Here's a song I started a long time ago for FatKidWitAJetPak's Newgrounds Charity Album. I was quite proud of it when I started it but I slowly began losing interest and inspiration. Some people say this is their favourite from all my songs, others say it sounds alright but could use work, and I say it sucks :P.
For the bass, this uses a soundfont called BassFing.sf2 layered with a free Kontakt bass guitar. The strummed guitar is from Virtual Guitarist 2 and the very subtle classic guitar is from another free Kontakt guitar library. The rest of the instruments are from East/West Symphonic Orchestra Silver, minus the drums which are mostly random free drum samples.
The song has a pretty uplifting sound to it - certainly one of my happier submissions. I know it starts off with the long piano intro (which some people like, some people don't...) and then it only gets to the pop part later on, but bear with it if you don't like soft piano intros. I also have an alternate version without the piano intro so whoever wants that can PM me.
Enjoy I guess. I know it's not so good but I like to think it's OK for my first attempt at the genre :3.
This kind of makes me think of watching a film where you watch the person cry for a moment as their last problem falls away and they look to the sky wondering if they can start it all over again and just be happy for once in their life hoping everything will be alright. Very beautiful composition.
The piano carried a nice melody and I liked how they almost sounded like there was a slight echo effect there for a moment giving that charismatic feel of knowing everything will be alright as you walk on and begin to leave the city and just enjoy the afternoon in the fields as some rain begins to fall.
The drums here sounded like there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy put into them too like the person playing was overjoyed to see it was all over. The drum beat was great. What drum sounds did you use here? The bass also carries a nice rhythm and sounds quite calming. The guitar is great and sounds like it was being played live.
Overall, this was a great tune. Has a very happy uplifting feel to it.
Hey man, thanks for the feedback. I haven't received any reviews in a while so I appreciate it!
"This kind of makes me think of watching a film where you watch the person cry for a moment as their last problem falls away and they look to the sky wondering if they can start it all over again and just be happy for once in their life hoping everything will be alright. Very beautiful composition."
You know that's an excellent observation because now that I think of it, that is exactly what this sounds like, haha.
"The piano carried a nice melody and I liked how they almost sounded like there was a slight echo effect there for a moment giving that charismatic feel of knowing everything will be alright as you walk on and begin to leave the city and just enjoy the afternoon in the fields as some rain begins to fall."
Yeah I'm quite fond of the piano here. It's actually the first thing which sparked the inspiration for this song, because in fact I got the melody by doodling on the piano.
"The drums here sounded like there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy put into them too like the person playing was overjoyed to see it was all over. The drum beat was great. What drum sounds did you use here?"
The drum sounds are random drum samples. They sound good because I spent ages fiddling with their sound frequencies and reverb :P.
"The bass also carries a nice rhythm and sounds quite calming."
Glad you like it! That sound is actually a free soundfont. It doesn't sound very good so again I had to mix it right to make it sound decent along with the rest of the instruments.
"The guitar is great and sounds like it was being played live."
Well the VST I used has guitar samples which are recorded from real guitars so yeah.
"Overall, this was a great tune. Has a very happy uplifting feel to it."
MmmThis sounds like 80s to early 90s pop, best pop music there is. (Quite frankly, today's pop music sounds horrible and it all sound the same. Listen to some Lady Gaga if you don't believe me.)
Okay, the piano intro... I kind of got mixed feelings on that. Like you said, some people like it, some don't, I'm kind of in between on that. The actual pop part after the intro was really good. Not really much for me to say, not that much needs to be said. It's uplifting and inspirational.
The strings suit this well, much better than every pop song that uses generic synth leads for that kind of thing. Would probably sound more fitting if the strings were more synth-like though.
Good acoustic guitar, also very fitting for this, and also not generically used. Sounds awesome with the rest of the accompaniment and gives a good sense of atmosphere. Not quite sure what kind, but I like it.
Drums? In a pop song? That isn't a generic trance kit? Holy tits, there's something worth mentioning! Very good use of your usual random samples from the net. How come you haven't made a full kit out of those yet?
Overall, a good 90s-era-sounding pop song. It makes the mainstream stuff (at least here in the US) seem even shittier than it already is. I swear, there are musicians here that should be inspirations to the "real" artists. How haven't you picked up a record deal yet?
"MmmThis sounds like 80s to early 90s pop, best pop music there is. (Quite frankly, today's pop music sounds horrible and it all sound the same. Listen to some Lady Gaga if you don't believe me.)"
Oh no haha I believe you. I remixed a Lady Gaga track once for a pantomime. Not a pleasant experience :P.
"Okay, the piano intro... I kind of got mixed feelings on that. Like you said, some people like it, some don't, I'm kind of in between on that."
Yeah, you can't please everyone! If I had continued the song, then perhaps the piano intro wouldn't feel so out of place. I was planning on making a few subtle repetitions of the piano intro's melody later on in the song so that the piano intro will feel like it makes more sense and not just something extra I added, if you get what I mean, although I lost inspiration and started to dislike this song. Ah well!
"The actual pop part after the intro was really good. Not really much for me to say, not that much needs to be said. It's uplifting and inspirational."
Thank you!
"The strings suit this well, much better than every pop song that uses generic synth leads for that kind of thing. Would probably sound more fitting if the strings were more synth-like though."
I never thought about that. Whenever I need an orchestral instrument I just go for East/West every single time :P.
I probably don't have that many good synth string samples, which is ironic. I've got more of the realistic stuff and less of the synthy stuff. Meh xD.
"Good acoustic guitar, also very fitting for this, and also not generically used. Sounds awesome with the rest of the accompaniment and gives a good sense of atmosphere. Not quite sure what kind, but I like it."
A member from another forum recommended that I add an acoustic guitar strumming in the background, so I'll have to thank him for that.
"Drums? In a pop song? That isn't a generic trance kit? Holy tits, there's something worth mentioning! Very good use of your usual random samples from the net. How come you haven't made a full kit out of those yet?"
Lol, glad you like the drums! I probably haven't made a full kit yet because of the way I choose my drum samples. When I choose them, I start like "right then, I need a kick", and then I look through my hundreds and hundreds of different kicks till I find the right one, and then I edit it a bit.
After that, I'll need a snare, so I look through the hundreds of snares. I like doing that and using a full kit probably wouldn't work because I'd just end up going to look through my hundreds of drum samples again, even though I've got a full drum kit nice and ready for me :P.
"Overall, a good 90s-era-sounding pop song. It makes the mainstream stuff (at least here in the US) seem even shittier than it already is. I swear, there are musicians here that should be inspirations to the "real" artists. How haven't you picked up a record deal yet?"
Wow thanks! I haven't actually looked for a record deal. I'm afraid I might get some massive bout of writer's block and not meet the expectations. Yeah I'm paranoid :3.
Really glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback!
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