SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Last Hope]

Time for you review, CloakedSoup. Open wide!

Stuff that's great:
- Clean mix, with a solid palatte of instruments.
- Nice transition from the breakdown at 0:50.

Stuff that can be improved:
- Mix is slightly thin, and can be brought out a bit more with slightly more compression. One thing that helps a lot with acoustic instruments is to initially mix them dry, then use a touch of convolution reverb on the master track to tie it together and give it a consistent background.
- The composition is lackluster. This isn't to say it's bad, it's just... not good. Here's what I mean - the melody is entirely the same rhythm without any syncopation in the first half of the piece, and the second half of the piece is primarily chord changes with single leading notes - again in a very quantized and basic rhythm.

There's actually not much to say about this piece, as it's quite short and fairly basic overall. Mainly, I think the composition could stand to be more complex and interesting, and the mix can be significantly thicker - try listening to some of PeterSatera's music to see the difference (if you can find any now).

8/10

[Self Discipline]

Stuff that's great:
- Clean mix, albiet very thin.
- Break at 2:15 is really nice, and provides a great contrast to the rest of the piece. I only wish it lasted longer!
- There are some really nice riffs throughout this, particularly after the chord shift at 4:00. Another great idea is the variation on the initial theme at 5:00.

Stuff that can be improved:
- The drum mix is particularly thin - the kick seems very high, the snare lacks almost any body, and the toms are quiet. The cymbals are pretty close, but lack depth - I think the whole drum track can be compressed harder and pushed out a bit more.
- Overall, the piece seems to go on just a bit too long and not have any part of it that really sticks out as the 'hook'. It's a lot of riffing over chords for nearly 5 and a half minutes, without too much to focus on.
- I think the guitar tone is a bit awkward as well - with the wall of chords going on throughout the piece, it really isn't thick enough to have a strong feel.

Primarily, this is a long piece with good ideas that just kinda... sits on them - it doesn't arrange them in a way that helps them pop out, and the thin mix hurts this a lot as well.

7.8/10

[g o o d t h i n g]

Stuff that's great:
- I wonder what it is with people and fake slap basses recently. Slap basses tho, awesome.
- All the little vocal clips and the vocal 'pop' thing towards the end. Those were great!
- You have a lot of really neat little melodic phrases throughout this.
- Very good sound palatte, solid arrangement throughout.

Stuff that can be improved:
- Mix. So like, you know how I mentioned there are a lot of neat melodic phrases through this? It would be phenomenal to be able to hear them without focusing quite hard on the mix - I tested it on multiple speakers, and the melodies are almost completely buried behind the bass, chords, and generally ALL THE OTHER STUFF in the climactic sections. In other words, mix does not have distortion, but it's not actually clean and the background is significantly louder than the melodies.
- The sudden unexpected and awkward chord thing at 2:40.
- The fact that significant portions of the song are literally copy/pasted from before, such as almost the entire climax, minus some sound effects adding into the overcompression - barely any variation in these. (0:10 & 1:17, 0:20 and 1:58 for two examples - only small additions in the background)

So, this has a lot of really neat melodic ideas in it which sound great, and a generally cool atmosphere with some good ear candy. Main issues are the mix being a bit too full and a significant portion of the song being copy/pasted.

9/10

midimachine responds:

これは良いこと！

[Le Vil Brequin]

Stuff that's great:
- All that power noise crunchy goodness, wasn't expecting this kind of thing but I'm happy it happened at some point!
- Crazy modulation in some of these synths.
- Really neat drum processing around the end.

Stuff that can be improved:
- I know it's power noise, but it can still be compressed and mixed properly without potentially harming ear drums. I can hear the mix crying at some parts.
- So like, this just doesn't really have the variation or the counterpoints to support what it's doing. Take a listen to Billain's music, or Queef Scab Carnies by Mr Bill. Both of those have acoustic/clean parts to serve as contrast and as a break for listening ears, which makes both things have much more impact. This also would let the song break up into more discrete 'sections' that help listeners feel the flow of the music. Another alternative would be having something like vocals serve as a main theme/focal point of the song. See: Crankshaft's music.

So like. I'm super happy that this style was attempted. I'm not as happy about the execution and the compression/distortion was nearly painful to listen to on headphones. I think with a bit more reigning in on the effective loudness (more headroom is your friend <3 and it's not just about db level) and a breakdown or other focal point/contrast, it would be really really awesome.

7.2/10

[Colour in Greyness]

Hey, Adjeye. Time to get a review!

Stuff that's great:
- ALL THE ATMOSPHERES.
- The little popping synth coming in at 0:36.
- All the crazy drum crap around 1:50 onwards.
- The drum pattern at 2:35. Which I definitely had nothing to do with. (in all seriousness, that was well-processed. Knowing the source material just makes it more impressive)

Stuff that can be improved:
- The melody at 0:36 is really good, but it sadly falls apart with the phrase at 0:50.
- The buzzing around 0:50 also gets somewhat annoying, if there were a way to make it less grating when it comes in, that would be awesome.
- Okay, I know you were taking inspiration from me and 1f1n1ty, but you didn't have to put THAT much reverb in the middle around 1:20. Goodness. It messes up the mix.
- Transition at 1:46 is awkward, lowpassing it doesn't solve the issue of the pieces not actually meshing together.
- To be perfectly honest, I think you nailed the atmosphere, but really really whiffed on the content. You said it yourself in the discord chat, more ambient music NEEDS more content unless it's a lush atmosphere that you can sink into. This has a lush atmosphere, but the drums don't let you sink into them and there's not enough content to support it otherwise.

So, this is good. It's very good. It's mainly just empty and needs more content and/or ear candy to fill in the blanks. (content, preferably) I think you can definitely make far better music of this style, but it definitely would take practice.

8.5/10

[Invisible Magic]

It's your turn for a review, Finn. Open wide!

Stuff that's great:
- Acoustic instruments, of course.
- The neat time signatures are awesome.
- Honestly, the intro is great.
- The quickfire singing starting at 1:47 is SUPER awesome and has a great feeling.
- Mix is solid and clean.

Stuff that can be improved:
- So the intro is great, and it's also nearly a third of the song. I think it's awesome, just too long.
- The minor melody there is, is barely there.
- Ending is too soon and doesn't really conclude the awesome main section.
- I feel the bass around 1 minute sticks out a bit too much, and could be pushed back in the mix.

Basically, this feels unfinished as heck. It comes together cohesively, just falls short on actually being 'complete'. If it were longer, it would be super incredible.

9/10

FinnMK responds:

Thanks for the comments. I largely agree, and as I've said to a few other reviewers it ultimately is more of an unfinished idea than anything else. Such are the constraints of a two-week period, and especially for this one where I had to be away from home for a few days. I'm sorta surprised it got me through actually! But thanks again; I'll keep the tips in mind for the quarter finals.

[My Firefly]

Your turn, Grant! Enjoy the review - open wide!

Stuff that's great:
- Oh my god the solos in this song. They're so good holy shit. At least the ones in the first half are nuts.
- Literally everything the xylophone does.
- Excellent intro and overall arrangement of sections.

Stuff that can be improved:
- Chorus melody is pretty not good. Mainly stems from two things - the diverging endings of the first two phrases, and the last phrase being out of place compared to the rest.
- Out of breath singing lol (2:11)
- The really weird glitch section at the end after what really should have been the outro, chopping the vocals into stuff that sounds like "cyberhand" multiple times somehow. Good glitches, but super not in the right place.

Mixing (quickfire round!):
- Bass is fairly buried and weak. Careful with mids for the tone.
- 1:24 Percussion background.
- Careful when spitting your automation back out (1:00)
- Things punch a bit too much - reign in your compression and limiting a bit, it practically causes bruises atm.
- 3:08 section percussion and bass. Volume seems to increase through this section and starts punching harder as it gets further.

So like. This is really good and has some of the best solos I've heard from you. It also has some of the most overcompressed mixing I've heard from you, and a weirdly really bad chorus, definitely compared to the rest of the piece. Odd combo of issues and good things.

9.4/10

johnfn responds:

"open wide!"

ew

[Gladiolus]

Time for your review, Jordi. Open wide! :)

Stuff that's great:
- Excellent piano progression at the start! I'm not sure what that sound in the background is, it almost sounds like light high hat hits.
- Christ, that singing is SO good. The duet is absolutely phenomenal too, extremely gorgeous.
- Honestly, the melody and melodic development in this are *so* good. It's very simple, but fits the chords and development wonderfully. The countermelodies in the duet work fantastically together - a great call and response in melody and lyrics.
- Reverb done right™. That vocal reverb is great at the start and fills out the mix pretty well.

Stuff that can be improved:
- I think that slightly less reverb in the middle would still be a good improvement seeing as the vocals are so strong anyway. It buries the piano somewhat.
- Second thing for reverb - the echo mixed with the reverb towards the end is a bit excessive and sounds kinda awkward without having indication that it would be that way earlier.
- I uh. What did you do to your voice at 1:28. That seems like a really awkward phrase of pitches for the voice to sing and doesn't really fit the beauty of the piece.

Man, I can't get enough of this piece. I legitimately think this is the best one you've ever made so far.

9.7/10

[A Dude Named Grant]

I couldn't help but alter my format for this one. I hope you enjoy your unique review.

Stuff you got from Grant:
- Solid mix throughout the piece.
- Great melodic development of your idea, regardless of its quality.
- A bouncier and more energetic musical style.
- Fairly lackluster and occasionally random transitions... like at 1:00.

Stuff you didn't get from him:
- Complex synthesizers.
- Super diverse sections, which is awesome!
- Really awesome atmospheres, like at 2:00.
- Dat SUPER fucking good bass.
- The base melody idea's quality. Honestly, this idea is just plain too complex with too many quick arps, it doesn't seem like it knows what it really wants to do. See if you can tighten it up a bit. With grant, one of the big keys is small melodic phrases that are developed well, not long melodic phrases that are repeated differently.
- 2:39.
- That really wonky ending. On the plus side, it was an ending, which you also definitely didn't get from Grant.

8.9/10

Onefin responds:

I included the sound at 2:39 just for you <3 i know you hate it

the ending uses a kick pattern that comes from the man the legend himself i knew i had to use it because he thought it sounded good and i was like "dude it's freaking 15/16" he's like "who cares bruh"

Johnfn's melodies are too sweet for me

EDIT: I just realized I got a unique one-of-a-kind Skye review

[Don't Give Up]

Hello! It's time for your review, BFJ. Open wide!

Stuff that's great:
- Fucking beatboxing in the breakdown 'solo' bit. Awesome.
- Experimenting is always cool in a track, and all the vocal sfx is awesome overall.
- Really good speaking of the rhythms in the rapping sections.
- The vocal hook at 0:50 is excellent. Only thing bringing it down is the mix. Speaking of which...

Stuff that can be improved:
- Okay, for hip-hop your mix is really thin in the bass. Try using some compressors in the bass and centering it to make it stronger.
- There's a lot of reverb throughout this whole track which feels like it could be removed without harming the overall feeling and causes harm to the mix. Less is more when it comes to reverb - if you can remove reverb on something, do it.
-Ending could use some conclusion. It just ends at the end of the chorus, not any actual... end.

Really good track for primarily being rap, main thing that needs a lot of tightening is the mix.
8.7/10