stunkel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Majestic They Are]

NGADM Review

This is an awesome track dude. This track was very memorable for me. I love the soundscape that you created with your track. You did a wonderful job of giving every note and percussion hit its space from one another. It all sounds super pretty to me honestly.
So although I absolutely loved the soundscape you created, it sort of kills the dynamic range a bit. I’m sure there is a fix to this, but when time came for the bigger part after the drum fill, it didn’t feel any bigger at all. It clearly was bigger because the melodies were directed to be bigger, but I think dynamically it could have been expanded. On a sidenote though, the dynamic range change after the bigger part was really nice!
The other side is the mixing. It sounds really really nice. And honestly all of the pitched instruments sound beautiful, I felt that the percussion fell short and it really affected the track. The percussion is half of the production in most songs. If you have tight drums, then you’ll have an easy time for the rest of the track in terms of mixing. This is one of those songs that plays at the end of a movie when the hero gets everything he wants and kisses the girl and everything. Anyways, nice work! I really enjoyed it.

8.9/10

-Ryan

[[IV]Voyage]

NGADM Review

Beautiful track! Both the composition and the production are incredible. The strings and all of the instruments sound really beautiful. As much as I liked the track though, I felt that the melodies weren’t SUPER memorable. The entire emotion of the track is super memorable, but I just felt that some better melodic content would have been appropriate. I felt that the dynamics could have changed a little bit more throughout the track. At the beginning it starts off fairly low, and then it builds up a bit, but never goes very far up or down from that point.
In addition to the dynamics, it felt cut short slightly because it didn’t go any bigger than what I said. At the end it sounds like it could have gone somewhere, but you decided to cut it short when it certainly could have built up into something much bigger. Anyways, solid track! And nice work!

8.8/10

-Ryan

IglicaV responds:

Thank you! I'll try to get better! Those reviews really mean a lot to me :)

[Arcadia]

NGADM Review

I really like the chilled out vibe to this track. I’m a huge fan of the melodies in the lead brass (?). My favorite part of this track was the soundscape that you created. It sort of reminds me of a very picked up tempo version of the FEZ soundtrack. The instruments all complement eachother very well. The sounds of the instruments themselves I think could be better quality, like the brass sounds very fake, and the drums, while sounding really nice could be beefed up a bit more.
This is one of those songs that I would just sit back and take it all in to. I can really just sit back and relax while it plays. I think if you worked on your production, mixing, and just general sound choices, this would have gotten an overall higher score from everyone. Those are the main problems though! Nice work!

8.6/10

-Ryan

[Pressing On]

NGADM review

The composition in this track is truly stellar. It had me bobbing my head the entire time. You properly build up the song in an emotional way that really moves me. Adding one instrument at a time while the piano plays its solo in a rhythmic and yet decisive manner is lovely. Everything just moves itself along really nicely. The piano also has a ton of personality to it’s playing style. It feels very expressive, which is difficult for a lot of people to achieve with piano.
This is one of the more memorable pieces in this round. A few things that sort of threw me off though: Fadeouts really annoy the crap out of me. I feel they are really lazy. Hearing a proper ending is something I really like to hear because it shows that the composer took time to emotionally close off their track in a proper way, like a movie would. It sort of just feels unfinished to me.
Another thing that bothered me a little was the sounds of some of the instruments. In particular the clap/snapping sound used as the downbeat. It felt a little cheesy and didn’t cater to the songs environment so much. I also felt that a little more dynamics from some of the instruments would have been nice. Particularly just making them louder. I felt that the drums really could have come out and just opened up the track to a whole new area very smoothly.
I really love this track though man. Great job. Favorited

8.7/10

-Ryan

[Far Away Lands]

NGADM Review

Really nice track! It’s definitely pretty to listen to. I’m just giving feedback as I listen, so my notes on what I liked and didn’t like might be all over the place. So off of the start.
So the track is really pretty and I like the general feel of it a lot. But compositionally it doesn’t really excite me. The arrangement is really nice! But I just felt that as a whole, the structure didn’t really move my emotions so much as I feel you intended. Towards the end, the snare is a little too loud for my taste.
One big problem with the track is that there wasn’t really a melody throughout it. It was a lot of chords playing and what felt like background melodies more than a main one. There could have easily been a melody over everything else along with what was playing.
I know I focused on the bad stuff mainly, but the track is actually really solid and doesn’t need much more than what I mentioned.

8.4/10

-Ryan

Stadler responds:

First off, thanks a ton for the review! I must say, the drum parts weren't as carefully written and mixed as I usually make them. The snare, yeah. Haha. It's simply too overpowering there, 100%. And I agree that the song could be restructured in a way that is more climactic.

Also, very true words about the lack of melody. Maybe even some kind of lead vocal track could make a huge difference! Didn't even consider adding a main lead melody before, but that makes a lot of sense now. I'll try it out when I re-release this!

Nothing wrong with focusing on the bad, it is a super respectful review and I'm glad you were honest! And I'm glad you enjoyed the track overall!

Thanks again, Ryan!

[Acceptance & Commitment]

NGADM Review

So this is a really cool track. I’m really happy that you won in your group because this was my favorite and also the most inspired one out of the group. To start off the mixing was really solid. I felt that there wasn’t anything wrong with that. Super memorable melodies, and the synth design was pretty decent too, especially that voice (not sure if it’s a sample or your voice, but it really added some personality to the track). Overall I really enjoyed listening to this track, I’m not very familiar with the newgrounds “Hip Hop, Rap, R&B – Hip Hop - Modern” genre, so I suppose this is a good… introduction to it? Oh also, the solo is really nice too! You had a really nice balance of quick playing to slow timed out melodic phrases within it.
My biggest complaint with the song is that it feels just a little repetitive. I’m not very familiar with the genre, but even aside from a compositional standpoint, some variation in the backing melodies would have been pretty cool. That’s really my only problem with the track, besides that I felt the composition was really solid and I felt a connection to this, which I didn’t see happening a lot with most of the tracks in the round.

9/10

-Ryan

midimachine responds:

thanks bud! the voice is fruity speech synth with autotune & formant correction in pitcher, bounced to .wav and then pitchshifted up an octave using the "monophonic" (or "e3 mono" in FL 12) stretch setting

also this is like, future trap i guess? i feel like it's closer to dubstep but people seem to misunderstand more when i put trap/glitch hop stuff under dubstep haha

[Caliginous Newcomer]

NGADM Review

This is a really interesting track. The rhythmic elements to it are super awesome and ultimately makes it a really catchy track. You actually have a pretty nice progression of composition in this track which I really enjoy. You also have some really unique sounds that almost make it sound spooky. I really have nothing left to say about this track. The only things I feel where it was lacking was I didn’t feel SUPER connected to it on an emotional level. It definitely sounded cool, but it didn’t have me begging for more. I also felt that the melodies didn’t live up to the rest of the songs feel. I guess what I’m looking for is a more diverse and unique melody that can capture me.

8.8/10

-Ryan

Adjeye responds:

Most EDM composers like to stick with major chords, because they sound happy and lightly, I have a preference to darker melodies and thus I prefer to compose in minor. This also makes my melodies more dark and more depressing and less emotional and happy. I might need to consider swapping to other chords here and there to be more original compared to earlier made tracks.

Thanks for liking the dynamics, lately I am experimenting a lot in 6/8 and also the drums that come with it. I glad you liked that part!

Thank you for your review, I will try to tackle the named points here.

[Ersatz]

NGADM Review

I really like the synth sounds at the beginning! I feel you have a strong atsmophere at the start. Although I felt the atmosphere could be better achieved if the beginning had more minimalistic composition. With the pace that the music and composition goes at from the getgo, I also would have liked to hear a quicker buildup. With no varied melodic content, it’s difficult to hold as much interest in a track.
You have this awesome atmosphere and feel to this track, but if the melodies were more varied I think I would have really enjoyed this more. The way the song is structured I felt like it is only 2 or 3 main parts to the song. Not that that’s a bad thing by any means, but the way the composition is laid out, it certainly needs a little more variety than what you gave it. Again though, your atmosphere that you created is really pleasant to listen to. I guess I didn’t really feel an emotional connection to the music either… it didn’t really have me bouncing, or feeling any sort of emotion in some way. I’m not sure what else to comment on! Nice work.

8.2/10

-Ryan

[Dive In (NGADM '15)]

NGADM Review

Hey man! So this track has some really cool ideas. Compositionally I really enjoy the dynamics and general feel to the track. You create a really interesting atmosphere between the chords and melodies and it all feels really unique. The only thing I would say is I wish that the song felt more uniform. I think this might just be a simple transition issue. One in particular is when you start the new part at 0:29, you change a lot of frequencies and elements that change the feel of the song entirely. For most of the song from this point you have solid transitions though!
Mixing isn’t bad either. I can hear everything just fine and it all works together. I suppose in terms of production, I would have chosen different synths. These definitely cater to a cool emotion and atmosphere that your song has, but I felt they could have been more unique and different synths could have been created to make a more unique feel to the track than what you have.

8/10

-Ryan

Birdinator99 responds:

Hey man,

Glad you liked it for the most part. As has been previously mentioned, there is a definite lack of cohesiveness. You are not the first to say 0:29 was jarring, and I can see why now!

I'm proud of my mixing here, so it's great that it floats your boat. Synth choice will always be a subjective thing at least in part, but there is always room for improvement, I understand. I will keep trying!

Thanks for taking the time to review!

[A Droplet of Imagination (Original)]

NGADM Review

Lovely piano intro :) Really the whole song has a beautiful feel to it. The name is very fitting as well. The little bells with reverb really bring home the feel of imagination to me.
So starting with composition, you did a really solid job. You didn’t do anything too crazy, but it wasn’t really necessary for a track like this. Your melodic themes are beautiful and I love hearing a unique melody within each instrument like you did in this track. I hear too many tracks that are just bare basic progressions where none of the instruments could stand alone as a melody in their tracks, but yours is different. And all of them tie together to be very pretty!
I don’t really have a lot of bad things to say about this track. I suppose some more realism in the instruments would be better. The overall sound and composition is really lovely. Nice work :)

8.5/10

-Ryan

Jabicho responds:

Thanks so much, Ryan!
I'm very happy you liked the composition and sound :D
I appreciate your words a lot, it mean so much!