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Author Comments

Hey there


This is the opening track for my album "Walk of the Dead!" under the nomer "Benjamin Power!". It's inspired by the National's High Violet in a certain way. I hope you enjoy this ambient indie dance song like your heart depends on it. Or something cheesy like that.


Benjamin


FUN FACTS:
o Made using FL Studio 8.
o It blends seamlessly into the next track.
o This is a snail: _@/

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Woo!

Great initial piano there! I enjoyed it immensely. The way it opens up works quite well, and the drums are very good. I heard a bit of wobbling in the background, was that intended? Whether it was or not, it still works. I think the section from 0:23 to 0:48 was a tad too long, maybe add a bit more in the background? The tune from 0:48 to 1:12 was still a bit too long without enough to back it up. I noticed the piano went in and out a bit, and I don't think it quite worked. After the section with not much piano, it goes back to the initial tune, which does work quite well. Once again, though, it's too long. The opening up from 2:02 to 2:06 works VERY well and sounds wonderful. Awesome work there. Afterwards, it's the same chording with a bit more added, until it goes to the second section to end. The very ending doesn't quite work though, there's a bit of random noise after it /ends/, too.

Overall, good good. Some sections are a bit long, but on the whole, it's solid, it sounds nice, I enjoyed it, transitions are good... The problems aren't too large, and once again, this is quite the good track.

-Review Request Club-
-SWINT-

FUN FACTS:

o I can hear the inspiration from the National (:
o I'd love to hear the next track, if I had a link of sorts to a place where I could hear a sample?
o This is an underscore, at sign and a dash: _@/

On a more serious, you've got a great ambience going here, and I love your use of the piano.

There's an overall great flow to the track, all parts really do fit well together, and the entire composition is very well done and soothing to the ear and mind as well.

Your rhythmics are fairly simple and fit the ambient backing instruments, as well as the deeper layers of rhythmic piano playing. The extra synth that pops in at somewhere after the 1 minute mark also fits in very well IMO, loving the reverb added, goes well with the atmospheric feel.

I don't know why, but this reminds me of the music that would play towards the end of a zombie flick, or even during the credits. There's something eerie about it, but I don't know why or what's creating that feeling for me.

A big issue for me is that there's not as much variety as there is potential for. Weird sentence, pardon the grammar :P
If this were a loop, it wouldn't be as big of an issue, but seeing as there is an intro and an ending to the track, it just feels as though it all gets a tad repetitive halfway in.

Review Request Club

Nice atmosphere; Potential for more variety

The piano sound used has a very nice mood to it. Quite eerie yet adventurous at the same time.

The 'beeping' instrument line that starts at 1:13 would sound a bit better if it had slightly more reverb on it, because it doesn't seem to blend into the mix very well. It feels out of place and it has a negative effect on the atmospheric beauty that the rest of the music sustains.

I think that you could have added another instrument to this. Perhaps a low cello, or some sort of low brass/string sound? Something to give it a feeling that we are viewing a very vast cavernous scene, full of dark mystery and wonder - like in the Inception soundtrack. It would also provide more contrast throughout the mix, making the higher notes sound more prominent and grounded at the same time.

As usual your music has an atmospheric quality to it that I quite enjoy, making it a pleasure to listen to.

P.S Indeed.. that is a snail.

A little too loud :/

Before I say anything else, Turn down the master volume of the track, it's slightly too loud and I can hear faint instances of clipping on the piano, which is never a good sign in any genre, so first task - lower master volume,

The track itself is quite suspenseful in itself, it's probably the piano's melody though. Just out of curiosity, what key did you use?
Anyway, nope no problems with the theme or atmosphere or anything like that.

Another problem I encountered was the drums, It's probably just my opinion or maybe I'm slightly biased but I disliked them, both the rythm and the drum samples themselves weren't to my taste. Especially that hi-hat :P I'd suggest decreasing the high-band of it's mixer track just slightly so it doesn't stay 'on top' of the mix, metaphorically speaking.

The last beef I had with this is that little plucky sound every hear and there, it wasn't too my liking, it's over-compressed, if not compressed at all.

It's actually a very nice track overall, It just had those tidbits in the mix that need working on. I know I might have come out as arrogant or anything, But I'm just trying to help :)

Nice Job nonetheless ;)

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thank you for your review! Thanks for taking out the time!

Ah yes. I googled "clipping" and it's basically distortion right? Thanks for the very good insight. I will try to turn the master volume down and see if the clipping stops. I like that you liked the suspense. The piano's melody was very central to the piece.

To be honest, I used FL Keys for this :P. I just put a bunch of effects on it to my liking, to make it sound that much more epic. Almost everybody has said that my drum samples were weak. I'll try to improve on that :)

And the plucking sound. Yes, I agree, it can be jarring. Thanks for pointing out those parts of the mix that are slightly weak, but complementing the whole.

Thanks for your positive and honest criticism. I will take it to heart and come back next time with more knowledge.

Benjamin "Silly Boy"

Chill and smooth :D

This submission was pretty interesting, I really liked the general ambiance and blend of everything. The backrounds synths were very dreamy sounding and almost reminded me of a bonus zone from a Super Mario video game :P

I would have loved to hear better drum samples to complement the rest of the samples used. I also think you should focus on the reverb effects on your instruments a little more than just the delay; it kinda sounded like you had more delay on the piano than needed during the intro.

Great Effort!
~Dj Sonik

-Review Request Club-

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks for taking the time out to do this review. Much appreciated.

Lots of people are talking about the ambience, and I guess that's what I did right. I guess it does sound Super-Mario-ish :) They also say I should use better drum samples. I like the point that you brought up about the delay, more delay than needed for the piano intro. I recognise that, and I thank you for bringing that up. I will work on excessive delay in the future.

Thanks!

Benny "Silly Boy"

Credits & Info

Listens
1,208
Downloads
33
Votes
7
Score
4.46 / 5.00

Uploaded
Aug 6, 2011
3:26 PM EDT
Genre
Dance
File Info
Song
5 MB
2 min 43 sec

Licensing Terms

Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.