SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Insurgent [MSB] (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:
-Man, that's a good intro.
-You have some pretty awesome effects in there, and they sound, quite frankly, epic.
-Props for recording your own vocals.
-The dubstep part is very very good for dubstep.

The Not-So-Good:
-Unfortunately, this falls into the common failing of dubstep. It's extremely repetitive. There's the intro, the first drop and dubstep section, a short break from the dubstep wobbles, then it jumps right back into another drop and dubstep section that's pretty much the same as the first one, then an outro. The middle section isn't really a break since it's only about 15-20 seconds.
-Speaking of the outro, that was a bit disappointing. Would have been better if you just let the filter finish its slow drop rather than bringing everything back up suddenly. I give you credit for trying something new, but it didn't work.
-That "whaa" sound, while nice initially, got REALLY annoying eventually.

Overall: Honestly, compared to most dubstep, I REALLY liked this. It was very well-made, had a varied wobble section, and sounded... well, actually, a lot better than KirbyFemur or LiquidOoze's tracks with regard to harshness on the ears. I would highly suggest you make it less repetitive though, and less concentrated chaos. While that's good in small doses, having a section where people can really calm down before it comes back would be good. 15-20 seconds isn't enough. All things considered, I'll give this a 7/10.

[Isis]

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:
-Ooh, that's a really cool atmosphere you have. The echoes on the more percussive bell-like instrument as well as the panning help this a ton.
-The strings are also quite nice.
-Your mixing is well-done.
-The harmonies in your music are all quite creative.

The Not-So-Good:
-Your percussion never changes! >:(
-Unfortunately, the entire feel of your song is about the same as your percussion. It *never* changes. RampantMusik's song at least had SOME variation in the feel.
-You only really have quarter notes in your song aside from the background chords. As easy as it makes this song to nod my head to, you should actually have a few other kinds of notes. Otherwise it does make the song a lot more boring overall.

Overall: This song is actually really, really nice. It is not composed as well as RampantMusik's, but the feel of it is so much more appealing overall, even if it never changes. I am going to give this a 7.7 because I think it very slightly edges out RampantMusik's. However, this is VERY slight, and you really should work on giving a bit more variation in your music.

BenTibbetts responds:

Hi SkyeWintrest, thank you for taking the time to listen and review this track for NGDAM!

[-*}CaSH{*- King Benjerman]

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:
-Very nice mixing.
-I particularly liked some of the harmonies you used, very jazzy.
-The little trills on your mallet instruments were very cute and certainly helped to add to the atmosphere.
-There is a full story in your song, and you managed to bring it back to the beginning. Nice compositional form!
-For such a long song, you kept it from being repetitive (mostly) and managed to keep my interest throughout.
-I love the harp glissandos you have going off the end of some phrases in the beginning.
-Lovely piano arpeggio at 2:01-2:03.

The Not-So-Good:
-First, the awkward melodies. Some appear to be meandering, or feel as if they "got lost", then quickly scrambled to get back to normal. The main spot I noticed this was at 0:26-40. In the first of those phrases, it seems as if the sole reason it redid a bit of the melody was to allow for the other solo at 0:29-0:31. This applies in the end section where it does the same thing.
-Second, the big issue. Repetition. The beginning and end sections are perfectly fine here. However, from 1:10 to 1:49, there is no change in melody at all. I know that you're adding instruments in the background, but that is a common problem of trance/dance music. There needs to be more variation. One possible thing is having the top note go up a half-step every once in a while rather than simply playing one note rhythmically. This can also increase the tension.
-The other area where repetition is a problem is from around 2:34-4:10. There is essentially only one melody, albeit with good chords behind it. But as I said, the problem is repetition - however good a 13-second melody (and chord sequence) is, it will get boring if played over and over for about a minute and half without any variation other than introducing/taking out instruments.
-There are a few tiny issues with the cymbals at around 4:19-4:32. Seems as if it's a mixing error - they are making the 'shivering' sound that can happen in mixing.
-Alright, I only have one last thing to poke at, and that is the outro. While the rising thirds sound really great as a buildup, the actual end is very sudden and sounds quite a bit different in style from the buildup right before it.

Overall: It's good, with some compositional problems. Unfortunately, the main issue (repetition) fills up roughly half the song, not using the conservative "this is when it becomes clear" times in the section I had pointed it out in. The positives of the song do, fortunately, keep the score up there. As a result, the final score I'll give for this is 7.6/10.

[King Bosa]

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:
-Lovely melodies.
-Really well-done staccato strings at around 1:06.
-I like how you slowed the tempo down to reach 1:40.

The Not-So-Good:
-Many of the melodies are meandering and 'meshing'. 0:40 is a point where the phrase just seems to continue awkwardly for no reason.
-The pause at 1:01-1:05 is very odd, there's barely any buildup before the explosion at 1:06.
-The end of the song seems as if it's at 1:54. After that, since you seem to have gone for a more dramatic ending, it really needs to have MORE drama. Percussion would have worked well.
-Speaking of percussion, where is it? All I've heard that's very audible is the tubular bell and some cymbals, no snare, bass, or toms. As awesome as tubular bells and crashes are, it feels like you need a bit more.

Overall: It's alright. Kind of boring without the percussion in there to back up the melodies. Unfortunately, I don't have a ton to say - songs that are this meandering are fairly difficult to review well. The score I'll give it is a 7/10.

samulis responds:

Because the lack of percussion is such a large thing, I'll put forward my two cents with my response to yours since I know you're going to read this and write a message to me about this. :P

All in all, I generally dislike bringing in large amounts of percussion in an emotional song because they can cut up the expression and ruin the effect of "loss" created by said rambling melodies (yes, the rambling melodies are intentional). I honestly could see a way to bring in bass drum as helping up the timpani, but a snare would probably give the piece a harsh militaristic sound. Perhaps I could bring it in during the 7/8, but I would need to find a way to introduce and remove it. Toms might work in the 7/8. At best, anvils would be next on my list to add because they could augment the tubular bells in the 7/8 with a harsher, darker feel. I will agree that I mastered the timpani too quiet.

Might I summarize by saying- I am sorry I don't listen to hard rock with drum kits that blast your ears off. :3

I think I should do a study on drums... last time I did that everyone told me it sucked. XD

If I work on this more, I will do more of a buildup at 1:01... perhaps get a cymbal in there and make a roll there.

Thanks for the review!
-Samulis

[King Samulis]

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:
-Nice choir in there! I do wonder where you got it, however.
-Okay, your percussion is great. Very great. I particularly like how you included what sounds kind of like a drum kit in the second half.
-Your instruments are good quality, and the way you use them is quite nice as well.

The Not-So-Good:
-First of all, the mixing. In several areas, there was noticeable distortion (areas: 0:00-0:08, around 0:24, around 0:33, 1:03-1:17), most likely due to frequencies that were overly loud. You might want to lower the volume of some instruments or equalize them.
-The transition at 0:57-1:03 is rather awkward, there's too long a pause before the next part. I AM glad that you gave a clear indication that 'this is a new section'. However, an actual section in between that transitioned would be very good.
-Many of your melodies have the same issue as Samulis (Since you both make extremely similar meandering movie music) - they're too meandering. Keep an idea and use it more than once toward the beginning and end, this will give more formatting to your song and let people 'latch onto' something.
-The horn line at 0:36 and 0:38, doing the trills, is a bit awkward. The samples it sounds like you used are too slow for the trills to be clean, so they come out quite messy and indistinct.

Overall: This is good, and I'd have to say it's slightly better than Samulis' song (mainly because of the unique choirs), though you definitely need to fix the mixing and meandering. As I said to Samulis - I can't say *too* much to songs with meandering melodies. They're a tad harder to review, particularly if without the meandering it's generally very good as this is. I will give this song a 7.3/10.

[XS - Leaving (Audio DM 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:
-You have some nice harmonies in there with the piano.
-I like the instrument that comes in at around 1:52-2:17.
-Mixing's fine.

The Not-So-Good:
-First giant thing. That intro. I'm sorry, it's pretty crappy. As a pianist, it hurt to hear that extremely robotic piano banging. It would have been slightly better if instead of fading in the volume, you faded in the velocity, but it really could use some more effort overall.
-Actually, to tell the truth, it would have been great if you changed the velocity on the piano at some point, period.
-The bass is a bit too big and 'blobby'in the middle.
-There's not really any variation, and the song just sounds like it's flatlining the whole way through. :(

Overall: I'm REALLY disappointed. I've heard some of your other music, and it was way better than this. You could have done way better, even for a short amount of time. I give it a 4/10.

[Mass Extinction]

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, this sounds really cool already. I love the solo strings initially, it's difficult to make solo violins sound good.
-Great watch effect at 1:42.
-Nice pizzicato and snare.
-I LOVE the bass slides at 3:14 onward.
-You have some really, really nice transitions here, they fit so well - and I rarely comment on transitions except if they're not that good. :)

The Not-So-Good:
-Sometimes this gets really repetitive, particularly after 3:14 until about 4 minutes in.
-There doesn't seem to be too much of a theme for this - it just keeps going and changing. I would have liked some more reiteration of a previous section.
-Bass frequencies hurt a bit at 1:34 while they come up through the filter.
-Right after the bass frequencies that hurt, the high frequencies are really, REALLY loud until 2:21, and also hurt quite a bit.
-No real outro.

Overall: This is sweet, definitely one of the best submissions this round. As a result, I'm giving it a 8.5/10. You can do better, I'm sure!

RetromanOMG responds:

Thanks for the review. I agree with a lot of the things you pointed out in this song. It's pretty repetitive, since I worked on the drums first and then tried to make something to go with it. As a result, there are only about 5 or 6 strings patterns that I use in this song, with 4 in particular making most of the song.

As for the lack of an outro, I completely forgot to put it in, so what you end up with is just a gradual dropout of patterns.

The frequency problems, however, I can't speak for. The headset I used in this song is very cheap, and I didn't pick up much outside of the midrange. So, there are frequency issues that I simply cannot detect, and I'm glad that you guys could for me.

Thank you again.

[Outside the Atmosphere]

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:
-I like all the melodies you have with the piano, as well as the strings. The electronic aspects of it helped as well, making it more interesting.
-Mixing's fine by me.

The Not-So-Good:
-You really, really, really, really, really need more variation if this is going to be 6 minutes long. Not just talking about the variation of the feel or the instruments or tune, but also the velocity on the piano. It sounds really unnatural.
-Holy crap at 3:35-4:00. Really really out-of-place insane arpeggios that really don't mix well with the drums.
-The drums sound like crap. I'm sorry, but they really aren't very good - they're also out-of-place with the kind of song it is.
-Total. Copout. Fadeout. Outro. No.

Overall: Meh. It's just kinda there. About as flat as Jimmypig's song, though it does have a bit more variation. Could use some variation in the piano and feel of the song. Overall, I'm giving this a 5.5/10.

OpenLight responds:

The reason this might've seen less-than-great is because it doesn't vary. This was intentional, though I should have figured most people would've liked it. Ultimately, I made a song that expressed what I felt at the time and that I liked listening to in a less excited mood.

Thanks for the review!

[Propter Te]

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 of all, that's a great piano part.
-I like the bass slide at 0:11.
-Your vocals are pretty nice. I may not know french, but I do like the actual vocals.
-The electric guitar coming up at 2:11 is pretty awesome.

The Not-So-Good: Since you uploaded a new version on the 18th, which is *not good* since this is the judging period of the songs and the round isn't technically over, I am going to use the feedback I originally had, and will lower your score slightly.
-At 3:52 - the key change could definitely use some improvement.
-3:11 is somewhat disorienting and doesn't regain the strength it had before until around 3:33.
-I can barely hear the background guitar playing chords.
-The end could be improved drastically. Try having the piano play out since it's doing a solo there and have a true 'end' sound.
-4:35-4:42 Random panning to the left?
-The singing is obviously cut out of another part and chopped out at 4:22 with the "wha!" sound.
-Ew, FL Slayer. Some of the FL defaults sound good. FL Slayer doesn't. Try getting some soundfonts and putting effects on them, they can actually sound decent if used right.

Overall: I'm giving this a 7.2/10, mainly because of the issues and partially because of you updating the sound file in the middle of the judging period.

[Recalcitrate [WIP]]

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:
-I love all your spacey effects and instruments, I'm really a sucker for that kind of thing.
-The drums are great.
-The middle section where things calm down is really nice, would be great if it were a bit calmer and quieter, though that's not strictly necessary.
-Hey, I'm no mixing master, but it seemed to be mixed fine to me overall. No clipping I can hear or anything.
-Okay, your transitions are REALLY nice. I normally don't comment on this unless they're bad, so that's a giant thumbs-up from me.

The Not-So-Good:
-Overall, the song is pretty much the same kind of thing the whole way through. Spacey trance. Unfortunately, that takes priority over a lot. This could have been more well-composed.
-Not really much bass at all, though I'm guessing you did that to leave the kick a nice buffer for mixing purposes. Or I could just be taking a random guess. But honestly, there really could be a more audible bass like what I hear in the beginning, it's pretty much drowned out the whole way through.
-Occasionally the kick seems 'delayed' from the sample, which gives me a weird off-beat feel that doesn't fit with the style of song.

Overall: I liked this, but the lack of a good bass and the repetitiveness of it does hurt the song. It is a very nice song though, so if you improved the mixing a bit and introduced more variation in the feel and ideas of your music, you'd have some really good stuff on your hands. I'll give this a 7/10.