Eradicate

Man, "Truly Awesome Review" seems like some sort of sticker people should put on people's reviews if they are really good! Well, thank you for the sticker! Thank you very much for the kind words on my review. Feel free to take from them what you wish. I just remembered what it was like waiting for reviews to come in years ago and not hearing back for a long time, then hearing back and the review just be a sentence. A lot of work goes into these things sometimes, and proper feedback just seems welcomed. Whether the mix is perfect or not, I tend to at least try to offer "something" substantial. Komplete 8 is pretty dang nice from what I've heard. I only have free software anymore, but keeping up with reviews and all, people like that a lot. What's the other mix you are getting ready to submit? I'd love to hear it. That's a nice story! Boxers can be really great pets. As for Eradicate, it was the title for a song that my old death metal band from years ago had. Figured since we broke up, I could acquire it! I'm glad that my suggestions were helpful in some way. Be sure to keep me and everyone updated on this remix! It sounds great and I can't wait to hear what more you do with it!

Hello chimpazilla! Chimpazilla makes me think of a cross between chimpanzees and Godzilla...which would about be King Kong I guess. Anyways, with such a large name, you've got such a nice, pleasant to listen to song here! I always like to just comment on what I hear as I listen through, but more general things will sneak in too and at the end. I like the piano and pads at the beginning. It works well for the ambiance of it all. The sounds are pretty nice. I think particularly for the beginning, some of the higher notes (wrapped in chords) seem a little "harsh," which might be a matter of playing around with the EQ for that instrument. It's not bad at all, and the instrumentation is nice, just those higher notes stick out a bit. For more instrument-related commentary, around :25, the guitar comes in. It sounds pretty nice, but, I'd love for more reverb to it, maybe even the slightest, slightest touch of echo. Then, the drums. You have more of a "techno-ish" drum set being used. I think that the song might work better with a brush set or jazz set. I really think those brush sounds would work great here and not be too heavy of a set at all for a song like this, and you'd get a nice array of sounds. I suggest this too because some of the drumming here is a little heavy on the snares, like around :47 when it's basically a march. I just think having a fuller set could open more sonic capabilities to the song, such as cymbals, a truer snare, and even some light toms. The brush sounds would also work to blend everything in. You'd also get a snare "click" that would work well in the song. (Where you hold the stick on the snare and tap it on the side of the drum. I don't know the technical term!) Enough about the samples for now though. All the other ones sound pretty good. I like the vocals too, especially around 1:22. Starting around 2:00 until about 2:52, I'd love for this part to have some more "soloing" things going on in it. You feature the guitar after this (which is really awesome, and I'll get to in a second), but through this section, I think instead of introducing those lower strings and even the bell part, you could have some cool electric piano soloing going on. Something not so intense as the guitar part later, but something to whet the appetite, even just some rhythmic moving chords (think like what a jazz piano might do). I think it would lead into the guitar well at 2:52. Speaking of which, this section is a pretty awesome climax to the song with the choir and the guitar and everything going. Really good job. I'd keep this part as the climax of the song. It'd make for a great build-up starting from 2:00. I think that the second half could certainly help make this original enough. To aid this along, I'd concentrate on making sure that the first half is very polished. Make it an aural experience, maybe have sweeping pads doing stereo things (panning right to left), just to make sure there is enough sonic activity going on. The music is all pretty dang good to me and this is just pleasant to listen to. If there is enough meat to the first half, and you have a little more fun with the second half (maybe taking some of my suggestions into consideration), I think this could certainly be something that would end up on the site. Thank you for sharing! Be sure to post up any updates and things. I'd love to hear how this comes along! Hope that I was helpful; no one had commented yet and I wanted to make sure you got some thorough feedback. I'll gladly check out any changes that you make to it!

Hello DrumJ8! I can tell from your handle on here that you like drums. I can also tell that listening to your work here with "Spacious Marimba" too. I liked the introduction. The bass sample is pretty cool, that spacious marimba sounds nice, and the drums work well too, especially for the type of drumming going on. I do feel around :28 with the bass and drums that the volume change in the bass isn't needed; it is just the loudest point in the song just for two seconds essentially. I'd just have the bass stay the same (and at the same volume) and have the drums do something different to accent the bass notes more. I like where the drums get a little more "breaky" at :30. Through this part, because so much of it is the same other than the drums, you might try changing something else up a bit too. Drop the bass, do something more with the marimba (maybe chords), etc. I like the pad that comes in around :43 too. But, at :53...I can't say I'm a fan of that sample. Even though it changes the atmosphere a little, it just seems "weak" to me. I'd go with something much more aggressive to lead you into the next section of the song at 1:04. This whole part through here seems a little off to me, but I think it is mainly the mixing. I think the arpeggios in the back should be more prominent with that weaker synth lowered. This is all contingent on the next point, which is that I'd love for the drums to be more of the focus through this part as they were becoming. They just get really "standard" for all the break-beat things they were doing before. You could do some great creative things here with the drums and let the instruments carry the rhythm more since they are doing more "plain" things anyways. Maybe through another pad in here just to thicken it out. Returning to the theme around 2:05 seems to be a fine way to end the song. Instead of bringing back that one synth around 2:28 and making that end the song, I'd rather just start fading out instruments to leave just the drums and let the drums end the song. That synth's main role seemed to be to bring in that middle part, so I wouldn't end with it since it played a more minor role than anything else. I hope you don't take any of this too critically. I just wanted to give you a thorough review with my opinions on the piece since I saw no one else had commented on it yet. I just want to try and make everything as useful as I can be. You do some really cool drum programming here, and I'd really let that be the highlight. Hopefully someone with some more experience with this type of music can comment on it, since I'm certainly no expert. I just hope that my impressions can prove valuable to you in some way! Thanks for sharing, and be sure to post up any progress because I'd love to hear it!

Hello pokemoneinstein! I haven't been involved in this site in a long time, but I want to try and get back into it. It's great getting to hear a pleasant little song like this. As chimpazilla said, this is still more of a cover. The instruments and tone all sound just fine to me, especially given the character of the piece. It would be fun to hear it taken in some different directions though. Are you familiar with Robert Farnon? He is a great little composer of lighter orchestra music. Here's a couple of links to some of his works on Youtube: - "Little Miss Molly" - "Bird Charmer"I'm not bringing Farnon up so much for imitation purposes, but just to hear some ideas and connect them to what you have. For instance, Farnon puts a lot of importance on the melody, and his melodies dance around and are prominent. He also uses rhythm well too, usually having something underneath it all doing the primary "beat" with strings or something gliding chords over it. (You can hear this easiest with "Little Miss Molly.") Farnon is a great example of "filling out" a song with an orchestra and keeping it very light, which is something you said you wanted to do. Adapting this to your song, you have a "beat" in place with those basses. As far as the other strings I hear, they are primarily doing a rhythm too with those eighth notes. Maybe use them to do some things with chords, making them glide about and hold "something" for the melody on top to dance on top of. You switch the melody around between different instruments, but it is mainly as a sort of round. I think keeping it primarily one instrument (for me, I'd like either the flute or the glockenspiel) and expanding on that for a longer period of time before bringing other instruments on board with the melody too soon. Think of it like the vocals in a song; let one instrument serve as the "verse," and do fun things with the other leads you have for the "chorus" for a shorter period of time to break it up. I hope this helps! I think the mixing is pretty darn good and the samples used all sound just fine for me! The instrumentation all seems great also! Chimpazilla had some nice suggestions too as far as what you can do to change it up a little bit. As far as the introduction goes, it just seems too "quick." I'd either repeat it and change it a little to lead more into the main melody of the song, or do it twice, but the first time just make it the glockenspiel and bring in the rest of the instruments the second time. That is all assuming you want to keep the introduction! Anyways, great job pokemoneinstein! I hope any of this helps!

My first review of a ReMix on this site, and I'd have it no other way than review this piece. I'll just start off by saying, "Very nice work GrayLightning." All of the instruments in this song are excellently done. They come off as realistic and emotive, and get the job done perfectly. I also really enjoy the placement/panning of the instruments in this song; this is a real treat to listen to on headphones! Also, I like how the piece was arranged personally, as I enjoy the base of a melody or theme intact, but not a note-for-note translation throughout. At times that can be alright for me, though I still like to hear some "artist input" of creativity in the piece. With that said, this did that for me. Very nice GrayLightning. I can not wait to hear your next two that you sound excited about!