# A host of tracks in need of reviews



## Danny_Owen (Nov 13, 2010)

Hi guys,

I'm in the process of updating my website and I've got some tracks that I was wondering if you could comment on, and say which ones you like and which you don't like.

This is the first time I'll be putting music up on the site without any video behind it. I've already got some 'definites' which I'm not putting up here at this time. 

These ones are either new or in fact they are up to 2 years old, and I'm wondering about whether the quality will be up to scratch, but I've heard them so much that I don't have a particularly clear perspective on them anymore. None of them have been posted on the forum before so far as I can remember. I won't say which ones are new and which are old though. 

The tracks are:

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/A_quirky_summer.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/A ... summer.mp3)

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/Joy_in_Elegance.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/J ... egance.mp3)

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/My_father_was_a_cooper.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/M ... cooper.mp3)

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/The_British_fayre.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/T ... _fayre.mp3)

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/The_back_alleys_of_Istanbul.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/T ... tanbul.mp3)

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/The_day_when_everything_changed.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/T ... hanged.mp3)

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/What_was_it_that_made_me_happy_before.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/W ... before.mp3)

Would really appreciate some feedback on these!

Thanks for listening

Danny


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## Jason (Nov 14, 2010)

Hi Danny,

I took a listen to your pieces, a nice variety of styles. I know what it's like to try to detach yourself from your music when selecting demos, so here are a few impressions.

A quirky summer - This is the one I had trouble with. The sounds come across to me personally like an old midi sound module, not up to the level of the other cues. I'm not sure I'm keen on the composition, either, it is a little repetitive and simplistic and I know you have a lot more demo material that is more interesting compositionally, so personally I'd leave this one out of your web site. You've done much better, I visited your website and there are some great cues on there that I think are much better than this. Just my two cents. 

Joy in Elegance - Much better! Funky and a little quirky, I like it a lot. Would work great in the right commercial, but sounds good on its own as well to me. A keeper.

My father was a cooper - I like the change of pace, good underscore for a more heartwarming scene. Maybe the strings could come up a little bit in the latter half, not too much, but I'm losing them a bit when the piano is louder. Another good demo track, in my opinion.

The British fayre - Like the composition, sounds right to me for the lighter style you're going for. Some of the samples seem a little dated sounding to me, particularly the strings, although for a humorous piece like this a little bit of this type of sound might fit. If you're trying to show you can write a realistic orchestral mockup I think you need to look at working a bit more on this piece, maybe using some different samples in places. Still, it's a charming composition.

The back alleys of Istanbul - To me this cue has better sounds than some of the others and takes the listener on a nicely varied and intense journey over its relatively short duration. I really like the sense of drama. The only criticism I'd have is that it loses some energy at the end, the last few notes could have a bit more impact to leave the listener with more of a sense of conclusion. Otherwise I'd feel good using it as a demo.

The day when everything changed - This is a more complicated musical story and while I like some of the sections I don't know if this is the best piece to use on your web site. I really like the build at 1:44 and the musical figure following it. However, the gaps between some of the sections are quite long (I thought the piece was finished several times on first listen) and the piece seems a bit too episodic for a demo to me personally. Did you have a story you were writing to? I'm not sure I like the sound of the choir and strings, either, and I think the piece would need a rework before it stands up to your best music. 

What was it that made me happy before - Nice relaxing piece, warm and gentle. ò      ^ÊÑ      ^Ð\      ^Ð’      ^Òx      ^Ó,      _Ô      _Z      _8¹      _8Á      _‡Ó      _ˆ      _Œ      _Œ!      _Ž}      _Ž˜      _§h      _§À      _­ô      _®      _´‘      _´š      `…ó      `†¹      `§S      `§{      a½z      a½›      b      bZ      bá      bþ      bÙ      b -      bhë      bin      c!†      c!Ä      c¯¿      c¯ø      dM      do      d ­      d ù      d_ó      d`E      dw)      dw«      e      ef      eÏ      e      e;      e>      eA      eS      f<.      f<¤      fTG      fT˜      fX


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## Lex (Nov 14, 2010)

Hi,

I like "What was it that made me happy before" and "My father was a cooper".
Really nice work.

Rest I don't like.

aLex


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## Guy Bacos (Nov 14, 2010)

Lex @ Sun Nov 14 said:


> Rest I don't like.
> 
> aLex



How tactful.


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## Lex (Nov 14, 2010)

*"I was wondering if you could comment on, and say which ones you like and which you don't like. "*


I guess in your mind Guy as passionate artists we are suppose to like everything with slight tactful gradations?

You like something or you don't..it's about personal preferences, emotional response and current mood/state of mind....or I guess one can tip toe around desperately trying to be constructive and helpful...even when somebody asks you plain and simple "Do you like this?"..

Anyhow...last time I'm commenting on work posted by anyone I don't know...probably for the better of this forum.

aLex


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## Guy Bacos (Nov 14, 2010)

Yeah ok, I didn't see his "don't like" request. Still a bit cold, but anyway.


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## Lex (Nov 14, 2010)




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## Danny_Owen (Nov 14, 2010)

Lol, fair enough, well I did ask a pretty direct answer so I guess I should expect a pretty direct response 

I have to say, I'm finding I'm better at writing for business videos/films etc rather than adverts, and both the ones you liked were for business videos- the rest were either adverts or old. I find it can be hard to get really stuck into an advert and to strike an emotional chord in 30 seconds. Maybe that's just me though.

I appreciate an honest view and I don't take it too personally, so no offence taken. Since I'm trying to work out which tracks out of these 'maybes' best represent me it's useful to have direct answers.

Thanks

Danny


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## Guy Bacos (Nov 14, 2010)

Danny, I like as well the same ones as Lex. I think you should put more emphasis on instruments where you have more control over expression, since you proved you can do it with these 2 pieces. The other pieces, might suffer from bad choice of programing, it's hard to say, but they lack expression and sound a bit flat.


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## Danny_Owen (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanks Guy, interesting observation! The two orchestral ones, yes I think bad programming certainly had something to do with it (I was using velocity instead of X-fade EW patches), so very little expression there - they were the older ones.

As for the others.. yes I do see what you mean. They're more in the poppy genre than anything else, I'm not sure what I can do to make them spring to life a bit more. Maybe a bit more variety in the writing? Tricky with adverts though, you want to get your hook over but not to the point where it becomes tedious. I think I'll have to actually actively study a bit more pop to get future similar projects to the level they need to be.

So from the feedback my current thoughts are to keep:
'What was it that made me happy before'
'My father was a cooper'
And possibly 'Joy in Elegance' (as I don't have anything particularly similar in this genre- I'll review how it fits in the line up though).

I do quite like 'the back alleys of Istanbul' but I have another similar one which I prefer here: http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/a_gathering_darkness.mp3 (http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/a ... rkness.mp3)
which I've posted here before and is on the definite pile, so maybe it's best just to stick with that one?

I'm glad you both liked those two as they were my own favourites. And it's interesting to me that my two starkest ones were the best liked of them! I do prefer to use just a couple of deeply sampled things rather than a host of moderately sampled instruments, definitely gets more emotion into it.


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## Danny_Owen (Nov 14, 2010)

Actually, while we're on it, I've got 2 more that I wasn't 100% sure about- they're from the last short film I did so they made the list by default, but they are very sparse (deliberately) and they are pretty girly, I'm wondering if they're good enough? I posted these probably half a year back:

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/Hi8_scene.mp3

http://www.dannyowenmusic.co.uk/Media/Running_scene.mp3

Thanks

Danny

*Edit* Listening back on these, although they really seemed to work within the context of the film I'm not sure they're high impact enough for a showcase. I think I might actually leave it till the end of the year to update the website and aim to write some higher impact material.


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