I really like the chordal structure you have going on here. Reminds me a lot of Gershwin, which is awesome. I feel like the drums detract from this a lot. If it were me, I would either cut them out completely or move them to half time. They sound far too busy compared to the rest of the piece. Also, they seem a little one dimensional to me.
Other than that, I really like this! You're a talented pianist. Keep it up!
Unfortunately, my drum palette is limited to EZDrummer, and I don't have the jazz add-on. I would love to use brushes and do more subtle work on the snare. Drums are admittedly a weakness for me though. :-/
Thank you for the constructive criticism! It was helpful.
I really like this! I could even see this as part of the Skyrim soundtrack. The ethereal voices are stunningly effective. You've made my evening a bit more enjoyable, friend.
Thank you. I actually got the same feeling myself when I finished the choir's parts. It is good to see that the efforts were noticed.
Thank you again, my friend.
Not a bad song, good sir! My only critique is, well... Not sure if you listen to Two Steps from Hell or not, but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRLdhF Vzqt4
See 0:42.
I know this happens sometimes by accident, but that sounds awfully familiar man.
Hey, thanks for comment. It that have happened before, yes. If you wonder why this would help you, either way it is a very interesting video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAcjV60RnRw
Actually I came up with this melody by playing the chords for Time by Hans Zimmer, which is a big inspiration.
Edit-
Edited more variation to the melody, which resembles less. Thanks for the tip.
Man, excellent piece you have here. I wasn't expecting the epic! Mixed well, good guitar tones, but my favorite is the percussion you have throughout. The "sound design" aspect of this is what really makes it, I think. The glitched drums and industrial sounding percussion is great.
You will be a contender in this contest, good sir.
Thank you for your insight, much appreciated. :3
Good luck in the final stages of this contest,
KKS
I really wasn't sure what I thought about this piece the first time I listened to it. The electronic noises that you chose stuck out quite a bit, some good, some strange to the ear. I will say, the more I listened the more they grew on me. Amazing sounds at 0:25; I can see your hero entering the city gates, seeing the rampant chaos and anarchy, and feeling for a moment despair, which is quickly replaced by determination and hope.
Great job on the strings, mixed very well. Is that NI Action Strings I hear? The percussion is wonderful, it really makes the piece. Good non-traditional (for the most part) chord progressions. I love the soaring violins from 1:08 until the end, especially the part where everything else drops out. The only real complaint I have is that the ending is a bit abrupt. It feels like the story is not quite over, musically at least. Fantastic job, Bosa.
It's not NI Action Strings.
This is a fantastic piece. I'm also extra impressed that this is a live recording - it's easy to program stuff that you write, but to perform it is quite different. I love the chromaticism you have near the end before the circle progression, around 1:50 - perhaps the French influence you were talking about? The recording quality really is quite good, and everything sounds natural.
Excellent job. Fav'd, and going to check out some of your other stuff. :)
Thanks you!
Personally I mostly associate the falling chromatic lines with Bach - especially his fugues, as countersubjects, but also his other work. To me the Frenchness is mostly in the initial progression - though the i v iv (with a stepwise bass of course - Dm Am/C Gm/Bb) is hardly an uncommon opening, it just really makes me think of Rameau when played on the keyboard!
This is awesome. I love it. My only real gripe is that the bell sound thing that comes in around 1:26 is way too loud. It distracts from the rest of the piece. Otherwise, fantastic. Your music reminds me a lot of Bear McCreary, who is one of my all time favorite composers. Check him out if you haven't yet. He did the music for Battlestar Galactica.
You sir, have gained another follower.
Thanks so much. I really feel happy among you great people and musicians because I know I am not worthy at all. Yes, I agree with your point of bell sound. Will surly check Bear McCreary (never heard of him). But let me say you guys are a real talent and I really enjoyed listening to your songs.
Many thanks and respect :)
I can tell that you put a ton of work into this.
Once again, your percussion work is fantastic. Rhythmically this song is very appealing. I like that it's a consistent piece, even in the quieter section you make sure to reintroduce the main melodic structure in a new way, keeping the song coherent but interesting. The snare drum was a great idea. From what I've heard of your stuff, this piece seems to capture a lot of your style as a composer, which is great.
I also like the introduction for the strings. It changes things up, and adds a really cool counter melody to the main theme you have in the background. It's something very out of place, but works very organically with the rest of the piece.
What I like most about this piece is that it paints a picture for me. This song tells a story, and really does embody the idea of being an "Ecosystem" in the sense that there's a lot going on, but it works together to form something harmonious and pleasant to listen to. The ending is good, but I would have liked it to be a little bigger instead of beginning to fade. Endings are very difficult once you're in a groove.
This is great. Make more music.
Oh man, another review. Thanks a million! I need to repay you with a review myself, I just wish I had time.
"I can tell that you put a ton of work into this."
I did! Glad it shows.
"Once again, your percussion work is fantastic. Rhythmically this song is very appealing."
I worked more on rhythms here than I did on any other song, I think. Well I mean I've got some other similarly-styled songs that have rhythms I worked hard on but here I really tried to go all-out.
"I like that it's a consistent piece, even in the quieter section you make sure to reintroduce the main melodic structure in a new way, keeping the song coherent but interesting."
Heh, I like to think that it's consistent in its structure but at the same time diverse :P. I wish I threw in more styles in here though... in fact in an earlier version I had a soft orchestral part at around 1:11, but upon giving it to everyone else for feedback, most said that it killed the song's momentum so I decided to scrap it and went for the part that you can hear now at 1:11.
"The snare drum was a great idea. From what I've heard of your stuff, this piece seems to capture a lot of your style as a composer, which is great."
Cool. I think this is a bit more different than my other tracks, but lots of people tell me that they can easily hear my style in it. I guess I can't help it haha.
"I also like the introduction for the strings. It changes things up, and adds a really cool counter melody to the main theme you have in the background. It's something very out of place, but works very organically with the rest of the piece."
That's great to hear; it is out of place but at the same time I wanted it to transition well and sound sorta related since orchestral is my strongest genre and for this school project I wanted to showcase what I could do, even if it's just for a few seconds.
"What I like most about this piece is that it paints a picture for me. This song tells a story, and really does embody the idea of being an "Ecosystem" in the sense that there's a lot going on, but it works together to form something harmonious and pleasant to listen to."
Precisely what I was going for, thanks!
"The ending is good, but I would have liked it to be a little bigger instead of beginning to fade. Endings are very difficult once you're in a groove."
Exaaactly. At first I thought I should just end it at 3:23 but then I thought it'd be a bit abrupt so I continued and died down till the end. It's a bit anti-climatic but at the same time I thought that for a song like this, ending in a similar way that I started in would be a sensible idea.
"This is great. Make more music."
With pleasure, man. And you don't stop making music either or I'll hunt you down.
Anyway THANKS AGAIN for such a detailed review; I owe you one and hopefully I'll find time to return the favour soon!
Man, I gotta say, this is a great piece. I really love the bagpipe sounds - what did you use for that?? You've got a nice thing going with the guitar counterpoint from 1:01 to 1:44, but I feel like it's too far out in the mix. Sticks out just a little too much. Also, the cymbal swells are way too loud - instead of aiding with transitions they just distract you from the rest of the piece. A good cymbal swell is one that you don't notice, but that accents the rest of the music (in my opinion at least).
I really love the harmonies you have going on. Dabbling between a major-sounding feel in the beginning to a subtle switching between harmonic minor and raising the third with the dudok or whatever instrument that is at :41. It works well. The whole piece develops in a definitive way that casts a great, contemplative mood. Though, I don't think you needed that last note from the flute. Just letting it fade from 2:43 would have been fine.
Great job - I would love to hear more like this.
Thank you so much for enlightening me with your advises. I am still in the learning process of mixing/mastering [by the way I am a doctor so bear with me :) ]. Yes after extracting the wave file, I found out the cymbal was too high so I tried exporting it several time but the result was same. Then I decided to let it go. For the flute part, indeed I feel its exaggeration in the end.
I used Colossus for guitars, piano: Ethno World uilleann pipes from best service (its really amazing), EWSO for other sounds. Thanks again for your valuable input.
Well, since you were kind enough to direct me here....
I really like how the smaller "Peak of the Mountain" piece fits into this overall structure. It has character, and really paints a picture for me. It's not just a neat little bit of music anymore, but a climax that helps this music tell a story. I like the ending in this a lot better as well - it seems more thought out and deliberate, but still leaves me wanting a little more resolution than I get.
For the most part I really like your choice of instruments here. However, the instrument around :27 doesn't seem to fit into the mix, and sounds terribly "midi-like" compared to the rest of what's going on. I think you have the same problem from 1:03 to 1:25. The instruments stick out in a way that is not flattering to the rest of the piece. You may have been constrained since this project called for location specific instruments. I have a similar problem at times, that the percussion (SD2?) sounds extremely realistic, as it is easier to piece together than say, a "midi" sampled violin or clarinet solo. So you get stuck with drums that sound superb and other instruments that by the nature of the beast can't match up. That said, most of the stuff you have here meshes really well.
I really like your stuff, Step. Look forward to hearing more.
Oh wow, another review! Thanks!
"Well, since you were kind enough to direct me here...."
Haha, more like YOU were kind enough to come here :3.
"I really like how the smaller "Peak of the Mountain" piece fits into this overall structure."
That's quite ironic actually... to be honest I made this first and then Peak of the Mountain afterwards, and I only made Peak of the Mountain a rushed version of the climax in this song just because I was running out of time. So the only reason it fits in here is because I half-assed it haha. But I'm glad it works!
"It has character, and really paints a picture for me. It's not just a neat little bit of music anymore, but a climax that helps this music tell a story. I like the ending in this a lot better as well - it seems more thought out and deliberate, but still leaves me wanting a little more resolution than I get."
Thanks! The ending isn't perfect here either, true. Reason being, this track plays in the play that we made for the school activity, and only plays till around 1:02, then it starts fading out, so the ending wasn't actually very important and I didn't give it that really "final" resolution since it'd be faded out anyway, while the narrator is narrating something. You're totally right about that ending though.
"For the most part I really like your choice of instruments here. However, the instrument around :27 doesn't seem to fit into the mix, and sounds terribly "midi-like" compared to the rest of what's going on. I think you have the same problem from 1:03 to 1:25."
That's interesting... they're all East/West so they should all be high-quality, but the reason that's the case may be because those instruments (a gadulka and duduk respectively) were pretty dry and when they took the spotlight they didn't sound as full as everything else. This problem sounds even worse in another Morocco-styled song of mine, "Feast", during a part where a gadulka comes in.
"You may have been constrained since this project called for location specific instruments. I have a similar problem at times, that the percussion (SD2?) sounds extremely realistic, as it is easier to piece together than say, a "midi" sampled violin or clarinet solo. So you get stuck with drums that sound superb and other instruments that by the nature of the beast can't match up. That said, most of the stuff you have here meshes really well."
Haha man I totally get what you're saying. I find it so easy to make nice-sounding drums but it's always a lot harder for melodic instruments isn't it? And of course it's my first time working with these kinds of instruments so I didn't exactly know what I was doing :P.
"I really like your stuff, Step. Look forward to hearing more."
That's great man, thanks a million. I've heard some of your stuff and I'm REALLY impressed. Maybe I'll leave one of your tracks a review when I have time, but recently I've been so packed with work that I don't know whether that'll be a possibility in the near future.
Whatever the case, thanks again for another fantastic review!
Available to do soundtracks for your game/film. PM me for details.
Age 35, Male
Joined on 11/5/12
Afternoon Blues (Improv) 
A Love Unforgotten 
Epic Return 
KKS - Tears and Sacrifice 
A Hero is Coming 
The Holy Riders 
Ecosystem 
ReStLeSs SouL 
Morocco 