SkyeWint's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Alpine]

Here's your round 3 review! It'll be a bit harsher than your previous reviews once more. Harsher the closer to the end we get!

The Good:
-Oh man that intro. Holy crap it sounds nice. I was not expecting you to use pads.
-Piano/keyboard sounds great, but that's no surprise coming from you.
-This sounds. So amazingly chill. I love really chill songs, and the fact thta you managed to make DnB of all genres sound chill. I would really really love if you made this into a loop.
-I like all the subtle sidechaining throughout.
-Mixing is really great, I can hear everything clearly, and the mix is filled up nicely.

The Not-So-Good: Okay this is very nitpicky.
-Biggest thing: It doesn't really go anywhere. You have a lot of cool ideas, but this has the same problem that TheBenjerman did. Not enough content. On the plus side, you kept this to 2 minutes so you obviously knew that there wasn't enough for more. ...and if you ended it just because you couldn't think of any more, well don't tell me that.
-Cymbal roll at 0:54-0:56 is a bit too loud for me, and I bet the other judges will agree for the most part.
-Snare for the first half of the song is a very tiny bit too loud.
-It would have been awesome if you used some kind of bass amp or something for the bass to increase the low frequencies, as there's not that much of a base(bass) for the rest of the song to spring up from.

Overall: There's really not much I can say about this (yeah I said that after writing an essay). It's cool, but there's not much content. For what it's worth, I REALLY liked this, and most of my complaints are nitpicky. I'm giving this a 8.5.

BlazingDragon responds:

I had a ton more in mind for this one but simply ran out of time. x_x

Great suggestions, especially regarding the bass amp. I'll keep that in mind for my future tracks...
Thank you!

[Nothing's Easy]

Interesting idea for a song. I'm surprised you made that tune work. It didn't seem to be all that melodic of a tune to go off of.

The Good:
-As I said - I'm surprised you managed to make the main tune work. I do have to give some credit for that.
-Mixing's fine. I can hear everything, don't hear any static or clipping or anything.

The NOT-So-Good:
-The intro. The piano really doesn't sound too good. You may want to look up a better piano sound, for one, and for another, the way it fades out without going anywhere doesn't appeal to me at all. I'm betting quite a few other people would agree. Essentially: The piano initially doesn't sound too good, and the transition isn't that good either.
-At around 1:20-1:30, I thought I was hearing the next section coming. However, lowering the cutoff after that was fairly displeasing - even in techno, that normally doesn't happen. The subtle bringing-out of a new melody is more common - reason being it sounds a bit better.
-After the lowpass, things stay like that for far too long, only really coming out again at 2:45-2:59.
-You missed one of the most valuable and most-used tools in the EDM catagory! White noise filter sweeps! ;) They really add a lot of tension to a song, letting you release it in a much more satisfying way. It also fills out the high end of a mix more.
-No outro? Tch. Try something a bit more than a fadeout and/or flat-out stopping the song.
-There isn't really much variation at all. You brought down the cutoff and brought it back up again after the little piano section, and that was about the extent of variation. Try adding in multiple melodies/tunes and switching between them/layering them together. That adds a lot more depth to a song and helps solve variation issues. Same with the chord progression.

Overall: I'm going to have to give this a 1.5/5. You seem to have mixing down, but there's a LOT more that could be done with this song. I'd suggest checking over some of your favorite artists and not just listening to their music, but analyzing it. What kind of things do they do, and WHEN do they do them? There is a method to the madness, after all.

-Swint

Dylnmatrix responds:

Thanks for the critique. This actually helps me a lot, seeing as I am still a noob at all of this and the only feedback I've gotten is the review before you and feedback from friends, which is usually biased. You brought up a lot of good points in this and I'm definitely going to try and implement the tips you gave in to making my future pieces even better.

[We are now in orbit]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-You seem to be very good at taking a small theme and developing it to an absurd degree.
-VERY nice usage of reversed sounds.
-I liked the harmonies you introduced at around 0:20, though I can't help thinking they'd have been better if you had used a piano rather than the synth. Worth trying at least.
-This song is quite different from your round 1 submission in concept and feel, though
-The transition at 1:20 is really really good. I particularly like the sound effect in the background.
-*claps* Great usage of that at about 1:50 and later in the same pattern.
-I like how you used the panning of the main instruments.
-At about 3:13, oh my gosh that soundscape sounds so cool. It's also interesting that you used arpeggios that remind me of Portal 2. Wasn't expecting to remember that while listening to this.
-I REALLY like the violin sound you use. Might I ask what it is or where you got it?
-Those are some really nice string slides.

The Not-So-Good:
-I do not like the snare drum at about 1:20, though I do like the way you used it.
-Sidechaining at about 1:40 sounds super awkward and painful. Afterwards it stays painful when you reintroduce it.
-The plucks in the instrument after 2:48 sound a bit odd with the pad-like sound.
-At about 4:08 and 4:39, I applaud the attempt at a different kind of transition. Unfortunately, the delay doesn't quite work. It kinda makes me do a double-take when the transition hits a beat AFTER it sounds like it'd hit.
-Your outro is slightly eh. Not bad, but not very good either. It sounds like the one you did for your round 1 song as well - try varying it a bit.

Overall: In case you didn't tell. I really really liked this. I love how you take a small idea, then expand on it to an extraordinary amount. The main thing I'd recommend to work on is the amount of themes. While you are able to take one theme and run a marathon with it, try using two or three different themes instead, and mix them up. Try using each of them to compliment the other, and I think you'll easily have some of the best music on newgrounds. I give this a 9/10.

RetromanOMG responds:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this song. It really is something I enjoyed doing, so to get such positive feedback feels great.

The violin, as well as the woodwinds and other strings I use for this song and my previous come from Blackattackbitch's collection. It really is a great list of Soundfonts, and I do feel more people should give them a try.

That snare you were talking about...yeah. I didn't want to use the same snare for my 4-on-the-floor beat, so I pulled up something from FL's stock sounds. I could've actually put some work into making it sound good, but I chose not to, which was a mistake on my part.

It sucks that you didn't like that transition at 4:08. I really liked it, but hey, I'm not the judge here. If I were to do things differently, I probably would've maybe done an orchestral rendition of the melody I introduced at 1:23. I think that would've worked better.

That pad at 2:48 was a preset from P8 Superwave, a VST I had never used extensively before then. I understand if you didn't like it; the original version of this song before the edits had that synth in place of the orchestra and it sounded horrible after too long.

I don't know what to say about the sidechaining. I realize that it took away from a lot of the melody, but lessening it would've damaged the mix a bit. It was a tough decision to make, but I decided to let the melody take one for the team ultimately.

Again, thank you for this review. I like that you've made me think so much about my own song. With everything you've told me (and the others will tell me over the next few days), I plan to further refine my sound for Round 3.

[Sinking Island]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I LOVE the percussion you introduce at the beginning.
-I really like the sliding swoopy synth at about 1:17.
-Mixing is alright by me.
-The chord progression is different from what I normally hear. It sounds pretty nice.
-The main synth sounds pretty nice, I like how it bounces all over the place - except at the beginning where it makes the whole song sound like it's vibrating.

The Not-So-Good:
-There's a weird sound toward the beginning that makes me feel like the song overall is "vibrating". And no, I'm not going to just put that down to a progressive mixing choice. It shows up later but isn't as much of a problem.
-You might want to change the drums a little bit more than you did. They're fairly repetitive.
-Transition at about 1:44 is a tad iffy. Could have been improved quite a bit.
-You may have wanted a bass in the song. If you did have one, I can't hear it.
-Chord change at around 2:35 is fairly ew. It would have been better if you changed the melody rather than just moving the chord sequence to a different base key.
-This is fairly repetitive overall. It doesn't change in feel or really much at all for most of the song - 1:45-1:50 is the only break, and it's pretty short.

Overall: This is a pretty nice song. I have to say, I like it a lot - though there are a lot of 'samey' sounds throught it and it doesn't change much. I think you should really work more on variation in your music. This is deserving of a 6.6/10 from me.

OpenLight responds:

I agree with the variation...

The problem is, last round I was told that I needed more consistency and there needed to be catchy repeated melodies. I tried that, though I don't like repeating stuff in my songs ever, and I agree with your review in the respect that it had some repetitive parts. Of course, I'm not saying that the recommendation that I should have more consistency was a bad recommendation, but it was something that it would take me a while to master with my composition style.

The sound at the beginning is the delay on the melody synth. For whatever reason, it gave me the same feel. I thought it might give it a more ethereal feel to the piece, but it wasn't intentional. I decided to keep it because the delay worked a lot better in the end and because of the whole "potentially-ethereal" feel I felt it could give.

I'm really glad you liked this song, and I honestly wish I hadn't decided to try the consistency thing on this song, but regardless, thanks for the review!

[Nice to Meet You Here]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I like how you manipulated the tempo and playing of the harp at the beginning. It honestly sounds really nice, particularly since you added little chords, making it sound almost realistic.
-I love bird sounds. ^___^ So naturally I really liked it when you brought them in. It sounded very much like a little forest area.
-It sounds like you really took into consideration the ideas I had about mixing. The frequencies didn't bump into each other and they meshed together well. Part of it is probably having less instruments, but all the same.

The Not-So-Good:
-The piano sounded like it was playing through the radio, not overly good.
-There doesn't seem to be a set 'theme' of this except in the middle.
-The strings toward the end aren't that well-done.
-The composition of this really needed a lot more work. Not much in there.

Overall: This sounds really nice, I like a lot of things in it, but there's just not that much content, and I can definitely hear the lack of time put into this. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give it a 5/10. At least you submitted though, so you get some nice reviews! :D

CheckeredZebra responds:

Woo reviews! Thanks for noticing, I tried out your tips and they worked pretty well.

And yes, sadly the main theme sound was lost because I couldn't finish the dang thing and have the actual ideas repeat as I wanted them to. Ohwell! Someday (perhaps soon) I'll finish it up.

The strings were "Oh look it's 11:55 you should probably submit this now" quality. Yep.
Glad you liked the birdsong, and I'm happy I was able to turn SOMETHING in. Hehehe.

[Midnight Lights {7x}]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I have to say, those saxophone solos are really nice.
-You use the filters fairly well, very classic DnB style.
-Those bell-like chords sound really nice.

The Not-So-Good:
-That high hat is immediately noticable and fairly annoying - too many high frequencies.
-When the bass wobbles hit in, I wasn't overly impressed. The wobbles seemed fairly awkward and not overly good.
-Unfortunately, nice as the saxophone was, it didn't work with the other instruments as well as it could have.
-Needs some more bass. The bass wobbles were more in the middle frequencies than the low ones. Could have used some thicker bass. That would have sounded a lot better.
-Fairly repetitive, it doesn't really change too much except for the first saxophone solo.
-Ew, that outro sounds pretty bad. I'd have liked it if you added in one last note on the sax so that it could ring out rather than having a delayed noise sweep.

Overall: I like it, but it seems fairly empty and uninspired to me. Not enough saxophone - not melded as well as it could have. The bass wobbles brought it down quite a bit as well. It's alright. Just not extremely good. I'll give it a 7/10.

EbonHawk7X responds:

Thank you for the helpful reviews during this competition, your critique is always appreciated and helps me to realize what needs to be improved. I feel this review was no exception and I can't contest any of the points that you have made, so I will accept them and implement the ideas in future works. Thanks for judging and taking the time to write this!

[-conclusion-]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-This is a nice blend of trance and orchestral, it works overall.
-For what I believe is the first time I've heard from you, you actually went back to the initial theme at the end. This is a good thing!
-More melodic development in this song! Good.
-Mixing's good.

The Not-So-Good:
-First of all, there's not really anything 'new' in this track. Yeah, it's a trance/orchestral hybrid, and that's cool, it's not something done all the time. ...only thing is - you do it all the time and the way this was done wasn't overly original in concept, and especially not in execution.
-The middle section kind of falls apart in feel. It has a good change from the cheesy chord progression of the first section. Unfortunately, it's also a fairly repetitive section. I noticed that it's essentially repeating the same 8-measure chunk, adding something else each time. Most people would call this not-repetitive because it changes slightly each time. However, I think it would have been much better if you added multiple things at once or took out something as well, rather than just adding a ride cymbal and slightly changing the tune - this sounds like it was done to simply lengthen the piece rather than really add anything that made the piece better.
-The transition at 3:13 is a little bit awkward. Even with the slight change in chords immediately beforehand, the transition is a bit too quick. It would have been better if you just changed one thing - made the chords flow into the next section rather than going back to what they would have been... except not actually doing that.
-Ending sounded extremely rushed - the only warning was my glance at the length of the piece and how long it had been playing. A bit more buildup would have been much appreciated.

Overall: This is a well-mixed, bouncy, fairly generic "Waterflame" track. You didn't really branch out to too much, and to tell the truth, a lot of it sounded rushed - though the ending shows it the most clearly. You may want to consider spending a bit more time on transitions and particularly the repetition of your music - remember, having the same 8 measures repeat 5 times in a row is *not* a good thing. I will give this a 7/10 - I think your round 1 song was slightly better if only due to the more interesting distractions from the holes in composition.

Waterflame responds:

Thank you for the well written review! this helps me so much! and i totally see what you mean. having no school experience of music at all, i have to learn everything myself. and i feel like im fumbling in the dark at times. this is exactly the pointers i need, and ill take your advice seriously!

[Children's Overture]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-Oh my gosh this reminds me so much of something that I can't remember. It's like the largest feeling of deja vu ever. Mainly the chords and staccato in the woodwinds.
-I love how you build up the piece, it's very nice.
-Personally, I don't think your samples are bad at all. Though since I don't make orchestral music and personally consider soundfonts to be adequate, that might not be the biggest compliment.
-The staccato in the woodwinds is something I don't normally hear in music.
-Mixing is fine by me.

The Not-So-Good:
-The development of the piece, while being a great buildup, really could either use some reiteration of the main melody toward the end or an extension and a drop of tension more than the sudden ending you had.
-The ending of this is... well, I'm sure you already know it - it's not too good. Could have used quite a bit of improvement.

Overall: I really really really like this. I think I'll give it a 8.8/10 if you promise to develop your song more, particularly giving a proper ending to it.

BlazingDragon responds:

I've had two different people tell me it sounds like the music from UP!, so I might have been subconsciously hearing that as I composed! I can't remember the music except from the fact that I loved it, so I'll need to go back and listen...

And yes, I definitely know about the ending. I had this epic idea in mind but could not figure out how to execute it for the life of me. After this contest is over, I plan on going back and giving this piece some TLC.

Thank you for the review! It is much appreciated.

[Child of the Trough NGADM]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-Nice intro, and really nice chord progression in there.
-Mixing's fine. I really have no problems with it at all.
-Great humanised drums, like in the previous song.
-The arpeggios at 1:28-2:01 and 2:01-2:12 (yes, I separated them for a reason) are sweeeeet.
-I like the wahs you have on the guitars.
-Jazz/rock fusion is something I REALLY like.

The Not-So-Good:
-Ouch. The lack of good transitions at 2:01 and then later at 2:39, 4:19, around 4:50, around 5:15, and the outro hurt a lot. Of course, I'm a transition lover and think that they're the most important parts of a song, but still.
-I feel like this song is a technical display rather than a song since it doesn't have the vocals. There doesn't seem to be a cohesive idea through the whole song, so it kinda drags on and on without feeling like it has a point.

Overall: I really like this, I don't think it quite lives up to your round 1 song, but holy crap it's about 7 and a half minutes long? No wonder you didn't have time for the vocals. Might want to cut back on the length of your song for the next round so you can finish it! I'm giving this a 9/10. You can definitely do better.

P.S. I made this review before you added the vocals and extra guitars. So sorry for the comments about their absence. It's a bit more consistent with the vocals, and the extra guitar parts. However, I will comment a bit on them here - the overall quality of the vocals could have been improved, particularly at around the third set of lyrics. I'm also definitely not a fan of the growling. The outro is definitely better now, though it's still fairly boring.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thanks for the review!

Yeah, I agree about the boring outro, that's my least favorite part. I was so frustrated, I ended up giving up. I growl when I can't think of melodies LOL. I also agree that it was too long to finish within two weeks, too much is going on and the vocals were hard to squeeze time in for, since they take the longest. Therefore, they became rushed :C

Yes, this song is a technical display, you're right. I tried to compensate for lack of repeating ideas with the lyrics, but it still doesn't work. oh well I got the crowd pleaser arpeggios

Thank you for the review and constructive criticism! I know it's not the best I can come up with, so I'll try harder next round!