Hi All, New guy on the block here...I am looking for some honest input on where I am headed with my audio and web site. I have much to learn, any comments would be greatly appreciated. Here is the link to the site etc: http://www.audiounity.com/index_sub3.html Bear-in-mind this is a work in progress, I am not 100% complete. Many thanks, Rick

Hey,

Here's my feedback based on how the website is constructed now. I understand that this is a temp work so some of my feedback may not apply or be applicable once you're done. The website has a good deal of reading material in the About section. Looking at it a bit more, perhaps it is how the text is formatted more than the amount of it. I know that this is temp text, but my hope is that your about section will be more concise and straight forward.

The Services and the Demo tabs link to the same page. I'm sure this is something you're working on.

The Contact form is very nice and straight forward.

I like the Home page. Have you considered having the background color have a bit more texture? Something that will add just a bit more variance in the background? Solid colored backgrounds work better if other aspects of the website have more variance but your website seems to have mostly solid colors (aside from the city and women silhouettes. This could also just be personal taste as well, so take my webdesign comment with a grain of salt.

Now on to the audio side of things:

Second Hand: I love the percussion idea! Nice! The horn-pad idea comes off very MIDI-ish. Also the song ends rather abruptly- to the point that it sounds incomplete. Do your best to only demo polished, completed ideas.

India Alloy: Nice! Good groove here. The sounds here are much better and this could really work in a video game. The ending in this song is much better.

Space Walk: Very nice idea with the smooth pad lines contrasting the rhythmic aspects. This is probably my favorite so far.

Symposa: Moody, slightly dark work here. I'd highly suggest that you invest in some higher quality symphonic samples. These sounds are very MIDI-tastic and can really diminish an otherwise solid orchestral work. I suggest either Vienna Symphonic Library or East West.

Medal of Honor: Your guitar work is nice and you do a good job of production when using it. Good drive in this one, however the ending is still very abrupt and comes off as incomplete. Work on this so that you're giving your clients the best possible impression.

Destiny: Same comments apply here as they did on Symposa. Better samples would really improve your impact when writing orchestral music. Nice use of dissonance in this one at times as well. The ostinato with the drums and guitar work really reminds me of FF10. You've got some talent, now invest in some better patches and you'll have something going!

I hope my comments are helpful.

Nathan

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the detailed response. This was the exact type of feedback I was hoping for. I agree with the points you have made and will update the audio and web accordingly.

Regarding the web site, there is still a part of me that feels it is a little too "urban". I was looking for a mix of contemporary and official-ish, I am not 100% sold on it yet. I may scrap the whole thing...adding texture as you mentioned may help. The about us is totally a placeholder. I agree there is way too much text there.

Regarding the audio, you are correct on many points. The endings (cut short etc...), I will fix all that, thinking back it was pretty lame to not address that. Regarding the samples I just bought Garritan Personal Orchestra due to its price point and bang for the buck. The only song I tried it out with is Butterfly(lower left on the demo page). I am not sure if you listened to that one or not. Listening to your orchestral samples versus mine makes me realize the vast separation in tonal quality. I hope to move up to higher quality samples once some money frees up etc. I plan on updating the current demos in the not too distant future with the GPO samples, I hope it brings up the music a couple notches in the realism category.

I tried to add a direct link here and failed...oh the humanity

I really appreciate the feedback and time you spent reviewing my stuff. It was very helpful.

UPDATE: I couldn't cope with the old site, I added a new version. Many issues you pointed out still remain. Thanks again.


Thanks,
Rick

[Edited by - AudioUnity on January 1, 2009 3:00:57 PM]