SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ascend]

A personal message to me? o.o You didn't have to, I'm flattered. ^_^ And I consider that more than enough reason to give this a friendly review.

Now, before I get to actually reviewing this, I just want to say a few things.
1. You use Mixcraft? Well, that answers the question I was trying to figure out of what DAW you use. I use FLS myself. ^_^
2. Default 'stock' instruments can be surprisingly good if used right. And hey, you can certainly use them right.
3. I'm done. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have put this as part of the little "list" of things I wanted to say, but it would've looked weird if I put it afterwards awkwardly. :<

THE GOOD:
-I really, REALLY like that guitar sound, whether it's a preset/default instrument/whatever. It's pretty darn good.
-Some of the harmonies are very very nice.
-1:05 BIRDIES :D That's definitely a much better ending than a simple fadeout.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-The drums seemed very lackluster and dull, particularly the snare.
-Some of the rhythms and harmonies seemed off, and rather odd. Might want to recheck some of them.
-Too darn short! Of course, with default "stock" instruments you generally can't really do much, I suppose, so that's not too bad.

Overall: I'm sorry, I liked Shiver Mountain better - if only because, that one transition. Day-uhm, it was amazing. Overall though, this was pretty good. Could use some improvement definitely, but at least it's not taking off of another artist, right?

Birdinator99 responds:

I'm kind of surprised you liked Shiver Mountain better -- and also the guitar sound! That's my least favourite instrument in this piece for sure.

I like the snare. I'm pleased with the sound I got out of it -- it started pretty flat, but it's where I want it right now.

When you say the drums seemed dull -- the snare is the only drum (?); do you mean the tambourine? If you're listening for a kick drum or something, it's not there. Things sound bright to me...

I don't know what rhythms or harmonies you could be talking about. You should let me know the times in your review response response!

Too short? Pfft. lol

I don't know, man, I really thought you would like this one more than you did. I'm not used to scoring 3/5, and I feel like I let you down. I've got to keep trying, though.

Thanks for the review!

[Distinct Chaos]

First time submitting? Cool! Alright then, let's just keep that in mind, from listening to it initially, I'll have plenty to say that will hopefully get you started well on your say to making good music!

THE GOOD:
-If you made your own synths, that's pretty good. I don't make my own, actually... mainly just edit them. If you get good at this, that could be a really nice thing to be able to do - or you might be able to collar with other artists by making their synths for them! (...of course, I could be reading "I just learned how to create some synth music today" wrong, but whatever, it's still true)
-I don't hear any actual static in the very start of the intro. I guess that's... good?

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-Instead of static at the beginning, there are little clip sounds at the end of each note.
-Since you're new to this, I'll give an overall tip rather than nitpicking. The harmonies in the background of the chords from 0:28-0:48 need some work. They DEFINITELY do at 1:03-1:16. Try looking up musical harmony and scales, and use them to make more harmonic backgrounds and melodies within the chords that you're using.
-Try also looking up mixing techniques, as the overall mixing of this song is fairly poor - a lot of the sounds are buried by the others or just too loud.
-Above all, just experiment for awhile and learn the program, as Haggard said. That will help you quite a bit in learning to make music - just figuring out how to use what you're using!

Overall: Needs a lot of improvement. But hey, you're just starting out, so that's cool. Keep working at it, and you'll get there! Good luck!

-Review Request Club-
-Swint-

Slavemule6 responds:

Yes, this is my first creation, as I taught myself how to use the program in roughly an hour, I definitely agree with refining my work. I did create the synth sounds myself, after about 2 or 3 hours of work. I've adopted a new program since, Ableton, so I'm hoping I can get more from this program as well as more creative depth. Thanks for the recommendations.

[Song 3]

8-bit rock? Nice experiment you got here. :)

THE GOOD:
-Alright, I do like how this is put into 8-bit. It sounds just fine to me.
-If I were to imagine this as part of a video game, I'd have to say I agree with Haggard - if placed right, this would go awesome in some sort of retro game.
-The main melodies of this are really nice and soothing, I like that a lot.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-Remember how I said that I agreed with Haggard about how it would go well in a video game? Well, unfortunately, I agreed with the rest of that as well - there's no particular climax of the song, it doesn't really 'go' anywhere. Also looking at your response to what Haggard said, I'd have to say that I doubt it would have sounded much more climactic with a band (though it would have probably sounded a little bit more climactic, since, you know, real instruments and all) - the main reason for this is due to the velocities. I don't know if they're the same that you played it at or if you even varied the velocities at all, but even assuming you played the notes more powerfully, the notes that are there are a lot calmer than the notes that came before. Also, there's a lot less 'movement' in the notes and drums. In case it wasn't clear, I'm talking about the part after the break at 1:08-1:11.
-If this weren't specifically made in a "8-bit thing", I'd have said that your instrument quality needs to be improved, notably the drums. I know that this is fully 8-bit so you can't fix this, but it would have been nice to have even 16-bit drums.

Overall:
I really don't have too much to say about this (yeah right, I don't have much to say about this with a massive wall of text about velocities and the climax of the piece). It's nice. The rising and falling action of it could be improved quite a bit. Other than that, cool.

-Review Request Club-
-Swint-

N-Szewski responds:

Ooh, this is a big one. Okay, so you're saying it should have climaxed after the 1:11 part? Personally, I don't really see that. It was intended to be a soft section to switch is up being that the parts before that are more energetic. The last riff of the song was about the heaviest part, so that's what I was thinking of as at least being somewhat climactic. But maybe something stronger could go in that place; I'm not trying to say I don't care about your opinion. I may brainstorm on it.
I'm not even sure what 16-bit is. I'll look into that and see if I can work that in with the drums. The velocities are something I haven't really taken time with on my notation program, so there's something I'll think about adding. I did vary the dynamics as far as volume, but it probably wasn't particularly 'dynamic' overall, so maybe I should go back and make some changes there too.
You gave some good suggestions and I really appreciate that you took the time to review this. Thanks!

[Tai_Chi Fighting]

Whoah, that intro certainly threw me for a loop. I think that this song could use a bit more though...

THE GOOD:
-The piano sounds pretty nice in the beginning.
-That bass from 0:17-0:44 is pretty awesome.
-The mixing of this is really good, and the individual instruments are very good.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-Unfortunately, the transition between the piano and the actual funk part was... choppy, or abrupt, to say the least. It would have been nice to have a bit of a lead-in, some kind of build-up effect right before the hit of the guitar and bass.
-The snare seems to have a bit of an odd reverb coming off the end of it, which I mainly heard in the 0:17-0:36 section. After that, the other instruments drown it out.
-Speaking of 0:36, that to 0:44 is an awesome buildup to nothing. Would have been nice if the buildup lead to some really great riffs on the guitar and bass, before the second buildup sound at 1:17-1:26 (which works fine to lead out, by the way).

Overall:
This could use a bit more working on the overall flow and the transitions in this. The individual sections sound pretty good, but they don't flow well and/or transition well to each other. Other than that, pretty cool.

-Review Request Club-
-Swint-

Possibly responds:

Thanks for the review, appreciate it. From my point of view, it was supposed to be about contrasts and surprise so I intentionally made it jarring, perhaps a bit too much :)

The point about flow and transition, I take your point, but that's what I was going for - I think they conect well, but it's just that they are disparate and not necessarily what you might expect.

Thanks again for taking the time.

[Yag]

...what the hell is "Moombahton/Moombahcore/whateverthefu ckit'scalled"? I have NEVER heard of that before. Oh well, either way, I can still review this, right?

THE GOOD:
-I like the key you're using for the melody in the initial part. Might I ask what key it is?
-The little high-hat sounds and the kind of 'tick tock' sound in the background panning between sides sounds pretty nice.
-I like the percussion from about 1:50 onward a lot, the little clicking going from ear to ear and the wood-block type sounds are pretty awesome. Speaking of percussion, that kick is really good.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-The sidechained triangle/sine/whatever synth with the square/saw/whatever synth bass doesn't sound too good to me. Not sure exactly what it is, but I think it's mainly the bass.
-From about 0:54 to 1:47 is very dull and doesn't really have any movement to it, it's mainly just a swell of drums, noise, and an upwards slide note, it could really use a bit more to it. ...not to mention, that for a section that's almost a full minute long, it really needs for some kind of tune or harmony to be going on.
-Throughout the entire song, there's really not that much going on. No chords, and barely any melody or harmony at all. I'd really put in some work on melodic structure and more 'stuff' happening. As it is, the song just... well, it feels like it's just sitting there, looking at me and hoping to be petted like a scruffy dog.

Overall: Not the worst I've heard, but definitely not the best. The percussion was just fine, and I liked that. What you really need to work on, however, are melodies, harmonies, chords, and 'movement'. Something needs to happen - the song needs to go somewhere. If it just sits there like it is right now, not many people will get interested.

If this review was helpful (as I certainly hope it was ^_^), then feel free to contact me once you think you have melody and harmony in your music, and I'll give a bit more feedback and points that could be improved on, such as the specifics of how to get people interested/more advanced harmonic techniques.

-Review Request Club-
-Swint-

Syztm responds:

First of all, thanks for the extensive review, really appreciate some good honest constructive criticism.

I'm glad you liked the percussion, and I spent quite some time on the kick :P

As for the synths, maybe I didn't finetune them enough, since they ended up rather raw and lacking in detail. I should have paid more attention to that.

The main idea was to have a mellow melody, with a separate rising buildup and a good heavy drop, but I think it didn't turn out the way I wanted it, since I now realise the buildup in the melody was stretched out for far too long, and I could have easily cut it in half and incorporate some of the first melody in there.

As for the melody, it's in C, and goes to F# every once in a while.

I will definitely try to improve on melodies and harmonies, and read up on music theory, because frankly, I don't have much theoretical knowledge on musical composition, and I keep lacking in that department.

I'll hit you up with a PM once I finish another track. Thanks once again for the review!

[Chipped It]

Alrighty. Two second loop? Not much I can do with this.

THE GOOD:
-It's an electro/techno beat.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-There's really nothing here.
-Only one note in the synth.

Overall:
Honestly, I'm sorry, but it sounds like you basically sat down for about 2-3 minutes, took a snare, a random preset synth, and a high-hat, and put them together for one measure's worth. I'd highly suggest that if you're going to upload something to newgrounds, you take the time to make it at least 20 seconds long, and with more content than one note.

-Swint-
-Review Request Club-

[Shiver Mountain (Remix)]

I feel bound to review this for some unfathomable reason. Either way, whether the unfathomably unfathomable reason is unfathomable or not, it is unfathomably forcing me to review this.

Okay, I probably used the word "unfathomable" wrong a few times, but. Whatever.

THE GOOD:
-Okay, those sound effects you used are awesome. I particularly liked the one at 0:28 onward, especially the accidental sound-effect-like-thing from the pad at 0:58. It reminded me of an eagle's cry. Ironic considering your profile picture, no?
-The choir starting at 1:11 is pretty darn cool.
-Can't give you credit for the tune, but I did like how you used the bass for the melody as well as the other synths.
-I like the slight panning in the synth on my left ear at around 1:24-1:39, where it comes slightly back into the middle and out again.
-PITCH BENDS. YES. Very well executed in this song, they sound really cool. ESPECIALLY the rise from 2:14-2:36, I love how it pauses before rising really quickly at 2:33. Speaking of which, it makes one damn awesome transition, kudos for that (I love transitions).

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-For some reason, I didn't really like the kick very much. It was nice and punchy without being overpowering, as well as having a deep bass feel. I guess it was a bit too... "gravelly" would be the word for it. (Ironically, I used a similar bass kick in one of my songs - just not as the main kick, but as an additive for a kick without a bass factor that was quite so deep and gravelly)
-The bells at 0:57, 1:09-1:10, 2:49, 3:01-3:03, 3:14-3:16, 3:28-3:29, 3:35-3:36, 3:40-3:42, 3:46-3:47, and 3:52-3:53 sound off-key to me.
-Similarly, so does the main pad that pans back and forth with the white-noise sound while the bass has the melody.
-The transition at 0:32 where the drums fade in doesn't sound that good. Try having a drum fill in there to bring them in rather than just fading them in, it might work a little better.
-...you have a fadeout ending. Please tell me you're joking about that and have the real song at the ready. Unless songs are looped or WIPs, they should *never* have fadeout endings. Honestly. Otherwise, it ALWAYS sounds as if the artist was lazy with the end to me. (Note: If the song has an "ending" sound with a very slight fadeout of the melody in the background dying away, that's perfectly fine.)

Yeah, alright, this is pretty good. I've DEFINITELY heard much better from you though, even though I haven't reviewed it. So I suppose I might give you a pass on this for the NGADM. I'll have to think about it though, and at the very least, you'd have to promise me that you won't give a fadeout ending for your submissions in the contest if I do vote for you, kay? ;)

Hopefully that was helpful.

-Swint

Birdinator99 responds:

Hey man, first off, I realize that you didn't have to write this big review, and I'm really grateful that you took the time to share your thoughts simply because you enjoy my work.

Glad you liked the effects and the pitch bending. The transition starting at 2:14 was very important to me -- I wanted to nail it, and it sounds like that may be the case.

I was trying out some multiband compression on the drums and in the mastering process, so I most likely messed up the drums. I also layered the kick drum with a quiet bass, but it didn't help much. I get what you mean about the tail end of the kick sounding "gravelly" -- that was a poor sample choice on my part.

I assure you that the bells are not out of key, but the filtering pad is playing a lot of notes at once. The intended effect was to avoid sounding like any particular notes at all -- more of a note "crunch", if you will.

The initial drum transition isn't helped by that kick sample I mentioned earlier. I feel like the fade in complemented the swishing, sweeping effect that I used. A faster fade in might have sounded good too, but I see your point.

Ah, yes, a fadeout is truly the biggest cop-out ending you can have. Frankly, at that point in the composition, I wasn't falling in love with the piece anymore. I felt like it didn't deserve a cool, "proper" outro because that would've made the track pretend to be something it wasn't.

I 100% agree with you that this is more or less a swing and a miss, but I'm still happy that I gave it some effort. You have my word that I'll lay off the fade-outs for a while, but honestly, if this isn't up to par with the rest of the participants, don't feel pressured by any means to let me through just because you know what I'm capable of. This was my opportunity, and it didn't go nearly as well as I would've liked, so I understand the potential repercussions.

You never know, though!

[King's Quest]

Alright, well, I've recieved a message asking me to review this, and therefore. A review shall be born.

Also, this review will be rather harsher this time, not scaling it on the normal one I do. I will be giving this the same kind of review that I would give in the NGADM. So in case any of the other contestants see this, or if you get in, Bosa, they and/or you will know what kind of thing to expect from me.

Section I - Originality - 7/10

GOOD: Songs based off of stories are fairly rare (at least, that's what it seems like from the "author comments"/description), so that does give you quite a bit of credit here. Starts you off at a 10/10 for originality.

NOT-SO-GOOD:
-The overall style of this is rather overused, so I did have to dock a point here. -1
-Since this seems it is meant to be based off the story in the description, I feel I should comment on this. The piece, while somewhat fitting of the story, does not fit it overly well. The beginning seems as if it fits more for the people's pondering. The middle section initially seems quest-like, but then it goes into a peaceful melody more befitting of the aftermath in the story, where everyone is content and happy. Finally, the last section of the song is more in-place, it sounds as if the king truly is returning. Since two of the three sections seem out-of-place-ish, and it still does depict the journey, if somewhat sketchily, only docking two points. -2

Section II - Mixing - 8.9/10

GOOD: Not much to say here. The mixing is good, I can hear every instrument clearly except the bass notes and there is very very very little distortion/clipping. Oh, also, many of the instruments sound VERY realistic. Nice! Starts you at 9/10.

NOT-SO-GOOD:
-There was only one part with any issues, which was at 2:43. Played that moment multiple times, static every time. Sounded vaguely like clipping. It's very tiny, so only a slight loss of score. -0.1

Section III - Composition - 2.5/10

GOOD: You obviously have a solid grasp of harmony and melody, and my ears did not hear any out-of-place notes. There are very good melodic ideas which were well-executed with harmonies that sounded quite good. There were no particularly special bits at all except the ending, however, which keeps this from going beyond 8/10.

NOT-SO-GOOD: Unfortunately, here's where your score suffered.
-First little issue - the small string riff from 0:29-0:42 went precisely nowhere. -0.5
-Awkward cutout transitions at 0:49-0:51, 1:36, 2:40, and 3:03, which seemed like you edited the tracks together outside of composition as their timings are slightly off. Transitions are VERY important for music, as are the intro and outro, though those had no problems whatsoever. -2
-Now, the major problem. The elephant in the room to people who've studied compositional theory. There is no theme for the piece of music. No way to tie it together except through the orchestral instruments. I assume this is meant to be a piece of multiple movements rather than a singular piece due to the transitions and differences between each section, but the transitions having little or no space between them can't make me fully think that. Even so, a multi-movement piece should have one or two main themes it plays around with so that people have something to latch onto. It also makes the entire piece 'flow' a lot more. I will not dock as many points as I would under the assumption that this is meant to be a piece with movements. -3

Average of sections, rounded: 6

Misc. Notes and possible modifiers.
-The beginning few notes in the choir (until 0:15) sounded a lot like one of the songs from Lord of the Rings. :D Nice touch there!

Final score: 6/10

This could use a bit more work, but it does sound very nice, and I can definitely see that it has potential, as do you. Much luck in your future composition, I hope to see more work from you!

-Skye Wintrest (Swint)

[The Role of the Tides]

Hello! Mastering orchestral songs, eh? Let's see what I can do to help with that. -crackknuckles-

THE GOOD:
-Those samples are fairly good. Strings are a fairly easy orchestral sample to come by, but still. Those are very nice, as are the cymbal rolls and the deep bass drum.
-I particularly like the drop at 1:37, it along with the large amount of bass swells and cymbal rolls really does fit the 'tides'. Makes me feel like I'm riding on tidal waves rolling along the ocean.
-There's a small bit of percussion in the background starting at 1:54. It seems to be going along with the harp, so I don't know whether you added it in as part of the sample, but this does sound good.

THE NOT-QUITE-AS-GOOD-AND-HERE'S-HOW-TO-I MPROVE: Hookay, sorry about this, this may be rather large.
-Your mixing and mastering DOES need to be improved. Granted, I don't have as much experience in the mixing of orchestral music, but there are a few suggestions I can make, some of which I've heard, some of which are just for mixing in general. First, try to cut out more of the middle frequencies of your instruments - many orchestral instruments are heavy in the middle frequencies, so they can overpower each other if you're not careful. Second, similar to the first, cut out all the frequencies that aren't being used in the overall mix. You DON'T need the individual instruments to sound great alone, they need to sound good together. They might sound weird alone when you do this, but honestly, it'll improve the overall mix by a lot.
-The brass samples were hard to notice, and they aren't quite as good. You could improve them quite a bit - try looking up some better ones.
-The song *is* quite repetitive. I would have loved it if you developed the chord structure, the harmonies, and the melodies a little bit more. There's also something else in the next point which would also improve it.
-As I said, related to the repetitiveness of the song is the kind of notes you're playing. They're almost all eighth and whole notes, aside from the melody. Please, please try using a few more kinds of notes in there, it would make the entire song much more interesting and complex. Granted, all the quick eighth notes give the song its rushing feel, and the whole note swells make the 'tide' feel, but as a standalone song rather than a sounndtrack, it could use something more.
-The ending is a tad abrupt. It works, but I feel like you could have some really piano strings in the background right at the end, behind the harp - they could fade away in the end as the harp ends. Just an idea there.

Overall: It's good. I like it. It's just a tad too repetitive, and muddy, even though there's no sample distortion. :< You're already pretty good at this cinematic orchestral stuff, as it would DEFINITELY be perfectly fine as the background to an animation, movie, or game (well, aside from the mixing stuff).

Hopefully this feedback has helped you.

-Swint

papkee responds:

o.o Wow. That's the kind of review I love. Thanks a bunch for the feedback!

-Yes, the instrument that goes with the harp was added. It's something I added to give the song a bit more rhythm.

-In reply to repetitiveness: I've got a bad habit of being lazy. I take a song, get a good melody, and then just beat it to the ground. And that's only because I spend a maximum of a day on each of my songs. I don't put my all into every song I make for NG. (even though I know I should) Whenever I get asked to write for a game or movie, I spend a lot more time on it. It's just an issue I will work on.

Thanks again for that wonderful review.