stunkel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[King DedeDnB]

GAHHH. Dude, this is one of my favorite tracks from the album. I love what you did with it. It's so catchy and it was brilliant to combine it with DnB, it meshes together so well. The synth solo in particular really had me going. Also, this is my favorite track name, did you come up with it? Brilliant work man, wish we could have collaborated on the album.

AeroMusic responds:

thanks alot mang :) I remember listening through the available tracks and being like YES I can totally dnb this up

yeah I thought of the title lol was actually a joke I said at first as I wanted the original name- but it ended up being the best I could come up with ha

Wish I worked on some more tracks! but I was really pressed for time

[Amy's Copper Petals]

This is neat! It reminds me of some Donkey Kong Country from the SNES music! It has that really dark tone just like the games! Nice work man!

-Ryan

steampianist responds:

thank you very much

[Battle Hymn of the Trollpublic]

You brilliant bastard... that kazoo solo... SO BEAUTIFUL!

samulis responds:

I've been studying kazoo professionally for five centuries. You don't need to compliment me, I already know. ;)

[Childhood Passing By]

I don't get why this has 2 stars -.- this is really beautiful. Happy 21st birthday also! This is really freaking awesome. It sounds like it could be a game or movie soundtrack. The chords are rich and full and very well put together. Great work! I love it

5/5

-Ryan

BlazingDragon responds:

Well, nothing to start off year 21 like a zero-bomb right off the bat! XD

Thank you for both the birthday wish and kind words about the music. It means a lot to me. :)

[Mining Capital of Az'ahil]

Hey Neon,

This is AWESOME! I think this is the same piece you showed me forever ago. And I gotta say, I can hear DRASTIC improvements in this from the earlier versions on this. The midi feeling from this is taken out almost completely. Unfortunately it's impossible to really take it out completely. You had some great and fun ideas in this. It sounds like it could definitely be in a video game. If I had any suggestions to make, I would say to make the new instruments that introduce as what would seem like a main melody to be a little bit louder, I felt like they were in the background a bit too much while listening. Also, the piece was nice and relaxing to listen to, and it kept it's tone and emotional content throughout the entire thing, which is great to do for a video game setting so you nailed that on the dot. But maybe it would have been good to throw some bigger parts or even smaller ones. Being at the same level throughout the entire thing unfortunately felt a little boring for me. Another thing, this doesn't really bother me at all, but for other people they get annoyed at it, would be to unquantize and mix up the velocities on all of the instruments. That shaker throughout the song sounds very much the same throughout the entire song. To fix this, if you are using East/West, I would use the round robin reset option in the Play Engine. It works very well for most instruments! Also just change up the velocity and make sure the notes don't snap EXACTLY to the grid, it's okay to do so occasionally, but you want it to sound like a real orchestra, however I didn't notice as much of a problem with that. And damn dude, RA sounds incredible, you used it very well! I'm listening with my computer speakers (which suck) so I can't tell how well you did with the mixing, but from what I can tell it sounds lovely! The scale and chords you used also fit the song and emotion you described perfectly! The melodies and everything flowed together perfectly. You are well on your way to becoming a professional video game composer! Come onto Skype sometime soon dude, we need to catch up XD

Great work man :P

-Ryan

Neon-Bard responds:

Yay! It's Stunkel! I always look forward to your reviews, my friend.

This piece was inspired by the track I showed you a while back but is more of an offshoot, so to speak. I'm glad to hear that this track would be suitable for a video game...that was my intention after all. I will certainly increase the volume of the duduk (and perhaps the strings as well) as I think that the middle-eastern vibe that this track contains is what glues the entire song together.

I apologize if there were slightly less exciting portions to this track....I have to work on creating songs that boast life and excitement, such as you would expect from a city-based track! I felt like I tinkered with the velocities enough, but there is always room for improvement and I thank you for pointing that out - I shall become a master!

The round robin option with East/West is something I definitely should experiment with, I still do not have my head wrapped around it's finer functions. However, interestingly enough, and you may be surprised to hear this, but a majority of the instruments were not placed 'evenly' on the grid. The duduk and percussion (rain stick, tablas, and ewe drums) were often all over the place without any rhyme or reason. I think the strings mask the other instruments and almost provide them with an illusive auditory quality that makes everything seem like it was placed directly on the grid (though many notes came quite close to snapping directly).

Perhaps someday I will be at the professional level, but before that I will need to go through many experiences and also criticisms from experienced artists such as yourself! I will try to be on Skype more! :)

Thanks man!

[Teaching My Students]

This is such a cool idea! Great work Bosa, love it! I had no idea that you teach, what do you teach?

Bosa responds:

Sixth grade, sir! Primary school is where I belong methinks.

[LB - The place I met you.]

Hey man, congrats on the frontpage! The song is great :3

LazyBucks responds:

Oh did I get frontpage? Yay me, thanks man.

[Chemicals [NGADM]]

Okay seriously. This makes me feel things I can't feel from any other song. You have such a unique style of music and I never really appreciated your style of music until now. The structure to the song is just amazing. The mixing is just fantastic. You change it up so damn much and composition is just AMAZING. Guitar solos and vocals with harmony. EVERYTHING changes up every 10 seconds. The chords are just so freaking awesome, the singing is smooth. Everything just pops out at me and it's all just a roller coaster of awesome emotions.

The intro just leaves me in such mystery. It sets a unique and mellow tone for the song. The effect you put on it feels very metallic which fits very well with the name of the song "Chemical". Drum production altogether throughout this song is just incredible. I will most likely be constantly praising it throughout this review. They have to be live recorded, they are just too damn amazing and well mixed. Tons of drum fills and nice diversity of use with the high hat and timing with the solo at the start. The rhythm is awesome as well. The guitar is just so awesome and mellow in the beginning, i can't get over it. That tuned percussion instrument is freaking awesome too. Really brings on the "Chemicals" feel.

All of the guitar fills and solos are just so freaking awesome. Your vocal harmonies are incredible. You are clearly comfortable with your voice and have a lot of talent. You also have a nice scream at 2:12. It doesn't just come out of no where and it comes in slowly and steadily to where it almost sneaks up on you. It's weird but I love it. I love how you manage to make this song so epic and diverse, while giving it a mellow/chill feel the entire time. Again, drums are still amazing as I listen to the song more and more and get further into the song.

This song is so freaking ambitious and incredible. I can literally feel your mindset and emotions when you created this song it's so powerful. (maybe not that much but you get what I mean :P) The effects that you use in the song (along with the intro on the drums) are freaking awesome. Panning effects and all are just amazing. My favorite has to be the 2:27. I can't even wrap my head around what exactly you did right there and how you pulled it off to make it sound so damn good. But it's DAMN good. That is one thing you do extremely well in this song. You change it up in ways where you would expect it. It starts off with a surprise, then you do something else which I wouldn't expect in the song, and then along comes something else that is even more awesome. And the how often you change up the song as I listen just makes me wonder what else you could possibly do that could top that, and with that pattern that you have been following of outdoing yourself, you keep on managing to do so. Which only makes me more excited as I listen for what could happen next.

The transitions in this song are beautiful. You manage to build an entire part up so much and so well in such a little amount of time in just one melody or part. Some composers it takes the entire 4 minute song to build it up all the way. (funny because this song just makes me feel stupid because I have done this before). It obviously does depend on the song and the feelings you are going for, where a four minute song that builds the entire time is a huge progression that happens for a long amount of time. But this might be 10 times as awesome because that emotion of the build is brought in what seems like 100 times.

The part at 3:37 shows an incredible build again. The chords are just beautiful and work together all so well. I'm starting to wonder if you have any bad ideas. I know this entire review I have just been only speaking praise, but this song just has everything. Freddy Mercury from Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody did some brilliant things like playing with piano wire and combining different songs together that would never work with flawless transitions. And I think you do what Freddy did PERFECTLY. But anyways, the part at 3:37 sounds like it should be the ending of the song, and I would normally say that if I hadn't listened to the entire song and you go even bigger with the ending.

The ending is just incredible. The combination of the drums and guitar in sync with each other with the long legato singing notes are just awesome. I have nothing else to say about it. The chords again are amazing. It's just wow. The way you manage to transition from something so epic to something so relaxing and calm like at 5:55. instead of going big and then dropping, you let the vocals go big, and then the drums slowly chill out a bit. Great idea.

Again, I know I gave nothing but praise for this song, but it's true. The only thing I might say is that the vocals can sound weak at some points. But that's only if I HAVE to. And absolutely HAVE to say one thing I don't like about this piece. Just honestly incredible work. You get 5 stars, a favorite, a download and author favorite from me. Amazing work.

-Ryan

Kor-Rune responds:

Oh my goodness, thank you for all the kind words, I've never smiled this much at a review. I'm very glad you feel so strongly about this, people like you inspire me to keep creating, thank you for your feedback! I do really appreciate your words, very moving. I'm going to continue to do my best to write more music. Thank you again!

[Visiting Old Relatives]

That's a very creative title you have there. Kind of lightens up the mood of the song for me. But this is awesome dude. Like I said the repetitiveness really creates a scary theme and it really is a powerful emotion that I'm getting from it. Nice work!

camoshark responds:

Thanks man, glad you like it!