SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Rig - Am I Cool Yet? NGAP]

Hello.

The Good:
-Cool synths at the beginning, I like the slight variation of the main melody.
-Oh man, those wobbles are pretty darn sweet. I'd honestly love to know how you made them.
-The mix is pretty much always clean and clear.

The Not-So-Good:
-It's fairly empty in the mix at the beginning, especially at 0:18-0:35 with the distorted voices - those don't sound that well either.
-I'm not really sure how this is quite a remix aside from the melody in the non-wobble sections and a few of the wobble sounds being similar.
-To be honest, there's not too much in the mix overall - I'd have liked it if you added a few pads in similar to the original.
-That outro just comes in suddenly and doesn't really sound that nice anyway.

Overall: Score of 7/10. Biggest problem was the lack of overall sound. The piece you chose wasn't one that could be remixed easily, since it lacked much that could be remixed well.

[Pick Me Up Baby (Cover)]

Hello.

The Good:
-I like the opening a lot, yeah. There's some nice guitar and the drums are nice and clean.
-Sweet harmonies panned to the left for the bass. Me gusta.
-The vocals sound pretty nice aside from one issue I'll get to later.

The Not-So-Good:
-There's some distortion in my right ear which seems to be coming from the vocals - whether it's in the recording or the mixing I'm not sure.
-The little break at 0:44 doesn't sound as good as it could, it seems somewhat empty.
-The guitar solo after the break at 0:44 is a bit obnoxious-sounding, though that's more of a pet peeve.
-In the overall mixing it seems very close to the breaking point, which isn't the best considering how much panning there is.
-After the break, the chord guitar I loved at the beginning is almost totally overpowered by the soloing.
-It seems like you only replaced instruments and added a bit of harmony when compared to the original. It would have been better if you tried putting a bit of your own originality into this.

Overall: Score of 7/10. Biggest problems were the guitar solo causing issues in the second half, mixing problems with the recording, and very little change in the song other than different instruments.

[Sitting (Acoustic Cover)]

Hello.

The Good:
-I love the opening, it sounds really natural and soft. The guitar stays throughout making everything sound good too.
-The feeling is distinctly different from the original, which is a big plus.
-There's a little ambient instrument with slow attack starting at about 0:25. Man, I'm such a sucker for those.
-The chords at 1:05 are good. They get even better at about 1:26, though it does take half a second to figure out that it sounds good.
-Drums are very natural-sounding and peaceful.
-Great mixing up until about 1:47.
-Oh man, the violin sound at 2:47 and onward in my right ear sounds so nice.
-You have an outro! Great!

The Not-So-Good:
-It can take a second for the harmony at 1:26 to sound good.
-Unfortunately, at 1:47 the mixing goes downhill and most instruments are put into the background, so it's hard to hear them. Unfortunately, all the sound starts blending together again making it so that there's no real cohesiveness and it's just a wall of harmony. As cool as that is, it doesn't peace back together until 2:45. Even after that there are residual problems until 3:15.
-Sadly, the outro you have is the classic fadeout. While it's obvious that it's the end, there's no real 'conclusive' feel to it. It just slowly drags out until the sound is gone. I'm not a big fan of that.

Overall: Score of 9/10. Main problems are the clarity of the mix and cohesiveness from 1:47 to 3:15 (though it does get slightly better at around 2:45), as well as the lack of a real conclusion. I am surprised and impressed that you pulled something this good out of your hat in 2 days.

[Vacation]

I sense FL Studio being used. Now, as I promised, review coming.

The Good:
-I like the way you used the default FL effect at the beginning and end. I think it's there at some point at around 0:55 too, just not very much in the foreground at all. I think it's used the best at the beginning.
-Mixing sounds pretty darn good to me, though some is pushed a bit into the background.
-I already basically commented on how I like the intro.
-You have a lot of interesting melodic ideas and keep this from being very repetitive.
-The delay on the pluck is well-done.

The Not-So-Good:
-Okay, main thing that pushed the score down for me: Transitions. The intro is alright, but beyond that the transitions are pretty awkward. 0:30-0:36 doesn't really have any particular drive to it, no real feel of "I know where I'm going with this". It sounds more like the transition was throw in there just to break up the rest of the piece. Pretty much the exact same goes for the transition at 0:49-0:52, though that one is better. The outro is the classic "FX and cut out all other instruments", which I don't particularly like. Not a very good sense of conclusion.
-There doesn't seem to be a particular "theme". It goes, and there's variation, but what's the focus? Music is a LOT more enjoyable when it goes somewhere. Otherwise it just sits there and gets boring in a hurry.
-The drums don't sound like they're really the highest quality, though they certainly don't sound bad.

Overall: This is pretty good. It's a tad random and disconnected due to a lack of direction, lack of a main theme, and some sub-par transitions (though I definitely give you credit for not going with the norm of transitions), but there's a lot of potential here. I think that you could definitely tap into it if you thought about where you want the piece to go and led it somewhere. Oh, and some extra drum packs are never a bad thing! :D

[No More Bloody Ears]

Whoooooah ambiance.

The Good:
-That's some REALLY sweet ambiance you have.
-The percussion is very well-done, and has some nice reverb going on with it.
-The way it opens up at about 0:11 is super-satisfying.

The Not-So-Good:
-It doesn't loop very well.
-It's not very long.

Overall: Not much I can say about this other than... MAKEITLONGERNOW. Please? D: I honestly love it so far - only reason that there's a low score is because it's too short.

...oh, and it'd be awesome if the final version had a title other than "No More Bloody Ears".

-Review Request Club-

[Volatile {Dj-Abbic}]

House? Doesn't sound like it at first...

The Good:
-That's a sweet intro, I really like it. The buildup to the part with the reversed kick is sweeeeet.
-When 1:01 hits, it sounds really nice.
-At about 2:08, yay the strings are back. Great idea with the pitch sliding of them too!
-You say all the synths are made in Sytrus? That makes it pretty darn impressive, actually.
-The buildup at about 2:48 is pretty darn awesome.
-The outro is better than a lot I've heard with house. Thank you so much for putting in the effort to make one - that's somewhat rare, it seems.

The Not-So-Good:
-0:31 what happened to my cellos? :( Also, the snare run gets almost annoying due to how quantized it is.
-After 1:01, there's not really that much going on if I'm going to be honest. I noticed that you said this was influenced by "complextro", and I have to say - this doesn't sound very complex... Fairly basic without many different melodic or harmonic ideas.
-Transition at 1:45 is somewhat disappointing, there's this buildup and then it just instantly cuts to minimalistic sound.
-Unfortunately, the transition at about 2:48 has one flaw... the way it lets things just stay up in the air is a tad disappointing though and makes it lose some tension that shouldn't be lost.
-At 2:59 and 3:13, what in the heck did you do to the drums? Granted, it's nice that you tried something different, but it doesn't really work. Sounds more awkward than cool. :<
-Repetition is hitting this track pretty hard, but ironically a lack of consistency is also hitting it. The overall sound of it is very constant, repeatable, boring-ish. However, it sounds like the second major part after the breakdown is different with the melodies and some of the ideas that were in the first part before the breakdown.

Overall: It's definitely house. Better house than what I've heard - if you want to make it better generic house, I'd suggest having a bit more complexity in the melody, a bit more compositional formatting, and some more atmosphere to tease the ears with. If you want to make it more original, try having more orchestral instruments in it, or experimental instruments. Also try to have different sections which might not normally be in house. Remember too that fluid transitions are important!

-Review Request Club-

DjAbbic responds:

Hi, thanks a lot for the detailed review.

I'd just like to point out that while complextro is slightly melodic, it is a lot more focused on groove, which is where the complexity is supposed to be and is what I have aimed for here. As for your other concerns (and compliments!), I have noted them. It is great to get multiple opinions, especially because I rather liked my transitions and drum pauses.

And I do get what you mean by this track being repetitive and inconsistent. It was, after all, an experimental (as are the rest of my tracks) and I'm just aiming to improve my sound quality and sound design for now.

And I do try to make my transitions fluid, although it may not seem like it here :)

Once again, thank you a lot for the detailed review.

[gRave]

Hohkay. Initiating review.

The Good:
-Nice synth in the intro.
-Your drum pattern is alright.
-This has surprisingly good mixing for a first audio submission.

The Not-So-Good:
-The part coming in at about 0:14 seems to be in a completely different key from the first instrument.
-0:42 - more random keys.
-Okay, I don't need to comment on each new part - none of the melodic parts are in the same key. The part at 0:14 is also drowned out about halfway through.
-This is also extremely repetitive, it barely changes at all. The same pattern that there was in the beginning goes throughout the whole thing.

Overall: This is... eh. It's alright, I suppose. The main two issues with it are (A) repetition and (B) off-key notes galore. I'd suggest looking up some music theory and attempting a few scales. Otherwise, it's good. Good luck in the future!

-Review Request Club-

MysteriousPiF responds:

Thanks for the review sir!

Working on the key change issues

Thanks!

[Salvation]

Hey. You forgot your classic ==()== around the title. D:

The Good:
-Man, that intro is so powerful. It makes me immediately think "oh man, something epic is going to hit soon". For some reason, the synth line at 0:29 reminds me of Depths of Phendrana. Percussion at 0:38 is awesome too.
-Even with the weak transition after the intro, that melody in the guitar at about 1:36 is sooooo awesome. If you had made the song based around that rather than the melody coming in at around 1:04, I would have been sooooo happy. Maybe sometime in the future?
-Your percussion in general is really really awesome, except for one thing that I'll mention later.
-The flute melody at 2:30 is just really pretty. I like the chord progression there too. Seems a bit creepy and/or sad for a song called "Salvation", but whatever.
-Normally wouldn't mention this, but the transition at 3:12-3:34 is way better. The drums immediately afterward with that high-hat pattern is just awesome.
-Guitar harmonies at 5:53 are just awesome.
-I also love the part at about 7:18, the transition is fine, there's an almost emotional sound, and when the flute comes in it's really really pleasant to hear.
-The dying-down and coming back at 8:00-8:06 works fine there, and when the flute comes in it sounds soooooo sexy.

The Not-So-Good:
-Transition at about 0:45 on (mainly getting really boring at about 1:00) just doesn't work with the massive buildup intro. Everything just dies and something seemingly unrelated comes in. It seems extremely anticlimactic and destroys a lot of the interest and anticipation the intro built up. If you're going to have an intro that strong, make sure what comes next will deliver the epic that was just 'claimed' by the intro!
-Transition at about 2:02 is also pretty weak. It just flatlines into the next section without much for a transition effect except for the downward percussion.
-From about 4:00 to 4:46, the drums, lead, and bass just aren't cutting it on their own. They really need some thing more to back them up. If it's meant to be a drum solo, try having quick keyboard chords every once in awhile, possibly with some very light backwash pads as well. That'd fill up the empty space more, and still let the drums shine for the most part.
-Okay, this is probably one of the things that I'm the most disappointed about because it could have been fixed so easily. D: 5:43 and 5:49. Okay seriously. You have this great reverse cymbal and big meaty bass drum "thump", then this little "piff" to the side. It's totally anticlimac and pretty disappointing. :< I would even go so far as to say that the volume on it should be doubled, it should be centered, and it should have some kind of delay on it the second time like almost everything else seems to have.
-Some sections go on for a bit too long without enough to keep me interested - there's definitely enough content there for foreground, but it really needs more background stuff.
-Okay, the outro isn't bad by any means, but... did you really need a 35-second long fadeout and then 10 seconds of silence? You said it was for iTunes or something s the song doesn't randomly change, but 45 seconds of fadeout and silence is a bit... excessive.

Overall: This is really really nice. I'm not sure if I'd call it the best song you've made, but it has a lot of detail and if Bosa doesn't pick it as one of the top 3 (compared to all the other songs I've heard so far, no offense to those people), I may have to smack him with a wet haddock. To summarize my comments above, there's a lot of sexy stuff in it, but overall the song is a flatline. The climaxes and breakdowns are largely really subtle and basic. The intro is the best one, followed by the part at about 5:40 (yes, even with the disappointing piff), then the outro. Some parts drag on a little too long and/or don't have enough "stuff" filling up my ears with awesomeness.

...oh dear, I seem to have used up all but 10 characters. Looks like this review is over. Thanks for the ability to listen to one of the best songs on NG!

-Your friend, SkyeWintrest-