SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Playing Rabbits]

Hello! No fancy introduction this time, I'll just get straight to the review.

The Good:
-Mixing is perfect, I can hear everything fine, and the dynamic contrast shines through clearly.
-Love the subtle glockenspiel or bells in the background, same goes for the strings and percussion.
-The chord progression is lovely, and the constant 16th notes doing the subtle bottom for the tune is very pretty.
-I really like the melody, it has a classical and jazz feel at the same time.

The Not-So-Good:
-I do not like the fire sound in the middle. While it works for the mood, it's not musical enough.
-The transition at around 0:37, neither is the one at around 1:15. The outro is "meh". For piano it's alright, but I can't help wishing that it were a bit better.

Overall: This gets a 9/10 from me. I really can't find much of anything wrong with it aside from that and a few other extremely minor quibbles that would just be me getting annoying and petty. lol. In other words, GREAT job. Downloading and playing at Christmas. ;)

-Review Request Club-
-Your friend, Skye-

SoundChris responds:

Hey Skye!

Thanks so much for this very detailed review. Speechless u took the time on christmas to review my piece! I am pretty glad that you liked the 16th note-base of the tune. I was affraid this could bring to much agitation in and the melody could suffer in cause of that. Otherwise i wanted to get tha feeling of levitation and decided to use the 16ths to create this effect.

The midpart and firesound is the result of a special scene i imagined while composing. I wanted to do something that sounds a little bit strange, but somehow cozy. I decided to bring in strange harmonics and wanted to loosen up the stability of the rhythm which has been created by the 16th before. Then i combined it with the firesound because i hoped, that this would give a homelike feeling.
The scene i had in my mind: The rabbits are looking into the window from outside and interrupt their play for a short time. The christmas-athmosphere within the house seems very curious but interesting to them. After a while they go on playing.

Maybe i will overdo the outtro a little bit.

I am glad you liked it and hope you and your family had a super nice christmas!

Best wishes to maine and merry christmas, my friend!

Chris

[New Blooms]

Review tiiiiiiime~ Sorry about not doing this before, other important stuff took precedence.

The Good:
-Nice fresh and open piano beginning.
-My god I LOVE that main theme that comes in at 0:20. It sounds so satisfying to get that 'vamping-up' feeling.
-Nice tempo shifts, and wonderful chords!

The Not-So-Good:
-The piano is buried under the string chords (I think it's those causing the problem). One thing to keep in mind is that strings and pianos, and actually a lot of orchestral instruments are very mid-heavy, so you might want to EQ the strings in the middle somewhat. Also, I can barely hear the flute for most of this. Your strings are WAY too strong at the moment.
-Impact at 1:35 is too string. Once again, I feel as if it's the strings that's too strong, though the horns are probably too strong too, since they blend with the strings (though the horns aren't AS bad).
-Outro could have been way better. I thought you were going to quiet it down, do one last rendition of the theme with a very quiet piano, and end with the chords at the beginning (only quieted down a lot of course).

Overall: Man, this is a really pretty song. The strings are just WAY TOO POWERFUL and kill everything else. D: Well, and the outro is really disappointing. Other than that, this is really good.

[Yuletide Groove]

This is probably one of the only reviews that isn't going to be like my other ones. You know what I think about this stuff, and I had sent two more thingies in Skypers involving awkward overtones from a delay on the vocals and the bass which isn't bassy enough. D:

Anyway though, this sounds beautiful, and I want to know how you got those overtones in the first chord coming in.

I think this is one of my favorite songs from you, actually. Great work!

-also yay for meh solo, I feel so speshul-

Step responds:

Omg thanks for reviewing!

"This is probably one of the only reviews that isn't going to be like my other ones. You know what I think about this stuff, and I had sent two more thingies in Skypers involving awkward overtones from a delay on the vocals and the bass which isn't bassy enough. D:"

I made the bass bassier in this version and turned down the delays a little... I kinda like those delays though so I don't want to remove them entirely :P.

"Anyway though, this sounds beautiful, and I want to know how you got those overtones in the first chord coming in."

I have no idea, I honestly have no clue what I'm doing :3. Omnisphere's amazing pads help a lot though!

"I think this is one of my favorite songs from you, actually. Great work!"

Wow really? Thanks haha.

"-also yay for meh solo, I feel so speshul-"

BUT YOU ARE SPESHUL.

Thanks thanks thanks for all the feedback!

[Whispers on the wind]

Whoooooooooooah buddy, this sounds awesome. This is the kind of stuff I really like. Time for review #2!

The Good:
-That intro. It's really atmospheric and could use a bit more movement to it IMO (like, some melodies rather than just the pad), but those sound effects you use make it sound really nice and clean.
-Sounds pretty much like psychedelic rock to me, yeah.
-God, those drums are really tasty when they come in.
-Once again, nice mixing!
-Mixed feelings about the harmony of the delay from 1:40-1:47. It simultaneously sounds really cool and awkward. That's the main part where it's somewhat of an issue, the rest of the place it sounds really cool.
-3:14 has a really nice high-end reverb. I like how you're introducing more sound effects too, they sound pretty sweet and suffice as a buildup to the transition at 3:23. Suggestion - change the chords right at 3:11 and 3:20 so that they (A) fit in with the vocal note and (B) help the listener know "oh, a change is coming".
-3:07-3:11, I noticed the title! :D Do I get a cookie?
-I really like the parts at 3:23 and 3:42 (by the way, the transition at 3:42 is really nice). Slide notes are awesome.

The Not-So-Good:
-As I said, bit more movement in the intro would have been nice.
-The guitar solo has some wrong notes and rhythms, like at 1:20, 1:59, and 2:05. Remember, you can do multiple takes and split up the guitar solo into sections!
-I think the guitar should have stayed in after its solo, but gone into the background. Like, done some rhythmic notes - not the split chords that the other guitar is doing, but more of a percussive sound.
-Your voice is very listenable and really nice, but I have no idea what in the world you're saying. It's drowned out by the rest of the music. Try checking out stereo separation and merge them completely so it 'sticks out' in the center of the mix. This applies EVERYWHERE. (oh yeah, and stereo separation works even when you're panning it. Add the reverb after the stereo merging so that it can still separate a bit, but don't put on too much reverb because that'll make the words muddy)
-After about 2 minutes of pretty much the same drumbeat, I'm getting bored of it. Good thing you changed it up at 3:23.
-Starting at about 4:06, the delay harmonies start not working. You should be able to automate them out. Also, some of the slidey things and guitar SFX aren't working.
-Ending is bleh. Sense of conclusion pl0x.

Overall: I like this a lot better than your other one, but there are still some problems, and your solo is once again not very refined or fully good. As I said, remember that you can do multiple takes of the solo and even write a solo before playing it!
8/10 <--this was difficult to do. For some reason, the stars weren't appearing so that I could rate it very easily.

[March of the Damned]

Good day sir. Have my promised review.

The Good:
-Opening's fine.
-Very nice melodies, I particularly like the ostinato that comes in at 0:13.
-Mixing is fairly clean. Not everything shines out completely, but there's no distortion or anything. Also, that bed of sound at 1:31-2:28.
-PANNING. YESSSSS.

The Not-So-Good:
-I totally recognize those orchestral samples as Edirol. While I'm guilty of using them myself, I have to say - if you can, get some better ones. :<
-Also, I'm with camoshark on this. The drums sound really bland and uninspired. There's no real 'life' to them.
-1:44 is VERY obviously recorded with the midi keyboard, and it shows. The rest of the song is very in-tempo and when you're doing it naturally, it gets out of tempo a lot. I'd highly suggest practicing a lot and preparing a solo already or making sure you KNOW the key signatures you're going to use. Not just know them tentatively, but be able to use them liberally without hesitation.
-Okay, I'm OCD about transitions (including the outro, not quite as much the intro), so I have to say. The transition at 1:28 is pretty crappy. It just stops, then starts up again without a real connection - sounds more like you spliced two different songs which were made in the same style together.
-Outro is equally crappy. No buildup or conclusion at all really, it just ends.

Overall: Considering the transitions and the really-pretty-bad-midi-keyboard-solo, I'm going to have to give this a 7/10 or 3.5/5. It's pretty good, but not the kind of thing I'd want to listen to over and over. :< Considering what I heard of your other song so far though, I have a feeling I'm going to like it a lot. ^_^

DivoFST responds:

So far im stuck with edirol and some free Soundfonts i recently downloaded :S ..
The drums i actually dont hate them that much as you guys but i can see where they are not awesome.
As for the Keyboard improv i agree that much was left out of place, at the time i recorded the song it actually sounded just a bit off, but of course you guys have your ears better trained then mine and now that it has been pointed out i can see the major failures in it. The transitions are still one of my weak spots and i shall read something about them these next few days and try to improve them.
Thanks for the comment buddy! And cant wait to see the other review :D

[Gangnam Style Remix]

Let's see here...

The Good:
-NOTHING! Okay fine, some of the instruments alone are pretty good... BUT THAT'S 'CAUSE YOU'RE USING OMNISPHERE.

The Not-So-Good:
-Mixing is crap, so much is buried.
-Composition is crap.
-Those synced kicks sound really awkward.
-Brickwalled, so my ears are bleeding.
-That detuned main synth sounds like shit.
-Awkwardly long pauses like at 0:40.

Overall: Okay, so just about everything is crap. Therefore, in the context of techno remixes... 9999999/10 LOLOLOLOL THIS IS AWESOME UAHFUHAJDSAJD!

P.S. Yes, I am that cruel. I think this is the second 10/10 I've given you. And. It's a joke. c:

Step responds:

WHAT ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT THIS IS THE BEST SONG EVERRRR.

[A Newgrounds Legacy]

Hello sir indeed.

I was actually pretty surprised about the beginning of this song, wasn't expecting synth elements to appear in your music. So let's get to the review, shall we?

THE GOOD:
-That is a sweet buildup, it was so satisfying at 0:20 when the strings came in. The theme of the descending four notes is a good one. Unfortunately, they're a little part of a problem in overall composition which I'll address later.
-Individual instrument quality is great. The synths really work with the rest of the piece, I'd have LOVED if you used them more extensively - synth-assisted orchestral music can create some REALLY cool stuff that sounds amazing.
-Chord progressions sound really nice, as do some of the themes that go with them.
-I love how you make the piece actually "go" somewhere. That feeling of movement, of getting somewhere, is really satisfying for the listener and means that you definitely know what you're doing.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD: Okay, now that I've polished this up and made it look really good, I'm sorry, but now I'm bringing out my baseball bat to smack it around.
-First issue that most people will point out: Mixing. See this for a visual: http://oi49.tinypic.com/2gwhnoy.jpg As you might notice, there's a lot of clipping from instruments that are too loud. It starts a little bit before 0:30 and gets REALLY bad at around 1:30. There's also a little bit at the end, and when most of the crash cymbals initially hit there are level issues due to their volume. Simple fix: Make most of the instruments slightly quieter.
-Second issue, you pulled a Step. Cymbal rolls/hits/something-involving-a-cymb al for most major transitions. That or nothing. Surely you have other ways to transition, no? Slide notes for strings and flute arpeggios are nice. I'm not sure what you use for software, but since you apparently also have synths - try using some synthesized transitions. With those, there's a ridiculous amount of possibilities that are unique or tried-and-true. Mix it up a bit! Makes for something less predictable and more fun for the listener. :) One last thing about transitions. Some of them are a bit awkward and iffy. Mainly the ones that just go down, but also at 0:49 and 1:10. They're a bit surprising and awkward - or at least they were for my first few listens.
-And now the grass gorilla, the big banana, the elephant in the auditorium. ...actually, that's the wrong figurative language. Here's the blue whale of my nitpicks and unhappy thoughts about this piece. Consistency. First off, while you have that nice buildup of synths and the four-note descent, those ideas kinda just die around halfway through the piece. While descent keeps moving as a thought, and the quick notes in the strings continue, the actual 'ostinato' you seemed to have is gone, along with the synths. Second, there's not really a ton of thematic consistency in the melodies or chords. They do repeat somewhat, and there are a few similar ideas, but it seems a lot more like a theme and variation piece than anything else. At the very least, if you had a few chords that made up the "core" of the piece, or kept the four-note arpeggio from the beginning, it would bring everything together more thoroughly. *after the last time you told me off about this, I decided to thoroughly and repeatedly listen through your song to make sure I'm not missing a theme. Even so, I might have missed one, but in that case it obviously wasn't foreground, so...*

Overall: Other than the not-so-good stuff, it's good. ...well, obviously. Unfortunately, the mixing along with the lack of consistency forced me to give it a 7/10. If the mixing were better, I'd give it an 8, if there were more consistency, I'd give it a 9. Great job overall though, it's better than a lot of stuff I hear and there's the movement/feel of good composition! Untapped potential is clearly heard - that's great.

Okay, I'm almost at the character limit so here's a bit of random talking by me to finish it off. I'll be trying to get a piece up soon, but have a lot to do with it involving Kor-Rune. So it'll be awh-

Bosa responds:

Thank you for the helpful tips. I have a long way to go and so much to learn! I'm just eager to really unleash whatever talent I have inside.

I'll keep a lot of this in mind. I just need to practice and improve. But oh no I'm almost out of r-

[BK - Overload]

Okay. This song's turn. Ready, set go!

The Good:
-I like the phaser/flanger sound on the bass in the beginning. It's well-done and sounds pretty sweet. :)
-I very much like the little chiming sound as well.
-Pretty nice distorted wobbles after the... transition(?) at 1:42-1:43.
-Actually, your mixing is a lot better in this song overall. I can hear everything pretty clearly, not much is overwhelmed unless it's a filter sweep, and those are pretty much designed to be subtle initially.

The Not-So-Good:
-Sorry. :< That kick doesn't sound good at all. It doesn't have enough in the attack, and also lacks a good bass sound - too much of the very low. Finally, it has the weird "deow" sound (really don't know how to put it into letters) which doesn't sound very good.
-Biggest problem: This is SUPER repetitive. There's very little variation throughout, and each individual section goes on for too long without enough change in it to keep me interested. Finally, each section repeats itself several times. Just switching patterns in and out is good for beginning work, but you need to go beyond that and have melodies as well as countermelodies - not just cool instruments and harmonic chord progression.
-1:42-1:43 what the hell <--This describes it in full.
-While the ending is better, it could still be improved a lot. The piece needs some sense of 'closure'. Part of the issue is the repetitiveness. At the very least, I could tell that the end was most likely starting to come.

Overall: I really don't have a ton to say about this, mainly because the content that's there is really only worth about 2 to 2 and a half minutes or so. That's the biggest problem in this, and it forces me to give a score no higher than 7/10. I actually have to say, I enjoyed this despite its flaws. You know what you're doing - just try to put in some melodic development if possible please! :)

-Swint-
-Review Request Club-

Aqua8B responds:

well, thanks for the review :)
for the repetitiveness, sorry, I0m trying to get this all better and improved, allthough I0m experimenting now with the house style, i feel more comfortable with the house genre
and of course my biggest problem is the melody, i still do not know how toget that right with a good lead, and something that is like telling a story, melodies from people like "Envy", i want to do the same
1:42 - 1:43 - yeah, it was experimenting with "Gross Beat", maybe you could help me with the melodic development, if so, send me a PM
and again thanks for the review

[BK - Galaxy Blaster]

Hello there.

First off, I sincerely apologize for the RRC not getting a review on this. Unfortunately, the club is dying out somewhat and we don't have enough members with enough time to review every submission (due to various reasons - college, high school, work, other important stuff, etc). I haven't been active in the RRC for a little while myself. However, since I do come in every once in awhile and review, here's one for you. I'll also review your other song (s) that you posted for this next/last week.

THE GOOD:
-Nice intro, I like the chord progression and the rhythms, they're odd.
-I like the buildup at 1:00, along with the slight change in chord progression - would be great if you could vary it a bit more.
-1:30 Holy crap I am such a sucker for that kind of deep reverbed bass hit that sounded so satisfying.
-I'm impressed that there's not unintentional distortion (that I can hear).

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-The way you use the pluck in the beginning is EXTREMELY overdone. Try using some other way to build up rather than just extending the decay length. Also, it has an odd pitch slide. The pitch slide is comparatively minor though, so you don't really need to worry about it much.
-I personally think that when the drums come in, they're slightly too loud. This mainly applies to the shaker sound you have in there. It's a tad harsh, I'd have liked if it came in a bit slower. Also, I can barely hear the clap sound under the kick - might want to increase the volume of that a bit if you are really opposed to making the other percussion quieter.
-0:30. Holy fucknuggets my ears exploded when that hit in. It sounds awesome, but it's WAY too loud and doesn't have anything right before it preparing you for that explosion of sound. Don't brickwall sound pl0x. That hurts ears. (basically: It'd sound a bit better if there were some kind of preparation for the really loud sound, or if the really loud sound were lowered in volume a little bit before it comes in)
-After the eargasm at 1:30, the big distorted sound was a bit off-key for the most part compared to the chord progression. Might be nice if you changed the pattern a bit more to fit with the chords.
-Toward the end, where you start simply layering more piano/pluck sounds, it sounds very much like you had run out of ideas and decided just to add stuff to lengthen the song.
-Finally, where in the world is the ending? Everything just cuts out with filtered and sidechained white noise going 'down'. Not very satisfying at all.

Overall: This is actually a pretty unique piece of house from what I've heard (though I don't listen to a lot of house music so meh). I do have to give you credit for that. The main things I think you need to work on are the volume levels of your instruments and keeping within the key signature. Once you have that down, then you can start experimenting more with accidentals and off-key melodies. Granted, that's mainly if you want to add a jazzy element to your music, but hey, no reason to not try that - jazz can sound pretty cool. I'll give this a 6/10. The uniqueness of what this is compared to what I've heard gives it an extra two points from what it would otherwise be.

Oh, one final word of advice - more variance in melodies. Try having more than one melodic idea in a song, so that you can bring multiple themes in and out. That also allows you to extend the length of your music without it sounding quite as 'stock'.

-Swint-
-Review Request Club-

Aqua8B responds:

at first i forgive you for doing it too late THIS time :P :)

let's just get immediately to the "not good", because that's where my improvements are laying
for the decay slide, yeah I'm testing a bit with this here and there, so i need to improve that
but the pitch slide was on purpose, i thought it sounded nice

for the drums, i don't know, i think i need to make the drums not so loud in my future songs

0:30, yeah, that's whats needed to get improved for sure, because the next song i am going to upload soon, has that same dirty bass idea, and the same sound

at 1:30, that was actually the hardest part to create in the song, to let the distorted sound fit the chord progression, seriously, almost impossible :)

towards the end and the end itself, i did anything to prevent it from getting repetitive, so i just added sounds to keep it "fresh", and for the end, another main thing i need to work on, the endings

thanks for all the advice you have given me, i know it's hard to listen to someone's song and then write such a list of good and notasgoods, you have my respect
i will try and use all the advice in my future songs :)
-BK

[Venus]

Final round, Kor-Rune! Good luck here! Hope this doesn't sound too nitpicky.

The Good:
-That's some cool vocal work.
-I like the rotary/electric organ.
-Some really cool slide effects.
-I really enjoyed the part at 3:00-3:37 or so.
-You have some VERY cool arpeggios.
-Also really enjoy the part at around 4:30-4:45, mainly because it calms down. Same can be said about the area at around 5:00-end.

The Not-So-Good:
-What happened to your great intros? D: I'm a bit disappointed by the one here.
-The time signature is... something like 6/8? It's obscenely hard to follow throughout most of it, which keeps me on edge and distracts me from the musicality of it.
-At about 2 minutes in, there's a crazy solo thing which just goes on and on (or feels like it, at least).
-Two and a half minutes in, and there really really needs to be a break from the crazy-weird time signature, along with the kick pummeling me constantly. Calm down a little bit, please! :(
-If you're going to have a really calm section, please do it more in the middle when the main theme is crazy for most of it - give it more of an ABA format rather than AAB.

Overall: Hoooooly crap, Kor-Rune, lighten up on the awkwardly-placed transitions and wacky-feel time signatures. :( Also, I'm covered in bruises now because of that kick. I'm sorry, but this was pretty disappointing after the other rounds. I'm going to have to give this a 8/10.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thanks for the review! I realize I write too unconventional but who wants to be normal? ;3 I realize the meter changes are odd, I have way too much fun with that, sorry XD

If you were bruised by the kick, surprised by the signatures, I did my job! I'm not sure I was exactly shooting for a calm, single meter track here, until the end, of course. I'll calm down when I write a calm song, I promise. XD Sorry for all that bass drum, but I'm kind of doing some metal here dude, it would be wrong to skimp on the kicks.

I agree about the transitions, especially in the middle, I did it again and I was pretty aware, even while I was recording. so oops lol, I suck. I'll work on getting the bigger picture some more!

Sorry if I screamed in your ear for the intro LOL. I was trying to be unique and not create 40 second intro fluff, but I guess it is better to be predictable.

Thanks again for all of your reviews and constructive crits! Without them I probably wouldn't have made it this far in NGADM <: