DL2Electron's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Veil of Dreams]

This is a nice piece. Soothing, peaceful and not too over the top. Would be a great fit for an adventurous fantasy game. It's pretty impressive that all these sounds are fresh from your own sample library. I was thinking the other day that its so easy to recognise what sample libraries are being used in music these days because everyone (including me) is using them! (unless they're over processed with effects and editing). Only recording your own sounds or tweaking around with a synth gives flexibility to explore new avenues. But ain't nobody got time for that!

samulis responds:

Isn't that the case! It's taken me over a year and an enormous amount of time, not to mention a considerable investment in money to make this thing a reality. Really makes you appreciate what the folks who make massive libraries get themselves into!

[Dark Purity]

Fruity Slayer, huh?

Try these instead with your MIDI guitar ;)

TSE 808
FA3 Full
keFIR v1.2
Guitar Hack Impulses

DESHIEL responds:

Will check them out, thanks ;)

[Costa Concordia]

I really like how dynamic you've made this piece with the time stretching. Its as if you've used a realistic orchestra here! And that brass.... it sounds like Cinebrass Pro! :O

What effects did you use on the brass?

Phonometrologist responds:

Well credit starts with Samulis with these samples. All I had to do was find the right timbre and tweak them subtly. I was very much surprised when it came to messing with the 7TbEns_Sus_Bb3_fff. That was the horn section in mark fifty seconds. What I did to add to it was a long reverb (5.1 seconds), a little bit of Tape Delay, and I EQ'd it to make it a little darker sounding by reducing the higher frequencies of the instrument. Sounds like Cinebrass? Sweet. Samulis just saved you some dough! The Trumpets have some phase distortion.
I did time-stretch the violin sample to make it sound like a horn that you hear in the very beginning, and I applied a pitch-shifter to move it from Bb to B when all the instruments come together at .48
Your comment about it sounding like a realistic orchestra made me giddy. Thanks for listening and reviewing!

[Festival Dance]

"Choir (sung by me)"

I would be interested to hear how you recorded the choir by just yourself? Its pretty impressive! Did you just record several takes and pan them around?

samulis responds:

Yep! That's it. This is essentially one giant multi-track project, like 70 tracks total or something. About 16 of those are choir tracks, each one being a single pass with me singing, panned out slightly and with a slightly different vocal tone/character.

[Nothing But Sand & Water]

Niiiiiiice. Sounds like something that might fit in MMORPGs like Runescape haha xD

Mattashi responds:

xD Thanks dude!

[Fantasiamaailma]

I agree with the others. The melody and harmony was extremely pleasing to hear and the different transitions flowed smoothly: I didn't even realise it was about 6 mins long till I finished listening! Was pleasantly surprised when the orchestra came, and I felt completely drawn into the sonic world you created! The only criticism I can give is that it sounded way too overcompressed in the louder sections when the full orchestra and drums came in. I know you were probably trying to make it sound as loud as possible, but you could have automated the compression between quiet and loud sections in order to make it more dynamic. Otherwise, fantastic work. You guys have set the bar pretty high in terms of composition ability. Congrats to you both on this.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

It's pretty weird, but I don't feel like this is 6 minutes long either. I guess that paradoxically, even if there are more things going on, it makes it feel like this track is actually shorter than it is, or something like that. Because with so many changes, maybe our minds don't focus as much on the time, but more on what's going on? Idk XD

The criticism may be vaild. I honestly didn't have a lot to do in the productional aspects of this track, but what I do know is that it had to be rendered in 5 different rounds, because of the size and all the great instruments that dem0lecule owns. I can only imagine what a nightmare this must've been to mix/produce, and I'm very happy with dem0's work, as this sounds 1000x times better than if I would've tried :D

As for the composition, we both worked hours upon hours to get these results, so we're very happy to notice that so many people have liked the composition so far :3

Thank you for your review, DL2Electron!

[Desert]

Pretty damn cool you recorded all this live! Man I wish I had access to a studio and some mics and just go crazy recording real instruments. But looks like I'm stuck with a midi keyboard for now..

samulis responds:

No studio required! Grab yerself a Snowball or C01U or something and find a relatively dry, quiet space, and make some noise! ;)

[Killing Machine]

How do you get your guitars to sound so natural? The attacks and releases sound flawless as if performed by a live guitarist!

I was actually going to say the above and hit the "submit" button, until I read the description again and it said you recorded them live XD

I guess I only found that sharp synth bass thing a bit weak (not the 8dio one because that was great). But other than, nice composition! Enjoyed it!

Mattashi responds:

Thanks man!