stunkel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Zen]

NGADM Review:

Nice nice nice work dude. Huge improvements from your first round track. I actually wish i had given you a higher score listening to this a second time, but regardless of that, I'm glad that you won this round. I really felt that the compositional ideas and melodies really connected together nicely. The stuff about "sounding fast but not being memorable" is all gone. You did an excellent job on making everything emotional and passionate in your melodies and chord progression. Oh and production is obviously awesome as well. The only thing I really have to comment on is just that some of the transitions could have been better. In particular right before the choruses I would have liked it to build up a bit more. I'm not sure if this is an issue of not enough dynamics or what, but it just felt a bit empty at times when the chorus starts. Also the solo that happens later in the song falls under the "unmemorable" side that I had a problem with in your last track. But dude, great work. My complaints to me stand very true, but know that this is a huge improvement from your last track in it's melodic/composition quality.

Also, the ending is awesome. Looking forward to your next track!

9.1/10

-Ryan

PirateCrab responds:

Yeah the mix isn't ultimately very good with this so there's so much dynamic and low end missing which gives it the power. I'm re-working all of these though for a professional release so I'll sort that out!

Thank's massively for the review Stunkel, every bit helps me immensely:)

[Son of Beach (NGADM '15)]

NGADM Review:

This track is really cool. Very energizing right from the beginning. Composition is fairly solid and I enjoyed most of your melodies which you carried and transitioned very well from one to the next. Some really solid compositional ideas that you kept throwing in one after another. My biggest problem with this track is that the mixing wasn't as cohesive as I would have liked. I felt the drums (in particular the kick) were VERY separated from the rest of the track. Oddly though, the rest of the pieces of the drums were very quiet in comparison. This could probably be fixed with EQ, or maybe it's just a general sound problem of the kick itself. But basically, the kick in particular just felt super separated from the track, as if it were in a different room or something. This track is really solid though. Nice work!

8.7/10

-Ryan

JDawg00100 responds:

Thank you for the review, I could really do some work on my drum mixing.

[Tenebrarius]

NGADM Review

You guys had a beautiful track. Really unique ideas and that start with the windup box is awesome. The violins sounded really beautiful as well. Composition was really solid as well. Unique melodies playing almost always throughout the track, it just felt really nice. Really awesome ideas. One thing I would have liked to hear are more CONCISE melodies though. While they were clear, I wasn’t really hearing a clear “this is the melody and should sing back when referencing the song”. You guys have such cool ideas in this song, it changes up SO much which is really awesome to experience.
The production is really solid as well, two things to note though. I felt that the French horn in the beginning around 1:00 felt a bit bare. It would have been nice to hear some other brass or violins which helped blend the entire track together. The other thing is louder drums! Epic and heavy drums would have fit this track really well. For these reasons, the track does feel a little bit bare, and the production wasn’t as awesome as I feel it could have been.
This is an awesome track though. Good work. Favorited.

9/10

-Ryan

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hi! And thank you for judging and reviewing, as well as for all the nice compliments :)

Great to hear that you enjoy the music box! Even though some have found it a bit generic, I'm glad to hear that most people have enjoyed it.
As for concise melodies, you do have a point, just like TaintedLogic below you. I am of the opinion that not everything song to repeat itself, especially if the mood stays as consistent as in this track, and the backing repeats a lot. But I guess that it's a question of preference? Science proves that people generally like tracks with a lot of repetition, as they get to feel like they "know" the piece really quickly (a great example is the song "happy").

There are a few repeating melodies, but I hid them very well in here, I think (apart from the music box at the end and in the beginning). But the horn at 1:00, and the male choir at 1:32 play the same melody (at first) though in different keys (at least the melody is in a different key, while the chords really aren't). Other than that, I guess that the trumpet at 2:46, and the horn at 3:02 play slightly similar melodies. But as you said, that's really it in terms of melodic repetition. The backing track repeats itself a lot more, but it is almost never in focus :p

As for the horn at 1:00, I get your point. I wonder if the issue isn't that the horn is too loud though... Not only would it allow for the percussion to be louder, but it would bring up the backing track more, where a lot actually is going on. But yeah, A violin could've fit there well. It's actually my fault for wanting to make the horn melody really clear XD
The trumpet AND the violin is brought forth at 1:16, so we probably could've had the violin playing earlier as well. Cool observation!

"Drums"

Yup. This is correct. At least between 1:00 and 1:49, but probably later in the track as well.

Actually, I think the mood of this track is a bit similar to your "Castle Theme"

Once again, thanks a lot for the review, and for the favorite as well! :D

[Breathe]

NGADM Review

So the track itself has nice composition as well as some great ideas and unique melodies. It’s an overall very relaxing track that I could see in a skyrim game if were just a little bit more relaxing in it’s soundscape and instrument choices.
Although the track is very relaxing, it didn’t quite move me emotionally. I think this might be due to a number of things. One might just be that there is very little dynamic in the volume or harmony throughout the track. A lot of emotion behind pieces is the unexpected dynamics among the harmony and volume, not expecting what should come next. It did change, and it did move my emotions during these parts, but only ever so slightly. This can also be applied to how diverse a melody might be, which could have also helped you more.
Also the violin lead patch could have been a tad more realistic. It was expressive, but every note didn’t sound unique like a violin usually would. Nice work otherwise!

8.4/10

-Ryan

DSykMusic responds:

Thanks for the review Ryan! Appreciate the kind words and critique. Dynamics is one thing I WILL be working on. I'll have to take a look at the violin too!

[[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 :)

[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.

[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!