SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[We are now in orbit]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-You seem to be very good at taking a small theme and developing it to an absurd degree.
-VERY nice usage of reversed sounds.
-I liked the harmonies you introduced at around 0:20, though I can't help thinking they'd have been better if you had used a piano rather than the synth. Worth trying at least.
-This song is quite different from your round 1 submission in concept and feel, though
-The transition at 1:20 is really really good. I particularly like the sound effect in the background.
-*claps* Great usage of that at about 1:50 and later in the same pattern.
-I like how you used the panning of the main instruments.
-At about 3:13, oh my gosh that soundscape sounds so cool. It's also interesting that you used arpeggios that remind me of Portal 2. Wasn't expecting to remember that while listening to this.
-I REALLY like the violin sound you use. Might I ask what it is or where you got it?
-Those are some really nice string slides.

The Not-So-Good:
-I do not like the snare drum at about 1:20, though I do like the way you used it.
-Sidechaining at about 1:40 sounds super awkward and painful. Afterwards it stays painful when you reintroduce it.
-The plucks in the instrument after 2:48 sound a bit odd with the pad-like sound.
-At about 4:08 and 4:39, I applaud the attempt at a different kind of transition. Unfortunately, the delay doesn't quite work. It kinda makes me do a double-take when the transition hits a beat AFTER it sounds like it'd hit.
-Your outro is slightly eh. Not bad, but not very good either. It sounds like the one you did for your round 1 song as well - try varying it a bit.

Overall: In case you didn't tell. I really really liked this. I love how you take a small idea, then expand on it to an extraordinary amount. The main thing I'd recommend to work on is the amount of themes. While you are able to take one theme and run a marathon with it, try using two or three different themes instead, and mix them up. Try using each of them to compliment the other, and I think you'll easily have some of the best music on newgrounds. I give this a 9/10.

RetromanOMG responds:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this song. It really is something I enjoyed doing, so to get such positive feedback feels great.

The violin, as well as the woodwinds and other strings I use for this song and my previous come from Blackattackbitch's collection. It really is a great list of Soundfonts, and I do feel more people should give them a try.

That snare you were talking about...yeah. I didn't want to use the same snare for my 4-on-the-floor beat, so I pulled up something from FL's stock sounds. I could've actually put some work into making it sound good, but I chose not to, which was a mistake on my part.

It sucks that you didn't like that transition at 4:08. I really liked it, but hey, I'm not the judge here. If I were to do things differently, I probably would've maybe done an orchestral rendition of the melody I introduced at 1:23. I think that would've worked better.

That pad at 2:48 was a preset from P8 Superwave, a VST I had never used extensively before then. I understand if you didn't like it; the original version of this song before the edits had that synth in place of the orchestra and it sounded horrible after too long.

I don't know what to say about the sidechaining. I realize that it took away from a lot of the melody, but lessening it would've damaged the mix a bit. It was a tough decision to make, but I decided to let the melody take one for the team ultimately.

Again, thank you for this review. I like that you've made me think so much about my own song. With everything you've told me (and the others will tell me over the next few days), I plan to further refine my sound for Round 3.

[Supplication]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I love the jazzy feel of this, the piano chords are really done well, so are the bass slides.
-You can definitely hear the emotion, which is very good.
-The overall composition of this is great - its main quality. Also what kept your piece up last round, so good.
-Oh my god that instrument at 0:55. It is so pretty, I want it. xD

The Not-So-Good:
-I have a feeling you're going to hear this a lot. The vocals could really use some work. While yeah, I know, you don't have a good mic - you might want to bring them forward in the mix a bit. Another part of it is confidence. Sometimes it seems like you're afraid to sing the notes.
-Another thing you'll probably be hearing a lot. The song is a bit too long for the overall amount of content in it. Remember, the song shouldn't just be made to support the lyrics, there has to be enough behind it to fill the song with melodies and harmonies, rather than just chords and harmonies to bring out the singing.
-As a pianist, I am really really unhappy that the piano does (just about) nothing but chords on every quarter note. :< This is disappointing - I'd have liked the piano to actually do something more. Eventually it does a bit more, but it's mainly simply doing chords.
-The mixing seems to fall apart towards the end. This is almost impressive in a backwards way - it's not easy to have the mix fall apart with so few instruments. However, I think I know some reasons why. The reverb on the singing is part of it, you might want to try equalizing the singing before AND after you add the reverb, so that you can cut out most of the harmful frequencies before and then clean it up a bit afterwards - another part could easily be the low end of the piano. Remember to EQ out the really low frequencies you don't need on recordings - they can cause problems, ESPECIALLY with reverb. The default FL Studio pianos have some of this as well, in the low and the very highest frequencies.

Overall: This is really nice, I like the jazz influences, I like the sound of your voice (even if it isn't used as well as it could be), and I lurv that high ocarina-like instrument at 0:55. However, considering the problems with it, I'm going to have to give it a 6.8/10.

[Sinking Island]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I LOVE the percussion you introduce at the beginning.
-I really like the sliding swoopy synth at about 1:17.
-Mixing is alright by me.
-The chord progression is different from what I normally hear. It sounds pretty nice.
-The main synth sounds pretty nice, I like how it bounces all over the place - except at the beginning where it makes the whole song sound like it's vibrating.

The Not-So-Good:
-There's a weird sound toward the beginning that makes me feel like the song overall is "vibrating". And no, I'm not going to just put that down to a progressive mixing choice. It shows up later but isn't as much of a problem.
-You might want to change the drums a little bit more than you did. They're fairly repetitive.
-Transition at about 1:44 is a tad iffy. Could have been improved quite a bit.
-You may have wanted a bass in the song. If you did have one, I can't hear it.
-Chord change at around 2:35 is fairly ew. It would have been better if you changed the melody rather than just moving the chord sequence to a different base key.
-This is fairly repetitive overall. It doesn't change in feel or really much at all for most of the song - 1:45-1:50 is the only break, and it's pretty short.

Overall: This is a pretty nice song. I have to say, I like it a lot - though there are a lot of 'samey' sounds throught it and it doesn't change much. I think you should really work more on variation in your music. This is deserving of a 6.6/10 from me.

OpenLight responds:

I agree with the variation...

The problem is, last round I was told that I needed more consistency and there needed to be catchy repeated melodies. I tried that, though I don't like repeating stuff in my songs ever, and I agree with your review in the respect that it had some repetitive parts. Of course, I'm not saying that the recommendation that I should have more consistency was a bad recommendation, but it was something that it would take me a while to master with my composition style.

The sound at the beginning is the delay on the melody synth. For whatever reason, it gave me the same feel. I thought it might give it a more ethereal feel to the piece, but it wasn't intentional. I decided to keep it because the delay worked a lot better in the end and because of the whole "potentially-ethereal" feel I felt it could give.

I'm really glad you liked this song, and I honestly wish I hadn't decided to try the consistency thing on this song, but regardless, thanks for the review!

[Nice to Meet You Here]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I like how you manipulated the tempo and playing of the harp at the beginning. It honestly sounds really nice, particularly since you added little chords, making it sound almost realistic.
-I love bird sounds. ^___^ So naturally I really liked it when you brought them in. It sounded very much like a little forest area.
-It sounds like you really took into consideration the ideas I had about mixing. The frequencies didn't bump into each other and they meshed together well. Part of it is probably having less instruments, but all the same.

The Not-So-Good:
-The piano sounded like it was playing through the radio, not overly good.
-There doesn't seem to be a set 'theme' of this except in the middle.
-The strings toward the end aren't that well-done.
-The composition of this really needed a lot more work. Not much in there.

Overall: This sounds really nice, I like a lot of things in it, but there's just not that much content, and I can definitely hear the lack of time put into this. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give it a 5/10. At least you submitted though, so you get some nice reviews! :D

CheckeredZebra responds:

Woo reviews! Thanks for noticing, I tried out your tips and they worked pretty well.

And yes, sadly the main theme sound was lost because I couldn't finish the dang thing and have the actual ideas repeat as I wanted them to. Ohwell! Someday (perhaps soon) I'll finish it up.

The strings were "Oh look it's 11:55 you should probably submit this now" quality. Yep.
Glad you liked the birdsong, and I'm happy I was able to turn SOMETHING in. Hehehe.

[Midnight Lights {7x}]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I have to say, those saxophone solos are really nice.
-You use the filters fairly well, very classic DnB style.
-Those bell-like chords sound really nice.

The Not-So-Good:
-That high hat is immediately noticable and fairly annoying - too many high frequencies.
-When the bass wobbles hit in, I wasn't overly impressed. The wobbles seemed fairly awkward and not overly good.
-Unfortunately, nice as the saxophone was, it didn't work with the other instruments as well as it could have.
-Needs some more bass. The bass wobbles were more in the middle frequencies than the low ones. Could have used some thicker bass. That would have sounded a lot better.
-Fairly repetitive, it doesn't really change too much except for the first saxophone solo.
-Ew, that outro sounds pretty bad. I'd have liked it if you added in one last note on the sax so that it could ring out rather than having a delayed noise sweep.

Overall: I like it, but it seems fairly empty and uninspired to me. Not enough saxophone - not melded as well as it could have. The bass wobbles brought it down quite a bit as well. It's alright. Just not extremely good. I'll give it a 7/10.

EbonHawk7X responds:

Thank you for the helpful reviews during this competition, your critique is always appreciated and helps me to realize what needs to be improved. I feel this review was no exception and I can't contest any of the points that you have made, so I will accept them and implement the ideas in future works. Thanks for judging and taking the time to write this!

[Her Wish]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-Oh my fluffy chords. Your strings are really nice and full in this song. They're incredibly spaced-out, and really fill the mix thoroughly.
-Mixing is a lot better than in the last one. I can't really hear any distortion.
-I actually like the chord change at 1:20 a lot.
-Harmonies are really nice, and overall it sounds very nice.

The Not-So-Good:
-Sadly, even with the fullness, there's a bit of static and mixing issues. Might want to lower the mid frequencies just a tad, or put a compressor on without any makeup gain - that actually can help a LOT with fixing up the mixing of a track.
-There's really not much of any melodic structure in this. Mainly chords. It gets extremely boring throughout it without the melody.
-The choirs coming in at 1:06 is jarring to me, it's very sudden without any buildup right before it.

Overall: It sounds nice, really really fluffy and sweet, but it needs some kind of theme and melody in it - as it is, it gets boring VERY quickly. I'll give it a 6.7/10.

[Get up n' Fight (NGADM)]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I like the intro at first.
-It's pretty upbeat.
-I can't hear any large issues with the mixing.
-The piano section toward the end has got to be my favorite part of the entire song, mainly because of the break it provides from the other harsh leads.

The Not-So-Good:
-When the electric guitar-like sound comes in. Ouch. >.< That is a very painful sound to me. Unfortunately, since you use it throughout most of the song, that's VERY bad.
-The saw synth you also use is fairly painful as well.
-Much of the second half is copypasted from the first half with small differences, similar to your round 1 song only it's not COMPLETELY copypasted.
-The ending seems really awkward, especially with the sudden sound in the last second of the music.

Overall: I'm fairly disappointed in this. You fixed up the composition some, which is good - but instead, you used REALLY harsh synths that just hurt my ears and basically got really painful and annoying throughout the three and a half minute song that you made. Bit hard to appreciate the better composition when my ears are bleeding... I'm going to have to give this a 6/10 mainly because of that.

[Forest Moonlight [WIP]]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-Whoooooah holy pads, man. Those are some REALLY awesome pads you have, as well as really good ambient SFX.
-It's well-mixed, so I can hear just about everything even on sucky car speakers.
-The melodies in it are very nice, something I'd be able to remember a long time afterwards.
-I absolutely adore when the piano comes in. It's so prettyyyyyyyy- yeah, it sounds nice.

The Not-So-Good:
-That constant drumbeat gets very tiresome after it goes on for such a long time. If you make another song like this (which I really hope you do, because this is very cool), please vary the drumbeat a bit more. :<
-The constantly repeating chord progression is pretty dull, since it never changes at all.
-The mood of the song doesn't really change at all. The repeating chord progression and drumbeat contribute to this a lot.
-The main guitar sound in the beginning sounds a bit 'wobbly' due to what I think is a delay on it. It's a cool effect, but doesn't quite work for me where it's placed. Also, the guitar's melody just fades out without a particularly interesting end to its phrase, and without going much of anywhere.
-The synth at 3:37 that comes in is a tad too loud as it is. Very sudden for ambiance.

Overall: I'm a huge sucker for great pads and SFX, but even trying to be harsher than I would have to make up for that, I still think this is really good and well-made. I'll give it a 8/10.

[-*}CaSH{*- Etude]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-Ooooooooh, jazzy. Niiice. It doesn't have dissonant harmonies like some of your other songs, but also definitely doesn't have typical chords and harmonies.
-Sounds like you wrote this in... mainly 5/4? With a few other measures?

The Not-So-Good:
-Yes, the sample quality isn't overly good. However, I am going to forgive this more than I normally would due to the circumstances.
-Some of the rhythms seem very off around 0:29-0:41. The drums really help keep it together.
-The song is a tad too short to have enough content to be really good, though it stays interesting for the minute and eleven seconds that it is. ...not that that's difficult with the type of jazz you make.
-The outro is bleh. I'm sure you know this.

Overall: There's not much I can comment on in this song. It's overall really well-composed. I'm sorry about your hard drive as well. :< Hopefully you can get it back, neh? I'll give this song a 7/10. If you didn't have your hard drive stolen, I'd have given it a 5/10.

[Descent (MSB)]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-You seem to really like 'talking' instruments. They do sound very cool.
-The instrument you're using to make chords before the rise sounds like the same one you used in your round 1 song. I like it. You might want to change things up though in future songs.
-2:08 random hit. lol
-The ending is one of the better ones this round, I like it a lot more than the one in your round 1 song.

The Not-So-Good:
-The initial electronic hits in the first 4 seconds seem off-key. Could be because they're percussive, but it does throw me for a minute.
-The first bass sounds at 0:20 don't sound very good to me.
-At about 1:35, the rise there sounds very off-key.
-There's a constant chord that doesn't go away from about 2:11 onwards which gets annoying because it just doesn't stop.
-Might want to change up your drumbeat a bit. Going away from mainstream beats every once in awhile is a good thing.
-The bass toward the end is pretty annoying.

Overall: This is indeed a 'decent' piece of house work with a lot of dubsteppy elements from your other song. I've noticed that you're using a lot of the same instruments for similar things. You might want to try experimenting a bit more and trying different things with the resources available to you. Try using the 'talking' synth for chords, maybe, or make something with a smoother synth. I'll give this a 8.5/10.