SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[What's Ahead (NGADM 1)]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-Okay, your composition is wonderful, and you have an obvious talent for that.
-I love the organ and the carefully crafted background behind it, it truly does fit the atmosphere for your 'story'.
-The flute and pizzicato sound wonderful.

The Not-So-Good: "I bet they'll say "Percussion! Reverb!" =P"
-Well, since you apparently want it... Percussion! Reverb! :D Honestly though, you're half right about that. I'll go for the percussion first - There's really a lack of it in the song. While it's not REALLY needed, it definitely would have been nice to have more. The snare I hear starting at 0:38 would have been wonderful if it had been brought out with a few more rolls and flourishes, and a big bass drum thumping away would have been nice too, though alternatively you could have had a kick sounding more like a heartbeat to increase tension.
-Now, "Reverb!" No, just kidding. The reverb is actually fine IMO. However, instead, I'm poking at the other EXTREMELY problematic thing - the mixing. Your composition on this is awesome, but I can't hear it! D: Honestly, I have to REALLY strain to hear anything. Remember, many instruments together will have clashing frequencies. Try using a spectrometer and a parametric EQ to lower the frequencies that are loudest in all of them. The spectrometer can help with finding these frequencies. Also, you can use a compressor to take out really high annoying frequencies, though for orchestral music DON'T USE MAKE-UP GAIN.

Overall: I don't have much to say about this, actually (even though I typed a ridiculous amount there). There are only two problems I can really comment about, though if the mixing were fixed I'd undoubtedly have more. Unfortunately, the extremely poor mixing kills the great composition, and so I'm going to have to give this a 4/10.

CheckeredZebra responds:

That's fair enough! Everything I've done here is basically self taught, including the software itself. I've read step's review and now know what to at least LOOK for. I've always had trouble with volume, heheh.

Thanks for this, it was pretty helpful, and paired with the other review here I can definitely -attempt- to solve some of these issues. That's a lot to step up on in only two weeks, though. =P

EDIT: Also, all those rolls are done manually. Literally as SOON AS I SUBMITTED I found exactly what I wanted. Ohwell, until next time. xD

[Zebra Tangerine {7x}]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-Oh my god that intro. So good. So very very good. Seriously, it's amazing. The pads compliment the guitar *so well*. And the pads themselves are godly.
-Your guitar playing is definitely not bad, particularly for someone being new. Of course, that's just the opinion of someone who doesn't play the guitar, but still.

The Not-So-Good:
-First, the buildup could have been so much more. Since you were going for the rock track, the buildup could have lasted a bit longer and started meshing together with the main part in a cleaner way.
-The drums are pretty nasty. The high hat is too loud, and meanwhile, the snare and kick are too quiet, too far back in the mix. The toms are awesome though.
-The outro is a bit too quick, definitely sounds like you ran out of time. Were you designing that pad in the intro?
-No tune in the more upbeat section, it's really just plain harmony.

Overall: That intro was amazing, and if you made an entire ambient track off it, I'd probably rate that pretty highly. As-is, the middle REALLY killed it. So I'm going to have to give it a 6.8/10. Also, Zebra Tangerines sounds like an awesome name for a music artist or band.

EbonHawk7X responds:

Yeah, I felt pretty bad about turning it into a rock/orchestra cookie cutter track but I was in a bit of a creative rut, and with my time running out it was as good as I could do. The pads only required very minor tweaking from a nice preset I found in Alchemy, most of the time put into the song was just listening to the nice sounding intro and recording the guitar, haha. I really do appreciate this great review, thank you!

[Clicky]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-...this song is adorable and very relaxing. I have to say, I really liked the atmosphere you made.
-All the clicky sound effects that I have to assume are the song's namesake sound really cool.
-There are a lot of ambient melodies that fit in with the background chords and melody. They're very nice and as I said, relaxing.
-No problem with the mixing.
-The velocity changes are really cool.

The Not-So-Good:
-No variation in the background melody, or really the melodies going along with it. Actually, there's almost no variation at all in the feel of the song or the different melodies. They could probably be arranged in almost any order and I wouldn't have noticed much of a difference.

Overall: To tell the truth, the only issue I really had with the song at all was the repetition of it. However, that is a *huge* problem. As short as the song is, it could normally get away with it, and I can see that if you had more time you could produce something extraordinarily amazing. But I'm sorry, in the competition, it falls short of Camoshark's song. I'll give it a 6.5/10, mainly for the extremely nice calming atmosphere it gives off.

TheBenjerman responds:

Thanks for the official review good sir!

[Chemicals [NGADM]]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-Okay, first of all, nice phasers or flangers or whatever the heck on the drum for the intro, definitely fits with "Chemicals". Speaking of which, that drumkit is nice, clean, and fits well.
-Your guitars are really well-done, you obviously have talent.
-That is some really nice voice work, particularly since you only had 2 weeks.
-Overall, the feel of the song is amazing and constantly changes. Managing to keep me interested for the full 6 and a half minutes is quite a feat.
-Ooh, nice usage of a different division of beats at 1:00, it really, REALLY threw me for a loop when I first tried to count it before I figured out "oh, you actually stayed in 4/4".
-Vocal chopping at 2:28. Or whatever the heck you call it, I can't remember. It sounds great.

The Not-So-Good:
-Pretty much the biggest thing I noticed was the kick causing mixing at around 3:30 onward. Might want to bring down the lower frequencies a bit or cut out any reverb you have on the kick. This REALLY kills things at 5:18-5:30 when you have the kick rolls.
-A few transitions are a bit awkward, like the one at 1:28-1:36. Really threw me for a loop there.
-...you have this amazing song and then use a fadeout for an outro. WHY. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS. D:

Overall: Oh my god I am seriously impressed. This is definitely the best submission in this round, a lot of people seemed to not have tried very hard, but your effort clearly shows in this. Incredible job. For your effort I'll give you a 9.5/10, the best score this round. Honestly, somebody's going to have to pull a miracle out to beat that.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thanks for the detailed review! I want to enter in every contest to get awesome feedback like this. Goodness!

Yup, it's a flanger for a little bit. part is ugly so flangerdrums. I use Addictive Drums, with a tweaked kit. it rox
Nice catch on the beat division! I just stack two simple meters when I can't think of a cool drum beat.

Thanks for helpin me fix my kick compression problem. I didn't know to take out some lower frequencies, but now that I think about it, it would work. Thankyouthankyou

Also, that's my least favorite transition too LOL. sometimes I think I'm dream theater and can do that but I can't. I tried to compensate with a really quiet pick slide that doesn't have a lot of presence but is still in the mix for some reason.

I'm absolutely flattered you can cl this the best submission in this round. Thank you for your great review, useful criticism, and kind words.

[Dayum (NGADM)]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-Your instruments are actually pretty good. A bit too much distortion for my tastes, but still.
-Oh man, that chording. Clever.
-The dubstep wobbles are pretty well-made. And it actually is dubstep - the bass makes up the tune.
-CHOIRZ. I LOVE these in this song. ...probably because it's the only instrument that's not distorted or harsh. It's nice to have some lotion after being rubbed in gravel at noon for five minutes.

The Not-So-Good:
-Okay, you probably know this. This song is repetitive to an extreme degree. I am not impressed by this. It really, really needs some other melodies and ideas, even if it's not the bass making them.
-Eventually the distortion on most of the instruments started hurting my ears. It would have been nice if you had a calmer section - that also would have helped the repetitiveness of the song a lot as well.
-The transition at 4:16-4:21 could have been done a lot better.

Overall: It's pretty meh to me. Not much variation, DEFINITELY not in the overall feel of the song. Also, and this may be a personal thing, but there's just too much distortion. I don't want bleeding ears. :( From everything I've said, I'll have to give this song a 6/10.

[Flashbacks]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-First, I love that percussion you have before the drumkit.
-Second, I love ambient guitar, so thanks for that.
-Don't really hear any mixing issues.

The Not-So-Good:
-The bass initially is really hard to hear, and stays difficult to hear, mainly due to the bassy element of the pad you have.
-I don't like the drumkit loop you used, it's fairly boring.
-There doesn't seem to be any real 'idea' in mind for this, and the chords stay the same throughout, so it's rather boring.

Overall: I'm really disappointed, to tell the truth. Your audition song was REALLY good. This is pretty meh in comparison. I'm giving it a 6.8/10 because the percussion and ambient guitar is good.

[Floating Through Reality]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-Holy crap this is REALLY chilled and minimalistic. I love all the different SFX and percussion you have in this (particularly the breathing sounds), as well as all the instruments.
-The different effects you have on all the instruments are really nice.
-The mix is good, though with so few sounds in it, that's probably not very difficult.
-Your outro is sweeeeeeeeet. ^_^

The Not-So-Good:
-There's really not much I can say other than this: This song is waaaaaaaaaay too underdeveloped. There's pretty much nothing other than FX, and not really any variation at all either.

Overall: This is really chill. I'd have loved to listen to this even more if it were longer and more varied. Sadly though, it's not, so I'll have to give it a 6.3/10.

[Focused Noise (NGADM '12)]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-Your guitar playing is pretty nice.
-Holy crap the compression is insane, and there's no clipping. Nice!

The Not-So-Good: Sorry for having more to say on this, the song certainly isn't badly made. There's just more I can talk about here!
-Just about all of your transitions are awkward and off-beat, I'm sorry to say. They're quite sudden and jarring.
-You are thrashing that guitar so hard that it's about to die. And you don't really stop at all throughout the whole song.
-This desperately needs a change in feel and idea. The whole thing could be condensed into about 2-3 minutes and sound just as good.
-No instruments other than guitars and drums? I am disappointed at this.

Overall: It's well-made, but not too well-done overall. You've essentially taken the guitar and whacked it for 4 minutes with a flail and mace, then added distortion and called it done. At least, that's kinda what it sounds like. Would be great if it had variation. Overall, I'm giving this a 6.5/10.

Demon-Slayer12 responds:

You're right man, these aren't my most original riffs I must say. And I probably should made it about 2 min, although I don't find 4 min long anymore. I listen to a lot of progressive music, where songs are never less than 5 min haha, and I love listening to 20 min songs. But, I agree, this is my most polished recording, but least interesting. But how can you not snap your neck headbanging to riff at 2:08? I honestly think that this song would be an awesome metal song with vocals. You have to be a metalhead to really appreciate what I do. I can't stand electronic music, so the only other instruments I would add other than guitar or bass (there was a bass track on there), are string synths or choir ahs. I do like some keyboards if it fits with the music, however I'm not great at playing keyboards haha. I know the transitions are a bit weird, but I did that on purpose. I've listened to many songs and thought there was weird stuff, but after listening a few times it made more sense, but that being more progressive music obviously haha. Thanks for taking the time to do a thorough review, cheers!

[Hymn To The Fallen]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-You have very nice instruments, as EWQL generally promises.
-Harmonies are spot-on and very well-done.
-I like your use of dynamic range.
-Nice mixing, man!

The Not-So-Good:
-First, the outro is a tad disappointing. There's a reiteration of the main melody (and yes, I noticed what apparently inspired that, I'll get to that point), but then it pretty much just ends in a way that sounds like you didn't bother to put in a good ending.
-Second, yes, I noticed the melody is extraordinarily similar to the melody of Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter. I'm not going to take points off from this, but just a note, it *would* be a good idea to make the melodies a bit more original.
-The overall feel of this rarely ever changes. You may want to try having a B section, though as this is apparently more of a movie score, I can see why you wouldn't do that. Unfortunately, to make it a standalone song, it *needs* more of a change.

Overall: This sounds really good, I like all the little compositional flairs in it that make it sound *quite* professional. Overall, I'll give this a 7.5/10.

[Impromptu - Spring]

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-THAT is some great piano playing particularly for what is apparently more of an improv. As a pianist for 9-10 years, I can definitely say that.
-I like the slow and subtle strings in the background for most of the song, keeping the chords steady.
-Oh my god I love the last little piano flair in the end.

The Not-So-Good:
-Even though this is an improv and you do it wonderfully, I still have to say this. There are a few awkward changes where it sounded like you weren't quite sure about what you were playing and scrambled somewhat to go back.
-Slight mixing issue when the timpani comes in the second time, sounds as if it's between the timpani and cymbal roll.
-Speaking of that, the dramatic orchestral part right at the very end seems a bit awkward when there was pretty much none of that except for very subtle strings beneath everything for most of the song. Would have been better if the orchestral section had either been extended a bit, it had been there more in the beginning, or it had been cut out, just leaving the strings behind (which could then rise dramatically).

Overall: I liked this. A LOT. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a pianist and love piano music, but damn, this is good for some improv piano. The points against it are very minor compared to how good it is overall, so I'm going to go and give this a 9.2/10.

Oh yeah, also. SCTE3, this is also coming from the RRC, kay? :D