MJTTOMB's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[>: The Waltz of spring :<]

Really great.

It's spelled waltz, you may want to fix that however. In case you don't know how to fix it, just go to My Account> Audio Submissions, and click Edit.

On for my review of the music, it was great, being my main impression. Sounds almost exactly like a song from a pokemon game, if only you had it in 8-bit sound. :P The harmonics really are great. The only downside is that it feels like a theme and variations piece. The mood never really changes, and that could be bringing down the piece. In classical music, there's generally a B theme that contrasts with the A theme by being in a different key and being in a different mood. Normally when I write in a major key, I tend to write the B section in minor. That way it is like a good novel. It can't be happy the entire way through. There's got to be a "bad guy", or some problematic situation at some point so that the lead character can overcome it.At the end you should probably re-enter the A section, with the original melody in the original key, and that's pretty much all my suggestions.

The orchestration is absolutely ingenious, so I can't really give all too much information on that.

Great job. I'd be honored if you came to my page and checked out some of my stuff.

Regards, MJTTOMB

Zineb responds:

Hello! I'm grateful for your positive critism. In fact this is the first time I made a classical music, and I don't really know how a classical song should be written or structured. The informations you gave me are very helpful! Next time I will use them to make something better. Thank you again :)
(I 'll fix that wrong word)

[(::Surfing On Color::) GWC]

Nice.

I'm noticing it gets a little boring after about 2 minutes or so. A little change would be good. The beat's nice, a little ghetto for a white boy like myself. It picks up and gets a little interesting after about another minute. It's a good ambient track. It could use a melody, but for ambient, apparently your specialty, it's pretty good. 9/10, 5/5. Above average work, mate.

FatKidWitAJetPak responds:

THanks. it is techno though, so it is a little repetitive. XD

By the way, it has a few good changes after 2. look at 2:56.

[Lagomorphic]

I wants cookie.

Rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents,no? And your profile picture is a strange rabbit in human clothing.

Meh.

Great song, btw. lol. Really catchy. Thanks for the orchestra samples, btw. Really coming in handy.

Indeed, good job.

ErikMcClure responds:

YOU GETS A COOKIE! :D

I'm glad you like the song, and really glad you like the samples! Thanks :)

[Scherzo in F]

Very nice.

Really great use of counterpoint. I only wish I had the knowledge of species counterpoint to pull something like this off. I feel damn sorry for anyone who has to play this, they must have like 4 hands. :P

Great work, mate. Keep it up.

Although, on a historical note, scherzos weren't really around in the baroque days, methinks. Regardless, it's great.

ClassicalFreak responds:

Thanks =D. I think people can make do with three, though. And as for knowledge of species counterpoint... I don't really have a lot of that either. What you need is just a very good listening ear, in my opinion.

Hmm... historical booboo I made then, though it's a little too short to be a sonata/ Thanks for the review, once again.

[String Trio no. 1]

First, woots!

I heard the first few measures and knew it was you. I love the uses of polyphony. It's absolutely brilliant how they flow together. I'm not a big fan of the part where they're playing in octaves. I can't really give any suggestions because this is just so far beyond my league in polyphony. It feel s like right after the last note, however, a stronger closure could have been reached if the cello went to D and octave down. Speaking of cellos, I love the countermelody at about 0:43. And the inverted cello line at 1:20.

Hell, the cello pwns. But meh. Great work, mate.

MusicalRocky responds:

Is my style that recognizable? :P
I'm glad you noticed the flow of the instruments, that was one of my main focuses while writing this :D
What part do they play in octaves? I think there's like 4 measures where they do lol. Anyway, it adds a strength to the theme when they all play it.

Yeah those parts you pulled out were cool :] The cello does own here, then again it's quite a sexy instrument.

I dunno I thought the ending was kind of fine the way it is, and the cello going down the octave would kind of just seem like a silly, show-offy flair on its part lol. It's fine to end together. They all worked together to get there.

Thanks, glad you like it!

-Rocky

[_-={For My Lady}=-_]

mean review. xP

I'll give it a nine, because it's got a good sound. But you've got to start writing with melodies! This is good and all, but after listening to this, no one would be able to hum the "melody" (that's a good check, if after listening, you can have the melody). Remember what I've told you about motives, the little building blocks of melodies?
Just silence everything in the piece, have a track (like strings) with the chord progression, and just record yourself singing a melody over that. Evaluate it, and see that it keeps a bit of uniformity, so it's not just a constant stream of unplanned notes, it should sound planned, and similar to itself throughout. Have a lead instrument like violin take over your sung part, add ornamentation if you want, and then you can delete your voice.

In composition, the voice is one of the best compositional tools available. You don't have to be a good singer. Beethoven was renowned for being a terribly off-pitch singer, but that never stopped him, did it?

Anyway, I feel you could be taking your potential with classical a lot further if you began to write more like a classicist. I'm not asking you not to be Maestro, as a person's music will always be affected by their outlook on the world. I'm asking you to be Maestro the classicist, not Maestro the maestro-ist

Cheers, mate. I hope you read, and a response would be much appreciated, so i know you read it.

MaestroRage responds:

I always read reviews MJTTOMB. I just... havn't been all that great with responding to them recently >_>. I'll change that next week after midterm tests are over.

You're quite right in your points though I must say I am already quite aware of this. There is as you say, no real distinctive melody you can hum, and in retrospect though I did not plan it, I definitely let my head sleep out on this one and just put down what I feel. A direct consequence was the seemingly random woven fabric which is this song.

I will however keep your points higher up on my priority list. Good advice, is after all, good advice :D!

Thank you for the review, and your honesty. They are both very appreciated! I am glad you liked it, despite it's lack of melody :)

[Aquatic Dream]

Lol.

I love it. The waltz thing starting at 0:43 makes me bounce.

No theoretical advice, i'm too lazy tonight, but meh.

LadyArsenic responds:

Heeheehee, I LOVE that part! You have no idea how much fun I had with this piece. Just spitting out everything that my imagine had to throw at my composing program. Heehee, thank you for listening! <3

[TAA--Piano Etude in Cm]

It's decent.

Pros:
It's in Cm, best key of all. Cm for world domination. It had an ok mood. Sorry for having so few upsides as opposed to downsides, the downsides are mostly small theoretical things i feel you may want to work on to improve.

Cons:
The part at 1:30 makes me want to kill someone, it's unplayable, annoying, and just... bad. Sorry, it's just not my kind of thing. The bassline got very annoying, as it repeated for the entire song with almost no variation. The strings were ok, but they were unrealistic, and no strings player would want to play that. They would die from boredom, you should give them more motion than one note per every 4 measures. It doesn't seem to singable, as there is no real melody to memorize the song just seems to go randomly, which isn't really in the classical style. Also, old songs are given titles like symphony no. 3 because that is indeed what they are.

Anyways, best of luck to you, I feel you could get pretty far with classical if you put a little more theory and knowledge of what is humanly possible and likely.

Good job, I'll give it a 5 for the effort.

TheAmateurAnimator responds:

About the strings, they were supposed to be synthesizer pads, not strings.
As for the bassline, yes. Yes it is.
As for the title, I really couldn't think of anything. Titles hate me.

[Valse Espagnol]

Fifened.

Damned zerovoters. Very brilliant work here. It did sound very spanish at times. I feel that a lute or guitar at points would help excentuate the spanish feel. I like the little trills at the end of each phrase, that really helps.

Very well orchestrated. I love the woodwinds, and the cello. But mainly the woodwinds. All it really needs is a rather romantic percussion part (castanets and shakers and the like would probably be your main percussion parts in a spanish piece.)

Brilliant job.

MusicalRocky responds:

Yeah zerovoters...oh well.
Lute or guitar, eh? Maybe, maybe... Yeah I liked those too.

Winds were cool, indeed. I didn't really think about adding Spanish percussion or whatever--I just tried to let the Spanish melody give the song the feel alone :P

Glad you liked it,

Thanks,
Rocky

[Lux Aeterna]

Great job.

You've got a great voice. I didn't make all states. :/ Meh.

Anyways, the title made me think it was going to be a piece for a requiem mass. "Et lux perpetua luceat eis" Is a line in the opening movement to a general requiem.

The cello hits a very off note at 0:49, but that's all I noticed.

Good job. You should ty writing a requiem. Great means of creative expression. :P

LadyArsenic responds:

Aw, what a shame. Maybe next year, ah?
I don't know how to write a requiem. =/ I don't know the rules for it. But anyway, the dissonance in the bass strings, to me, are what make this piece beautiful and interesting. Notice that all the off-notes resolve themselves at the last minute. ^_^ I put them there on purpose. Thank you for your kind words, and keep listening!
- Lady Arsenic <3