Hey guys,

I just wanted to get a bit of constructive feedback on some of my work. I'm currently working on some new tracks but never really shared my older stuff with any one. I've just uploaded them on to my website if you want to have a listen.

http://juliandomanski.com/Videogame%20Music/

They're from 2009/2010 and were made using Reason 3 with various plug-ins. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Julian,

Thanks for posting your music for critique. I'll do my best to give some input to help out:

1) Carnival Nightmare: The overall mix feels very static, especially for something that has "Nightmare" in the title. A great resource for the spooky, off-center vibe would be some of Danny Elfman's cues. Listen to the differences in texture, orchestration and dynamics. See how you can provide more variety in your work because as-is my ear got pretty tired of accordion-like patch.

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2) Egypt: Interesting track. Sounds like everything is panned center. There's more changes in this tune than the previous which works to it's advantage but the production over all is still a bit weak in my opinion. Have you heard of doing an A/B comparison? Take a song (or songs) that you feel represent what you want this song to be like then toggle between the two while listening and see what changes you heard.

3) Spy Chase: Probably my fav out of the three you posted but I always was a sucker for retro stuff! Why not add a few FX to some of the synths? Again everything is panned center which can create a very boring and "still" mix. Check out some of the old Nintendo cues and you'll noticed they did quite a bit of panning even to emulate a cool delay/echo effect.

All of these tunes were a bit on the repetitive side as well. So look for ways to add more growth and development to your work. Change keys, change modes have a new instrument take up the melody, etc. Also it sounds as if there's little to no volume and tempo changes... or even modulation changes in some of the cues. Consider adding some of these in and I think you'll find your music will take on new life.

Thanks again for sharing!

Nate

Hey Nate,

Thanks for the feedback man, nice a detailed as I was hoping for. I'm currently writing some new piece and am putting a bit more thought into the dynamics and textures of the instruments. Great example tracks from Mr Elfman, such a good use of space with the instruments he uses.

Hey, Julz. Listened through. All great tracks. Phantom Ballad was my favorite. It was really eerie and the chord progression had a nice mix of "expected" and "unexpected" places it went.

All in all a really great job.

-Mikey