stunkel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Relaxing and upbeat]

Did you use garageband loops? I can recognize almost all of these from when I used garageband loops to make my songs forever ago. Even if you did, I have to admit, you made a pretty catchy song with them! You made it flow very well, but I can't seem to pick out any sort of structure. It sounds more of like a medley of songs. This makes the song a little hard follow along to. Your best part was definitely the piano combo around 0:50 seconds. I know you used garageband to use this, so the instruments won't sound so realistic, but I'm sure there are ways around it. Like you could add reverb to the instruments and they will sound much more realistic. Unfortunately, garageband doesn't have the best sounding instruments, but what can you do. It really isn't your fault.

For sampling garageband tracks, this is pretty good. I think it was alright, but it could use improvement for sure.

I'm giving it a 3 star review, but I'm giving it a 4 star rating to boost it up a bit since it deserves better than one star :P

Also, if you could listen to my song "Stranded" and give feedback. That'd be great. Thanks!

anjidu responds:

YES!!!! So many loops. lol Honestly I was just having fun. In nooo way will I probably ever make music. If I do....I will be amazed, but thank you for the nice criticism. I appreciate that.

I just listened to your song and I really liked it. Very calming, and I would use that as an Outro, or even maybe as the music for a video game area.

[La Reve]

Pretty nice song. I like how you gradually added in more instruments, and when I say gradually, I mean rising in volume. The song was a little repetitive, but I think you got away with it. One thing I noticed that could be done better is some smoother transitions. At 2:00, it worked, but I think it would have been cooler if it faded out the instruments while the new melody played. I'm not sure if that would change the nature of the song or not, but I think it would just give off an awesome feeling if you did that. The part that starts at 3:01 I think may have been a bad idea only because you dropped the songs beat enough at 2:00, from there you should only be going up. Maybe really surprise the listener with a drum fill and a full final chorus to finish it all off! The instrumentation is good, the mix is actually very good! The bass instruments were actually my favorite, I didn't really notice them at first, but they are very good. I think the song would also benefit from a mood change. Try going into different motifs or changing keys. Change the chord progression from this happy melody, to something dark. The song feels a little repetitive for this reason, there isn't much of a build so it needs to rely on different moods.

So overall, structurally, it was decent. In terms of changing up the melody, it did alright. It was a little repetitive, but there were enough melodies changing where it wasn't. Try adding some different chord progressions to change the mood of the song. And try and work on some transitions, I think you can improve on this song for sure!

Also if you could check out my newest song "Stranded" and give feedback that would be great!

3.5/5
4/5 rating

TheyCallMeCaudex responds:

Wow! Thanks! I REALLY appreciate the extensive feedback. It's repetitive because I wanted to make it long to dance to, but I do see what your saying and I definitely think a mood change would be cool!

[Moonlight's Rave]

You have some nice elements to the song. I really like the piano parts especially. I just wish the piano sound effect was a little more realistic! If it's supposed to be piano that is. I think you could change it up a bit though. I know you change up the melody a little, I'm not sure how I can describe this, but the song is always at a high level of intensity (i cant think of a better word), and because of that, the song does not feel that intense since its ALL intense. So it can't be appreciated as much. To fix this, I suggest adding a softer part of the song, like start it off with a soft piano, give it something to build up to the more intense parts. If it's all at the top, then it seems like it is just the middle, but if you start at the bottom and rise and fall and rise again, the different levels you go at will send the listener through an emotional rollercoaster of awesomeness that only music can bring out. I think if you added some more instruments this could help also. Because you start off with really upbeat sounding instruments, if you start off with something a little softer, it will give that feel I mentioned. Just my opinion, I hope you take it into consideration. Also please check out and maybe review my new song "Stranded" if you have time! Thanks

3.5 stars, but I'll give you a 4 rating :D

tourmi responds:

THAT, is the kind of reviews I LOVE. For the beginning of the song, I did think about starting softly but I almost do that in every of my songs, so I decided to start it up faster. Also, I've used WAY too many times the same piano so I decided to make a change there too. I agree with you, the piano could be a little more softer at somes part, like at 1:30. However, I do not plan on using a realistic piano. I tried it and it ruined the "rave" impression.

Really, thank you SO MUCH for that review. I love that kind of review. I'll listen to your song later today and surely do a review for it ^^

[Tatsu Town]

I like your ideas. But I think it could sound more realistic. Try adding some reverb to the drums, that will make them sound better. Actually, adding reverb to everything might make it more realistic. It got flat a few times throughout the song, which I think could easily be fixed. But other than that, it sounded pretty good. The instrumentation was very nice. So overall, nice work!

3.5/5 stars

Doppoganga responds:

Much love for the feedback, I'm a get right back on it.

[Sunlight in the Clouds]

This song needs some work. It seems very out of sync. I can hear some of the ideas that you put into the song, which are very good, but they could be executed a little better. Did you record this? or was it done in a DAW? I think this song would be really great if it had a better structure and was cleaned up much more. Try and fix that stuff up and you will be set I think.

ogbonna responds:

Hi Stunkel,
Thanks for your review. I will work on the structure some more. I used both recording and DAW.
Cheers,
Nate

[Ecosystem]

How did you learn to make such legit music? This is very film scorey, and you did a good job of it. I've listened to your other stuff and they are all really impressive. I read in some comments below that you don't go to school for music. But how did you learn to make such professional sounding music? It honestly is extremely impressive. It all is mixed extremely well and you have a ton of variety in melodies! But I'm mainly curious about this because I want to improve on myself better. But amazing work, I would love your opinion on one of my newest original tracks, preferably "Stranded". Again, amazing work dude. I honestly can't think of anything that is wrong with this. 5 Stars

Step responds:

Wow man thanks! This support is awesome, I appreciate it. Of course I'll review your track; just give me some time because I'm absolutely packed with stuff to do!

Regarding how I got to this level of music... it's just experience basically. I've been making music for nearly four years. One of the things that I think helped me the most is that I always accept constructive criticism. That really got me on the right path. I also looked through a few specific tutorials (not many though, most of it was learning by discovery).

I think the most important thing I did is review lots of music. I was part of the Review Request Club for a very long time and I used to review up to 15 - 20 audio submissions a week with large reviews. It gave me my ability to analyse other people's music and be able appreciate what they did and point out issues regardless of the genre. It also extended to my own music; I was able to analyse what I make and figure out ways to make it better.

I also believe it's important to listen to varied styles of music, not just one genre/style. I know of people who literally just listen to film-score music exclusively, and as a result their music sounds super professional but heavily influenced by film-scores and generic. If you listen to different styles of music you'll open your mind so much to new possibilities.

Anyway, I'm no professional. Just my two cents :P. Thanks again for the great review.

[[TFC] - Percy Faith]

The intro is awesome! Nice work on that. The first thing I noticed is that the bass was a little too loud when the drums kicked in. I wouldn't object to this, but its just that the catchy drum beat along with the other melodies are being drowned out by it. I also noticed you used the same chord progression throughout the entire song, in my opinion, if you want to use the chord progression throughout the whole song, make the song get more exciting! Try adding a build up throughout the entire song. Adding a build up can help with any song, it always makes things more exciting in my opinion. Nice work though!

TheFantasyClub responds:

I want the bass as hard as I could, without being oldskool-ish.

I though "I must to improve those cuts", but some hip hop songs contains them. So I decided to keep the final result as is.

Thanks for your comment and thanks for listening it. The next one I promise to put something more exciting.

[Variat666 - Sleepy Guitar]

sounds pretty video gamey to me! I'm not sure if that is what you were going for. But I think you should add a bit more instrumentation in a lot of parts, because if you listen closely, you can pick out only 3 or 4 instruments going at the same time, where I am assuming you want a fuller sound. Some parts it makes sense to have little, but it depends. Also, try adding some reverb on your drums, it will make them sound better for sure! Giving a four for you :D

Variat666 responds:

thanks for review dude and i was going for game theme :P you got this right :P also i lost my hand to song making after those 3 long years :P

[Chaotic Dreams]

I have to agree with Lazy Bucks, a softer bass would be very nice. The part at 3:55, sounds a little sloppy to me, some instruments sound a little too out of sync for my taste. The drums could sound a little better, but I don't think that is your fault.
Sending in a 4 rating for you to give it a little higher than it is now :D Nice work

slipperyslopes responds:

Thanks! Yeah... I think the main problem with me is that i get sorta sloppy after a while... i start off okay, but i dunno... I guess my attention span isnt the highest... :P I should spend longer making the song sound good... :) Thanks for the review!

[AF-Eurotrip (NG cut)]

This is one of the few songs that I think deserve to be on the popular page right now. Really well produced and mastered. It could get a little repetitive at times. But the description said it was for a video, so it's no big deal in that case. It sounds awesome though. nice work

AlexFarway responds:

glad you dig it !