SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[wide world]

Hi.

The Good:
-Aw man yeah, gotta love that piano and synth combo in the smooth jazz.
-Melodic content is excellent.
-Your instruments are good. I'm curious, what is that lead synth that you use all the time? It reminds me of stuff from Omnisphere, but I haven't found it. ...unless, of course, you made it, in which case it looks like I have some sound design to do because it sounds awesome and the filters on it are excellent.
-Solid mixing for almost the entire thing, just a few complaints I have.

The Not-So-Good: Oh, you want me to list ALL of the flaws, do you? Right, you asked for it. No mercy shall be given, I'm going to nitpick the hell out of this.
-Okay, right away those drums see a bit too strong for something laid-back. Would be nice if there were some kind of introduction aside from instant "thump".
-The background chords get really buried very quickly under the piano and synth combo.
-The drums start getting really repetitive when they've not changed for an entire two and a half minutes. The same 'break' all the time is a bit boring if it can even be called a break. Plz. The bassline also stays the same for a lot of the piece as well, really kinda boring.
-Such mud at 3 minutes in. Right around there things start getting stressed in the mix due to the kick. Also, the piano doesn't seem like the velocity changed much at all - it sounds as if it's being played at the same volume as before.
-Not sure I like the filter on the drums at 3:20, it seems kinda unnecessary.
-Your bass is a lot more unclean at around 2:40, things are pretty muddy between it and the kick and the piano notes all together. Also, the bass in the piano panned to the left is slightly off-putting.
-The final ending is a bit awkward for three reasons. First, the way the drums go out is a bit awkward, it sounds like a loop just ended rather than the drums actually completing. If you had faded out the volume a bit more entirely rather than just lowpassing it this could have worked. Second, the bass is wobbling a lot in there compared to the other places - the only thing I can of as a result from this is mixing error or it was covered up earlier. Finally, it just sits there on something that sounds like it should continue but doesn't.

Overall: Score of 9/10. K, so, you asked for all that feedback and I went full nitpick on you. That said, this is still excellent. The biggest problem in my opinion is the drumline - that needs a LOT of improvement in realism and in overall mixing/transitioning of them.

johnfn responds:

YES IT IS SO SMOOTH URGH

>Your instruments are good. I'm curious, what is that lead synth that you use all the time? It reminds me of stuff from Omnisphere, but I haven't found it.

Yes, it is synthesized! I use a synth called Zebra. It's not all too complicated. I take some simple shape like a saw, toss a vintage filter on it, reverb and delay to taste and it's pretty much done. I was pretty attentive to modulating the filter cutoff practically throughout the track, and I think that a bit of the secret sauce also comes from a really subtle LFO that I apply to the cutoff, which gives it a bit more movement and flavor. For this track I also added a subtle bitcrush on top of it, which I modulated too.

I agree with practically all of the complaints actually, particularly the drums. I knew that was going to be a big problem but I was too busy rushing around to glue the song together, slapping transitions into place, making the mix slightly less bad, etc. Hopefully that won't be a problem next round O_O

I will need to internalize some of them for next time but 50% of writing this song was thinking "skyewintrest is going to kill me for this but I don't have enough time to fix it." I dunno. I don't have any excuses for next time though :P

Thank you as ever for the amazing reviews. You and Step can share the trophy for "best person ever". :3 (along with the other judges <3)

[GM - I Surrender(NGADM13)]

:(

The Good:
-Cool percussion and atmosphere in this.
-I like the effect at 0:11, though it doesn't have nearly as much "oomph" as it could.

The Not-So-Good:
-The mixing feels sloppy and pretty unclear.
-Unfortunately, the polymeter fell flat on its face for me.
-Intro and outro aren't too good.
-This gets pretty boring without much of a driving force behind it. There's nothing really making me want to keep listening to it.

Overall: Score of 6.3/10. I don't think I really need to provide many comments on this, you know more than enough about why it doesn't make the cut.

[Psychodynamo]

Hooooo boy.

The Good:
-The instant I hear this I know it's yours. Classic Kor-Rune with those crowd-pleaser arpeggios and then your voice.
-Great break at about 1:07, and even better transition at 1:34. I really like the break there.
-Wonderful vocal work! I love some of the chorus sounds and harmonic lines.
-I like your motifs and ostinatos in this, they're very nice.

The Not-So-Good:
-Alright, nitpick time. Be warned, I'm going harsh as hell on you from here on out in the entire contest. The transition at 0:22 is something you use far too often, to be honest. It's not the best transition either, you could have gotten a lot more creative with it.
-Some seriously off-key parts, such as at 2:22.
-The atmosphere is fairly inferior to that of your last piece, except at 3:34 which has an excellent and eerie atmosphere. Speaking of atmosphere, it barely changes at all until then.
-The transition at 4:00 is a bit excessive and sudden.
-Overall it feels like you're relying far too much on overall chords and distortion.
-It'd be cool to hear you using a different drumset. Hearing the same one over and over again is getting tiring, however good it is.
-The ending is a bit sudden, though I love the final effects.

Overall: Score of 8.8/10. Eh. Definitely not your best piece. This could have been much better in a lot of ways. That said, this is still pretty good. Luck to you next round!

[She Was Picking Flowers]

Helloooooo!

The Good:
-Dear lord, everything you make is so weird. This is almost cute, but at the same time really strange and almost disturbing.
-Thanks for using our Zither! <3
-You have some really creative melodies and great effects in this. Props for the panning. I love panning.
-The music box at the end is a wonderful touch, and I absolutely love it.
-Transitions are lovely.

The Not-So-Good:
-I guess I do have to agree with Wolftacular that this doesn't really depict the scene as well as it could. Not taking off anything for it though.
-...and I have to agree with johnfn that some of your melodies don't really seem to have any direction to them but rather just aimlessness.
-Overall thing: This does start getting repetitive in the constant waltz feel, the only time it really takes a break is at the end, which is just awesome.

Overall: Score of 9.6/10. What can I say? I think this is great. Often the aimlessness doesn't really cause a problem, but instead is just kinda cute. Don't really have too many problems to talk about. Great work!

steampianist responds:

Thanks for the review and youre welcome

well a vague dream is a vague dream I guess haha

[Everything is Broken]

Hey there!

The Good:
-Oh god those glitches again. Ahahahahaha, you always have the weirdest sounds in your music from what I've heard. It's pretty impressive, actually.
-This has some of the best Edirol usage I've ever heard. Great effects on it! I'm still having to use Edirol for most of my orchestral stuff right now, unfortunately.
-Composition is far better than last round's piece.
-Cool vocal-ish bassy growls.

The Not-So-Good:
-Similar to your last piece, the composition still suffers from the repetition issue. I've noticed you focus a lot on the bassline and glitches, and then not so much on other things. Glitches are cool and all, so are basslines, but they're not the substance of the piece.
-Transition at 1:54 has a great chord, but doesn't really transition to much of anything different aside from a change in chord progression.
-What did you do with the ending. Just, what. It was fine until the weird backwards effect. :(

Overall: Score of 7.0. Not much of a change in your normal style, and still many of the same issues. Also on a side note, you're using the same bass synth - I'm curious about why.

[Ascension]

Hi there!

The Good:
-Okay, you definitely have some really nice singing. Going to comment further on this a little bit more since the vocal solo is the main focus.
-Wonderful chords overall. Very well-constructed, nice progressions.
-Transitions are fine.
-Mixing's good, there's nowhere which feels too empty this time.

The Not-So-Good:
-Remember, with singing you typically need to articulate a bit more so that people can understand the lyrics. With this solo singing it was a bit more of an issue. Some of the words seemed a bit slurred. There's another issue which is simple tremelo off the note - that happens sometimes as well.
-Alright, nitpicky thing regarding the piano/voice combo. It would have been great if, since the voice were centered, the piano were as well. Center the actual instrument some more, then let the reverb fill out the sides. The reason is because then it sounds more like the singer is actually PLAYING the piano - and that gives a stronger "wow this person is skilled" effect IMO.
-I personally did not like the other orchestral instruments. They seemed a bit over-the-top for a 'solo instrument' singing piece. The only one which *could* have fit IMO was the backing strings, and even then: They probably should have been more subtle. ...oh, also the break at 1:45 was definitely the cheesiest part of the piece, not to mention the weakest part. Similar to last round, actually.
-Eh, the piano being almost entirely background chords doesn't sit well with me. Could be because I'm a pianist, but it would have been very nice if the piano had a bit more to do and more of an active role. There are plenty of arpeggios, basslines, trills, ornaments... plenty for a pianist to do over the top.
-More cheesy in the outro, dangit.

Overall: Score of 8.8/10. Ay. I feel mean giving this and all the nitpicks, it's the lowest score I've written down so far. DEFINITELY not going to be the lowest one this round though, the first three pieces have just been so good! In any case, sorry if the nitpicks seem to be a bit much, but I can see a lot of room for improvement in this piece. I think that you can do much better than this!

headphoamz responds:

Thanks, Skye. We might have disagreements over this, but I understand where you're coming from. Keep on keepin' on.

[Mystic's Shore]

Oh man, wow.

The Good:
-I like the introduction and the echoes on most things. They sound very pretty. There's a little reverb on some of the voice which makes quite a satisfying hiss.
-God damn all the melodic material so far, it's very pretty.
-Erhus are good. Did you use the free VST for them?
-I absolutely LOVE that buzzing percussion at about 1:11. Do tell, what is it?
-Using Chinese for lyrics DOES get you extra points from me, methinks. '-'
-You obviously put in a lot of time on this one.

The Not-So-Good:
-This piece often sits on a single chord like a brooding mother hen. Seriously, you don't need to have the same chord for the first minute and a half.
-This often reminds me of Runescape. That can be good, but in other respects not, such as good. One such would be repetition, another would be instrument quality. As much as I'd like to discount that, it IS a factor.

Overall: Score of 9.5/10. Well, I have to say, there's not a ton to nitpick on in this. That said, I didn't try as hard as I could... but you'll get that next round. <3 You know how some songs are just made really well but don't quite "click"? That's what it was with this for me.

etherealwinds responds:

Thank you for your review! The buzzing percussion sound is from Gladiator and is one of the drum loops under the vocoder section! I thought it added a little bit of depth to this otherwise potentially airy fairy piece. I've not played Runescape since I was about 11 ha, I used to be so bad at it. I mean what kinda person would play Runescape but be afraid to actually go into the wilderness incase you lost all of your items? Hahaha. Thanks again!

[footsteps]

Hi there!

The Good:
-Aw man, the piano sound is really nice, I like the syncopation in the bassline. The velocity layering really helps a lot for it.
-Overall melodic content in this is some of the best I've heard in a long time.
-The other instruments are really used to great effect in this piece. The opening at 3:12 is absolutely amazing.
-Good on you for trying to go in a different direction rather than JUST pushing to win.
-Oh yes, since I've been picking on you for transitions recently, I just thought I'd say: Good work on them here! (though the outro can still use some work)

The Not-So-Good:
-More realism in the piano please. <3 If it's going to solo, then having it be less quantized would be wonderful. For an idea on how, try listening to the piece "Drowning Into the Heavens" by MarkySpark on here. That has some fantastic realism along with even more excellent velocity changes.
-Not sure I like the raw white noise sweeps. Try adding a light phaser/flanger. There should be a good phaser in the Fruity Love Filter (can't be bothered to find the technical name while writing this review - you know what I'm talking about), subtle phaser and flanger settings. A chorus could also help.
-This is more of a personal thing, but it might have been nice to have some kind of background effect to really put me in the place for the footsteps. Where are the footsteps? Where is the snow? I can't really hear anything like this until the white noise.
-There's a lot of good melodic material, and I don't want you to cut down the length at all, but what would have been good is giving some kind of motif. It's all about the melody, right? There's not really much that's a clear motif here.
-Overall composition thing: The entire piece moves more like a single crescendo with a teeny-tiny decrescendo at the end - the ending still feels far more climactic than the first two minutes.

Overall: Score of 9/10. This is fantastic. Only some issues which keep me from putting it higher, as you can see. Good job!

johnfn responds:

Thanks for all the good points and the great review! I went in a different direction just for you~ (that's actually not true - I would have gone insane if I had done the same style again - but let's just say it's true).

> More realism in the piano please

This is funny because almost all the piano was played by me. However I did quantize it a lot, and adhered to the metronome pretty closely. I think what you really are asking for - judging by the piece you sent me - is rubato, like Step mentioned (let me know if I'm wrong, or there is something I'm missing). I'll definitely be keeping that in mind if I dive into more solo piano stuff in the future.

> Fruity Love Filter

Yeah, great idea. Though I use Ableton now ;-)

> some kind of background effect

This is a neat idea too. I felt like my last song was almost too story based so I wanted to ratchet that down a little.

> some sort of motif

Actually the intended motif was :24 - :29, shows up again at :44, :57, 1:31, and then at 4:38 (!). I took your critique from my last song to heart about motifs, I think you're right in that they're an easy way to tie the song together. But actually, even writing this out, I see the problem - it disappears for 3 minutes, lol. So I'll have to keep that in mind in the future...

> The entire piece moves more like a single crescendo

Is that bad? :P You might have to explain this to me more. I mean, a lot of great music functions as a single crescendo. The whole genre of post rock, for example haha.

Anyway thanks for the review! You have a really interesting way of listening to music and assigning scores.

[Esperanza de la Vega]

G'day sir.

The Good:
-Gotta love the introduction with the crickets. Very nice touch there.
-Composition is spectacular like usual. Don't need to say anything more there.
-Overall realism of the guitar is fantastic. I love the quick runs, it's very entertaining and pretty to listen to.

The Not-So-Good:
-So where did the voice go? I don't hear it at all after 0:20. It would have been great if it were more a part of this.
-Since you're obviously trying to make this guitar sound realistic, guess what? NITPICK TIME. I notice that at certain high velocities the twang of the guitar is almost exactly the same. A fantastic example of this is at 0:10 and 0:12. A real guitar might have then be similar, but not that exactly the same. This occurs in several other places, but that's very clear.
-Some of this seems pretty much impossible to play on one guitar, such as having a constrant tremelo on one note with other notes playing at the same time.
-That tapping gets kinda annoying after awhile, to be honest. It also doesn't sound very realistic at all. I don't think anyone can tap their feet that fast, and obviously the solo guitarist isn't tapping his guitar seeing as he's doing crazy playing the same time.
-The ending seems somewhat sudden and unexpected. It winds down, then out of nowhere BURST OF COMPLEXITY AND FINAL CHORD. Props for not doing the same ending as usual though!

Overall: Score of 9.4/10. Good job going out of your comfort zone and the overall quality of the piece. Now, what I'd like to hear from you is something COMPLETELY out of your comfort zone.

SoundChris responds:

Hey there,

first i am glad you liked the piece. The voice has just been inserted as a little intro effect to illustrate the piece would be about a sensual woman. For realistic flamenco music i would have needed a male singer who cries arround like hell - so that was hard to get :) What you say about the high velocities is right. Unfortunately i still have not a good midi keyboard with better dynamics. If i try it hard maybe i can get 10 different sounds (out of 127 possible, which is annoying). I also needed a modwheel.
I know its hard to believe, but there are real players who can play those stuff - which is incredible, e.g. Don Cortes Maya, Andres Segovia and others. Also the footstomps are realistic. You can watch some interesting fandango / flamenco stuff on youtube where they move even faster :D
The sudden and unexpected ending is the classical way to end this kind of guitar pieces. First comes a more lyrical introducion of the ending which becomes extremely virtuous and cuts the piece extremely abrupt - just wanted to be stylistically accurate.

Dont really know what would be really out of my comfort zone because i dont know if i even got one. But there will be metal and chiptune soon.

[Expression of Freedom]

Hi. You asked! I think I might still be in judge-mode though, so the feedback might be a bit harsh again. Sorry. ^_^`

The Good:
-The introduction is good, I like the delays on the synth.
-I'm liking your pitch sliding in the synth that comes in at around 0:40. Reminds me a lot of a SNES game that nobody seems to have ever heard of - Brain Lord.
-Good sliding effect at 1:34.
-Liking the little break at 1:57, good little section without

The Not-So-Good:
-Okay, your mixing definitely does need work. I'd suggest letting the bass have more bass frequencies, as it's more in the lower mid right now as far as I can hear. I mean come on, this is drum and BASS, after all, not drum and mid!
-The drums are... eh. The kick feels like it needs a little bit more in the higher frequencies to give it an initial hit, and the snares are a bit loose. At the very least, they're drowning out the high hat that's panned to the left. Frequencies could be edited to let it breathe more.
-As I said in Skype, this is pretty clogged with mids overall. They can take a lot, but try expanding the spectrum, using panning and stereo separation a bit more to achieve a full stereo sound.
-Hm. For some reason at around 2:34, the bass sounds as if it's off-key. It could be an overtone from another instrument, but it also appears at about 2:44 when the bass plays again.
-Would be nice if the drums had some kind of fill or something to transition out of them at 0:59 and 1:56 rather than just a final kick, wouldn't it?
-I don't need to do anything more other than say "outro" for you to know what I mean, do I?

Overall: 's alright for a first attempt. Feels kinda unfinished, but it's definitely decent. I think you can do better, definitely. The mixing would be a solid first step (speaking of which, good job at having no clipping).

ChronoNomad responds:

I don't want it to look like I've ignored your review, which obviously I haven't since I've been working on this throughout the day and even gotten some fantastic help straight from you! Once I get those filter effects back in there and finalize an outro, I will definitely be replacing this with the new and improved version! Thank you so much for all of your assistance on this, Skye. It is truly a pleasure to watch you work. :D