CloakedSoup's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Letters of an Empath]

It's nice getting to hear one of your own compositions on here! I might argue that NG isn't the best place for contemporary classical stuff, because people here tend to shy away from stranger modern stuff like this (A comment about jazz having lots of wrong notes comes to mind lol). On the other hand, if you'd like to post 'sketchbook' kind of stuff here, then by all means go ahead! Just don't necessarily expect most people to know what's going on compositionally haha.

As for the piece itself, nice job! Some of the combinations of sounds were able to get were very nice. Especially the combinations of the viola pizz. with the plucked harp, they made for a nice background/accompanimental element against the flute. The main bit of critique I could offer would be to make the distinctions between the 'violent' sections and the calming ones more distinct. The opening REALLY caught my attention with the intense dissonance and sfz attack. Some of the subsequent sections still had a bit of that 'violence' but it felt like it kept getting weaker each time until it the two starting blending together a bit too much. I think you could have gone even more intensely with the 'violent' sections later on to really create contrast.

Overall, really beautiful piece! Always enjoy hearing your music! :D

~Collin

Deemo-R responds:

Thanks a ton, Collin! Honestly, I've considered the "audience disparity" issue for quite a while, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I might as well have something to post rather than nothing. The users of NG are relatively hands-off when it comes to content they aren't interested in, so I think it's a pretty safe place for some experimentation; perhaps not a ton, but I don't have a massive following to worry about here. I dually appreciate the comments I do receive on pieces like this, regardless of the theoretical knowledge they may possess - I think there's some value to be seen in those perspectives as well.

It's been a while since I worked on the music, but I remember this being a really stop-and-start writing process. Without getting into too much detail, the pieces were made for this theme, which was actually part of a project for a graduate dance group. What I originally sent them was a mockup of the section starting at 2:37, which they enjoyed. Following up on it with the full piece, they seemed to want the response leaning more on the side of "a response encouraging emotional recovery", so I kept the sections following the initial "violent outburst" a bit lower. It may have also been part of my thought process in development, but I can't remember too well. I do know that I ended up writing in the program notes that 0:37 was "the act of violence" and everything following it was the response of another person, but that was a bit of post-mortem makeup application, lol. The section around 3:40 is really the only other "violent" section I'd identify, but the whole recording around that part is a bit of a mess. It's both a funny and really sad story - sad for me at the time, but kind of funny in retrospect. Regardless, I think your point still stands - if I had brought more of the "violent" timbres to the table in certain sections (and potentially cut down on a few others) I think the cohesion of the piece would improve quite a lot. I wish it were easier to get players together for an ensemble like this, because I've heard quite a lot of beautiful things from it. The other student pieces were also fantastic, and some of them make me feel like I have a lot of catching up to do!

You're too kind, thanks so much for the constructive criticism! Always appreciated in my book!

[Jeenah Jeenah]

Oh hot damn! The arrangement here is on point dude! :D

Deemo-R responds:

Thanks, man! Glad you liked it! :D

[Wâpacowanâw]

This music is pretty awesome! I would totally love to see this played by a string quartet and/or string orchestra in concert! If you have the chance to notate it, you could enter it into a competition or something.

zybor responds:

^____^ thank you for your review! cheers!

[Bartók - 36-37 Rhapsody (Woodwind Arr.)]

Oh sweet! We are actually doing percussion arrangements of Bartók's 'Allegro Barbaro,' right now in my orchestration class. I really liked this arrangement though! You did a great job of keeping all of the main lines interesting with all of the transfers between the instruments and keeping them in good ranges for when they were playing the melodies. I usually don't hear stuff like this from Bartók, so it was especially interesting to hear a more 'traditional' side to him. Well done!

Deemo-R responds:

Sorry I took a while to get back on this :P

I was also interested by this piece when it was assigned, as I hadn't heard of this particular collection of Bartók's work before. It's a funny coincidence that you're also doing an arrangement (and I'm jealous of the thought of a percussion arrangement being done in an orchestration class)! I found this piece not too difficult to arrange, but I found the need to "adapt" certain sections as a more engaging challenge than simply "assigning" a part to any one line because that was where the differences in each student's arrangement really stood out. Thanks for the feedback, hope your arrangement turns out nicely for you! :D

[A Date by the Fountain]

Excellent piece of music! I really liked the general ambiance that you created with it. My only real critique is that I felt that the running water sample could have moved more towards the background once more of the instruments came in. I felt it was too much in the front during some of the slightly more textured and layered instrumental/vocal parts. Other than that, superb job!

Bosa responds:

I actually increased its volume because I thought it was too low, seeing as it is the focal point of this loop. I also didn't want the music to be too loud, but that's just me.

Thank you for your review. Always appreciate hearing good feedback.

[Penderecki's Dream]

Ohoho A fan of Penderecki are you? I find his compositions quite wonderful to listen to. I need to get my hands on a string library that can do extended techniques so that I can do something like this! I love the way you built up the sound with the orchestration in this piece. You created some truly beautiful soundscapes. In true Penderecki fashion, I was half expecting to hear a C major chord at the end lol. Great job all around and a bold move to put something so 'modern' sounding into this contest, though I understand why most people could associate something like this with the image. I look forward to hearing more music from you in the future! 8D

Phonometrologist responds:

Thank you for commenting, and it's good to see yet another listener who enjoys Penderecki. The only two string libraries that I used for the whole track are a bit pricey, but are at least worth it for me being a Penderecki fan. They are 8Dio's CASE Solo String FX and 8Dio's CAGE Strings. I also demo'd the solo strings library so I didn't actually have to purchase it.