Rampant responds:

I disagree with the 'redundancy' bit: if I tried to force another theme or more variations into a piece this short, I think it would sound meandering and would lose its sense of direction.

Nonetheless, I'm glad you enjoyed listening to it.

This track makes me fear for my life.

Seriously, you did a great job composing a piece that stimulates imagery and a story in the listeners mind. From start to finish, it bombarded me with imagery in an unrelenting manner. I was also very impressed by the sounds you used, everything sounded very natural and very epic, nothing sounded overly sampled, and the entire thing flowed together perfectly.
I was also greatly impressed with the near perfect mood switch right near the beginning.
The percussion I also found very well done, and really added that "To War!" vibe to the piece.

As for complaints, I did notice a little clipping here and there. The only other really noticeable thing I have to complain about really was at 1:04, it sounded like the choir cut out in the middle of the phrasing every so often, as if there was a randomly placed breathe point in phrase.

Overall, freaking epic, and I very much enjoyed it. 8.5/10.

Bosa responds:

Thank you, my good sir. Yeah, those little clipping points are hard to notice for me (I don't know if I'm deaf or what). I'll really try to not make the same mistakes next time I release a song.

The impact that the song made on you is exactly what I was going for. It took me a long time, but this song has finally found a use for itself here on Newgrounds.

samulis vs. Bosa... FIGHT!

You did a lot of things right in this, including great composition and mixing, everything felt natural, and the section where the staccato strings come in is nothing short of epic. And while the feel of it was fairly cliche, I think you did well to make it your own, and the transitions between sections felt very natural and clean.

Complaints? The solo violin (That is a violin, yeah?) really... really felt like a sample, every time it played a note, it felt very robotic. It rose and hit vibrato in a very unnatural way, it was especially noticeable when it would switch from one note to another as it would just cut off in the middle of a vibrato very abruptly.
As well, while I do think this is a well done piece, I didn't find it all that memorable, the pace at which it moves is both a blessing and a curse... while it doesn't stick with a theme long enough for the listener to get bored, it, the lifted staccato section aside, doesn't really do anything all that memorable either.

All that aside, I did enjoy listening to it, and gave it a 7.5/10.

samulis responds:

Thanks for the review.

I actually really enjoyed the violin sound I used, but I guess that isn't true with most everyone. XD

In the future, I am considering writing a nice, well-formed, melody-based piece so all the classical nuts will not kill me for my excessive cinematic feel.

Clickity clack pop tink...

I like the theme of this, the feeling you were going for, and enjoyed the soothing sound of the lead as it happily danced around throughout...

However... Gonna be honest, the clicking annoyed the hell out of me, I think you would've been better off using some more natural percussion, because I remember on my first listen, all that clicking reminded me of was clipping audio. And that isn't a thought makes me enjoy music.
On top of that, it's short, and never really goes anywhere. I do think this had potential, I really do... but it feels to me like you had a cool idea, threw it in your DAW of choice, then said, "Screw it, I'm too lazy to come up with more!"

If you had elaborated on this a bit more and replaced the annoying clicks and pops with some more natural percussion, this could have easily scored higher... But as it is, it gets a 5/10 from me.

TheBenjerman responds:

Hmm, definitely got mixed reviews on the clicking part. Good to know, thanks!

Parts of this totally reminded me of Zelda...

Anywho... Pretty good thing you got going here, great use of velocity and lifts to really bring out the emotion and give it a little dynamic, and while some sections seem to carry on with the same feel maybe a little too long without any significant change, overall the song progresses on and introduces new melodies to keep the listener from getting overly bored. Samples used sounded awesome, and there were plenty of sections that really reminded me of old school game soundtracks, as mentioned above... like Zelda.

Complaints? Again, some sections dragged on a little too long without significant change, a couple of the transitions and melodies felt very forced. Overall I found the mixing pretty good, so most of my complaints are really related to your decisions in terms of the composition... 1:12 being a prime example... That really threw me off, and it felt more like I was listening to a song on a CD, and it skipped ahead to the next track without my input.

Overall, well done though, I enjoyed it. Earned a 7/10 from me.

Beat Step, go me.

I actually really like this, it's simple, it's mellow, it's got a lot of feeling to it, the instruments work well to set the tone. I can actually see this fitting in perfectly as an insert song for a movie, one of those dramatic fly overs of a city, or when someone comes to some great epiphany... Or even one of those regretful death scenes... I don't know why, but the scene in Spiderman where Peters uncle dies pops in my head. I think this would work great for a scene like that.

However, as a song on it's own, I do have to complain that there should be more to it, maybe some light percussion, not even necessarily drums, maybe some chimes to add some more ambiance... Or hell, even some light rain as a background or something. While I think it'd work wonderfully for an insert, but itself it needs a little extra something to really stand out.

Regardless, great work, get this into a flash, and properly used, it'll make a great impression.

BrokenDeck responds:

^_^ Thanx! Yeah hopefully I can get this used in a flash. +1 for being faster than Step :P

Too long, didn't listen, loved it, 10/10.

Seriously though, I quite like this, you make great use of velocity and volume to give each section a nice feel and appropriate lifts and falls, and in each individual section, it flows very well. The instruments and samples used were also top notch and it was rare that I found it was obvious that they were samples or that I noticed those subtle hints (Such as forced vibrato) that the samples were indeed samples.

As for what I didn't like, I noticed you mentioned it in your comments, but a few of the transitions were pretty jarring, and I thought some of the transitions between the sections were ultimately unnecessary as the following section carried on in a fairly similar feel to the previous section.
Also, in contrast to what I said about velocity and lifts in what I liked... I also found that occasionally the lift or drop was a little too drastic, almost to the point where I felt the need to turn my speakers volume up or down. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but here and there, I did think the rise was a little "overcooked" so to speak.

That said, great work, keep it up, and your reviews are too damn long. ;D

Step responds:

Hey man thanks for reviewing!

"Too long, didn't listen, loved it, 10/10."

WOO.

"Seriously though, I quite like this, you make great use of velocity and volume to give each section a nice feel and appropriate lifts and falls, and in each individual section, it flows very well."

Awesome. Yeah it probably doesn't flow very well between sections, but in the sections I did try and make sure that the flow was smooth.

"The instruments and samples used were also top notch and it was rare that I found it was obvious that they were samples or that I noticed those subtle hints (Such as forced vibrato) that the samples were indeed samples."

Aha yes, I have trouble with vibrato. I can never get vibrato to sound good. It's probably hard to do so anyway with sample libraries. But yeah I have East/West to thank for their ridiculously good samples.

"As for what I didn't like, I noticed you mentioned it in your comments, but a few of the transitions were pretty jarring, and I thought some of the transitions between the sections were ultimately unnecessary as the following section carried on in a fairly similar feel to the previous section."

Hm yeah I see what you mean. I wanted to make it a little obvious that the medley is changing to a new track in Monster Hunter though. I hear some medleys where I can't even tell when one melody stops and another starts, and sometimes the melodies are combined together in a way that I can barely even recognise them from the original melodies. I wanted there to be clear markers between one melody and another so I didn't want them to be seamless. I did want them to be smooth though, and I kinda failed there haha.

"Also, in contrast to what I said about velocity and lifts in what I liked... I also found that occasionally the lift or drop was a little too drastic, almost to the point where I felt the need to turn my speakers volume up or down. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but here and there, I did think the rise was a little "overcooked" so to speak."

You're not the first to complain about that. And I don't mean in this track, I mean my music in general has those over-exaggerated drops and lifts. I love doing that personally, but if everyone's telling me it's too much, then I suppose I'm the wrong one here :P.

"That said, great work, keep it up, and your reviews are too damn long. ;D"

Tell me something I don't know :P.

Glad you liked it, thanks for the feedback dude!

I approve.

ForeverBound responds:

Nice :D

Very nice... has a very nostalgic feel to it, classic metal, the roots!

And as always freaking awesome vocals, although I think they needed to be turned up a tiny bit in a few spots.

Overall, awesome job, good to see you back in the saddle!

\m/

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

I thank you, sir. Mostly your fault. As it was working on your song that inspired me to giver. haha.
Cheers brother.

This is deliciously epic, glad I took the time to give it a listen. I absolutely love the theme behind it with the story and all, it really does give the song a great deal more emotion. And the writing was for the most part superb.

Overall, the mixing was wonderful, my biggest complaints are the intro seemed a little overdriven and the reverb was a little overpowering because of that when the piano (I'm assuming that's what that is) reached into the higher register.
The vocals were overall very well sung, although there did seem to be a spot here and there that felt a little forced, and the clean vocals seemed to fluctuate a little bit in volume throughout the song, not enough to be really distracting, but enough to notice.

That aside, I really enjoy this song, keep it up!

Dnman responds:

Thank you, its funny I didn't notice how over the top the reverb was until I listened to it on a different system. Cant win them all eh. Ya and the mike I'm using is a piece of crap. Worst of all my computer sucks lol, Basically cant have any midi playing back or my cpu fails and its all choppy. This song was a annoying to record cause there are 4 midi instruments (piano, drums, violin, cello). I would eq everything, turn on the midi tracks and export to a wave file (takes 20 min with my comp) then i could actually listen to everything lol. then when it sucked i would have to try again ha. i kinda gave up but iI' definitely gonna repost this when I'm done the other songs.
thanks again

Sinner

Purgatory

Joined on 12/11/04

Level:
33
Exp Points:
12,030 / 12,090
Exp Rank:
2,406
Vote Power:
7.48 votes
Rank:
Scout
Global Rank:
33,133
Blams:
173
Saves:
113
B/P Bonus:
4%
Whistle:
Bronze
Medals:
246
Supporter:
1y 11m 29d