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Adam-Beilgard

82 Audio Reviews

42 w/ Responses

Well, this certainly was huge - no doubt about that. Mixing was done well, overall. Unfortunately not a lot to work with for a 30 minute epic.

What I mean by that is the four chords over eight bars got repetitive after about five minutes. What's amazing to me is that it lasted five minutes sounding like a Phish vamp (one of their more interesting ones). What starts to happen around the six minute mark is you get tired with the Pentatonic and Major riffs and start making up licks using blues, whole-tone and even some modes (phrygian, locrian) and chromatics I don't think you intended - they just happened. The only problem is that with the same arpeggio for the background, you have to approach them a certain way, then resolve them a certain way for it to work to our 'western-12-tone-ears'. Once that stops working, we hear 'wrong' notes, pick scrapings, clipped and muted strings. What we don't hear is a melody and form.

I definitely give you credit for being so ambitious. And you do have some nice licks here and there. Overall this feels like the lost kind of wandering instead of the leisurely kind.

I think I threw up a little. In my mouth.

Yep, it's there.

Turtle Power!

Seriously, though, nicely done!

Poniiboi responds:

Michelangelo is a party dude!

That was really good: nice use of voices, I liked the form. Just listened to the original (for the first time) and this did it justice.

Good work!

RetromanOMG responds:

Thanks for the review. I have very little experience with Dubstep, so it's nice to hear that you liked it.

Pretty good overall. About halfway through, I start to hear some dynamic contrast (other than instruments dropping out) and even some effects at the transition. I would use those more to give the piece that extra dimension. And maybe, for a number this long, one extra section to the music to use another voice.

Otherwise, this is sounding good!

CardboardowI responds:

Yea i still need to work on making my effects better.

Thanks for the review!

Very nicely done. Simple, easy feel, kind of bittersweet lyrics.
Like Dylan meets Neil Young meets Lennon.

I like it!

Kingbastard responds:

Cheers man;)

Some basic ideas here, not sure they flow together well.

Basic, almost sterile instruments used here with (what I hope are not) samples from the cartoon. Other than the voices interjected almost randomly, I don't see this as having anything to do with TMNT. Very little bass to start with and you use less and less as you go on.

What I would do first is listen (critically) to other dubstep artists and see what kind of voices (instruments) they use. Start incorporating those into your works. Then, as you listen, get a feel for the form they use (how do they use different parts to make it interesting, and how do they transition to those parts).

There are no hard and fast rules for making music (despite everything I just wrote), but this is too much of a mish-mash of core instruments and (what I hope are not) copyrighted sound clips.

megaepiclulz responds:

thank you for the criticism, I agree I'm still finding my path but I appreciate the listen!
No copyrights were broken either, don't worry XD

Flow is pretty good, overall - I can't understand you, though. Sounds like there's too much reverb, and it sounds like the room/mic combo. Without knowing your exact setup, all I can say is try to get as hot as you can with the mic (record at 0dB, basically) so you have as little post-production as possible. Also, try dampening the room (hang blankets on the walls for a cheap fix). The intro doesn't really fit and the breaks around 0:29 seem weak. Maybe put hits in right before it cuts out to add impact - it sounds like you just hit mute for a second and let it come back in on its own.

Really not bad overall. The biggest thing is fixing the vocal track, otherwise we lose the story.

AK-49 responds:

Thanks Adam, will look into all this! appreciate the review bro

A lot of stuff going on, here! It starts off, and I'm thinking ending credits to an obscure anime, then it jumps to 80's action movie then comes back to a vgm feel. The one thing I didn't really get from it was jazz. It didn't swing, have any of the common color tones, or chord progressions associated with jazz music. I'd probably re-classify it as some other kind of EDM (not sure exactly what, though).

The break at 1:12 was a little jarring, but otherwise I liked the use of form in this one. I could definitely see some 'B' list actor from 1979 in a car chase to this!

Interesting piece, it always fascinates me to try and connect the dots between an artist's inspiration and the final result. Not at all what I hear here, but that's not bad! Pizzicato strings and syncopation make me think more of Grand Central Station filmed with time lapse, or a colony of ants.

Still, a well composed piece. The only things I would change are the ending (kind of abrupt) and the mastering (maybe bringing the strings down a bit, and softer, overall).

But like I said, this was an interesting piece, I like it!

BenTibbetts responds:

I know what you mean about pizzicato strings! The fact that you would put a time-lapse of Grand Central Station in the same visual category as a colony of ants just goes to show that the behaviors of people and insects aren't always very distinguishable.

I do have a tendency towards abrupt endings but since this track could loop comfortably I probably should have submitted it as a "loop" instead of a "song". You might also be right about the strings, because I'm not sure that pizzicato strings would be this sonorous IRL, but I like the sound anyway.

Thank you for listening.

I am a "gun for hire" - I write all original music for the portal. You can commission me (free, of course) to write an original piece for your movie. I write in any style you want, see my examples in the audio portal.

Age 42, Male

Al Hazard

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