Project 2: First feedback

Although it took a quite while to get a foothold in this piece, once I did I was actually surprised at how quickly I progressed. I think that might be because, in many ways, this song is in a style closer to what I'm accustomed to writing. When I played it for a couple of friends, they said they could definitely hear more 'me' in it, however one takes that.

I was a bit uncertain about the piece as I began, but I've actually grown to rather like it. Sadly, I think it played to more mixed reviews in class than my previous pieces.

The main issues Dr. Ross raised were: too fast, too busy, and instrument balance.

I'm actually rather content with the tempo, for the most part. To be honest, it was actually slightly faster than this for the first couple drafts before I showed it in class. I think it sounds kinda peppy. Even at this pace, I don't think I'll have difficulty meeting the length requirements for this assignment (famous last words?). In any event, I was planning for at least some of the later (and perhaps earlier) sections to be softer and slower, in contrast the more energetic sections.

I think there is a valid point about the song being busy, though. Although I like many of the little flourishes, upon relistening, a few of them do sound a little crowded or rushed, or just 'off' somehow. I'm going to go see if I can move a few notes around, or simply thin some of them a little bit. Interestingly enough, after having listened to the song on a number of different sets of speakers and headphones, I find that it sounds much more busy on some than others.

Although I can definitely hear some instrument balance issues, I think that this is mostly a result of mixing with the samples that I used. I spent a little time playing with the EQ of the tracks to try and clear things up a bit, with only limited success. However, it was easy enough to hear all of the instruments in the general midi version of the song, even if the overall sound quality of GM is terrible, so I don't think the balance issue is an inherent property of the notation of the song. In fact, I'm hoping that it simply wouldn't be an issue with live instruments at all, but I suppose that remains to be seen.

I guess to some degree I think that some of these complaints might be more an issue with the recording than with the song itself, but I might just be a little too close to the song to tell at the moment. One thing I've noticed is that, when I'm writing a song, I listen to it over and over so many times that things which might sound like issues at first eventually begin to sound normal. I guess you just get used to hearing them. After so long, it becomes kinda hard to tell which bits sound awkward or could use changing.