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Eagleon

5 Audio Reviews w/ Response

All 9 Reviews

This is the piece that's been sitting in my music collection since 2009 that finally made me come back and check out Newgrounds to post my own work again. I've never gotten tired of hearing it, and it's found a place in nearly every chill-out playlist I've made. A constant source of inspiration and beauty. Thank you :)

Soundshifter responds:

Thanks I'm glad to hear. And you're very welcome. Sorry it took so long.

Relaxing. Mixed well IMHO, though the drums could use some more fuzz for my tastes - not lower frequency, just a little less crisp. Definitely has the feeling of an outdoors scene, with a hint of darkness. The only thing I'd say is that around 1:20 or so I was expecting the melody to pick up and shift into a different, more complicated phrase. Not necessarily louder or anything, just a break from the main line - as it stands, it doesn't have much in the way of movement. Not necessarily a good thing for game loops, as it gets hard on the ears after a while.

If you did that, and bridged it back to the original phrase (respecting how it would loop, of course), I for one would be proud to have this in a game.

adonnias responds:

Thanks for your comment! I'm glad you got the gist of the feeling I was going for: "outdoors, hint of darkness". I see what you are saying about breaking away from the main line, and I totally agree with you. My next Video game music will try to be more experimental. Like have layer A and B interchangeable/standalone, Layer C is a pad, and Layer D and E for percussion.

You've achieved something with this that's incredible to me, and I don't know if it's the description influencing my feelings about the piece or not, but - the sweetness at the climax reminds me so powerfully of that feeling of finding something beautiful in the thick of despair. The tension at that point is so perfectly evocative of the beginning of healing and a strengthening of the soul that this goes straight into my 'modern masterpiece' category. <3

Phonometrologist responds:

You make me ponder on these words that you presented to me…
Although I’m not clear on what part the “climax” is, even for myself, I do understand your message. I would say, that is very accurate for myself at least.
I see this piece in two parts:
From the beginning to 3:30, the piece is in a flurry of chords. It starts out in E minor and transposes a half step up as it progresses. The symbolism of the moving parts is that of the many emotions and thoughts one may encounter through “despair.” There are just too many emotions that come to mind as one can’t possibly focus on a single thought. After that and through to the end, the piece sways back and forth just upon two chords.
It is a lullaby—originally meant for another to be put to sleep, but now for the one that grieves. Finding the beauty in the thick of despair, as you put it, reminds me of how often we do this when it comes to the world around us. Beauty in itself cannot be defined without the fleetingness of the subject we wish to prescribe the word to. Sometimes it is because of beauty we despair as it is so engraved in us that nothing in this world lasts forever. I just see the words “beauty” and “sorrow” as inseparable. Thank you for listening.

Solid! I love the crunch in the percussion that that kick introduces, fits perfectly. It all reminds me of the Sands of Time game soundtrack, in a good way.

Have you heard of exciters? If you wanted a simpler kick with more impact in the higher end, it might be the way to go if there's absolutely nothing there to boost with an EQ. Also try reducing the predominant frequencies in the sample, and raising its level overall - it'll pop out more, though there might be things there you don't like. If you already tried that, my apologies :3

The strings were clashing a little with some of the counterpoint introduced just after the 1 minute mark, because the release time was longer than on the brass. I normally love well-used dissonance, but it felt more like a mistake here. This was what brought it down the most.

Your mixing... I might take a rather different philosophy towards this than most electronic artists so take with a grain of salt - I would rather something sound brilliant on one output format than risk losing out on the full impact of the song by cluttering it or reducing it to something less than it was. On monitor headphones, this was more on the cluttered end for me (too many instruments using the same ranges), but overall I could tell it was nearly there!

But for instance, listening to classical in a car stereo system, and then with even just cheapo dollar-store headphones, it's an entirely different world, because there is no compromise on the headphone mix - their typical audience, along with quiet home setups. You get every instrument involved, and can gauge the entire performance rather than rely on raw volume and the listener's imagination.

There's something to be said if you can accomplish both - put in complementary details that don't fight when heard together on higher quality equipment. Then you've just made a better song. I think it's better to go the other route if you can't find elbow-room, though, towards simplicity when clarity would be compromised by doing too much to win over everyone.

Side notes: always keep track of who exactly provided your samples, and give more specific credit even if they don't ask for it. It's a professional courtesy if they're releasing it free to promote their work, or at the very least it's nice if they're just doing it to be nice as well. And sorry if this was too long, I got carried away like I usually do when writing ^^;

Everratic responds:

"Have you heard of exciters? If you wanted a simpler kick with more impact in the higher end, it might be the way to go if there's absolutely nothing there to boost with an EQ. Also try reducing the predominant frequencies in the sample, and raising its level overall "

I have not tried this, but I have heard about the idea before. I will give it a try next time.

"The strings were clashing a little with some of the counterpoint introduced just after the 1 minute mark, because the release time was longer than on the brass. I normally love well-used dissonance, but it felt more like a mistake here. This was what brought it down the most."
I'm having a difficult time understanding this. What do you mean by "counterpoint introduced after the 1 minue mark"? Also, I did not use a brass, I used three different string instruments and I changed the attack and release on them to try to make them sound more natural, which I guess was a mistake.

"I would rather something sound brilliant on one output format than risk losing out on the full impact of the song by cluttering it or reducing it to something less than it was."
I'm not sure about this. I know that most people who listen to my songs probably use their computer speakers, or even worse, phone speakers. I'll have to think about it.

"Side notes: always keep track of who exactly provided your samples, and give more specific credit even if they don't ask for it. It's a professional courtesy if they're releasing it free to promote their work, or at the very least it's nice if they're just doing it to be nice as well. And sorry if this was too long, I got carried away like I usually do when writing ^^;"

Yeah, I need to start doing this with the new samples I collect. I don't remember where I got most of my drum samples from though because that was in 2011.

Thank you for this thorough review! It's been a long time since anyone criticized my mixing on newgrounds, I tried to do too much this time and made a lot of mistakes.

Sort of an abrupt ending, and quite short, but I'm a sucker for this kind of samplemashing and creepbient in general. To me this is very cyberpunk - I picture broken tv screens in the wrecked rubble of a city, and crawling mechanical things hinting at its end.

The thing that brought the rating down is that creepy doesn't have to be painful - dropping a lowpass (and leaving in some dry mix/overlaying a small amount of the original sound) onto the vocals with a touch of reverb might give this more hypnotic appeal and be less grating. That might be what you intended, but absent a short animation of equal torment (which this really needs - I wish I had stuck with Flash and animation back in the day), it's difficult to listen to by itself.

Mr-Insanity97 responds:

Oh ok thank you, I been honestly I weren't think much on the genre of it, actully little bit thinking about aiming to be a ambient song but anyway I'm aright being a cyberpunk song. The theme was do with dark theme alluding to violence and political power (Including my fursona in the album cover: Mr Insanity: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/mr-insanity97/mr-insanity-deviantart-id?context=ratings:etma.user:5131561.scouted:.sort:2.offset:49 .) like Jackal Queenston from Lapfox Trax (Renard Queenston): http://lapfoxtrax.wikia.com/wiki/Jackal_Queenston .

There is another song related do this song is called Coup d'etat: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/584438 (The theme was to overthrown the previous government who which controlling the world and to have Mr Insanity to be the government to controlling the world. This set in the future).

This song is a follow up of that song. The theme was successful overthrown the previous world's government and Mr Insanity came as the world's government but Mr Insanity and the world's government turn into a dictator, so democracy been destroy).

Also there is a album of this on Bandcamp: https://mr-insanity.bandcamp.com/releases .

Anyway, thank you again.

Age 36, Male

Milwaukee, WI

Joined on 2/11/04

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