So my laptop exploded and I have to bring it to repairs.
Now I have to use my Mum’s, which has just terrible sound on it. The pianos sound like glockenspiels, panning doesn’t work, and the drums are too quiet.
I’m just saying this because I don’t really know if this song will turn out good or not to you.
Note: Not a really great one, made in a few hours. But listen anyway!
It would have sounded amazing, but the volume was messed up…
But it is really well written!
Thank you! I promise I’ll fix it when I get my laptop back.
That was Epic 
Acoustic guitar was definitely too loud though…
Brand new song, dedicated to Fire and Uchy!
Song removed, check back soon for updated version.
It’s over 9 minutes long!
Before I start I’d like to say that I’m not going to mention that a particular section is repetitive, I assume that’s self explanatory and really applies to the whole song.
So the intro, which I don’t really consider an intro, as it really just jumps right in and progresses into the repeats you use later on. It’s extremely progressive, and to me it’s the worst kind of intro a song can have. You don’t even try to cover the fact that it’s totally a “duplicate sheet” type of intro where stuff gets added to eventually, and let me stress the word EVENTUALLY, progress intro the real song. Even for that flaw, it is quite good to listen to. Again, I kinda wish the piano was a piano, but that’s not in your control. The one thing I can’t stand that you DID have control over, though, was that while I love the accented note, does it really have to come off beat? The accented note really fools you into thinking it’s on-beat, which makes everything else sound off beat, especially the long held-out chords by the strings. Another thing, the flute was too loud and too high. When it hit’s that F, I really cringe because of the sudden rise in volume. Thus, the first couple sheets are my least favorite. Though I did like the drum fill and the nice chord progression that follows in sheets 15 and 40 I just felt the intro dragged for far too long. Even a 30 second intro is long, let alone a 1 minute and 30 second one. This could have been remedied by having a shorter intro in front of sheet 7, because then the first four sheets would have been a slow verse (which is what they end up becoming).
On my first listen, sheet 25 came along and really surprised me. I almost gave up on the song at that point, and then this huge change comes. On my first listen, this is the “epic” part that I’m sure anyone new to critique would write off as being perfect and enough to make the song worth whatever rating it receives. But even here there are rather large mistakes. The upper strings obviously take on the role of lead melody, and while they sound good, I don’t like the huge pauses in between the notes. And I felt the bass could have been done better, made louder and had a bigger role. The drumming is excellent although a bit over-powered. Also, I can’t get over the fact that once I remove the on-beat snare, it sounds gloriously better. If you were going for a more marching feel to the drumming, I can’t say you did a good job there. The bass drum just doesn’t compliment that style of drumming.
So then I’m listening and then sheet 27 comes along and I’m like “WOAH!” Awesome job on the solo, absolutely loved it. Only problem I see is that this points to a more conventional style of drumming, and that means that I really have to look at the earlier section of drumming as conventional drumming, and taking out the on-beat snare seems like such a small edit…anyway, thank you for showing me that I really am the only person on Notessimo that can’t do a drum solo properly, I don’t think I’ll ever get away from A Soft Interlude’s Drum solo. Yep, I need to release a song soon that has a GOOD drum solo in it…
Anyway, on to the next section. Sheet 20 came and I was a little downhearted at first, I mean it’s another really slow section. I was expecting you to ride the wave of energy from that solo into some epic string part or something but NO. Although, now that I look at it, it really is a nice time to cool down and reminisce on the epic part we just got out of. So yeah, the critique I have on this one is that it’s far to linear. In all four sheets, the piano never changes rhythm, and the bass only made it worse. I’m still not sure why the part is set up for triplets. Though, once the high strings came in, the part was quite enjoyable. The best part was how you somehow kept the same instrument separated into two roles, that was quite interesting.
Okay so now I’ve made it to the first repeated sheet. Only thing I have to say is sheet 9 was a poor choice since it still had a drum fill in it, and Sheet 32 doesn’t have drumming or anything to make me think the fill deserved to be there. Also, the new instrument in sheet 32 isn’t loud enough to be really heard, but that’s good, because it adds the nice acoustic guitar sound to the section without the ugly hit at the start of the note. It’s there if you really listen for it, but it’s pretty well hidden behind the piano and flute. While this isn’t the case with the rhode, the hit at the beginning isn’t nearly as bad, just a bit disruptive. Still liked the drum fill at the end.
The second time I heard sheets 15 and 40, I thought it sounded like something from a Queen song. Kinda odd thought, but not a bad one 
So at this point it has became clear to me what you method was when it came to repeating sheets. The first time around you were establishing them, the second time you took the fully established sheets and add more that have something unique in them. So, when 24 and 23 came again, I had already heard them, but 34 and 35’s piano work was great enough to warrant the repetition (wow is this really the first time I said that in the actual review?) Also: OMG I made it to the halfway point! Sorry, had to celebrate that. Anyway, the only new thing I have to say is that the section felt too restricted by the triplets, even though the drumming wasn’t (Spoiler alert: the repeat of this sheet that had trumpets didn’t have this problem).
Skipping sheet 27…
Sheet 36 was very nice, loved the dual strings, although it was a little predictable in sheet 37. The transition at the end was done better here.
Sheet 38: This is what really sold the accented note to me. The arpeggios seem to work in any way as long as you return to that safe harbor of the off-beat accented note, which at this point isn’t such a problem anymore. It was only problematic when the long strings were easy to pick out instead of being just background help.
So by the third time I heard sheet 15, I was really getting bored. The song had been dragging so much that I completely missed the change in sheet 16, and man what a thing to miss! That ending change was incredible, made the re-listen that much more worth it.
Even so, I was still getting bored on my first listen. This had actually started in sheet 30 (the second time it is repeated) and was building to the point where I almost quit listening. I mean 6 minutes in and I was ready to quit, but man am I glad I didn’t Those trumpets really push the song up higher, to the point where I featured the song. If this song gets a bad rating from the underground community, it’ll only be because they were too pussy to listen to the full song.
Oh yeah, the song. So yeah, the trumpets really revived the spirit in the song. Sheets 44-46 really sealed the song as one to instantly feature (which although I got to it first, I’m sure any mod would have done). And as I said, the trumpets don’t seem to be as restricted as the other instruments, it really makes the section sound epic.
The outro was quite clever in that it reused sheet 7 completely without being repetitive, although that’s probably just because it’s short…
So yeah, that concludes my review. I did the whole thing in Notepad so I could see the song while I critiqued it, I really felt the song deserved it. It’s only now I see you have an updated version for me to look at, which means I’ll probably have to redo a lot (why do you torture me so…), so this review will probably need a large number of edits, but meh. The song is great, one of the all-time greats, in fact. I still can’t believe this song has come from the same user that posted like 40 songs for each day of the week, each one using a single instrument and hardly anything worth mentioning. You’ve come far Nuse. I’m glad I was here to see it.
Rating: 4.3/5 I was thinking about raising it, but if the edited version is good enough, I’d like to have room to push the rating up XD. I’m seriously considering rating this my first 4.5 since I came up with my system, good luck on that front.
OKAY I JUST PASTED THIS FROM NOTEPAD AND MY GOSH IT’S HUGE. I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE A SPOILER IN MY REVIEW OF A LATER PART IN THE SAME REVIEW!
Oh and one last thing, I couldn’t really tell verses from choruses, which why I’m always talking about sections. Not really a problem in such a long ballad-type song.
I haven’t been listening to your songs much [sorry] but wow.
You’ve changed a lot since our collab.
I don’t mind your song duration, just how much it fits with the song. At many times I found myself somewhat bored and well, waiting and wanting the next part to happen. Also, transitions were occasionally choppy and felt unthought. However, I’ll say that the song was pretty darn good sounding overall. I found points where the song takes a faster mood to be the more enjoyable ones. Not to say the whole song to be faster, just more [and naturally].
By the way, sexy vanilla freshness drumming dude!
In star’s scale: 4/5
Star’s thanks! I really appreciate you listening to it!
Octo thanks too! =D
Also I have an updated version, but because I’ve exceeded the share limit I won’t be able to share it until tomorrow. So Star, if you want to listen to it again you should wait until I post the updated version!
Wow. I’m done. Not really much to say…
Oh yeah I forgot: I RATED 5. explodes and is reborn and then dies again in some other climactic way
EDIT: Okay I hope someone knows how to remove the featured song that now doesn’t have a topic because it was deleted…
Thanks for all your time writing that out! I don’t know what I’d do without you.
Oh and… the reason I deleted the song was just because it was a little outdated. Thanks for featuring it though! And rating 5! And everything else!
…what if i wanted to hear the original version 
…i missed out cause of my damn time zone
Don’t take out the yellow snares, just take out the on-beat ones, that way there’s a bass drum hit and then a snare hit much like a regular drum beat. In fact, doing so would make the drum beat almost basic, but still epic.
Oh, and the feature appears to be fixed. Thanks to whoever did that.
Sorry! But you’ll hear the full one in a few days.
Thanks! I’ll be sending you a PM when I’m ready!
Dang it Nuse! I’m not that good of a hacker! I want to listen now
:3
With huge thanks to StarWars for critisizing!
Featured (again).
Thanks, Fire.
Man this song is good.
4.5/5.
This would probably be the most apt time ever to say: 'Nuff said.
© 2007-2024 Jean-Denis Boivin