SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Not Everday]

Hi.

The Good:
-Intro has a lot of cool sounds in it. There are some great effects.
-0:40 onward also sounds really cool, you definitely stuffed plenty of awesome FX samples and effect ideas in this.
-Transition at 1:46 is sweeeet, totally unexpected but feels so right. The chords there are great as well.
-Guitar at 2:06 is also nice. Also soon after that BITCRUSHING. Bitcrushing is awesome.
-Overall production quality is pretty darn awesome. The mixing is clean and clear.

The Not-So-Good:
-The vocal melody from 0:20 onward sounds extremely annoying to me. This applies for most of the chopped vocal melodies.
-The constant four-on-the-floor beat gets kinda dull after listening to it for two minutes.
-This entire thing sounds almost like it's chopped up and slapped together, which reduces the song's quality IMO.
-Ending sounds dull and uninspired, to put it bluntly.

Overall: Score of 7/10. I thought there were some really cool aspects to this, but the song itself is just kinda dull and choppy, it feels really rough.

[Forgotten]

Hi.

The Good:
-I particularly like the piano in the introduction, though it's a tad cliche for this cinematic style.
-I'm liking the chimes at about 3:10, it's a very nice musical sound.

The Not-So-Good:
-By a minute and a half in, I'm wondering if you'll do anything different. The 'change' at 1:40 is virtually no change, it only comes in at about 1:55.
-Try using something more than straight quarter notes and eighth notes - syncopation is GOOD.
-Please don't Step on the cymbal rolls. ._. (You should know what I mean by this)
-Alright, this is a bit harder to describe in words. The song is 'flat'. There's no drama, there's no climax, there is no rising and falling of tension. Music *needs* this to continue to be engaging and interesting - I'm sure you've probably noticed it, but in nearly any song that people like, there are changes in tension that make people sit up and remember "oh, that's right, I'm listening to music".

Overall: Score of 6/10. Major reasons for the score are the lack of syncopation and lack of 'life' in the piece - the 2-dimensional feel of it.

[Hacked]

Hi.

The Good:
-Cool idea, nice use of vocaloid.
-I recognize that phaser preset at 0:34 (singing whales), good way to transition. :)
-Melodic sections are sweet, I like the harmonic lines along with the melody.
-Transitions are nice overall, including the ending. Thanks for that. :)

The Not-So-Good:
-This is hella repetitive, and honestly gets kinda boring when there's barely any change in the background or the monotone number recitation for about a minute straight, which happens several times. Even SOME melody or at least a change in background would have been nice.
-The key changes at 1:40 and 1:54 are honestly extremely cliche and make me personally dislike the track more. If someone is going to do a key change, it really should be accompanied by something different rather than just shifting everything up.

Overall: Score of 6/10. There are some really cool parts which are awesome, but the repetition and cliche key changes REALLY killed it for me.

[Denouement]

Hi.

The Good:
-Instrument quality is good. Mixing quality is fairly good.
-I particularly like the bass you introduce at 1:04.
-I also particularly like the brass and clanking at about 2:26.

The Not-So-Good:
-Some weird sample clipping at about 0:04 and similar in the horns.
-Like most of the cinematic pieces of this round, this suffers from a lack of direction and thematic composition.
-Unfortunately, the mixing also suffers in that the instruments are pushed back. Things don't stick out.

Overall: Score of 7/10. This is a cool piece, but it really lacks direction, and there are strange aspects to the samples which cause weird audio glitches. Also, flat mixing is meh.

Wolftacular responds:

Ooh, I heavily disagree with the lack of direction! Thanks for listening!

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realize you were an NGADM judge. This requires a hell of a lot more fight.

The sample thing is very true. Unfortunately my orchestral pack wasn't built for long sustains so I had to try fiddling with it on my own, but with 1 different sample for every key, and around 5 different instruments from that same pack, I honestly couldn't do anything more than what I did. Might be surprising to hear that it sounds a lot better than it did before the "fix". So this, you're very right about.

The "lack of direction and thematic composition" as well as the mixing, however, are two things I HEAAAVILY disagree with, and if it's not a sin to suggest so, I think you're very wrong in both. Well, I don't think, I know, simply because this piece IS very theme-based. The song tells a story that I worked with through the whole thing. You could argue that I do a bad job at it, or that the message got lost in translation, but I do honestly think you simply did not catch and/or understand it. This is also why I brought up the direction and mixing together; the "flat" mixing goes hand in hand with the story that this song is telling.

Normally, I would let this all go as simply a difference in taste, since we could argue back and forth forever about whether it's me who sucks or you who couldn't catch the narration, and in the end realize it's just our own preferences clashing. You're a judge though, and I'd expect a lot more analysis than the one I feel you provided, as well as a bit less bias. My song isn't trying to be likable, much less appeal to what the judges might favor, but that doesn't mean it's tasteless or aimlessly wandering.

All that being said, I appreciate the time taken to listen and review my song.

[Among Ancient Ages]

Hi.

The Good:
-Pitch slides are cooool. I like them. ^_^
-Mixing quality is fairly good, everything works out fine.

The Not-So-Good:
-Your instruments sound very soundfonty, and I hear edirol in there.
-The piece mainly flatlines after the introduction. There's not much variation in the mood, and the dynamics don't really change.
-The ending is pretty meh, I don't like it much. Not really sure

Overall: Score of 6.8/10. Main issues were the low quality instruments and the flatlining of the piece overall.

[Sons of Valhall]

Hi.

The Good:
-The introduction to this is quite nice, I like how you finally have more bass in this with the drums.
-All your instruments are high-quality samples, I particularly like your choirs and the chants toward the middle.
-Your composition is through the roof, as usual.
-Ending is good. Intro is good. Transitions are good. How do you composition so good so quickly.

The Not-So-Good:
-With all these instruments comes mud. A lot of the sounds are fairly buried and difficult to hear, such as the harp gliss at 0:52 and the choir after that.
-1:17 Dat commonly-used string slide. Also fairly buried.
-The bass drum is booming a little bit too much IMO, try having a few more breaks with it.
-I normally look forward to hearing all your little motifs and themes that you display throughout a piece, but I don't hear them in here, it's more... generic cinematic. :(
-Thunder is drowned out in the ending.

Overall: Score of 8.6/10. Mixing hurt you bad here. I don't think there's much else to say.

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot skye! Its right that a lot of sounds are burried and difficult to hear ... i had massive problems with the mixing ... hope i will get better and more experienced soon! Another big problem was that i could use my software just 2 days before the deadline because i used logic in 32 bit mode without having noticed that. So the system always crashed because of lacking ram ... After i have seen that the 64 bit mode has to be activated manually ... :D

Thanks for your review and see you next round!

[I Feel]

Hi.

The Good:
-Those are some nice delayed effects at the beginning. I'm also enjoying the overall atmosphere.
-Great ambient effects throughout, actually.
-Sound design and mixing are sweeeeeeet.

The Not-So-Good:
-I think the introduction was a tad bit long, there wasn't enough to keep me interested.
-Wondering where the main melody is by 2 minutes in, the only thing that 'could' be called a melody repeats too much and sounds quite a bit like background.
-Sections seem to drag on for too long with a lot of repetition, a lot of repetition, like run-on sentences that keep going, and keep going, and keep going.
-Transition at 3:19 is sudden.
-The ending is bleh. I do not like it, very anti-climactic, you could have done this a lot better.

Overall: Score of 7.2/10. This is honestly pretty darn good, I like it a lot. The atmosphere is well-done, and the effects are sweeeeeeeet. That said, this suffers mainly from repetition and overly long sections, which makes it notably more boring.

InvisibleObserver responds:

3:19 was me cutting my losses with some post production effects. I felt the quick change was still solidly in time, and better then exporting a rather choppy incomplete effect-doo-dizzle.

Yay mixing/sound design, was able to mix this guy cleaner than round 1.

The structure is long in a trancy-ish way but the content is very not trancy at all. I think I could have handled arrangement and structure much better.

Ending - time constraints, I'll certainly be tuning up it, aswell as other above mentioned bits for later on album work.

Thanks for the time and words! Good job on not buttering up the cons. Keep them honest. <3

[Can't Express Myself]

Hi.

The Good:
-If you played this yourself, it's very nice playing.
-Mixing is obviously going to be fine considering only one instrument.

The Not-So-Good:
-Well, I know where you got the piano sample. 's not that good, but I won't comment further.
-This sounds a lot like random improvisation with some general ideas in the background.

Overall: Score of 6/10. Having more cohesion in this and more compositional elements would be good. Also, how did this take you one month when you only had two weeks. Do you have a time machine or something, because if so I want to try it.

[Draesdne Adaas]

Hi.

The Good:
-Tubular Bell VST. :3
-I like the various melodies you have here.
-Instruments are good as always, mixing is clean.

The Not-So-Good:
-Mixing gets a tad bit muddy at times, but not much.
-Would be nice to have more consistent ideas as well as a theme which recurrs at least once, but you know this from me, I support composition that works for more than soundtracks.

Overall: Score of 8.4/10. Without getting too nitpicky, those are my comments. I think you and Bosa can do better than this. :(

samulis responds:

You didn't read the "this was just me" part, did you?

Oh boy... what am I going to do with you Skye... Thanks for the feedback, Mr. Use Forms. ;)

[Memories of a Forgotten Land]

Hi.

The Good:
-Dat violin. I've always loved realistic violins.
-The realism in the harp is good as well.
-Depicts the mood quite well.

The Not-So-Good:
-Where's the main theme? It seems that this is meant to go along with a story or animation... wtihout the story or animation for it to be the background to.

Overall: Score of 8.5/10. Man, I'm trying to not get nitpicky in these reviews, but aside from that one general problem the only thing I could do is get nitpicky. If you're forcing me to get nitpicky though, then at that point your piece is 9/10 quality and up. I think you can do it. Go for it!

MichaelJ responds:

I'm not sure what you mean by "where's the main theme?"
The story is for you to interpret as you listen. Try closing your eyes! :)
Thanks for the review!