SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[-*}RAC{*-Franc-Maçonnerie]

Oh, hey, this loaded faster than I thought it would. Cool.

Ho-kay. On to the review!

THE GOOD:
-That initial chord is WONDERFUL. As Peppers said below me, it truly got the "French" mood across.
-Is that a harpsichord I hear in the background doing chords from 0:43-1:15?
-The transition at 0:40 leading into the first main section is also absolutely wonderful. Props for that.
-I like the little keyboard instrument coming in at 1:29. It sounds very cute.
-The groove you've got from 1:57-2:57 is really, really sweet.
-...3:05. AGHSUPERFASTNOTES. That sounds sweet. Honestly. I like it.
-The drums are very good, and the patterns you have for them work quite well with the sections.
-I like how at 2:58-3:15 you reiterated the initial melody.

THE IMPROVEABLE:
-Sometimes in the intro, the accordion-like sound had a little 'tap' right as a chord played, making it seem as if it were some kind of keyboard or organ instrument rather than an accordion. This happens at approximately 0:10, 0:11, 0:14, 0:18, 0:21, 0:22, 0:26, 0:28, 0:29, 0:30, 0:34, and 0:37. It also seemed to be some kind of bass frequency, so you might want to take an equalizer and try cutting out some of the bass frequencies.
-The intro seemed like it was going about 12 ways other than the way it actually went. I was mainly expecting the initial chord to launch into some kind of tango, actually. Overall - the main way I think this can be improved is by shortening the intro. Also, it could use a bit more variation than the three main chords with the trill repeated three times in a row - try altering the chords there if you're really going to do a chordal intro, as if you repeat the same thing too many times it gets boring. :<
-The transition at 1:15 seems out of place, kind of like you ended the song and just started up a new one.
-In the section from 0:43-1:15, there seems to be no kick whatsoever. In the later sections, the kick is extremely difficult to hear.
-In the section from 1:15 to 1:51, there's a lot of dissonant notes which don't fit in with what I had heard before, which was very consonant. I know it's jazz, but there's good dissonance and not-so-good dissonance.
-From about 1:47-1:56, it seems very odd and dissonant. :| Can't help thinking there's a lot you could have done to improve this transition. Same for 2:57-2:58.
-From 3:31-3:54, the rhythms go all over the place and are extremely inconsistent, which throws me every single time I hear it.
-The ending could have been improved quite a bit.

Overall: Cool song, the individual sections are very nice (generally, at least. The only two I didn't like were 1:15-1:51 and 3:31-3:54). I just think that it could have been tied together a lot more skillfully, and that some of the composition could have been better. I really only had one (very minor) complaint about the mixing, so that's fine. Unfortunately, since good transitions are an EXTREMELY important part of any song (in my opinion), and due to the dissonance/rhythmic oddities in the two sections I outlined, I have to give this a 3.5/5.

Hopefully this is helpful to you, and honestly - I look forward to seeing more of your work. :)

-Swint

camoshark responds:

Heyo Swint, thanks for the prompt response, as well as the big-ass review!

"-That initial chord is WONDERFUL. As Peppers said below me, it truly got the "French" mood across."

Thanks, it's really just a 7b9 chord though, feel free to integrate it in your music!

"-Is that a harpsichord I hear in the background doing chords from 0:43-1:15?"

Nope, it's a Manouche Guitar, which sounds drier than usual guitars.

"-The transition at 0:40 leading into the first main section is also absolutely wonderful. Props for that."

Good to hear, I took a lot of time making that transition work!

"-The groove you've got from 1:57-2:57 is really, really sweet."

Nice, that's actually the original song, everything else I built around.

"-The drums are very good, and the patterns you have for them work quite well with the sections."

Thanks, though these aren't premade loops like what you seem to be assuming (correct me if I'm wrong)

"-Sometimes in the intro, the accordion-like sound had a little 'tap' right as a chord played, making it seem as if it were some kind of keyboard or organ instrument rather than an accordion..."

Hmmm, did you ever try playing an actual accordion? Because an accordion IS in fact a form of keyboard, and whenever you switch chord button, it makes the click you hear to change the airflow.

"-The intro seemed like it was going about 12 ways other than the way it actually went. I was mainly expecting the initial chord to launch into some kind of tango, actually."

Though what you described would have been an awesome idea, it was not what I had in mind, especially for the fact I constructed the piece in invert procedure: I first wrote the slow middle-groove, then proceeded to fleshen-out the piece by adding a second theme (the part after the intro), and finally added the intro and finale. This made the whole creative process completely different than if I had made the intro first and progressed in a linear curve.

"Also, it could use a bit more variation than the three main chords with the trill repeated three times in a row..."

If you're referring to the three last cadenzas from the intro, I'm sorry about that, I had simply just found this chord progression, and I thought it felt very nice. I still think it sounds great, but I've somewhat restrained myself from using it as much. :P

"-The transition at 1:15 seems out of place, kind of like you ended the song and just started up a new one."

I tend to work in movements rather than in progressive development, I guess it just depends on what you prefer.

"-In the section from 0:43-1:15, there seems to be no kick whatsoever. In the later sections, the kick is extremely difficult to hear."

When playing brush drum, the kick is barely ever used, as it is too strong for the subtle play asked in the genre.

"-In the section from 1:15 to 1:51, there's a lot of dissonant notes which don't fit in with what I had heard before. I know it's jazz, but there's good dissonance and not-so-good dissonance."

Hmmm, I guess "not-so-good" dissonance is all a matter of taste, for you see, I'm a bit of a chord nut, especially. If you're interested I can PM you a detailed analysis of these chords.

"-From about 1:47-1:56, it seems very odd and dissonant. :| Can't help thinking there's a lot you could have done to improve this transition. Same for 2:57-2:58."

Those transitions unfortunately didn't get the love they deserved due to time restraints for the competition it was made for, so the fault's on me.

"-From 3:31-3:54, the rhythms go all over the place and are extremely inconsistent, which throws me every single time I hear it."

It was intended this way, as most french music has this very ambiguous rhythm that characterizes it.

"-The ending could have been improved quite a bit."

The ending was the part that most suffered from the time restraint, and I whipped it in under 15 minutes. I'm sorry to hear you didn't like it.

Again, I want to thank you for executing this so quickly, as well as making such a long review, even if a lot of points we don't agree on!

Cheers

[Bamboo Beating (remake)]

Review sent. This is actually a fairly cool techno song out of those I've heard.

THE GOOD: Sorry, there's not very many specific good things that I can comment on. :< Overall it sounds nice.
-Interesting chording, arpeggios, and some interesting timing as well.
-Nice mixing, there's very little wrong with it.
-I like the general tune of it.
-You have your facts straight, bamboo is indeed a grass. :D

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-First thing. I'm sorry, it just goes on for too long. There's a lot here, but there's not enough to last for almost 7 minutes. :< This NEEDS more variation tune-wise, feel-wise, and instrument-wise.
-Transition at 0:47 is a bit off, the chords are too suddenly different without any particular common factors to bring them together. Even a simple bassline below or a beat would have helped.
-Your drum samples. They could be a lot better than the simple FL Studio defaults. There are a LOT of free sample packs, as well as some beat machines - I recently downloaded several. If you want a VST, try looking up the DSK VSTi. I generally use DSK Drums - MachineZ.
-The outro could be improved, it's rather sudden - though part of that is because the piece kind of 'drags on' with the same kind of feel and tune for the near-seven minutes. Also, you might want to use something more than one of FL Studio's default effects.

Hopefully this is helpful!

-Review Request Club-
-Swint-

ESTAR48 responds:

Thanks a lot for your review, im totally agree with you, i know its too long, i completely know thats a mistake... And yeah, the transitions, trust me, i talked to myself that, but i dont know why i decided to leave it that way xD My great succes here, is that i improved mixing, and thats one of my common problems i have making my songs, so im glad you didnt see a problem there (yeah!!!) Drums are kinda simple i know, but i decided to leave it that way, its not a remake, its more like an extended version, but in future songs its obvious that ill put more sounds, effects, more everything, and the outro, well... its not my fault, my brother told me to do that... (i wont listen to him anymore xD) Thanks for your review! im totally agree with you, i just made this for fun, obviousle this is not my best work, and in the process i didnt put a lot my mind to it... But anyways thanks a lot! As always, your reviews are very helpful! :D

[Pugimix]

Hello. Yes, you knew it was coming. Have a review!

THE GOOD:
-A remix of a song that truly keeps the song's original feel while being very different. Very rare and difficult, I commend you for that.
-Funky! Sweet!
-The new tune of this song sounds quite nice.
-Overall, the mixing of it is nice.
-The drumbeat is really cool, much more original than some of your others.
-The pad that was in both the original and this, which can be heard at 1:01-1:06, is REALLY cool. Might I ask where you got it/how you made it? ^_^
-The intro is great.

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-The kick drum seems like it has a little too much reverb on it, I feel like you could have taken off the reverb or picked a better kick. ...actually, a different kick would have been best here.
-The way you took out the snare/high-hat at 3:03-3:09 was a little bit annoying, too many clicks!
-It's a bit difficult to hear the notes of the bass as they seem to meld together, and the bass is also a tad too electronic for my taste (though that's more a personal thing, not a real ISSUE. The bass still works great sound-wise, just pitch-wise it's a little difficult to hear properly).
-The outro could have been done a little better, though it isn't bad by any means.
-Sometimes the drumbeat can get a bit messy and overpowering, I think this is mainly caused by the reverb'd kick.
-The bass has a bit of distortion which doesn't seem to be intended on one note in a certain pattern. I initially noticed it at 1:04, though it also occurs elsewhere, like at 2:24.

Overall: Pretty darn good! I like it, it's a good remix of your song! Definitely going to download this one, like I have most of your music. :)

-Swint

[Trinity]

I started this review when this song has 3 listens, including mine. >.> ...then I had to go on a car ride out to the mountains, where I fortunately had internet to post this. LUCKY ME. :D Anyway, yeah, I listened to this multiple times to get this review done over a long time. One downside was that in the car, the bass frequencies are cut out some from the drone of the car against the road. :< I did my best with that though.

I'd do this as a time-sectioned review, but I see this is intended to be one package, so...

THE GOOD:
-Intro's fine.
-Transition at 1:12 to the next tune (since it's not at 1:07...) works great, fits fine.
-This honestly sounds as if real people are playing it. I like that. :D Kudos for it!
-That transition at 2:51 (not at 2:41...). So. Good. I love it.
-Your sounds, mixing, and overall 'feel' is good as always.
-I actually love the feel at 3:45-4:09 right before the disappointing drop. The little rolls and the tiny arpeggio at 3:51 sounds amazing.
-Like how you brought it straight back to the beginning with the reiteration of the main theme of the game.

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-The harmonies at 0:39-0:43 don't quite work as well as they could. They seem slightly off and dissonant in a way that isn't as tasteful as it could.
-The transition at 1:42 isn't all that great, surely there was a better way than simply fading everything out and coming back in.
-What I can only assume is the jaw harp coming in at 3:02 doesn't quite fit. I mean, the 'doingy' sound is cool, but it could have been placed better, I feel. :< Same goes for 4:30.
-The transition at 3:44 (hey, it's the time you said this time xD) is *very slightly* off. I do mean very slight, it's not much.
-The drop at 4:09. Sorry, it just doesn't really work. This also goes for the weird little drops before going into the end of the tune at 4:24-4:30 and 4:44-4:50. While those two are a cool idea, it just doesn't work, and really kills my 'groove' and movement of it.
-There's a note in the tune from 4:51-4:59 which seems off-key, it's at around 4:54. This goes for the second time it comes in as well.
-The drop at 5:16 is SO anti-climactic. D: It again kills the feel I had, similar to the drops at 4:24 and 4:44.
-Transition at 6:38-6:40 has the same problem as 1:42.
-This one's actually not for you but for me. I didn't feel like going through everything and commenting on all the good bits, only the ones that I thought were particularly amazing. Bad Skye. You shouldn't just comment on all the tiny not-as-good things without commenting on the tiny good things. D:

NON-NITPICKY-NOT-AS-GOOD-THINGS: Yeah, I made this its own section because I felt like it, shoosh. >w>
-ONE: Stylistic issue. The whole thing is 'epica', with only relatively tiny breaks to calmer more restful bits. Granted, this makes those little bits so much more precious, but it would have been nice if in, say, the town section, things calmed down a little bit more so people have a chance to take a breath in this 8-minute-long song. This is in contrast to the 'boss' section, which was a lot calmer than the town section, oddly. ...calm being a relative adjective, since it's still 'epica' style.
-TWO: Panning. Ok, I know you can't do much about this, and I apologize, but what would be REALLY nice is if you had the instruments in their proper places for an orchestra. To fix this even while you have a mono sound (as I assume you have so you can hear everything) is difficult, I know, but here's an idea. Look up where the instruments of the orchestra are in relation to the conductor, and then twiddle the knobs so they'd be "pointing" toward the instruments of the orchestra if the conductor is in the middle of the knob.

Ok, I have only 15 characters remaining, so I'm going to have to say bye now! :D Honestly, this is a REALLY good song, and I can hear how much effort you put into it. Don't let all my poking, prodding, scratching, clawing, and biting get you down - it's far better than 99% of the music I hear on here. Definitely better than mine.

Good luck in the future! :D

-Swint

Step responds:

Damn, this review is incredible. I could not have asked for more feedback than you've given me in this review. I regard you as one of the most capable reviewers on Newgrounds and this review just proves it! Thanks so much man!

Again I'll quote bits and pieces of this review because character limit.

"...out to the mountains"

Hope you enjoyed that, haha. I went to mountains while I was staying in Canberra the time before last that I went to Australia. I remember throwing snowballs at my little brother (who was 8 that time) and he'd keep on trying to make a snowball to throw it back to me but his hands were too small so he wasn't able to. Then my mum made him a snowball and he ran towards me excited to take his revenge and while he ran the snowball fell from his hand and dropped uselessly back in the snow!

"Transition at 1:12 to the next tune (since it's not at 1:07...) works great..."

Mhmm those two had similar melodies so I thought it'd be a good idea to add them. Also, we're both wrong, it's at 1:11. *smartass-face*

"That transition at 2:51 (not at 2:41...)"

It's actually 2:41 believe it or not! At 2:36 I started inventing my own melodies and then at 2:41 I added a melodic phrase that's found in "Song of Triumph" not the village theme, so strictly speaking it starts there.

"I actually love the feel at 3:45-4:09..."

Oh, you noticed the arpeggio, sweet! And yeah I couldn't make that part much longer since that's roughly how long it is in the original. You should check out the original songs by the way if you liked my renditions of them in this remix. I can safely say the originals are better than my remixes, haha.

"Like how you brought it straight back to the beginning..."

Mhmm, that was a structural idea I had while at the beginning of the melody. The thing about that main theme is that it has the most epic ending ever and I couldn't just finish the whole medley with another melody. I HAD to finish it with that.

"The harmonies at 0:39-0:43 don't quite work..."

Hm, I'll look into that.

"The transition at 1:42 isn't all that great"

I promise I tried as hard as I could lol. Everything I made for that transition didn't sound good. In any case, I split the song into 'parts' and used that excuse for the bad transitions, since as you probably noticed the transitions within one part are good and the transitions from one part to another are not :P.

"..the jaw harp coming in at 3:02 doesn't quite fit."

Man, I like that jaw harp. You're probably right but jaw harps sound fairly awesome so the most I'm going to do is edit it to make it fit more rather than remove it entirely.

"The drop at 4:09. Sorry, it just doesn't really work."

A lot of people don't like those drops. Others do. I personally like them, but maybe they just take getting used to, I dunno!

"There's a note in the tune from 4:51-4:59 which seems off-key"

Well, whatever it is, I'm fairly sure it's in the original so NOT MY FAULT :3. Although I may have just figured out the melody of the original wrongly, my ears are just as musical as a slice of pizza.

"Stylistic issue."

You're right about that, but I knew that if I made a lot of one part or a whole part soft, then it wouldn't have as much of an effect as the busier ones since I'm crap at making soft music. Although yeah I really need to give soft music a try.

Also, the boss music is relatively calm because the battle is split into three parts. Part 1 is when you enter the area and see a glimpse of his massive body in the water, Part 2 is when you follow it to the area where you battle it (and it's pretty passive and calm here so it doesn't fight much). Part 3 is the actual battle (http://goo.gl/rIv13), and I remixed just Part 1 and 2 since when I tried Part 3 I failed miserably.

"Panning."

I'm probably being lazy here because I know that whatever panning I do won't affect me so I just leave it out :P. I might give that a shot!

Overall, thanks a million for the FANTASTIC review. Sorry for not addressing everything you mentioned but it's surprising how quickly 4,096 characters get depleted!

[Lettin' Loose]

Review time.

THE GOOD:
-Guitar sound is pretty good.
-It's short and sweet, as you said. The tunes sound nice.

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-This doesn't really go anywhere. It plays for about 50 seconds of soloing, but there doesn't seem to really be an 'idea' to it.
-Few painful recording issues at 0:06 and 0:16-0:18.
-Overall production/recording issues. There's some background distortion, and some of the high notes are a bit overly shrill.
-This isn't so much a complaint as just a point - this seems very much like off-the-cuff guitar recording without much of an initial idea or a LOT of practice time (though I assume that, like your other song, you ran through the short idea a few times before recording).

Overall:
Not much for me to comment on. It's alright. Not something I'd listen to repeatedly, mainly due to the high-pitched painful bits and the background distortion. It gets a 6/10 from me - though that's assuming this IS off-the-cuff soloing and not a 'song', and also factors in the short length.

-Swint

gamejunkie responds:

Once again you've provided a wonderful in-depth review. Which is exactly what I asked you for, so a big thanks for that. It's fairly obvious to me that this kind of music isn't exactly your kind of music, but I have to take it as read that not everyone has the same musical tastes as me. Thanks again for a great review as always. Much appreciated.

Cheers gamejunkie.

[Xtronic]

Alright, here goes. I only have time for one review, you get it.

THE GOOD:
-I LOVE that main pad (mostly noticable in the beginning). It's really awesome. Might I ask where you got it/how you made it?
-Speaking of the beginning. That intro. Is wonderful.
-I personally think the hi-hats are fine. Don't see too much of an issue with them.
-The overall feel of the song is really cool. It fits well.
-Holy crap, this is dubstep... and it's CLEAN. Wow.
-Like the little 'record scratch' sounds in the second half of the dubstep bit.

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-First, the glaringly obvious thing. In the dubstep section, the wobbles are horribly out-of-tune. It doesn't work. Though admittedly, I've heard several dubstep songs with this, and people loved them. I *personally* dislike the off-key-ness.
-The key change at 2:59. ...sorry, but that just SCREAMS "I'm out of ideas" to me. A key change like that is generally what people do when they're out of ideas. What I'd have done here is had a different tune immediately after the dubstep section, then when you do the key change go back to the initial tune you have.
-There is only one beat for the main song and one beat for the dubstep part. Would be nice to have a bit more variation in the beat, good as it is.
-Different chord progression at some point would be nice, not counting the dubstep section (since that's so bare that it's practically no progression at all).

Overall:
Honestly, I like this. It sounds good. Heck, I'll even download it. It's definitely one of the better dubstep songs I've heard. Could be improved, of course, but still... nice work!

-Review Request Club-
-Swint-

ESTAR48 responds:

(Woah first one to like my hihats) Thanks a lot for your review, highly appreciated, these are the kinds of reviews i want, you really help me improve! Well i didnt ran out of ideas with the key change, lol it makes me laugh xD! About the pad, i downloaded somewhere, its a pad pack, but i forgot where i downloaded it (my bad memory), if i remeber or i find it again, ill tell you! Finally, im SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT EVEN IF IT WAS MY FIRST DUBSTEP! (ima about to cry, no wait, that never) Thanks a lot Wintrest!

[A New Leaf]

My turn. :D

DA GOOD:
-Not a bad intro there, it sounds quite nice.
-Speaking of the intro, that piano. Sounds. Great. It has a lot of depth to it, and a fairly realistic quality of the 'weight' in the keys. Obviously it could be improved, and isn't quite 'real', but it's pretty close for a loop.
-I like the drums, there's just one thing I'd comment on with it, which I'll get to in my DA STUFF-THAT-CAN-BE-IMPROVED section. ...also, you're getting your little brother to drum? Sweeet.
-The guitar sounds pretty good, and is more realistic than anything I could get. :P
-Tune's nice, I suppose. Definitely not bad to listen to, though it's not your best one.

DA STUFF-THAT-CAN-BE-IMPROVED:
-Alright, since I mentioned it before, I'll poke it immediately. The drums could use a few fills - don't forget those toms or ride cymbal rolls!
-I probably wouldn't have noticed the mixing issues on the bass if it hadn't been mentioned below, but yeah, they're right. There is something odd about the bass' mixing. I personally don't think it's the reverb. It might be something else I'll mention next.
-Also about the bass. The rhythms and notes seem to be slightly off. Some of the notes let go slightly later than they should, and some of the pitches are slightly off, not sure whether you intended to detune it, but whatever's going on there, it doesn't quite work.
-The strings could use a little bit more depth, and they move a little bit too fast for strings. Might be better to have a solo string like the flute doing the tune with the larger strings in the background like the guitar.
-Yes, I know it's pop, shush. Even pop can have a secondary section and another tune. This sounds nice, and I know you kept it short because there isn't another section in it (not because you only worked on it for three hours, don't tell me that's the reason. <.<). But seriously, could have at least had a little 10-15 second break to a few different chords and a different tune.
-Not sure whether the flute should have been in there. It sounds cool, yes, but it's not quite fitting for a 'pop' song. Granted, I know it's your style to do things differently, and I'd probably do it to, but still. This only applies if you were really looking for the 'pop' feel.
-If you're looking for a better bass, the basses in the default Kontakt library work great. Also, there are the Sytrus basses (some other preset packs come with pretty sweet basses), and one default FL instrument called "BooBass" that generally is pretty good. They're not the most realistic, but they are good bass sounds.

Overall: Good, good, good, could be improved a lot, but still better than most of the pop stuff I hear. I honestly don't like lyrics that much in songs unless they're done really, REALLY well.

Okay, bye now! I must be getting on the plane to Australia~ I'll be sure to work on more music on the flight there, so hopefully I'll have enough to at least preview up here.

-Swint-

Step responds:

DAMN that's an enormous review, on just 1 minute and a half of music. And it's all so detailed. Ridiculous attempt at critique my ass!

"-Not a bad intro there"

Sweet. I had that intro in mind for a while and even practised it on my piano at first.

"-Speaking of the intro, that piano. Sounds. Great."

Mhmm, that's thanks to East/West Symphonic Orchestra's really awesome Steinway piano sample. I think in every song of mine that incorporates a piano from my song Eclipse onwards there's that East/West piano sample. I wish I could record myself playing but I don't have anything to record with! :(

" ...also, you're getting your little brother to drum? Sweeet."

Yup! My dad's the one that taught him drums and he actually drummed to the song yesterday for Father's Day. He did great, and he just missed a snare hit at one point which was pretty unnoticeable anyway.

"-The guitar sounds pretty good"

Strictly speaking I think it's recorded from a real guitar so yeah it should be pretty realistic. I've used the Virtual Guitarist guitar strum samples for every song of mine that has guitar strumming, it's a pretty good VST, which is leagues cheaper than East/West.

"-Tune's nice, I suppose. Definitely not bad to listen to, though it's not your best one."

Yeah I know. Glad you liked it though haha.

"-The drums could use a few fills - don't forget those toms or ride cymbal rolls!"

You're totally right. I focused on them towards the beginning of the song but when my brother announced to me that he can drum to it I decided to not focus on them much and just repeated the patterns with a few subtle changes.

"-There is something odd about the bass' mixing."

Could be. I really had to do some weird mixing to it so it won't sound that bad as I said below.

"-Also about the bass. The rhythms and notes seem to be slightly off."

The rhythm should be only ever so slightly off since it's supposed to be humanised but I see where you're coming from with the pitch. I actually added a lot of bass slides all over the place on loads of notes. I thought they might work and I kinda like them but I guess to each his own :P.

"-The strings could use a little bit more depth, and they move a little bit too fast for strings."

I was thinking of adding background strings to the song but I thought that might make it a bit too full of depth and only added them to the intro a little. I might've been wrong! As for the notes being too fast, that's certainly a possibility, I always assume that every instrument can play as quickly as the piano but I know that's a bad assumption xD.

"-Even pop can have a secondary section and another tune."

Naw you're right. I didn't manage to think of anything to add in time without sacrificing the flow and I wanted this to be a sort of quick thing, especially since I had a tonne of studying and other music projects to catch up with :P. But yeah you're definitely right.

"-Not sure whether the flute should have been in there."

True dat, I would've made that some more pop-ish instrument like a lead guitar but I didn't have a lead guitar and as you know I can't care less about the specifics of each genre, as long as what I make sounds half-decent in my ears :P.

"-If you're looking for a better bass..."

The reason I had to use this soundfont is because I wanted to do note-sliding which only works with native FL VST's and soundfonts. But I didn't even consider using BooBass or Sytrus, so that's a really good idea. I'll keep it in mind for the future if I want to add a bass and incorporate note-sliding.

"I honestly don't like lyrics that much in songs unless they're done really, REALLY well."

Same here! From my library of nearly 1000 songs, around 8 have vocals :P.

"Okay, bye now! I must be getting on the plane to Australia~ I'll be sure to work on more music on the flight there, so hopefully I'll have enough to at least preview up here."

Haha I'm going to Australia too, on the 15th of July :P. Anyway, have fun there, and thanks a million for the fantastic review. I must find the time to review you back! Thanks again!

[Slow Madness (Loop)]

Hello. Before I begin, I'd like to note something - I change my rating and judging based on the length of the song too. The longer the song, the greater the requirements for organization and keeping interest. Of course, it changes if the song is looped or sectioned into different movements. But still.

In any case, on to this song.

THE GOOD:
-The guitar is pretty well-played, and the recording quality certainly isn't bad.
-Tune is nice, has a good peaceful quality to it. ...a bit odd considering you called this 'slow madness', but whatever.

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-Sometimes it seems to add or take away a beat or two or three.
-Some of the tunes also seem to go off-key in the progression, which can be a bit jarring until you've heard it about 5 times (well, it took that long for me, at least).
-Doesn't seem like you really worked out what you were going to do beforehand or practiced the idea before recording this - it sounds more off-the-cuff, which is mainly caused by the off-tune/rhythm bits.
-Might want to include more than simple quarter/eighth notes. Simplicity is good, but nothing but on-beat

Overall: It's alright, something I can space out to, but isn't really something amazing or specially good. Could use some more work, some more idea-polishing, and pre-recording preparation. Therefore, I give it a 2.5/5.

-Swint

gamejunkie responds:

Thanks for the review. So to summarize. This was written in less than 10 minutes, played 3 times and recorded on the 4th play through. The off key stuff is supposed to be like that. This one wasn't meant to be a fancy piece, we kept it simple for a reason. It's just something that we thought could be used in someones flash for credits or something like that. Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

Cheers gamejunkie.

[The Trecherous Knight]

Hey there! Finally getting around to reviewing this, sorry for the delay! And let's see, you already know how I review, so -clap- let's get to it then!

THE GOOD:
-Very nice samples, as usual, though that's to be expected.
-No mixing issues this time, no random little buzzing noises. :D Wooohoooooo!
-The melodies and harmonies are right on track for the most part, though there are a few little things that I'll get into.
-Nice 7/8 bit, though it's a bit misleading, since it kind of changes back to 4/4 at 0:36. This isn't a bad thing, which is why it's still in the good, just thought I'd take note of it. :)
-I like the chord progression, it's a very nice one.
-The first 29 seconds are VERY nice and build up quite well. ...after that, well, I'll speak to you about that.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD: I apologize, you're going to be getting a bit more here than usual. :<
-There's quite a bit of dissonance in the 0:29-0:36 with the violin, and it isn't your usual tasteful dissonance, as the rest of the song is quite consonant and this dissonance is out-of-place.
-The transition at 0:36 is a tad sketchy and seems unfinished. Everything just... stops. Then there's the low strings that, while sounding quite good, don't quite fit with the last bit. Everything was building up, and it sounded like some epic amazing stuff was about to happen. ...but then nothing, unfortunately.
-The second part of this seems fairly dull, and not really that fitting of the title (0:36 onward). While yes, it brings a good second section to the song, it needs a bit more ambition, and as I said, a better transition to it. To tell the truth, it seems like you had the great idea for the first part of it, and then realized "...crap, I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of this".
-From 1:10 to 1:20, it seems fairly dull and there's too little going on.
-After 1:20, the lead-up to the end where it loops is rather simple, and it's seems like you actually started the song at... 1:24, and then used Audacity or a similar program to put that at the end, looping some of the actual song's end into it. Could be a tad cleaner.

Other than that, you're good. This could use a lot more work than your other songs, it really does seem like you had a lack of inspiration, and though the majority of it sounds really consonant and well-done, there is one part that's dissonant, as I said.

Good luck!

-Swint-

samulis responds:

The truth of the matter was, I hit the roof with the velocity of the instrument and was getting some peaking issues, as well as the fact that adding a third buildup would probably seem a bit too much in my opinion... besides, the transition into that quiet counter in C popped into my head and I didn't want to go too far past a minute, as it is a mere game loop.

I know you like longer pieces with more ideas, but game loops seem to be more direct and without too much motion. Yes, one of these days I will write a long continuous piece to satisfy all those people who keep bothering me about not developing themes enough. XD

The ending was actually built in Finale itself, so no fancy post-editing there (I only use Soundbooth to convert songs and check them for peaking issues, my process is very WYHIWYG). A short buildup is, at least in my eyes, one of the best ways to make a seamless loop... and that loop is pretty darn tight compared to other 'looping' songs.

Thanks for your great review though, as always. It's good to hear some good critique on what I should work on for future pieces. :)

-Samulis