SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Aokigahara]

Hey there. Some general commentary on your song for NGAUC.

-Very nice guitar to begin. Very pretty, excellent move to stereo and a decent transition to rock.
-Only thing I don't like about the intro is that the distorted guitar really buries the acoustic playing behind it - might want to see about editing that a bit, as I could see it causing some mixing problems if there were any more detail than chords.
-I do really like how the drums go along with the rest of the piece, and the transition at 2 minutes in is very well done, especially with how it progresses to 2:20, though the snare drum is very buried.
-Whoah shit, when 3:07 hit my jaw simultaneously hit the floor. This is a fantastic blend. It reminds me a lot of Bajo el sol, sobre las rocas, by InYourDreams. You should look that up on here.
-Overall excellent blending of acoustic and rock - only things I can comment on are that a little bit more melody would be great, and the snare shouldn't be buried the way it was earlier.

Final score: 9.2 + download. Needs more flamenco.

thebitterroost responds:

Thanks for pointing me to that track, it rules! I don't think I'm anywhere near IYD's level yet, but I'll be working on it. Cheers dude, thanks for the review and mix advice!

[Mockingbird]

Hey there. Some general commentary on your song for NGAUC.

-When I saw that this was general rock, I was not expecting strings and piano at first. Some cool dissonant ideas, though it could use a bit more open sound. Open dissonance sounds much better than dissonance which is really close together. I *highly* suggest looking up jazz theory and listening to some music which uses it if you're going to go down this path - jazz is all about dissonance, and knowing its theory will help you loads with this.
-Really neat guitar effects with the hollow atmospheric sounds. I like 'em a lot.
-Overall this piece doesn't really change too much aside from Intro -> Middle -> End. Ending is a bit odd as well, leaving it on the dissonant chord.

Final score: 7.6/10

IndustryStandard responds:

Yeah I wasn't sure what genre to put honestly. I don't think it quite counts as electronic since a majority of the sound is definitely guitar-heavy, but the lead riffs are synthetic instruments, and "Atmospheric Nonsense" isn't a genre yet so general rock it is! haha

I probably should look into some theory in general, both for my compositional skills and my own general curiosity, it's just a time thing; between other local music projects and work it just hasn't happened, but I'll definitely take the advice to heart. I wouldn't say dissonance is a "path" I'm going down so much as a tool i like to use, but it's a tool I use frequently and it's probably about time I actually learned what I was doing.

I desperately wanted(and still want/plan on) to add lyrics to this, which is partly why the song is a bit samey aside from the beginning middle and end. I recorded a few takes of my own voice but couldn't get a take I was happy with, and then I saw the 6 hour notice for submissions to the contest, so i decided to just try and mix and master something with what i had. That, and my interface straight up blue-screen crashed my computer twice while i was working on recording guitar and vocals, so that's frustrating. I have a local singer with an amazing voice coming over later this week to see if we can get something recorded though, hopefully that fixes the samey-ness, and i can also use that opportunity to fix some mixing issues too.

This whole project of mine, "Industry Standard" is basically my attempt at stamping a little bit of my brain onto an audio file. My life's a bit of a mess right now, hence the dissonance, but it moves forward anyway, as a song does; a beautiful struggle. at the end, though, the struggle still isn't over, and so i end on dissonance. It want's to resolve, but can't. not yet. Someday, though.

[Ravages of War]

Hey there. Some general commentary on your song for NGAUC.

-That sound almost like an electric piano there at the start. I feel like it's a plucked instrument, but I'm really not sure. Or at least, I wasn't until after 30 seconds in.
-Excellent use of the flute. Very well-done.
-Fantastic background pad.
-The melody in this is extremely beautiful, and very expressive.
-The strings in the second half compliment the melody very well, and they don't sound fake like a lot of orchestral instruments seem to end up doing.
-Very nice, bringing it back to the flute. Only thing I can say here is that the transition from strings back to flute could have been much better than just having the strings cut out. Perhaps a string/flute duet here at the end would have been better.

Final score: 9.0/10, and I would have downloaded it if I could. :(

DSykMusic responds:

The plucked inst. off the top was a cimbalom. I wanted to use a renaissance lute.... but didn't have the samples!

Thanks for your comments, and suggestion about the transition.

My final NGAUC song will be downloadable! Stay tuned.

[Amarelo Preto (Blackanese)]

Hey there. Some general commentary on your song for NGAUC.

-Aw man, the first thing I notice is that nice low-fi piano. I thought it was bad that it was buried at first, but it started working a bit more afterwards. It does start getting more battered later as more instruments come in, so I'm gonna have to ding a mixing point there.
-Cool drums, though they cause a few issues in mixing.
-That super clear voice contrasts the rest of the piece it's almost not even funny.
-Really nice-feeling chord progression, honestly. I like it a lot.
-The shaker could have been done a bit better. It definitely shows that it's just one sample as it's played and brought out around 2 minutes.
-This song desperately needed some kind of melody and variation throughout. It sounds nice, it's just not particularly interesting to listen to overall. More the kind of thing I'd imagine as background music if the piano were mixed a bit better.

Final score: 6.4/10

DeadlyAlchemy responds:

All of this is so true :(

I seriously need to learn how to mix things better, this is causing me serious issues with my scores xD

[Boundaries]

Hey there. Some general commentary on your song for NGAUC.

-Holy chiptune. Experiments are always cool, man.
-50 seconds in, waiting for something different to happen melody-wise. Things have been pretty repetitive for the whole thing so far.
-1:30, I swear at this point you're using the same pattern and just glitching it out. Used glitches enough here to recognize it.
-Holy crap what. The pad wash at 2:03 is head-and-shoulders above the other instruments in terms of fidelity, especially for the lead that next comes in.
-Neat effects at 3 minutes in, definitely helping the repetitiveness there.
-You have really cool rises and falls in this overall, I mainly wish that the main theme weren't the same thing going on the entire piece. It could really use some more variation in the feeling of it.
-Ending is pretty good, all things considered. It felt pretty much like the rest of the song, but had just enough conclusion to push it out of the standard fadeout to an actual conclusive ending. Good on ya, man.

Final score: 7.0/10

Adhenoid responds:

Finally the review is out!! :D

Thanks for this helpful review @Skyewint !! :D
Though, since english is not my native language, I don't quite get whether this "The pad wash at 2:03 is head-and-shoulders above the other instruments in terms of fidelity, especially for the lead that next comes in" is a good thing or not haha sorry. XD

Once again, thanks for reviewing!! :D

[Costa Concordia]

Hey there. I heard you wanted a review. First one I've done in awhile, so I might be a bit rusty, but bear with me. For reference, your total score when I was tabulating was 84/100.

The Good!
-Excellent sample manipulation. Probably the most realistic I've heard out of all the samples.
-Excellent sound effects around the 2 minute mark, nice flanger, nice high-end SFX. Not sure how you pulled those out, but it's awesome.
-Excellent ambiance overall, you really manipulated the samples to paint a picture.
-I do find it very impressive that the second half of the piece is the same chord progression as the first half.

The not-so-good:
-So, smaller things first. Ending wasn't that interesting or conclusive. It just basically ends, sounding more as if ideas ran out than it was intended to end there. This ties into the next point, which is...
-Flow. I've actually written some things about the flow of music, and this is one thing that your piece somewhat suffers from. It doesn't feel like it has a particular direction to it - rather, it feels like a few atmospheres that were strung together with some compositional theory, like using the same chord progression twice. I recognize that making a proper melody out of the samples is difficult, but certainly possible, especially given you submitted this with a full 7 days more to work on it. There was far more development that could have happened in this piece, which just... didn't.
-Mixing. Yeah, this shouldn't be too surprising as being a significant factor. It hit basically everybody in this contest, so here are some specific comments on yours. Lot of overly buried sounds around 1 minute in, partially simply due to the amount of brass. There are some bass hits which are hard to hear and a lot of the detail of the higher horns is buried as well, particularly around 1:25. Closer to 2:33 the lower brass gets very muddy. This is also partially due to using the same sample, as that can cause phasing and distortion due to having the same waveforms playing.

Overall: Again, 84/100. Biggest things were the flow and mixing. Flow is highly determined by intention of the piece, but can still work very well. Mixing could simply be corrected with more clarify of individual instruments.

Phonometrologist responds:

Ah yes thank you! I appreciate your take and time to leave this review. Welcome back!
A few things:
-You mentioned some high-end sfx. There was a sample (I forget which as I would have to open up the project to look up) that I applied a bit distortion to while playing it at a very high register, i.e. sped up. Something that anyone could recreate if one wanted the recipe.
-I agree with the flow point overall. Perhaps I can use a pun to the title by saying that the direction of it went pretty much down from there.
-The mixing thing still perplexes me so in that I appreciate your perspective. I think there's perhaps two schools of thought when it comes to mixing. Check out this short clip of Picasso drawing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU9oaD0e7uU

I wish the video didn't cut off, because by the end of the piece, the fish no longer becomes visible as the hen pretty much gets colored in. This is my approach when it comes to music. Burying layers upon layers definitely creates muddiness where not everything becomes clear just like in modern art where not everything becomes seen. I'm more than okay from straying away from trying to replicate reality, although I appreciate both sides. This approach doesn't make your points any less valid, but rather shows that you're right. And I'm content that you are right :)

[Popping Flowers]

Righty-o, review time. Keep in mind that when judging (or thinking in terms of being a judge), I tend to be harsher in terms of scoring.

The Good:
-Nice instruments, even if some of them are fairly standard fare (like the pad). Great little ear candy percussion sounds, first come in at 0:47. Also, excellent percussive instrument playing broken chords around the 1:45 mark.
-Cute little melody.
-Nice little break in the percussion at places like 1:08 and 2:39.

The Not-So-Good:
-First, yes. It is a generic chord progression. This wouldn't be so much of an issue, but it never changes - what this really needs in terms of chords is having some section where they do something different. Keeping the chord progression the same will make the piece sound monotonous, and quite honestly boring. At the very least, try changing the notes that you're using to form the chord. You can use inversions, or you could try some more open sounds by only using two notes. That would also let you experiment with changing the scale even within the chord.
-Second, melodic content. You have the main melody, and an arpeggio which *could* be called a harmonic line, but it only does the chord. Try having a countermelody, even if it's not there the first time you play the melody. At around 2:39, you could easily have a second melody playing - this would add a lot more to the composition.
-Third, mixing. This is good in that it doesn't clip, but there's certainly some mud. You have the original arpeggios and plucks in the first 45 seconds, but after that, the plucks and arpeggio are buried under the other instruments, despite playing the same pattern. Try using panning more liberally and spreading the frequencies out. This does not improve in the second half, when you have the other instrument playing broken chords on top of the already-existing problems. This does also affect one of the ear candy percussion noises :( The little "bwob" sound is buried almost entirely in the second half, where it's actually audible (barely) in the first half.
-Finally, transitions. Intro is acceptable, though it could certainly be better. Other transitions are fine, if a bit generic. The ending is basically just bad, unfortunately - it sounds lazy, like you couldn't be bothered to conclude the piece. Basic rule of thumb which I use for endings is that they shouldn't just fade out without some kind of conclusion, and they should never ever ever just let a pattern end. At the very least, have a chord that the piece resolves to. If you want, I have a news post which explains transitions (including intros and outros). http://skyewint.newgrounds.com/news/post/857638 This might help.

Overall: The composition of the piece is a serious weak point. The mixing is decent, though more clarity would have been helpful. The ending... well, endings are somewhat of a pet peeve of mine, but the ending definitely needs an overhaul. Hopefully this helps explain why the judges decided what they did.

ForeverBound responds:

It did more or less, thanks for your time and for the review

[Final Strike!!]

Hi. Want some review?

The Good:
-Dramatic, yes!
-Orchestra, yes!
-Great guitars in the opening.
-Fantastic breakdown at 0:52 and punchy sound at 1 minute. Overall stellar composition as always.
-Pretty good loop, though it seems like it's about to reach a climax rather than the beginning again. No sound glitches though.

The Not-So-Good, composition-wise:
-I think it could still have used a bit more of a breakdown in the middle, something without the constant drums. But, that's just me.

MIXING: Right, Step. I'm docking a full two points for this, because you said you did the final mix of the entire thing. I am seriously disappoint about this.
-The drumset is balls. The orchestral percussion is way more powerful than it, and it's buried under everything else, constantly.
-Similarly, the distorted guitar is entirely covered by everything except when it's playing primarily by itself, which is every time except sometimes in the intro and around 40 seconds in.
-Hell, even the strings are buried by the horns a lot of the time. Notable points about that are 0:25 and 1:05.

Overall: I don't care if you wanted it to be "the sum of its parts" or something, that mixing was just plain no. Ye dun clutterfucked the mix, and now it's muddy as hell. Otherwise, though, everything's basically cool, only little nitpicky stuff. 7/10 with the mixing, 9/10 otherwise.

UltimateCJ64 responds:

"Hi. Want some review?"

Why yes I would! :D

"The Good:
-Dramatic, yes!
-Orchestra, yes!
-Great guitars in the opening.
-Fantastic breakdown at 0:52 and punchy sound at 1 minute. Overall stellar composition as always.
-Pretty good loop, though it seems like it's about to reach a climax rather than the beginning again. No sound glitches though."

Thankfully achieving most of what we were going for. And I see what you mean on the climax buildup. Could probably make a full song version out of this that adds a real beginning and ending.

"The Not-So-Good, composition-wise:
-I think it could still have used a bit more of a breakdown in the middle, something without the constant drums. But, that's just me."

Maybe, maybe not. It is going to be a song in a full-auto-mayhem action Contra/Metal Slug type game, if it isn't the game keeping up the action, it's the music. At least that's the plan. :)

"MIXING: Right, Step. I'm docking a full two points for this, because you said you did the final mix of the entire thing. I am seriously disappoint about this.
-The drumset is balls. The orchestral percussion is way more powerful than it, and it's buried under everything else, constantly.
-Similarly, the distorted guitar is entirely covered by everything except when it's playing primarily by itself, which is every time except sometimes in the intro and around 40 seconds in.
-Hell, even the strings are buried by the horns a lot of the time. Notable points about that are 0:25 and 1:05."

I agree the drumset is definitely balls. Sadly I don't have the money yet to buy a decent virtual kit. We didn't want the rock part to overpower the orchestra but I guess we went too far on that aspect. I personally don't know what happened with the orchestra half, but lessons learned I guess. :(

"Overall: I don't care if you wanted it to be "the sum of its parts" or something, that mixing was just plain no. Ye dun clutterfucked the mix, and now it's muddy as hell. Otherwise, though, everything's basically cool, only little nitpicky stuff. 7/10 with the mixing, 9/10 otherwise."

Yeah, the mix definitely could be better, but with the final product being much better recepted (received?) than my horrible mixing on my solo works, I can't complain too much.

Thanks for the review, I appreciate it a lot, definitely one of the more helpful. :)

[riding the harmonics]

>Doesn't really have sound design
>drums

The Good:
-Oh come on, those drums are badass and well-done. That's some sweet drum design. How are drums not sound?
-Awesome, starting with drums rather than a synth or pad coming in slowly. I need to do more intros which are something other than atmosphere pad thing.
-Liking your synth sounds.
-Great outro!

The Not-So-Good:
-I think your bass is a bit too loud. Not sure if that's the goal, but it makes the kick lack as much thump.
-...okay, dude, you might want to lay off the glitch sounds a bit. They're an effect, but they're not as effective in that way. Also, obvious use of the automatic glitcher VST is obvious. Make yer own glitches, ye lazy bom :P
-Great outro... until the 2:59 chord. :< Total wreck of flow at the end. I guess it works kinda, it makes sense harmonically, I just don't particularly think it works with that execution, and having a bit of foreshadowing in the song would also be great.

Overall: I've not got much time, but there are some of my comments. Good job! Oh, also, you still need to try out some different synths. Not just slightly different, not just another electronic lead and stuff, try something that sounds ENTIRELY different. Make... hmm, how about some smooth jazz with mouth percussion, a clavinet/rhodes combo, and maybe try to get some live guitar or other wacky sounds in there? :D A lead made of chopped vocals, maybe?

johnfn responds:

Ehh I don't really consider drums to be sound 'design' because I didn't really design them. More like sound choice. :P

I might do more work with glitches someday but really my top focus is melodies. Which leads to my next question: how did you write this entire review and not mention melodies AT ALL? Melodies are like 95% of this piece lol.

Anyway thanks for the review. I feel like I'm on the verge of a big style transition and it's probably at least a little your fault for complaining so much about sound choices lolz.