SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Retro ( NGUAC Contest Tryout Song )]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Okay, this took a little bit to build into something really neat-sounding, as the initial loop sounded a tad odd on it's own and the initial chords felt a tad off as well... but I think the main problem here is that it's audibly constructed ENTIRELY out of loops. I can't even hear a single one-shot sample for transitions or anything written independently of these loops that, as you have mentioned in the description, are premade samples. This explains why things sound a bit off harmonically, why the syncopated rhythms don't quite fit together, and especially why this track is so repetitive. Right now, while you did the production on top of these sampled stems, there isn't actually much of a personal touch. Even some one-shot white noise sweeps, filter sweeps, or similar would help with transitions, especially the VERY rough transition in the bass at 1:17. Note that the transition at 2:28, while sudden, is smoother due to the filter change.

- Secondly, let's look the more intense section starting at 1:35. This section, and particularly around 1:48 and onwards, some of the sounds really clash. The chords and bass in particular seem to be using some of the same lower mid frequencies, which isn't improved by the addition of more sounds. There's some of this as a minor issue between the other bass and the same chords, but it tends to be a little less of an issue due to the tone of this bass.

Compliments to the Composer:

- There's nothing wrong with using loops. This is fairly well mixed together, a lot of these loops are really nice, and the track really grooves! The reason I've been criticizing it, and the thing I'd like to compliment you on, is that you have a good sense of how to fit sounds together to create a "vibe" that feels good to listen to. I think that it could be even better with some additional personal touch in the form of melodies, chopping some of the chords and fitting them together more uniquely, and adding transitions. Then, you can use your choice selection of loops to make some super chill jazzy grooves. I'd love to hear you develop this tone.

Final score: 6.5

[X3LL3N - Higher (Mestrix Remix)]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Alrighty, if I have one major criticism about this piece, it's to do with the arrangement. Every single section of this track is really well-done. They're professionally mixed, mastered, everything harmonizes well, the sound palettes fit, etc. However, this track feels like a loose collection of ideas (three different genre drops in a row) based on the same couple of melodies and an unchanging chord progression to tie it together, with excellent transitions between them. There's nothing WRONG with this, but there are a few things that would improve it. - - Let's look at a point of comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXCM3mmgto Camellia's idea organization is top-notch, and even combining multiple genres you can learn a lot by analyzing it. First of all, both melodies used in this track are introduced one after another in the first two minutes as it prepares for the first drop. The drop itself is used to introduce multiple types of bass design using different types of syncopation, while continuing to build energy. In the break, you're reminded of the beginning and first build as it prepares to go into the second drop. That second drop uses arpeggios that were already developed in the background, before proceeding to bring back the main melody, transitioning using some earlier syncopation. After this, it drops into a short build before bringing back the same bass design as before but in a different context, finally concluding with a background melody used much of the time, and finishing with the initial piano. - - Your track has good ideas in terms of theme and variation - but what it lacks is something to REALLY tie everything together on a deeper arrangement level. For instance, you can weave the same melodies more clearly through your earlier and later drops, and perhaps even have a final drop that combines and recontextualizes the earlier ideas. You also have a lot of space in your breakdowns and builds to bring previous ideas and instrumentation back - use the same arpeggios, use the same melodies as transposed harmonic lines in the background, even conclude in your outro with the same type of sound as your introduction. There are plenty of ideas, and hopefully this gives you some for future works.

- Just as a small second thing, let's look at some small points of critique in the sound design and mixing. Most of it is fantastic, but for example, the three kicks at 0:43 have a very nasty bit of subs and odd resonance in their initial click. In comparison to the other kick sample used in the actual drop, they sound extremely out of place. Secondly, I'd recommend being a little more careful with sidechaining during your drops. It can cause some interruptions reducing the impact and clarity of chords like the end of each hypermeasure at 1:42 and 1:54, as well as several notes in the melody embellishments during the second drop such as 2:47, 2:54, 2:59, and 3:05. After those points, it might also be a good idea to make the attack of the arpeggios a bit sharper for some extra clarity and sparkle. Last of all, reigning in the high frequencies of the delay coming in at 3:41 would be excellent since they can get a bit painfully sharp. In the end though, obviously these are basically nitpicks. The track is REALLY well-produced. You clearly know what you're doing, haha!

Compliments to the Composer:

- Okay, realisticially, it's unambiguous that this is a fantastic piece of music. Like I said, it has great sound design, mixing, handles ideas well, varies things up to stay interesting throughout all of it, and nothing feels thoughtless or just thrown in "for the sake of it". I absolutely ADORE the little glitch sounds in your first drop, little bits of 'ear candy' like that are some of my favorite sounds in music tracks. You deserve a hell of a lot more attention as a musician.

Final score: 9.7 (Congrats, you're in my top three!)

MestrixMusic responds:

Really happy you enjoyed the track! Thank you so much for this opportunity, hopefully I won't let you down :)

[Legendary L - Digital Swingers]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- This grooves a LOT, and I think we can actually get it to groove harder. Right now, the actual 'drops' of this piece feel really... really empty, and I think that's because in this piece entirely, there's a severe lack of mids and especially low mids. This brings a lot more impact into the music, which can be made more groovy with some sidechaining on the steady four-on-the-floor kick. Additionally, however, I think synchronizing your main syncopated melody (the same one introduced at the start) would work much better than the altered melody in the drop right now, if it used the kick as a type of "bounce". A legato note with the kick followed by a quick and snappy end on the higher note could lend so much energy to this melody, especially when paired with bursts of lower mid pads to fill out the frequency spectrum underneath it.

- Beyond the mixing points, I find that this actually gets... surprisingly repetitive, despite the groove. Part of this is the highly homogenous sound palette. Many of the sounds are very sharp and focused on high mids, aside from the relatively weak bass and decent kick. The reverb on your pads probably doesn't help this either, as that would certainly become a bit overly intense on lower mid frequencies. However, beyond that, there's so much time put into the same ideas repeatedly without much development, no countermelodies or harmonic lines, no drumbeat working along with the melodies, and very few fills to keep things more interesting (like the one at the start of the drop, which is wonderful).

Compliments to the Composer:

- Outside of those points of critique, I do really want to say - I *love* so much of what you're doing here. I love the groovy melody, I love how bouncy and swung the feel is even if it doesn't punch as hard as it could. You have some really nice variation and I love the kind of relative emptiness in the breakdown starting at 1:18. More of this for breakdowns would be fantastic, especially if there was more content outside of it to really contrast with its sparseness.

Final score: 7

[underneath it all]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- So... "underneath it all"... is sub-bass. If there is one thing that holds this track back the most, it is the sub-bass - and specifically, how that sub-bass is too loud. I noticed when initially listening that the volume of this track was lower than it felt it should be, and there were some particularly low frequencies audible in my headphones. After downloading your track and checking it in a spectrometer, there are quite a few frequencies not just in the sub-bass region of about 30-60hz, but there were some lower than that, at around just 20hz or even LOWER. The problem with this, and having bass be too loud in general, is that it distorts the rest of the waveform. Human hearing drops off as you get into the lowest audible frequencies, and 20hz is the common lower limit to human hearing entirely. All those frequencies lower than that are 100% distortion and saturating the audio to be louder in terms of dB but not in terms of human perception. As a result, this track has decent volume... but really unexpectedly low LOUDNESS during the drops (especially the last one). After all, those arpeggios get MUCH louder after the bass stops, pretty much immediately. Otherwise, you can also master this up to -1.0dB rather than the current setting for your limiter. That can give you more space for fine detail as well.

- The second point I'd like to make as well is that your drops seem to mostly consist of a gated bass with a phaser. I think you can definitely add some more variation to this by using some FM or ring mod, perhaps even waveshaping or bitcrushing to add some more sound design development over time. By changing up your chord progression during the breakdowns (or even during the drops) in order to add more variance, even if it's just by substituting alternate chords, you can keep some additional engagement over time.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, the phaser gate bass is a really cool idea. I wish it were developed a bit more. Your overall mix outside of the excessive sub-bass frequencies is solid, and you have some grasp of development over the course of the piece, making this a really enjoyable listen.

Final score: 6.8

[Jump Drive]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- I am SO surprised that this is mastered so quietly. This is actually really solid overall, and I think it would be much better if the dynamics weren't quite as squished as they are, but also if it were mastered to around -1.0dB like most tracks. That would allow for more audible depth and detail to the sounds you use (since there would be more audible variation in volume, especially letting you have more of a break in loudness during the calmer sections). This would also include making the lyrics far more clear since the enunciation could be heard better.

- I would say as well that the... articulation and enunciation of this could use some work. The vocals are very difficult to understand since they don't stand out on TOP of the rest of the music. The pad used for the chords and harmonies throughout this track is also really... "blobby", for lack of a better word. It has a bit too long of an attack, since a lot of what helps vocals in hip-hop is the really crisp, clear, and snappy sound of the instrumental.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Man, regardless of the critique up there, this track is satisfying as heck. I really appreciate the inclusion of vocals to begin with, as they keep the track satisfying through the different sections of music. The fact that you have a really solid B section makes me enjoy this SO much more as well, and the final outro is tasteful through the slowdown, even if it's a bit basic. I really like this, and hope that you get through to the next round as I would love to hear more.

Final score: 8.2

[Mikel Battle]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- The FL Studio Pattern influence is strong here. I would highly recommend having a bit of a different chord progression and certainly a second drum & bass loop. Even in a looping, having a smaller single loop for the entire thing often results in the music getting tiring after a fairly short time period since there isn't any break or contrast to enjoy.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Really, there isn't too much to comment on. There are some nice melodies, the chord progression built on top of the bassline is decent enough, there's nothing wrong with the mixing either. It honestly feels very much like classic old flash game music, or even a bit reminiscent of old SNES games outside of the normal classics. ...or also Duck Game, the bass is pretty much identical, haha!

Final score: 6.5

[sun soldier]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and... yeah, there's no way I'm gonna be able to do the same review format here as I did with everyone else.

The thing is, this... is a very difficult track to critique due to its extremely experimental nature. After having listened to some of XoArK's work for comparison, I can say that you've essentially achieved the style you wanted to create. Since the style is so firmly intended towards atonality and fast, sporadic drum loop changes at uneven intervals, there isn't really anything to criticize in the composition as it's not based on being listenable to more than a highly specific audience. To look further into this style you may want to research atonality, or alternatively you might find some inspiration from older music genres such as serialism or even microtonal experimentation since the actual notes used don't matter, as long as they exist and repeat enough to be recognizeable as a theme.

At this point, my scoring essentially needs to come down to what I value in a piece of music. What I value tends to be harmonicity, narrative value, and clear intent in decisions made. This genre of "advanced dnb" is, evidently, intentionally fairly "random" and deliberately disregards concepts of harmonicity. I find that this results in a surprisingly bland style of music, where atonality is pushed so far with minimal contrast that it doesn't have much of any impact in the end. Similarly, the "random" shifts in drums are... interesting, but not very impactful as there isn't much of anything to cling onto there as memorable either, aside from it feeling "random", as is seemingly intended. It reminds me far too much of music that is avant-garde for its own sake rather than to serve an emotional or narrative purpose.

That said, I do appreciate the atmosphere in this, and a lot of the specific drum loops have some pretty tasty samples in them. The reverb, while perhaps a bit too intense at times, does add a lot to the atmosphere, and there's some really neat space to this track. It honestly feels like the type of theme I would find in a similarly experimental video game during a jungle-themed level.

Final score: 6.5

[watchful eye]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Okay, so, really. This track has two volumes. Low, and high. There isn't really any change, as it's extremely repetitive in structure and composition. The arpeggiator is lovely, but neither it nor the drums really vary in volume at all, with fairly minimal changes overall. This is absolutely begging for some background pads, additional rhythms in the drums than a near-perfectly straight rhythm of single beats, melody, changes to the chord progression... quite a few possibilities. In general, the reason you want variation like this is for engagement - when the music is roughly the same in feel and structure for a whole piece, it tends to lose engagement, interest, and memorability unless the sound design is absolutely stellar (in the case of genres like ambient or progressive house).

Compliments to the Composer:

- Quite frankly, there isn't too much to comment on beyond the repetition. Since there are only really two instruments (arpeggiator and drums), the mix is perfectly clean, albeit a tad loud. The drums are decent quality, and the synthesizer is perfectly reasonable.

Final score: 2.5

[Flock]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- I'm really... kinda impressed that you have a bass which is so steady and consistent that it makes a solid rectangle through almost your entire waveform. It would probably be a good idea to give it a break sometimes though, outside the second section with a different bass (even some lighter sidechaining would be neat). Which relates to this overarching point - this track is really repetitive. Hip-hop tracks often run into this issue when they don't have singing or rapping over them, where they lack much variety. In this case, the little plucky sounds repeat nearly the entire time, without much variation in the drums or chord progression at all. Without a singer/rapper, it would help this piece a ton to have some melodies, changes in chord progression, addition of new instruments to weave in and out of the track... generally, keeping it variable and engaging over the full runtime.

- Secondly, let's talk about the mixing. As it is, the drums stick out quite a bit but don't really sparkle like they're often intended to in hip hop. You can actually enhance the treble freqeuncies a tad in the snare and high hats (though careful with the hats). However, the rest of the instruments could also be a tad louder relative to the drums, especially without a singer. Lastly, this is mixed somewhat quietly in general, and it would be worth simply putting a limiter on the track as it exists now, with a threshold of -1.1dB to make sure it stays at roughly the same volume compared to other music.

Compliments to the Composer:

- So, this might be repetitive and have a few mixing improvements to make, but don't let that get you down. You have a really cool atmosphere here with those little plucky sounds, the filtered pad in the background being gated during the drum sections, and a generally chill drumbeat. This is really chill and enjoyable overall, and I'd love to hear something with more development but a similar vibe.

Final score: 7

[Divine Thunder]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Really, there are two main criticisms I have with this. First of all... to do with arrangement. This piece seems to generally be arranged as one big loop with fairly minor variation in the second rendition. This isn't that bad, but generally if you're going to have two sections of music, there should be some variation. Difference in arrangement, substitute chords in your chord progression, countermelodies, clearly different instruments playing a few parts, etc. These generally aren't too present in the second half, making it feel essentially like a loop that was made mostly for the sake of extending the audio file's length.

- I was a bit iffy on the chord progression in this track, but warmed up to it over time. The melody, on the other hand... could definitely use some work. There are a lot of emphasized dissonant notes and some rather odd phrasings. So, here are two methods you can use to improve your melodies. (1) Western classical voice leading has a decent formulaic approach that would work well: Make sure every note on a downbeat is one of your chord tones. Any non-chord tones should be embellishments and passing tones. This keeps harmony consistent and generally keeps your melodies from being dissonant. (2) Go through some of your favorite inspirations and try to write down the chords and melodies in midi. Play through them on a physical instrument or sing them if you can, to get a grasp for how they flow and feel to play. Most good melodies are designed to be playable live, and writing them out for yourself will let you really dig into how they're written and how the harmonies work with them.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Man, this reminds me so much of some of my oldest music. It feels really nostalgic for me, and that definitely makes me enjoy this a lot more. While your mix is really dense, a lot of it is just chords and some details inside ther chords, making the flood of mids not *that* bad, especially not on a casual listen. You clearly understand that it's important to have some breakdowns and pauses in the more intense sections, which is excellent. I think you'll be able to build into making music with a lot more grasp of how to achieve the dramatic boss fight themes you're working on here!

Final score: 5

JerppaXD responds:

thank you.