SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Glowing Up]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- A couple of production quality points. First of all, you seem to have mastered this to -0.0dB, whereas -1.0dB is the typical standard. This can result in some distortion and far more potential concern about distortion from clipping. Additionally, many audio platforms will mix the volume down to try and keep the loudness roughly the same as other tracks. Secondly, you have quite a bit of reverb applied to many of your instruments, seemingly including some of the bass modulation. Definitely be aware that this can make it harder to include other details in your drops and can result in somewhat 'flat' sound as reverb essentially blurs the frequencies around it into a more homogenous sound.

- Second point I'd like to make is in regard to repetition. Most of your drops and climaxes in this track tend to be mixed at the same dynamic volume, and the chord progression doesn't change throughout the entire track, nor does the melody. While dubstep doesn't always need constant variance, it is typically better to have a bridging chord progression or at least some alteration to the rhythmic emphasis of it. Similarly, countermelodies or melodic variations help add continued interest for long pieces, and making the final drop your most intense dynamically and rhythmically will make it feel like the song has really been building the entire time, helping people enjoy the ride and feel a really powerful dopamine hit as the building tension of the whole piece is released in that final climax.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, for all those points - you do have some really neat bass wobbles and variation in how you use them. The melody is solid, production quality is solid, nothing is painfully loud despite the high volume mastering, and the reverb doesn't cause too many issues. I really enjoyed this track, and think that as you develop as a musician and work more variety into your mixes, you'll be able to get some really high quality dubstep out into the world.

Final score: 8.2

[ERTLOOP]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- This track really needs a bit... more to it. At the moment, it's a 24-second loop that does not loop cleanly. There isn't really enough to even comment on the arrangement.

- That guitar is having some fun noodling, but it should probably at least follow the chord progression laid out by the bass. Around the exact middle, it starts going into dissonant notes that don't seem to fit the existing scale being used or the base chords that the bass implies.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Decent sound effects in the first half, decent drums in the second half. Guitar provides some nice ambiance and the acoustic quality is decent. Bass is a bit loud but perfectly alright. Just not much to work with.

Final score: 2

[Deus Ex Machina]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- This develops a little... too slowly. Every change comes in 8 measure looped chunks. While there's nothing wrong with organizing sections like this, there needs to be variation within sections to maintain interest. In tracks that slowly add and remove elements, the elements themselves often have some kind of modulation to evolve over time, and/or have syncopation to keep them interesting. For example, a delay or slow filter sweep opening up a lowpass gives the listener some feeling of development. Drum fills will also add some variation in the middle of loops to maintain engagement. Phaser and flanger use is also extremely common in synthwave and adds some easy audible variation. For examples of literally all of these, try listening to this synthwave track as a reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVkZAftv9NI

- You definitely may want to have some variation in chord progression. At the moment, it only trades off between two chords alone, with very clear changes between them and transposition of the melody rather than weaving the melody inside the progression in its own way. Try adding some contrast between sections with a different chord progression, countermelodies, or even some changes in the drumbeat.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Quite honestly, there isn't anything particularly wrong with this track aside from how flat it is. The mixing is solid even if the bass is slightly boomy, the sounds themselves aren't bad from a basic standpoint, the actual arrangement and progression of elements doesn't have anything in particular wrong with it. It's a perfectly average track.

Final score: 6

[Martian Mummies (GD Cut)]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- You have a couple things to work on with the mixing and sound design. First of all, the volume is definitely a bit too much. While instruments are audible through each other, they can be a tad muddy and actually lose detail from how overly loud everything is. Remember, there's only so much data a mp3 file can hold! (especially one at a lower quality like this) As TL also said in his review, the attack on the initial synth is a little much with the resonant filter envelope. A lot of other instruments can be a tad too much in terms of high frequencies like the bitmunched synth during 1:45, though this is also quite possibly due to overly intense volume. The same does apply for some of the lower bass instruments - remember that overly loud high treble & sub-bassy frequencies can be painful for listeners, especially those with audio outputs that favor certain frequencies. Try reducing all instruments by around -10dB, then limiting with a threshold of around -1.1dB.

- TL also comments on the arrangement of the piece, and I fully agree with him. Let's dig into WHY It's important, though. Music, stories, even visual art is founded on contrast and guiding the person experiencing the art through that experience. Visual art uses sharp lines, blurs, color contrast, angles, perspective... all of this to draw the observer's eye to intended areas. Stories and music, however, follow a different type of organization as they're experienced over longer spans of time. In stories, you typically follow the order of: Intro -> Rising Action -> Smaller Climax -> Break -> Rising Action -> Full Climax -> Falling Action -> Epilogue. Music can be structured the same way, with an introduction, build, climax, breakdown, build, climax, wind-down and outro. This is applied almost universally in pop genres, with variable length in sections, possibly a third climax, etc. However, there typically contrast between not just the individual sections, but also the same sections at different times. The later climax is also the most intense and/or emotional section of the piece. While you have contrast in the specific sounds used during the different sections, there isn't much of any contrast in harmony or dynamic intensity between these climaxes. To improve, I would highly recommend listening through a few pieces of music you find inspiring and see how they maintain interest over time through variation.

Compliments to the Composer:

- There are some really neat sounds in this track, especially the bass modulation. I particularly love sounds like 0:39 for how much they really break the sound up in a unique way. While the piece is loud, it does also tend to be mixed in such a way that individual instruments are all audible, something that gives you a very solid foundation to fix up the volume excess. I do also love attempts at fusion genres, so respect for that as well!

Final score: 5.5

J-XVII responds:

Okay

[The Mist (Chill Trap Beat)]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Hip hop has one major weakness. Without vocals, it tends to be far less engaging, since that is where the primary focus of the piece is in the EXTREME majority of cases. Unfortunately, that does impact this track quite a bit, since it is effectively constructed out of one or two loops with some harmonic outlines around it. There is lovely variance in sections (really nice, actually), just keep in mind that there needs to be some kind of melody, rap vocals, etc to properly differentiate between sections. It would also be good to have a clear shift in harmony for a bridge section to provide some additional contrast.

- I'm also REALLY confused about the... 30 seconds of silence at the end??? These types of export errors can and SHOULD be fixed either in the DAW if a setting was incorrect), or afterwards in a regular audio editor like Audacity or OcenAudio.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, aside from the apparent export error and lack of variation/development from this being the base of a full hip hop track, the actual sound that's here is very tasteful. Your drums are pretty decently mixed, working effectively with panning. Your higher frequency sounds are pleasant, the pad is calm and really fits the whole "mist" vibe, and the filters for variation are fantastic ways to temporarily break up the repetition outside of lyrics/melody/chord progression/etc. Really nice, I'd certainly enjoy hearing this completed.

Final score: 7.2

[BGZ - Nostalgia (NGUAC Entry)]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Oh goodness, okay, right away - this needs to be mixed and levelled better. See how the waveform doesn't even fit in the newgrounds player? This is because your peaks are FAR too high, to the point that it's audibly causing severe distortions in the sound. Notice how everything crunches and ducks when the kick comes in, and there's distortion in even the initial piano chords? They're far too loud. Later in the drops, many sounds actually become buried under the sheer amount of noise and distortion. Fortunately though, this is actually a fairly easy fix! Right away, before you export - drop ALL your levels down by at least -10dB. Then, apply a limiter with a threshhold of -1.1dB. Take care to make sure your sound isn't distorted very much and you're simply bringing your instruments up with the makeup gain. The goal isn't to sound super loud, but to match your peak loudness to other music in the same genre.

- Quite frankly, this could also use more variance. A lot of dubstep music does actually use varying bass modulation in the different drops, while keeping some general consistency overall in terms of rhythm, chord progression, sound design, etc. You can absolutely mix it up and develop your ideas rather than simply repeating them exactly, using some substitution chords or a melody and/or countermelody to contrast with the earlier sections. This helps maintain interest through the whole piece.

Compliments to the Composer:

- In general, you keep everything harmonized well (I think, it's a little hard to hear under the distortion) and your bass design is pretty decent, more than enough to start developing a dubstep drop with just one or two more types of wubbly wobbles. The mix is definitely the biggest thing that needs attention, and once that's fixed up you'll have a really decent listenable piece, I think.

Final score: 4

[Blood Surfing]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Dynamic variation is the first thing I'd like to discuss here. Right away, it's visibly obvious that this track doesn't have much variation in terms of dynamics. The volume and loudness is essentially the same through the entire piece after the introduction. There are a couple reasons why this is relevant, and it's not just about volume, but musical organization. Specifically, a wall of sound is particularly effective if it has a point of contrast. You seem to know this as you do have clearly differentiated sections showing variation. This is excellent, and it speaks directly to the point of having a bit of dynamic variance as well. The same sound can get boring, or even fatiguing - electronic music has breakdowns because of this, and many extremely intense metal epics still have breaks, such as in... this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8KjwP22x2s Notice how it's absolutely full of various flavors of "intense" until about 2 minutes in, where it takes a relative break... and a much more clear and long break from the intensity at around 5 minutes, to give the listener a chance to breathe and process what they had just experienced.

- Let's look at your mix as well. There's a clear lack of bass throughout the track. There's some bass in the kick, but this genre really relies on having a solid bass guitar to give weight to the more detailed chords rather than basing it on the kick as much. Even in brighter mixes like the example before, the kick is relatively subdued in terms of bass and combines with the bass guitar in lower mids and bass frequencies to give weight to chords.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Your riffs are simple but solid, the guitar tone is pretty tasteful even if it could use more bass, and you don't overuse reverb or anything. This is clearly a really solid foundation, and I think you can continue your development of this genre to reach the heights of PirateCrab or other newgrounds metal producers for certain. You got this!

Final score: 7.5

Introverse responds:

Thank you very much for such detailed feedback. It's rare to hear opinion which is longer than 2 sentances theese days. And it's especially rare to find people who actually understand different music genres quite well, so it was very interesting to read your feedback. Glad you took the time to listen. I'll try to improve as much as I can. Cheers!

[Chickensquid Derby]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- This is peculiar. I think the first thing that I'd recommend is to do some limiting on this track. The volume is quiet enough, you could literally slap a limiter on with a threshold of -1.1dB to bring it up to the same volume as typical music at its peaks, and it would expand the amount of audible detail by quite a bit, allowing quieter details to be loud enough they're audible. There are so many neat little noises in this that really deserve some extra space to breathe in this track.

- As cool as this track sounds, it really focuses on the one rhythm introduced at the beginning, without much variation or contrast to it. Tragically, I don't have a piece of music (...one that's online at least) which I can use as a point of comparison here. However, switching to a more conventional "contrast" rhythm can provide a point of comparison to really enjoy the syncopation you're using in the bass for this track, and show how the melodic and harmonic instrumentation fits into that framework as well by recontextualizing it. You could also simply drop the rhythm and provide some enjoyment of those funky interesting chords you're using for a bit, just letting the listener rest for a moment from the constant industrial beat.

Compliments to the Composer:

- God, this is funky. And syncopated. And has a weird sound palette. And it GROOVES with some really cool chords. Honestly, while variation would be nice, just getting to hear the sounds limited to normal volume to let all their smaller details breathe would be phenomenal. This track is REALLY cool, and I want to hear more of this stuff for absolute, 100% sure, rather than just keeping it on loop for twenty minutes. Please for the love of the Fulp make more like this.

Final score: 9

[AIM - Skybound]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Probably the first thing that really needs to be addressed is how overly intense the drop is compared to the sections immediately before and after. This issue boils down to development and transitions (and also maybe dropping down the impact of those drums just a smidge, the sidechaining already lends them extra force). For an example, let's look at a classic from Newgrounds! xKore's track Eden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk8RGFN5txg Notice how the drums are introduced first, without much more beyond that - this introduces the intensity of them without overwhelming the listener right away, showing how intense things will be and lending energy before the build and drop. At about 1 minute in, we get to the build - something that's actually completely missing in your track. This starts introducing the bass and amps up the energy in preparation for the actual drop (which has a B section, keeping interest throughout the full length). After the drop, the drums remain and it keeps a small portion of the bass to maintain energy while reducing it and giving a relative rest before the build and drop essentially repeat the exact same thing before ending. This shows a dynamic curve and development to ease the listener into the higher intensity and allowing them to process what they just experienced with the breakdown afterwards.

- A second point I'd like to make is with regard to the overall sound palette. This is a dubstep song. Typically, these introduce some bass presence early to make sure people know what they're listening to, and allow a little more of the higher frequencies to be filled up by drums like snares and high hats rather than arpeggios (with exceptions, like single moments of variation at the end of every 2 or 4 measures to keep it fresh and remind listeners of the melody). These arpeggios and the plucks take up an awful lot of the treble frequencies and actually reduce the impact of the snare a bit, with the poor high hats being VERY background. The final section of your drops actually fit this much better, with the dubstep wobbles becoming clearer and giving the spotlight to the bass, since the focus on bass is actually one of the most core components to dubstep. If you look up the origin of the "dub" part of dubstep, you'll find out why!

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, the sound wall in the drop is really good, and your bass wobbles are very nice. The bass in particular definitely deserves some extra love! I don't hear any dissonances, and your intro is very lovely as well. It contrasts quite nicely with the heavier drop sections. I'm curious how this would sound with a full build into the drop and development to fit it all together!

Final score: 7.5

[Incise ~ Starburst]

Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Hey, since you mentioned the mix in the description itself, I think I can immediately identify one of the things causing some difficulty - your saw wave plucks have a LOT of bass to them, and the bass in general is really boomy. Bass tends to be best applied with less stereo separation and/or reverb, and it seems you can tell this to some extent due to the intensity of the sidechaining. However, it would actually be quite a good idea to turn this bass down for a few reasons - first of all, this much bass will fill up your dB levels, but not your loudness or detail as much. In a musical waveform, only so much information can be apparent, and human sound perception focuses on the mids rather than the low bass frequencies - so enough low bass, and the relatively higher mid frequencies won't actually have the volume space to show their stuff. Honestly, the rest of your mix is relatively clean so this should help it out a LOT.

- So, something interesting I've found that might help out your drops is that syncopated drumlines like you have in the second drop actually tend to be LESS intense and climactic than the more steady four-on-the-floor beat you have in your first drop. The reason for this tends to be that a constant influx of energy DRIVES the music forward, found in the form of constant kick drum (and snare) impacts. By contrast, syncopated rhythms have pauses in the energy they impart to the music, and it becomes unsteady - which is a phenomenal sound, but doesn't really DRIVE a drop. It's very intense, but a really good point of comparison is this absolutely insane artist called Camellia. Give this track a listen and compare the earlier and later drops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXCM3mmgto The shift at 2:35 moves to a steadier and less syncopated drumbeat, and it ends up being more intense... relative to the later one at 4:09 which is DEFINITELY more intense due to the arpeggios but also the constant 4-on-the-floor kicks. It might be at a fast pace in this song, but this principle absolutely applies all across different bpms!

Compliments to the Composer:

- I was a bit iffy on the chord progression at first but, you actually handled it really well. You have some really tasteful development of rhythms and great breakdowns with the thick plucks. This track is really satisfying, and I'd really love to hear more in this style, exploring syncopation and variation of ideas a bit more as well. That camellia track has some INCREDIBLE idea development and shows just how many things you can cram into one piece of music. (he has other incredible stuff too, definitely worth checking out for inspiration if you like it - they're not all quite that fast if you look at his earlier stuff!)

Final score: 8.3

Incise responds:

ah, a camellia lover as well

- i used a reese bass throughout the whole track, it could be the main cause of all the issues you pointed out. thanks for pointing it out!

- for the second bridge and drop, i tried to use the image of conflict as the baseline for the drumbeat, though i think my poor mixing didn't really convey the image nicely. your example and explanation were nice too, definitely expanded my understanding on syncopation and rhythm.

i'd really love to hear your thoughts on the harmonic structure of the track, if you're not too busy. i'm still learning and exploring new ideas on harmony, thank you for the thorough review! :)