Well, I'm honestly very humbled by this. The blend of the instruments, is perfect. I being a symphonic musician can appreciate this very much. The full wind ensemble swells, are something I would Love to be able to participate in performing with an orchestra. The perfect amount of brass that comes through just at the climax, how each note in each chord is balance perfectly as if high level musicians are each playing those chords for you, knowing where they sit in the harmonic series, knowing when to detune the 7th and 3rd of each chord, and how loud to play each note to get that luscious blend you hear from the likes of the Chicago symphony, or even the London Symphony. The Chords, the progression, the tension, the resolution into more tension, the moments of true resolution, that go right back into more tension, this is the kind of symphonic music I live for, HAVE lived for, for as long as I have been involved in symphonic music. For as long as I can remember. With influences of the true classical era of music, YET flowing perfectly with romantic era influences, and even some modern, more complex ideas not heard in the romantic era. But the certain parts of this song that have that strong romantic era feel to it, I'm especially in love with.
The romantic era is my favorite era of music. Soaring french horns, after the days of the non valved french horns, when composers truly discovered the amazing range of tambours the instrument can create. The amazing emotion that it holds. With composers like Richard Strauss, and both Johan Strauss'. brings out such emotion in me.
But i digress, your piece only reminds me most of the romantic era, but it mostly is a very original depiction of human emotion. And I appreciate all that you've done with it.
WOW. I don't know how big a fan of prog rock you are, or djent, but this is a great addition to the genre of prog rock. I love your "pop prog rock" description of it. Your voice reminds me of Spencer Sotelo from periphery, in your higher more intense register, as well as your falsetto, (which when you did that I was like UNNFF YES). BUT in your lower register, you remind me of Adam Young from Owl City. AND your layering of instruments around your voice is so well done, you dont have your guitar playing around the same range of your voice, which would conflict and muddy the mix, no it seems you thought of this well.
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This is prog rock to it's core, with happy timbres and melodies. I love this. 5/4 (or 5/8 at this tempo) fits perfect in this genre and you did it well. I noticed other commenting on it seeming like you stumble on the words to catch up to the beat, I however do not notice this, it is just the nature of the time signature to make it seem this way. THOUGH perhaps you couldve planned the rhythms of your vocals to work with this a little better, however I never thought it was a problem.
And Also, me being pretty into theory and all that jazz, the parts where I believe others are commenting you sang out of tune, COULD POSSIBLY only be due to weird voice leading, either in your guitar, or voice where you jump to the "odd" pitch within the chord without leading TO that pitch from a near and adjacent pitch from the PREVIOUS chord. If that makes sense. in other words, thhhere are some neat chords you do in there (maybe some neapolitan chords?), maybe try to make your harmonic progression clearrer with some more thought out voice leading? Which I know can be difficult with a guitar. I can't put my finger on it cause it's been a while since I had to take ear training and ACTUALLY define those sounds that I hear. But I digress, and to summarize this paragraph, you are NOT singing out of tune, in fact I thoroughly enjoy your voice, you just MAY have some weird voice leading issues that make your voice and/or guitar jump from weird intervals which makes you sound out of tune. But I honestly loved those weird notes. And the notes you chose to include in the melody of your vocals.
As A drummer, I also LOVED your drum track; however you made it, well done. It includes great fills that I AS A DRUMMER, want to learn, which only happens to me with my favorite prog rock/djent bands. YET you dont get too crazy with them early on, you let everything progress, and fit in with the bass guitar as well.
Just over all, WELL DONE, great mixing, GREAT composition, great talent.
Congratz on making the final round fellow competitor! Break a leg....er....speaker!
This piece REALLY spoke to me, as I have been an aspiring composer for as long as I can remember. It's always been one of those pursuits that I never took too seriously, as I've always been an avid horn player, and was always encouraged to take this route, since there aren't very many French Horn players out there. But I digress.
I can ALWAYS remember writing music, anywhere from writing little pep band arrangements in middle school, to absolutely FALLING IN LOVE with college music theory. Now I'm finally doing it seriously, but in a more...ah whats the word, lone-wolf, kind of independent way? But I've focused so much on electronic music as of late. Which I always try to take modern orchestral ideas into my pieces. But one of my dreams is to write Cinematic music, to score a film, to produce great symphonies. And this spoke to me for some reason, this is so well done.
A couple things I HAVE to ask you as a producer, I know you listed the instruments you used, and maybe you can P.M. Me about this, but during the large impact/build up, you have a distinct FRENCH HORN sound. I don't know if you identify it as a french horn sound but the MAIN brass instrument you can hear is INFACT, a french horn. What VST did you use for this? And in fact for all your sounds, could you give me some tips on how to get such a wonderful lush orchestral sound? I would love to write some orchestral pieces such as this one. (Maybe you can wait until after to contest to be safe)
I've never even thought about using my DAW to create a symphonic piece. I don't even know if you used a DAW, but, ah man, I don't have much more to say.
Well done, and congratz on making the final round of the NGAUC, fellow competitor! Break a leg....er....Speaker!
Actually, when I really began "composing" music, what I wanted to do was to share feelings, emotions and stories through music. Well, it hadn't always been great, but somehow, I managed to learn though experimentation how some things could work well for some situations, etc... I have little to no knowledge in musical theory, or at least nothing learnt the traditional way - so I won't really be able to explain things the technical way, I'm sorry about that.
I also don't know what exactly you know about computer-assisted orchestral music, so I don't really know where to begin. But if there is something that I feel is important (after learning to make your samples sound realistic, which isn't always easy), it is the way you orchestrate your piece. Some instruments will sound much better if used in a specific role or range, and understanding and exploiting this really helps a lot. Without at least a basic understanding of the orchestra, you can write anything you want, and it will almost never sound good, because you have the wrong instrument playing the wrong part. Then, once you begin to know well how to work with that, you can also try expanding your sonic palette by layering different sounds, making several sections play a specific part in unison. This will allow you to give new colors to your different voices. For example, in this track, this melancholic/mechanical sound has been created by layering a guitar/dulcimer like sound with crotales, a glockenspiel and a celesta. The melody you mentioned is indeed a french horn section, but is layered with the trumpets and the violins - I wanted this melody, and especially its last notes, to evocate a scream of despair, therefore I gave it to three powerful sections in the high register. These are examples of things you can do, especially when making computer-assisted (and produced !) music ; I'm pretty sure that if my track was played by a real orchestra, this voice would overpower anything else ^^
About the software I use, yes I use a DAW indeed ! My current go-to orchestral library is CineSymphony Lite, which costs about $400 if I recall correctly - but if you're a student you can get it at 50% off (that's how I've been able to afford it). This is a cut-down version of all the orchestral range from CineSamples, and for a cut-down version, it still sounds really great (though I really miss some true legato patches and the woodwinds sometimes have weird issues with the release samples).
A cheaper alternative would be EWQL Symphonic Orchestra (the silver version covers the basics and is sometimes discounted at -50%), but you will most probably feel really limited after some months (and their iLok thing is really a pain in the... well, sometimes I want to put this damn USB dongle somewhere else). Your orchestral sections won't sound as good as CS Lite's ones, but there are some patches you'll still probably use occasionally, a bit more like a toolbox. For example, the crotales, glockenspiel and celesta I mentioned earlier came from it.
And if money is not an issue, there are plenty of alternatives. You could go for the other products from Cinesamples, or buy the CCC or subscribe to the Composer Cloud at East West (but again, there is the iLok issue...), or buy L.A. Symphonic Strings, Berlin Woodwinds and CineBrass (this trio seems to be quite popular - and for CineBrass, I understand why)... Really, there is a lot of possibilities, but you should really read a lot of reviews to know if the sample library you're interested in really suits your needs and your tastes. Some will have an almost chirurgical sound, some a much richer one, some will sound voluntarily imperfect...
Oh, and if your computer isn't great, maybe you should think about upgrading it as well. CineSymphony Lite and EWQL Symphonic Orchestra are quite light, but once you'll begin to expand your arsenal with more instruments, RAM will probably become limiting - I'm more and more struggling with my 8Gbs of RAM, and I'm planning to get a new computer ASAP.
I hope it helped, and feel free to send me a PM if you want to continue this conversation ;)
Good luck for the final round !
EDIT : Holey sheep, I never sent anything that long on Newgrounds.
I LOVE the feel of this, and the power of the kick, and how you either gated or sidechained most of the voices for a really nice effect, which was also assisted by the tempo to allow more space between each bass pulse. It made the piece sound very full, luscious, and UGH. SO well mixed. Love the vibe. WEll done. And congratz on making it to the final round fellow competitor! Break a speaker!
VERY well done, I especially love that this in the old style of house. LOVE the classic EDM. But it's been drowned out and seemingly forgotten due to the raving revolution. Very well done. And CONGRATZ on making the final round of the NGUAC Fellow competitor! Break a Speaker!
That was too exciting for me to comment on anything else. GREAT track though. CONGRATZ ON THE FINAL NGAUC ROUND FELLOW COMPETITOR.
Edit; actually letting it play through, I love this, the vibe, the glitched drums. WELL. DONE. Making me nervous that I even made it. What did you use to glitch, if at all?
Thank you! Most of the glitching i manually edit the audio file. So, I made this beat using Battery 4. I then print all the drums to individual tracks and start slicing things up. One effect that I really love using right now is Modular by Native Instruments, it really has so many cool possibilities and sometimes i just use it for delays, the delays are great.
This is fantastically recorded and mixed! WELL DONE. Your spoken vocals remind me of corey taylor and I love listening to whoever it is. GREAT JOB my fellow competitor in the underdog group! Break a leg...er...Speaker!
Thanks a lot! Yeah, that's my squeaky voice in there. I had to learn to do a proper fry vocal over the course of a week to get this one done. MAN does it hurt in the beginning. lol
For Love is strong as Death 
Jewel 
The Traveller 
I am made of sock 
Dice ![Panic Attack [NGAUC]](https://aicon.ngfiles.com/636/636212_small.png?f1437886786){kind=small}
Panic Attack [NGAUC] 
Vibe Tribe 
