stunkel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Vanquish the Night]

NGADM Review:

Dude, this is so cool. The number of times which you changed time in this song is absolutely ridiculous. The attention to detail in the layers and arrangement is freaking awesome. Like when you add (what sounds like) taikos right before the part with piano at 1:25. It's pretty far buried in the mix, but I think that's a really nice place for it honestly. The acoustic guitar solo is freaking awesome dude. The only thing I have to say about these solos is sometimes they go a bit into randomness and not really melodicness. As in, it's cool that you guys are playing pretty fast stuff, but I'm not really feeling anything from it, that's for the some of the part anyways. Other melodic theme played throughout the track are beautiful.

Excellent excellent excellent composition. My favorite part being 3:43, it's awesome how seamlessly you were able to change the pace of the song and make it sound good. The part following that is really awesome too. You're drums dude, they have so much emotion and feel to them. The final ending is beautiful as well, where those horns come in playing staccatto bits.

A few other complaints: I realized what it was last time that sounded "cheesy" to me, I think one of the judges cleared it up, but it's your samples that seem to bother me. The piano sounds very bright and although that can be appropriate at times, I feel it hasn't worked in this or the last track. Same with the brass, the brass work GREAT compositionally, but sonically I felt it could use some work.

Again, send me a message if you need any clarification.

9/10

-Ryan

bassfiddlejones responds:

Ryan thanks for the review man. We went back and forth with which piano sample to use and ultimately decided on several, but I hear you. When constrained to two weeks one of the biggest hurdles of a piece of this magnitude is spending time fine tuning each individual instrument to sound perfect - I agree the samples weren't really up to par with the rest of the piece. Gotta cut your losses at some point and forge ahead! We might revisit all this stuff later and adjust the minute details. Thanks for the review again, your feedback really does help!

[~Echo~ Understated (Instrumental WIP)]

NGADM Review:

Your compositional style is absolutely wonderful. You have really complex melodies and rhythms that compliment eachother so well. Honestly your synth design is absolutely wonderful as well. The feel of this music is really giving me the feels. I really usually don't like this style of music, but you are making an exception for me.

The reason I gave you an 8/10 is for two things. The song is WAY too short and doesn't have a proper ending. The compositional structure is really solid and I was grooving to it really nicely, and I really think this could have gone in a lot of unique directions from the point you started. The second reason is your drums. If your drums were a bit punchier and bigger, I think this track would be outstanding. You have really nice synths that create a nice bouncy sound to make the rhythmic element, but no drums to really back up the big feel that I'm looking for. This was a problem I had in your last track as well. Send me a PM if you want some help with making better drum samples (or making your drums stand out more). Great work.

8/10

-Ryan

[Modern Day Mafia]

NGADM Review:

So you clearly put a lot of work into this. I can tell by the always changing melodies and the drums being very complex is really awesome. So I think what this track did for me was that the rhythmic aspect of each instrument you have don't really compliment eachother very well. You have a bunch of moving parts which is fine, but they don't quite connect so well. This results in something that is not very fluid. I would say your composition is headed in the right direction, but solidifying your rhythmic side of the music will help make everything more orderly and create a better emotional experience. I'm also not a huge fan of the instrument combination, but I think that touching on the rhythmic stuff is most important to improve on. Nice work!

7.8/10

-Ryan

frootza responds:

Thanks dude. Should have not submitted an arrangement for my live band. Maybe I will do some electronica next time or something,

[[IV]Mokosz]

NGADM Review:

This is really really cool. You created an absolutely awesome atmosphere with your instrumentation. The mixing and production really tie together really nicely. The things that sort of bugs me, but I suppose not to the degree of John below me, is that there is no true melody to drive the song for me. This makes the track feel bland I suppose. This is really my only complaint, but it's a pretty hefty one honestly. A track like this really needs a melody in order to stand on it's own. Otherwise though, you have been one of my favorites in this contest. Great work!

8.9/10

-Ryan

[Clockwork Waltz]

NGADM Review:

Hey, sorry I'm a day late on this. It's been a while since I've listened to this but I am a big fan of the track. Sonically, this song sounds really awesome. The instrument combinations in the beginning sound really awesome. The bassoon and violins really work together quite well to create that quirky feel. I felt the lower instruments were a little bit too loud for my taste, but it didn't take away from the feel in my opinion. At some points during the song it sounded a little messy like around the 2:20 mark. It was just a lot clashing frequencies and messiness due to reverb it sounds like. The instrument realism is REALLY good. I'm really pleased with the dynamic shaping of the woodwinds and brass. Really nice work man.

8.6/10

-Ryan

[Self as Context]

NGADM Review:

Your music has been some of the most memorable music in this competition. I'm really enjoying what you've been putting out. I'm usually not a huge fan of this genre, but I'm really liking what you're making. You have really nice varying melodies and ideas. Stuff like the gliding synths and gritty bass synths are awesome. Production is freaking awesome. The two things that bother me a little bit are a few of the synths. One being the lead bell during chorus's and one of the deeper metalic dubsteppy synths. The bell synths feels a little bit weak, and the metallic dubsteppy synth sounds a little bit out of place. Anyways nice work man, really looking forward to your next track.

8.9/10

-Ryan

[~SW~ Thurm ins_wa_]

NGADM:

Holy crap, when I read MetalRenard's review this totally reminds me of worms. Anyways, this is solid man! The production as usual is really pleasant to listen to and you really make the weird timing of the music comes out as seamless and enjoyable. The thing that really bugged me in this track was the melody. There doesn't seem to be a very well defined one and because of this I don't really feel a huge connection to it. There's no factor that really attracts me beyond the uniqueness of it, which for me isn't enough. We talked on skype and it sounds like you are working hard on the new song with a better melody, so I look forward to it :) Congrats on winning this round, and nice work man!

8.7/10

-Ryan

SkyeWint responds:

Thanks, Stunkel!

You bet I am! And dear god I have so much to do by tomorrow.

[Facing the Foe]

NGADM Review:

So I absolutely love the RPG style you guys went for. And the idea of going for it with the sound samples you used makes it even better. However, I do have to say, it feels a little messy at times as MetalRenard said. The composition is really lovely, but it's a little bit difficult to follow because there's always so much going on. Despite all of this though, the melodies and composition IS lovely. I do have to say despite, my love for the SNES like samples you used, it makes the track sonically not as pretty as it could be, and in a full orchestra arrangement, this could absolutely beautiful. Anyways, I really enjoyed this. Nice loop also :)

8.6/10

-Ryan

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Phew. Thank you for leaving a slightly shorter review! I've been responding to these for a while now :)
I think you still managed to say everything you needed to say, so it's perfect.

I'm glad you like the RPG style. I was pretty sure you'd like it too, having heard several of your game music inspired tracks as well.

I agree with the messiness too. I think that it's okay that there is much going on though, as I'm sure that in a real game, after listening to this a few times, you'd know every part by heart.
Once again, I'm glad to hear that my melodies and the overall composition hit home, and same goes for the loop.

I definitely agree that a great vst library as well as great production skills could add so much more to the track :D!

Thank you for judging, as well as for the review :)