SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cybernetics]

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:

- So, the first thing that REALLY sticks out at me is how the melodic synth playing during this piece is so... completely disconnected from the underlying chord progression. You may find a lot of use in how melodies are constructed through western classical voice leading theory. Specifically, melodies are built out of chord tones on major beats, while tones outside of the chord are used as ornamentation and passing tones on the way to another chord tone. This makes sure that the most impactful notes are part of the chord and harmonize, whereas notes outside of that structure are used to transition and aren't held for too long. This is a really easy way to make a harmonic melody, and exploring beyond that point can be done with more clear intention.

- The second thing I notice is that this piece seems to be very dark outside of the higher pitch synth. I think you'll find a lot of value out of analyzing DnB music like this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbWiv6SMt4 Let's do some together to work on your sound design! To start with, notice how the bass modulates rather than being a single distorted synth, and focuses on lower mids for distortion. To start with, automated filter sweeps, waveshaping, ring modulation, and bitcrush distortion should give you a LOT of room to play around with bass modulation. FM is also good to explore into. However, secondarily - notice how in the second half, they have a clear focus on the drums and bass completely, using the higher frequencies to get really crispy snares and high hats, as well as some higher-end distortion on their longer bass-focused sections. The variation in this piece comes from the rhythmic changes as well as the different types of bass modulation. In fact, there's essentially no melody and very little in the way of chords either - yet it stays varied, wide, and engaging!

Compliments to the Composer:

- You clearly have ideas about the type of music you want to make, and some ideas of how to bring in distorted bass. At times when it doesn't focus so heavily on treble frequencies, the bass growls are very engaging. In general, this fits your sound palette quite a bit, and I find myself enjoying the listen!

Final score: 5.5

[E]

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:

- First of all, some mixing tips - your bass is SO far into the subs a lot of the time that it can be barely perceptible relative to the rest of the music. This also can sound very... weird and flabby with the rumbly texture of the waveform at 0:13 and 1:04. As TheDayGoes mentioned, the kick and bass don't quite fit together - and in dance music and electronic music with drops in general, having a good solid "basis" in the form of bass makes it much better (think of it like a building - the bass is literally the foundation, the mids are the structure on top of it, and the highs are typically the decoration and ambience). Low mids tend to be a good point for the 'growl' of basses to express, and the lower bass is more of the foundational notes for chords. If you look into how harmonics work for frequencies, you'll see why! Just be careful with making tracks too bassy, and use sidechaining to keep bass from muddying up your kick drums.

- In terms of composition, this seems to mostly be the same idea repeated twice, and in the second half the melody instrument switches to arpeggios. There is quite a bit more that can be done here - variation in the melody, more exploration in the sound design through the drops, trying a different drumbeat, using a different chord progression to recontextualize the existing melody... many methods would allow you to tweak the breakdown and second drop in order to help it remain interesting and engaging for listeners both times, without feeling like a complete repeat.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Your wobbly pad is quite nice, and the filter sweep opening it up for the drop is certainly effective. It's really useful as a way of bringing interest to the drop that doesn't exist as much beforehand. I think my favorite bit of sound design especially though are the very quiet echoing bells starting at 0:50 and showing up as especially audible in the outro. These are VERY lovely and have some wonderful harmonies, making me wonder why they didn't exist at a slightly higher volume or used as an instrument to provide some atmosphere through more of the piece. They have such a wonderful texture!

Final score: 5.5

MauveDash responds:

Good to know! And yeah, this kind of was rushed out

[Naux]

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:

- Let's start with the melody! You have chords and melody, but... they're a tad disconnected from one another, especially in the first section. A good way to check your melody for relatively simple ones is to check and make sure each major note of the melody (such as those on downbeats) is on a chord tone, with other notes used as embellishments and passing tones between them. This becomes less of an issue later in the piece... but the rhythm instead gets very disjointed starting at 1:18. There are some examples of pieces with very odd rhythms (such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2GeYwvqPv4) but they also tend to revolve around this entirely, delaying and altering other aspects of the piece to fit around them. If you do plan to experiment quite this much with rhythm, I would highly recommend analyzing other pieces focused on experimental rhythm to see how they remain recognizeable and not overly disorienting.

- And let's move on to mixing! So, I see you already had a review mentioning the mixing of this track a bit - however I'd like to really dig into this in detail. There are actually a couple factors leading to different sections sounding very... different in terms of loudness. The first section has a lot of high peaks but is otherwise relatively empty, so it has spikes in loudness. The later sections, however, seem to be compressed quite strongly and also have very boomy bass (possibly with reverb). This actually results in the effective loudness being greater on a consistent basis compared to the individual loud drum hits in the first section. In either case... either too much compression or not enough, there needs to be more balance here - and importantly, there also needs to be less reverb and boom in the bass later. That can really mess up a mix and make it feel much louder than it otherwise would. It can also be rather straining on the ears.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Okay, seriously though, I do actually really like the first section outside of the melody. The later sections have some very neat sounds and can be quite intense (as I believe the intent was). The chords aren't bad either, and some of your drum loops like the one clearly audible around 2:00 are very nice and tasteful.

Final score: 5.5

Iosun responds:

hello, thanks for review! i have to say a few things in response to it
-the rhythm is disjointed on purpose, largely because it's part of my design philosophy of attempting to work mistakes i make into the final process. usually it doesnt work out but I think this one still worked as a decent bridge section. Chords are resampled from a friend, because this piece originally started in a sample flip challenge. they ended up really harsh and loud and I couldn't figure out how to work them in correctly without compressing them to hell, so I just rolled with it and did my best.

as for the mixing issues, that's a thing I noticed when exporting and didn't take the time to fix because I'm just not a very good mixer. there shouldn't be reverb on the bass, I don't know what you're hearing there, but I am running a layered bass so there might have been some overlap. i am not a mixing expert or even much of a mixing beginner, which means I end up with a lot of limiters and I think that's what you ended up hearing.

again thanks for review, i'm glad you spend so much time writing things that are helpful to new composers

[The Old Era]

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:

- Unlike many other tracks, I only have one substantial piece of criticism for you, on the topic of variation and sustaining interest. House music isn't really known for being particularly varied, but it DOES have some - in fact, the best tracks often have some variation (or at least lyrics to create "variation" even if it isn't in the music itself). While you actually have excellent dynamic variation and breakdowns, you keep quite a few things the same between pretty much every section of the piece... the chord progression, rhythm, and melody. The drops themselves are almost identical, with only a single addition of a countermelody in the second drop. All of this could generally work, with some minor tweaking such as stretching the progression, using a melody that varies over more than 8 measures, or having a couple minor harmony changes during breakdowns - however, the way that works would be best expressed with an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGdDpMYS7sA In this track, there is MUCH more substantial variation in terms of the instrument types, textural depth, and modulation of those instruments. There is also more atmosphere rather than just reverb. All of these things will help keep your track engaging over its playtime. It may also be worth expanding beyond the conventional repetition of the genre to explore fresh territory!

Compliments to the Composer:

- Really, this is a solid, competently-made track. The mixing is clean, the melody is repetitive but solid, the drops have a good initial impact and maintain the intensity well, there are varied instruments and an enjoyable sound palette... I'm curious where you can explore and expand your music beyond its current quality and style as you have a great foundation to build from.

Final score: 9

Fumijena responds:

thanks for the feedback, i appreciate it !

[Gusty Garden Galaxy (Remix)]

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, love the original theme! Nice choice to remix. I think it might be worth your time to study why the original track made the choices it did in terms of writing. Just taking the opening for example, the first riff has very SHARP and clear initial impacts to each note, especially the final descent. After that, the melody has a very flowing, legato feel. In both cases, this is achieved firstly by having an articulation that fits the intent (snappy and sharp for the first riff, slower and less sharp for the second, with a stronger sustain) and also by varying the velocity of individual notes. The reason I specify this is that you seem to be going for a remake of the original in tone, character, and function - so applying your instruments appropriately is very important!

- Speaking of instruments, I'd like to also mention instrumentation quality here. It's certainly understandable to use many relatively simple sampled instruments for the theme as an independent producer, but the bell and pluck synth used can definitely be improved on in context. For example, the pluck at 1:08 doesn't blend particularly well with other instruments in the remix and is very thin in this isolated context. The bell and pluck also don't blend in the following section, the pluck in particular at 1:44. For the pluck, I would recommend using something with longer decay and a less sharp sound - a square or even a triangle wave may work quite a bit better as the basis. Flutes or other woodwinds might also work better for the notes this pluck plays. The bell isn't quite as bad, but it does still detract from the sound. Perhaps try an acoustic vibraphone or celeste instead, to fit in with the rest. Regardless of what instruments you use, keep in mind that the original melody and writing needs to be tweaked to better fit the sound you have.

Compliments to the Composer:

- This is actually pretty well-done, regardless of what I mentioned in the criticisms. I don't hear many mixing issues at all aside from small ones and you kept a lot of the feeling intact. In fact, it almost sounds like it could be a midi rendition of the original! The mix is also pretty well-balanced, and pretty much all of your active instruments are audible and noticeable at any given time, which is excellent. As a side note, however, please make sure you are submitting an original work if you make it to the next round, rather than a remix! I couldn't comment on the composition or melodic content very much since the majority sounds almost directly taken from the original.

Final score: 6.8

Fox4567 responds:

Thank you!!

[Terminus Eternity]

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:

- So, you have some really really neat sounds like the sampled echoey vocals and pan flute instrument - however, a lot of your other instruments are very basic and sound much like preset FL Studio instruments. I would highly recommend seeking some higher quality acoustic instruments and drums, as well as exploring synthesis (especially if this is intended to be synthwave!) in the form of supersaw or triangle-based pads, as they tend to fit synthwave music quite a bit. Learning the basis of synthesis techniques would also help tremendously in blending your instruments together to have a really tasteful sound palette.

- It's very easy to get stuck in the trap of repetitive chord progressions. Cyclical four-chord progressions are incredibly common in pop music genres, but they aren't something that should necessarily stay the exact same for an entire piece. In general, you may want to look into having some variance in your chord progression for "B" sections (even within climactic sections) and potentially for the breakdown/bridge. Even just having some substitution chords you can throw in place of an existing chord at regular intervals would help out in sections where you don't have a fully different progression. On a similar note, it may be worth checking your chord progression and harmonic lines and comparing them to other pieces of music. Writing down the midi from other pieces can help you analyze what makes harmonic lines work or not.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, I *really* love that vocal sample, and the pan flute reminds me of one I used when I was first making music, quite lovely. I should remember that they exist, haha. Otherwise, the organization of the piece is lovely and I appreciate that you do distinguish between the two separate climaxes of the track.

Final score: 4.5

FLAVOUR-STAR responds:

Some samples (electric guitar and acoustic guitar) were actually not high-quality samples. All the others were from Native Instruments, Massive, and Reaktor. It's true, I left everything default with the synthesizers because I'm not familiar with them. I really should learn the basics of synthesis techniques. Thanks for your constructive review.

[Essence]

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:

- Let's start with the composition here. Your chords stay same throughout the piece, without any variation - even in dance music, there tend to be secondary chord progressions during the breakdown and to continue the drops more effectively. However, even more than that, your melody is somewhat aimless. It seems to take the form of ABAC, but the B and C sections don't particularly 'conclude' anything. A couple ways that can improve your melodic writing are (1) writing out melodies from songs you like to get a feel for how they sound and (2) trying to SING your melodies. If it doesn't feel good to sing or especially even hum, it tends to not be as good since that can keep the track from being very memorable.

- Let's also look at your builds and drops. The drops you have are fairly simple and calm, not actually providing much contrast to previous sections. Especially notice how at 0:40, you have a build going up until 0:45 with a lovely drum fill, but after that doesn't change the sound palette much or dig into the sub-bass to make the sound bigger for listeners. Try filtering and removing bass as you go through transitions to make the drop more impactful, and add some sub-bass as well as using a larger background sound to really achieve an IMPACT. This also hooks the listener and helps them remember your piece, since they'll have a cathartic dopamine hit from the drop releasing tension built in the buildup.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, solid sound design and general arrangement here. Even if there isn't enough contrast, you have some lovely plucks and build into your drops, even with a breakdown later to provide space between the first and second drops. Really nice effort and a solid job, you have a good foundation to work on more music in the future!

Final score: 7

FirechompGD responds:

Thanks!!I will definitely keep making music,also I try to make it as less tracks as possible since I only use a mobile phone(since my daw only has 14 total tracks in general).i hope that I could try FL studio on pc someday..

[Beautiful Storm]

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:

- First things first, you'll want to fix up your mix. You have solid relative dynamics and sound design here, but it can get buried under how loud everything is mixed during the climaxes. This can be fixed by putting a bit more work into levelling, but also by reducing the volume of ALL tracks prior to doing your limiting by roughly -10dB to give headroom, then restricting your limiter to a threshold of -1.1dB to keep the track from exceeding -1.0dB. You'll likely find a lot of details that became buried such as the arpeggios you have in the background (or the toms at 3:50!), and perhaps more that are no longer audible. Speaking of this mix... the rain sound you have seems to be panned primarily to the right, and also sounds noisy like it's a mp3 file. It might be worth recording a new sample of rain and thunder.

- Second general point is the composition. I see the inspiration from Panda Eyes, and it works quite well - but let's also look at how the drops are structured. There's some variance in the gating (and whether it's gated at all), as well as the specific arpeggios used in the drops. However, there doesn't seem to be any variation in the melody or, importantly, the chord progression. Try adding even a single extra note to one or two chords in the second and third drops, and you might find that you can add a whole new countermelody in the third drop as well, to contrast the earlier ones. As a point of comparison, here is a Panda Eyes track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg1qZq5yjps Notice how in the later drops, there is variation to contrast with earlier sections while keeping the beat and other elements the same, including filtering the 'wall of sound', using some different rhythms and bass design, changing the chord progression to new base keys, and even adding additional similar melodies. This is a hard thing to balance, but highly worth developing!

Compliments to the Composer:

- For the most part, you definitely nailed the sound palette. It's expansive, you're using similar filtering, and you have a lead and growly bass to sit underneath the wall of sound which both are very reminiscent of Panda Eyes. Your composition and mix also aren't BAD by any means, despite the points of critique above. A lot in your drops is still balanced and clear, you have a clear melody, and no offensive dissonance throughout. Great job!

Final score: 8.8

[Liddle Boug]

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:

- I'm really not even sure of what to make of a lot of the composition here, but probably the biggest point I'd make is that it seems rather... aimless. The cause of this is generally the lack of chord and hypermeasure organization. Normally in music, chord progressions tend to have a fairly recognizeable structure that guides listeners through the piece. The issue here is that the chords never tend to reach a 'point of arrival' which a listener can latch onto and feel satisfaction. Similarly, a lot of the measures don't... have a clearly defined pattern to their meter. Some sections seem to be 8 beats, some seem to be 12, some seem to be 6... but nothing really consistent. In general, this piece seems to be a collection of loose ideas with extremely vague structure from the steady drums. This results in a lot of the ideas concluding and transitioning very awkwardly, and generally leads to the piece feeling aimless as mentioned.

- Secondly, the mixing tends to be a little bit lackluster. Everything is audible but it's often very thin. The track could use a tad more bass and limiting to make sure the instruments are levelled appropriate to other music (approximately -1dB). Quite frankly, limiting would make this quite a bit better already, but a bit of extra bass would make the drums feel thicker and the overall track more 'grounded'.

Compliments to the Composer:

- For all the oddities of organization and the thin feeling of the mix... this is really really cute and I actually love a lot of how it sounds. A lot of ideas are not quite awkward enough to keep them from being adorable and listenable, so they feel very pleasant. In fact, this REALLY reminds me of the Pikmin soundtracks, as well as some of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. If you want to continue working on this style of music and haven't heard those soundtracks, I would highly recommend it!

Final score: 6

[EverythingYouWish - Battle]

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 there, this track makes a couple of fairly common mistakes for amateur musicians, which I'd like to go over to hopefully help out with. First of all, it absolutely abuses reverb. Notably, the high base volume of the instruments and particularly bass, combined with a flood of reverb, results in a really 'blown out' sound that has a wall of sound but... not much detail to it. Think of reverb like a blur tool for image editing. Blur can make colors feel 'bigger' and have them take up more room, but a lot of the time you still need clear and sharp lines to contrast with the blurred colors. Similarly, reverb makes instruments feel 'bigger', but that isn't always a good thing and it can mask errors in composition and sound design. Clear, sharp sounds also should punch through reverb and guide the listener to know what they should focus on. This is typically used for bass (since reverb on bass often causes mixing troubles as well) and lead/melodic instruments, as their melodies need to be clear and recognizeable.

- The second major issue going on with this track is aimlessness. You typically have a decent chord progression going on with the strings in the background, so that would be a great first step to use western classical voice leading techniques and make a decent melody to start you off on a solid foundation. Essentially, the lowest note (the bass) and the highest note (the 'soprano', typically) are the most recognizeable notes in your chord. The middle notes flesh it out and provide a bit of extra context, but aren't what listeners are drawn to. Once you have a chord progression like you do in those background strings, you can write a melody by choosing a chord tone for every single beat where a chord starts. In between those beats, you can add a passing tone to go from one note to another, or an ornament of a note one step above or below the next chord tone. Using the same scale of 7 repeating notes will also help keep your instruments harmonizing as you compose.

Compliments to the Composer:

- This track really does have a solid pumping feeling to it as you go through the 'battle', and it differentiates between sections as well, which is excellent. It's also quite good that you seem aware of having consistent melodies, though don't forget to vary them up as well! Give some good game soundtracks a listen and try to remake them in midi to see how their melodies and harmonies are constructed.

Final score: 3

EverythingYouWish responds:

Thank you for your thoughtful review! I will keep this criticism in mind the next times I compose.