Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[FS: Taking Over]

You know your style has really changed over the years! Before I thought you were purely an orchestral guy, then you started throwing drum kits in orchestral, and now you've practically invented your own genre. As usual, you don't fail to deliver a catchy, enjoyable and considerably badass song! Yay.

What I really must commend you on is how original this is. I think the creativity and originality here is one of the strongest factors of the submission. I'm hearing some orchestral stuff, some synthy stuff, and those drums are unlike any drums I've ever heard.

I love the two notes at 0:06 that play right before the beat, the occasional flanger you throw onto the drums, the way you gradually increase the amount of instruments playing at the same time in the intro, your excellent introduction of the melody at 1:01, how you sometimes line up the drum hits with the melody (that's actually one of the characteristics of your music, I feel :P), the extra two bars at 1:48 to allow the instrument to make its entrance, the little arpeggio at 2:24... I could honestly go on forever. All of that is well-executed and highly creative.

Some of the composition is just awesome, man. I especially love the 1:01's melody. As I mentioned above, you certainly took a solid approach to introducing it by first edging a monotone version of the synth you used for it at 0:50. The melody itself is memorable and well-made, and you even threw in another instrument under it during its second iteration (sounds like some sort of piccolo or something).

This song, however, lands directly in the same track that a lot of your other tracks land in I'm afraid. In fact it might be even more prominent over here. The more you go into the song, the more uninspired the melodies feel. At the beginning you really had something going, and later on, while there was some interesting composition, by 2:24 it didn't feel like the song was going anywhere.

Then you repeat a previous melody at 3:13, and while this is a good way to structure a song, that melody unfortunately isn't very memorable. In fact, it took more than one listen for me to notice that it had already been played before. This might just be because it isn't as upfront as a foreground melody should be, but I think it's because the melody is just too long and complex man.

You mentioned that you were trying to perhaps make the melodies too complex, and you might be right. Not that I have something against complex composition - far from it - but for a song like this, I think throwing in the awesome 1:01 melody at 2:50 and then building up from there would have been a much better idea.

I'm in two minds about the mixing. I absolutely love some of your mixing and I'm not fond of the rest of it. What I like is how much oomph you put into this track, especially the drums. That is something you're very good at. The snare that came in at 1:25 is fat, powerful and I love it. The kick has a nice deep punch to it as well, and compliments the snare nicely. The song doesn't sound empty at all by the way! It's wonderfully deep and filled up, without sounding like the sounds are having a drowning tournament.

Then, there are some other mixing choices I'm a bit unsure about. As I said above, the foreground melodies from 1:26 onwards need to be easier to hear, most notably when you have the main beat playing. I'm not catching all of the notes, because they're getting drowned out by the stuff that's supposed to be in the background. One other thing; the cymbals and shakers (or hi-hats, whatever they are) are kinda terrible haha. Waaay too much high-end; they sound very harsh and unprocessed. This is quite noticeable at 1:01 when you play those crashes along with the melody. They're almost leaning into the white noise territory; I'd really consider some better sounds for the high-end drum hits like shakers/cymbals, etc.

Some of your instrumentation is a bit MIDI-like (mainly the piccolo/flute thing) and I would've liked some more high-end reverb/delay on the synth at 0:39 to make it sound a bit more intricate, but otherwise your instrumentation is awesome. What's great about it is the fact that sounds that aren't usually used with each other are used and they sound good together! For example, the flute/piccolo along with the gated synth at 2:50 (and a drum kit as well). Generally I find it hard to fit flutes in with a non-orchestral drum kit, and usually flutes and synths go terribly with each other, but for some weirdass reason it really does work here!

The drums... man. I don't know what to say; other that the mixing quirks they're fantastic. Maybe a bit TOO varied at points, but honestly, they're so interesting and fit with the song so well that I really don't care whether you vary them too much at points. The fact that they're varied makes them entertaining to listen to, and I bet that even if you stripped the song of the rest of the instruments, the drums would still be interesting on their own.

Last point; the transitions on the whole are nailed. You almost never have problems with transitions and this song is certainly no exception. You seemingly effortlessly lead up to different song sections. I especially like 1:23's transition, and how at 1:26 everything comes together after that little snare roll. On a related note, the intro is quite good and so is the ending!

Well, that's all I have to say (still loving the bigger character limit). As a recap, you've got something really intriguing, creative and well-made here. I did mention some issues, mainly that compositional quirk and that mixing quirk, along with a few smaller problems here and there, but I also mentioned a hell of a lot of good things, and that calls for a high review score from me!

8/10
4/5

FairSquare responds:

Thanks for this review!
Sorry i didn't respond for such a long time.. but the least i can do is thank you.
Helpful stuff :D

[Ireland's Coast]

Hey man. I really felt the need to review one of your songs one time, so I thought I should satisfy my urge eventually. And here I am! This is one of my favourite songs from you and I'm glad you post your stuff on despite obviously being someone who makes professional-quality music like this. Your interpretation of the Irish style is absolutely excellent, and what better time to review it than on St. Patty's Day?

Also man I love that they increased the character limit, now I can write full reviews freely!

Let me get the obvious stuff out of the way. This is undeniably catchy. I have a real soft spot for music in this style to the point that I sometimes go out of my way to search for Irish/Celtic music in the Audio Portal search bar just to have more music to download, and I desperately want to try making it sometime. I'm a big fan of the energy in this track and how you keep it constant but not tiring by using those drums that are full of energy. The melodies themselves are very happy and exciting; something I would definitely picture in a travelogue. I know I'm going to have this melody in my head for days to come.

There is one main problem that I have with this track; something which may have been hard to avoid in this kind of music. As much as I absolutely adore your melody and think it's very catchy, it's unfortunately predictable and generic. The cadences are incredibly typical and don't vary much, and sadly the composition in this doesn't have that much creativity. The only thing that I really commend you for in creativity was how well you managed to change key for the repetition of the melody at 1:04.

Of course, throwing in some more interesting chords and things may have killed the charm of the track; in my opinion you should've added some more interesting composition to complement rather than replace what you already have here. A few more counter-melodies to play alongside the main melodies would have been lovely as well, and would be able to open up the doors to so many more interesting harmonies. I feel that the fact that the composition here is quite standard and typical makes it lose a bit of its identity, making it more "just another Irish song", albeit a well-made one, rather than something really special, if you know what I mean.

That's just me being a nitpicking bastard though, in all honesty your composition is beautiful and its simplicity allows it to appeal greatly to pretty much everyone, and probably for the purposes of the project it's better like this. As a standalone song, I would've liked some more creativity, which I'm sure you have, to shine through a bit more, but don't worry about it; the composition is great as it is :P.

Your structure and progression are fantastic man. You have such a firm grasp over it and know exactly what you're doing! I have officially fallen in love with how you introduce the melody at 0:23. It's the main melody but it comes in so modestly, and then it opens up gorgeously at 0:38. The way you structured the song makes it very much like a journey. You don't really have as much of a clear 'Section A' followed by 'Section B', etc... but rather this feels like a flow of melodies that intertwine very smoothly with each other. Great use of repetition too.

Needless to say, your transitions are great. As I said above, I love how you did that key change and then played the melody in another key. I was worried it would get repetitive but it honestly didn't; the key change actually added a whole new flavour to the composition. Perhaps the only transition I'm not too happy with is 2:23. It was introduced similarly to its counterpart exactly 2 minutes before it, but while it worked the first time, the second time it shouldn't have such a modest entrance. It's the last time that melody is shining. Give it a more ballsy entrance! A proper buildup would've worked great.

The instrumentation is great, man. Your drums fit so well with your melodic instruments which, by the way, are perfect. The people who played those live instruments are very talented. The playing was immaculate, especially whoever was in charge of the lead cello melodies. The grace notes are very tastefully used and I'm glad they're used here because I can't imagine an Irish song without grace notes haha.

What I'm also very impressed with is how well you mixed them together man. I know from experience that mixing in live instruments is a totally different story from mixing sampled instruments. Sampled instruments from VSTs like East/West or Symphobia are mixed and mastered to be ready for use, whereas live instruments not only require good recording but careful use of EQing and sometimes compression. However, you incorporate them absolutely wonderfully over here.

Hell, all of your mixing is great. The mix is quite deep and full up, but everything is allocated its own little space, and not at one instance does one thing wrongly overpower another thing... well except maybe the less boomy drum hits. The bigger hits are easy to hear but they only come in once in a while and the smaller percussive hits are more drowned out, most notably when the song reaches some big climaxes. Maybe you can try buffing up the high end on the weaker percussive hits to make them a bit clearer? I dunno.

One tiny thing I need to mention is that if you focus on the drums you'll notice that they really don't have much variety to them. I would've liked some more fills in this department. Some more complex tambourine rhythms would've also been appreciated, with more varying velocities. Those are the sole issues I have with the drums, because other than that the drums were highly fitting and the drum and cymbal rolls were especially useful to increase intensity.

Overall, I love this track. While I do have some issues here and there, you're a highly talented composer and I hope to someday reach this level of quality! Great work man, you really know what you're doing and I'm proud to have been the audio moderator who approved you back when you posted your first few tracks :3.

10/10
5/5
Download.
Favourited.

deadlyfishes responds:

Holy bajesus when did they remove the character limit on reviews?! Anyways, I really really really really times a million appreciate your review, and I didn't even realize I had to be approved since I was just approved right away?

I have to agree with you about predictable and uninspired chord progressions, but in this style of music, they focus on melody and chords aren't really a thing in traditional Irish music, if anything I have too much focus on chord progressions than I should have done. Listen to any Irish drinking song and you'll find two or three chords at the most.

As for the melody and adding more countermelodies.... This was for a commercial, with lots and lots of dialogue. I had to keep this kind of on the "generic" and "cheesy" side of things with good taste and musicianship, and since there were many lines of dialogue, I ended up cutting out a lot of inner voices and melodies that I wouldn't have cut out otherwise to make sure the music wasn't too overpowering in the commercial.

When doing my research on this style, I have found that modulations happen abruptly and usually only once, then back to the root. They seem to always jump up a perfect 4th arbitrarily and then go back to the original key. Also, looking at the song forms, I found that it's usually A B A or some sort of Rondo...

I wish I could've addressed some of the things here, and I totally would have but what can you do with strict deadlines in my line of work... This was the final product from about 8 hours of work. Not that I don't rush things on purpose but most of my tracks need to be done in an extremely small timeframe.

But to conclude my response, the idea with writing for media such as tv, film and games is; "Less is more" and you should try to make the music more relatable to the average person.

Thanks again for your review, I need to hop on here to review more, but with school about to be finished and more music jobs coming in, I just don't have much time these days, but hopefully you'll be seeing me around more.

PS, I've got a huge orchestral film score up, it's brand new, but it's a mockup. No real players yet until the 26th, so stay tuned for that!

[Origin]

Now this. This is awesome stuff. Man, I found out about you out of nowhere one time when looking for songs to post on the frontpage and boy am I glad I did! You're a wonderful music artist and I'm highly impressed with your work. I don't usually review Newgrounds songs when I have so much to do, but I'm totally making an exception for you, who not only reviewed one of my tracks and at the very least deserves a review in return, but makes fantastic music like this.

Right off the bat, tight mixing, man! Fantastic low end. At high enough volumes I can definitely feel a well-balanced rumble that doesn't overpower everything else. Tasteful use of compression, which isn't too excessive. Not only that but everything is so clear, especially the drums. If there's one pet peeve I have, it's when people drown their drums out in the mix and all the other instruments cover them all up (this is especially common in some metal tracks) but here that's not a problem. The drums are excellently incorporated and have a lot of clarity. On top of that, everything else is given its own space to shine. Bravo.

I love the composition in this. I don't really know why. It's certainly relaxing as you've described, but at the same time it certainly has its own energy to it and I would definitely imagine this in some space-related game. You've got a remarkably good sense of composition and your melodies are undeniably catchy. Great melody at 1:29, and I love how at 3:19 you use it to end the track. This is all very well-thought-out and clever. The only thing that I felt wasn't very creative was the use of that terribly generic drum'n'bass rhythm for the synth plucks that start playing at the very beginning and play for a lot of the track.

The sounds are great. You've got a lot of high-sounding fluffy instruments here, contrasted beautifully by the thumps and rumbles of the drums and bass. Your sounds in general are very pleasant to the ear and well-chosen. The only sound I'm not a massive fan of is the snare. It's very hard to get the snare right regardless of what genre you're making music in, and over here while I still like it, I think it's a bit muffled and could do with being a bit brighter. At first I thought it was too rough for this track but in retrospect it actually works really well, so if I were you I'd just make it a bit brighter and not as muffled.

And the transitions! I love them. You use drum breaks quite a lot, like at 0:44, 1:06, 1:49, and so on. However, you don't excessively milk it, even if you use it a lot (probably because it inarguably sounds cool). It makes for some fantastic transitions. Do watch out that you don't overuse it in your future tracks though, because you use habitually after every handful of bars here and it can easly become a habit. That being said, everything is extremely smooth and flowing. The song effortlessly rides from one section to the next. You sure know what you're doing.

The intro is excellent, and I love its progression. The ending is also nailed, so no problems there. The only thing left that I feel I need to mention would be that the drums in general are pretty good! I would've liked it if the hats had some more presence in the mix and were more interesting, but who am I to talk, my hats are usually duller than a Monday morning. I think the drums did get a bit repetitive and tiring though; that's one thing to work on possibly. The drums at 2:35 were a breath of relief, because as much as I like your drums, I think some more variety in beats, rhythms, and sounds could've been good. In fact, if you want to be really creative, try adding some glitch effects, filter automation, all that good stuff! It'll definitely make the drums more interesting.

All in all I don't really have that much to criticise. This is just a considerably well-made and well-balanced track. I don't think it's perfect; it doesn't have that much replay value, some elements are too repetitive in nature and there are a few other minor issues, most of which I've mentioned above. Honestly though, this is very solid. I love it and I think you did a great job on it. Thanks again for leaving me that review and keep up the splendid work!

10/10
5/5
Download
Favourited.

Geoplex responds:

Oh my god, this review is amazing. Never have I read one so detailed <3

I would say all in all that this is probably my best mixed song, even though looking back at the file I did a lot of stuff wrong - I think the somewhat minimalistic nature of the track allowed me to get away with some mistakes in that regard.

On the whole synth-plucks thing, I agree they're a bit generic. I use that pattern a lot actually, I need to stop XD

I've been told before that my snares are a little muffled, but I oddly like them that way to be honest. I'm not a fan of the typical bright DnB snares because I feel like they sound a bit weak, but I definitely agree that some high-end certainly wouldn't hurt on this one.

I also agree that Drum Breaks can become a habit, (they actually already have, I think D:) I got used to using them after remixing a song that used them a lot. Gonna have to try and make some more interesting transitions in the future :P

This review is actually quite encouraging, I've been very uninspired for a few months and this makes me wanna try some new stuff :3

Thanks so much for the review. By far the most detailed one I've ever read (on any song in the portal.) <3

[~SW~ Astral Nation]

For the record this is probably your best song ever. Not just because it's so masterfully composed, but also because of the concept of it all! Man... this is such an ambitious endeavour that one can't help but feel an enormous amount of respect of you for taking it on. And despite it being so diverse, it all works so well together somehow.

I'm going to review each section because that seems like the most fitting review layout for a song like this.

0:00 ==> Tribes Gather
Right off the bat, I love how subtle this is. You very modestly start off by laying down the basic beat which sounds great on its own and great with everything else, and you so subtly introduce more elements, starting with the great flute motif and then slowly easing in those wonderfully expressive strings. Beautiful descending pentatonic scale at 0:30, and I love how cleverly-timed the percussion is. This first part sounds very playful and inviting. Cool low tones in the tablas and bongos

0:40 ==> The Building Begins
Over here it changes from playful to exciting. I think this is practically the only transition in this track I'm not entirely fond of, since it feels a bit forced, almost as if you decided that you have to change the melody somehow so you just try and kind of make it work. It's not a bad transition by ANY means, but I feel like it doesn't hold its own compared to the other transitions. Lovely melodies though. Love the dum-dums like the one at 0:49.

1:40 ==> Kings and Queens
I love the transition here. It's not totally smooth but I think it's the closest you can ever get to transitioning from the part before it. Very, very well-executed tempo change. The part itself is quite cliche, but it works very well. Super solid composition. When you introduce Omnisphere's famed soloists I think "wow, great idea". The tenor sounds quite synthesised since the vocal transitions from one note to another aren't smooth at all (something that a proper choir VST should fix) and I believe your tenor has the superhuman ability of not needing to breathe, but... yeah, super creative idea.

2:38 ==> Dawn of Technology
I disagree with Bosa, I love the bagpipes' sound and I think it's quite realistic! Although what would I know, I don't really listen to real bagpipes that much haha. The transition to this part is great too.

3:18 ==> Inventing New Realities
This is an AWESOME part, very catchy. Guitar solo is a bit lame, since the sample sounds too computerised. You should've gotten someone to play it for you! Love your use of the organ patch; I can tell you had fun making this section :P.

4:00 ==> Ages Past
You already told me that you had this reintroduction planned in something like the first ever version of this track, but just hearing it in all its glory feels great. I also love how despite it being a reintroduction, you still add layers of new effects and details to it. Just goes to show how much work and intricacy you put in your music. Beautiful soprano section by the way!

4:34 ==> Preparing for Launch/LHC
Love this part, sounds intense and exciting. I do have to question your use of the flute in this part though, it doesn't exactly fit. However, you practically used a little bit of almost every section in this part, so it gives it a very climatic feeling.

4:52 ==> Into the Deep Void
This part sounds very Buoy. It really sounds quite great, but (and this is personal bias) I dislike how the track ends with this ambient part, rather than with a super epic climax that one would expect after hearing the excitement of the part before this. It gives me a bit less to look forward to.

A few general nitpicks; the song in general lacks in raw percussive power. Moreover, like Bosa said, the samples sound average, and some are really synthy (like the bassoon), but you use them to their highest potential, as always.

I have more to say, and I want to expand on a few points I mentioned up here, but the character limit is upon us. Overall fantastic work, this song is so powerfully story-driven that it really takes you on a journey. Bravo.

10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.

SkyeWint responds:

Okay, I'm time-labelling my response to your review just like you did to the song. :P

0:00 ==> Tribes Gather
I LOVED doing the hand percussion in this - I've been wanting to do it for awhile. Getting the timings right and realistic-ish was a pain, but... yeah.

0:40 ==> The Building Begins
Funny, I loved that transition. :< And some people really don't like the melodies (more specifically the one at 0:51-0:54 or so). Oh well. I knew you'd love the "dum DUM"s though. :3 It's just the kind of thing you'd do after all. :P

1:40 ==> Kings and Queens
Okay yeah getting the transition as good as that was a pain and I still think it sucks. :< Best I could figure out though, so there we are. Oh well. Yes it's absolutely cliche. I kinda meant it to be like that in the section though... it felt like such a classic "medieval duet" thing to me. Don't know if you agree or not. xD

2:38 ==> Dawn of Technology
Yeah the bagpipes don't sound very realistic in the way they're played - I don't think they can really do that kind of arpeggio lol. Sounding awesome though, I TOTALLY agree. :3 Yay for inspiration. This whole section is actually a transition in itself.

3:18 ==> Oh man, I LOVED making that - using the percussion Buoy sent me as well as that organ you talked about as well as some other stuff was so much fun. I'd have loved to get a real guitar solo in there, but I don't think it would've worked.

4:00 ==> Yep, reintroduction of previous themes ftw. Makes the track so much more cohesive IMO, and then people feel like "I REMEMBER THIS :D". Adding new effects is definitely necessary though, otherwise it's just cut-and-paste. To tell the truth though, I was thinking the part with the soprano was going to be different. Just decided to do it as-is though, because whatever.

4:34 ==> Preparing for Launch/LHC
Huh, I'm surprised you didn't like the use of the flute there. It was used for a last restatement of the theme, but whatever, to each their own. There was meant to be a huge climax here yes.

4:52 ==> Into the Deep Void
Oh, why am I not surprised that you don't like this part. :( I love it, I like the final peace of it. A lot of people thought it didn't really depict space because they think it'd be more exciting, but honestly, for me, I find it extremely relaxing. And to tell the truth, it wouldn't be as exciting as most would think - there's a lot of empty space out there, and for the most part you're just... drifting. Even the planets are going faster than you. As for a final climactic ending, I DID export another version of this where it ends, but I hadn't mastered it properly yet, so there are some weird issues with levels in it. :/ I personally put this in to show what I really think it would be like to be out there.

General nitpicks:
Yeah it lacks in percussive power except in Inventing New Realities. There's a lot of percussion in that section. I didn't really have much good orchestral percussion (as you know) so I couldn't do a ton in it. The melodies are the focus, fortunately. Ah well. Maybe if I get Stormdrum. ^_^ Some of the other samples sound average, yes. That's probably Edirol - why I'm saving up for some EWQL instruments.

Expand as much as you want in skype! :D

And thanks for the review~

[Playing Rabbits]

Considering that I've been shamelessly enjoying this track and another track of yours for a while now, and also not forgetting the fact that you reviewed Yuletide Groove, I thought it's about time I leave you a review on one of your tracks, so I chose this track while still being in the holiday mood. Formalities aside, this track is AWESOME.

I loved it right from the beginning; everything just sounds so subtle but effective... like those really delicate little string notes that play along with the piano at 0:04, the sleigh bells towards the end, and your lovely usage of broken chords. The piano's sound is just beautiful, although a tad bit dry, I thought. Might be just me.

And I absolutely adore your composition. I honestly wish I was this good at composition; you've got such a masterful grasp over your harmonies and chords and accompaniment and everything that I can't help but feel a bit of envy. Your chords are just so good. I don't know enough music theory to name them, let alone figure out what notes they comprise of, but they add such a great flavour to the composition.

The melodies themselves are extremely playful and innocent, for lack of a better word. And then it goes all intimate and slow at 0:38; what a nice change. I didn't really expect it though and it doesn't exactly fit with your idea of rabbits playing in snow, but hey it still sounds great! Transition to it was a bit plain but I can't really think of any better way to transition to it so I'm pretty useless in that department haha. By the way, the fire sound is nice and helps with the atmosphere, but if I were you I'd turn it down a little.

I adore the reintroduction of the main theme at 1:12, and in a different key too! Beautiful; you're a genius when it comes to composition I swear. I love your dynamics throughout. I love your idea to end the track by repeating the melodic phrase you had at 0:35, although maybe it would've been cooler if the first time round you had different chords to the second time round? I dunno... right now the ending is great but it feels like it could've made a better statement, and I feel that right now that statement is being diminished by an identical occurrence of the ending's cadence at 0:35.

But I mean all I'm doing is nitpicking. This is honestly a beautiful piece and I'm absolutely perplexed why it didn't place in the MAC! Keep it up man, you're a fantastic composer.

10/10
5/5
Download.
Favourited.

SoundChris responds:

Hey Step!

Thanks a lot for this supernice and monster-sized review of yours! I appreciate your work a lot and so your reviews / comments are always highly appreciated, too. The day i have written this piece has been a very special one. I had to learn all the day for a lot of months to finally finish my studies on this day. I´ve been so exhausted and haven´t had time for playing piano / composing for such a long time. Thats why i just had to compose something to feel free again.

I have chosen the rabbit-motive because those little animals have been the only ones who were waiting for me when i left the university at 2:00 am each day and then went to my car (there are a lot of rabbits living within my university´s area). Sometimes i was watching them playing and hopping arround my car. Maybe you can understand now that i just had to dedicate my new piece to those little friends to thank them :D

I am glad you like the chords i´ve used within "rabbits" and "rapture". If i compose something i start sitting at the piano and take a few minutes just playing some chords to get some inspiration and also to check out which chords sound nice / can combined in a cool way. Sometimes this phase can take sometime, but i think it pays. So i just can reccomend this procedure!

I have listened to the track again and have to admit that the fire-sound is really a little bit to loud. Think i will fix this soon and maybe change the ending-sequence a little bit. I think i understand what you mean if you are talking about improving the statement.

Thank you very much step for this epic review and your kind words - it really means a lot to me.
Best wishes to malta ans a happy and creative good year!

Chris

[Gift Of Giving Nothing]

Oh man, this is good. When you reviewed my competition submission with that "I surrender" tone I thought you had like mediocre music or something, but no. Far from it. This sounds original, creative, unique, humorous but at the same time disturbing. You REALLY know what you're doing. So don't go all "I give up" when you actually make great music please k thanks.

OK to start off, I need to commend you on making something original... maybe the style isn't entirely original (sounds very much like circus music, especially with that chime riff) but nobody ever makes music like this on Newgrounds, so it's so refreshing to hear it. Even the way you sing it is very creative and different.

Speaking of singing, your voice is actually good. You call it horrendous but yet you hit the notes perfectly and the voice itself sounds great. Excellent recording quality too. I love how the 's' sound isn't too loud... did you use a pop filter or a de-esser or something? Cool vocal harmonies; did you do those all yourself as well? By the way, lyrics are great but at times, the lines are too long and you sometimes put the accent on the wrong syllable of a word (like "present" at 1:09).

What I like the most about the singing is how you sing though. You don't hesitate at all, and sing it with a lot of movement, making it very fun to listen to. You're really not afraid to show off your voice here, and I love how you accent your voice sometimes, like adding that really clear emphasis on the words in "Christmas time's abound the air" and those over-exaggerated voice tones at "Kill all my friends if that's what it takes - All I want this year are Christmas cakes". Oh and let's not forget the massive breaths you take sometimes before a verse. Those are funny. This kind of prominent emphasis gives the song a kind of disturbing quality to it, making it very memorable, and still humorous.

Your composition is great! The chords behind the voice were quite typical and don't really take any risks, but that kind of simplicity is what gives the composition its charm. One little detail I liked quite particularly about the composition is when you add that discordant note at 2:16. You throw it in right after the vocals suddenly turn into growling, so you were able to reflect what was going on with the vocals in your chime accompaniment. It's such a small detail but damn was it a good idea. The accompaniment itself is great, especially at 0:54. Great rhythms; very fitting with the vocals.

The instrumentation, like the composition, doesn't take many risks either. It sounds very winter-like and cold; perfect for a Christmas song. You know, thanks to the instruments you use, along with the vocals, I think that, apart from maybe bassfiddlejones's submission, this is the only one that truly sounds reminiscent of a Christmas carol. Sure it's not all happy like Jingle Bells or something - in a way it's almost a parody of Christmas carols - but it still has very much of a Christmas carol vibe to it, making it very relevant to the competition. Bravo.

The one reason I'm not giving this full marks is because I don't feel that as a song it holds its own. The lyrics are well-written, the execution is great, the composition is fitting... but in the end I can't ignore the fact that this is practically the same thing from beginning to end. After listening to it once, you don't really get the satisfaction of listening to a full song. You don't really feel like it went anywhere. This is because once you've heard the first minute of the song, you've basically heard it all, and if it weren't for the varied lyrics this would get seriously repetitive.

The thing is, if you make this any more complex, it might lose a bit of the charm it has. While I certainly commend you on making something creative and executing it so masterfully, this kind of style doesn't leave you much room to take any risks and make something really satisfying to listen to. But I mean this is still a fantastic song and I'm considerably impressed. Great work; keep it up! Good luck in the contest too.

9/10
5/5

ZipZipper responds:

Wow. We think SO similarly. Umm...you kinda summed up everything I could think of about criticizing this piece, though with an added leniency, which I thank you for. I also thank you for taking the time to really review. But yeah. Let's be friends pl0x.

[Christe Redemptor Omnium]

So I've finally found the time to review one of your submissions, and while I don't feel that this is your strongest submission, it's certainly an absolutely incredible piece and still very indicative of how awesome of a composer you are. I pity da foo's who are up against you in the MAC and NAC... yeah I'm a foo.

So, first off I'm going to get the obvious out of the way. The voice is absolutely gorgeous. You could not have chosen a better style of singing and style of lyrics for your wife because her voice just works so well with it all. Every note was sung beautifully and I love the slight vibrato on some notes. Good reverb effects on the vocals too. They make the voice sound so angelic. And damn she can sing high. Did she take singing lessons or something?

Your work is also, as expected, extremely high-quality and well-made. Solid, tasteful choice of instruments. Despite the fact that you're using a piano behind those vocals which is an awfully generic technique, you don't make it sound cheesy at all. And instead of going the typical route and just throwing in some warm strings, with a few high strings in the more climatic moments like 1:03, you go the extra mile; sure you've got some warm strings, but you even throw in some lovely (but sometimes a bit tiring to listen to) woodwind instruments... and there's even a glock that's very distinctly from East/West Symphonic Orchestra, am I right? :P.

Melodies and composition in general are fantastic. You've got great chords and a good balance of low and high notes. I think the vocal melody is excellent but a bit predictable, to the point that I managed to predict quite a few notes before they were sung during my first listen. Love the chords at around 1:03 by the way! All in all you've got very solid composition.

And man, the song flows so well! Honestly, in so many aspects this song just screams professionalism. The ever so subtle entrance of the woodwind instruments at like 0:50 was so smooth and flowing, and then the little crescendo you gave them was so well-executed. And you've got that cymbal roll at 1:23. The thing about that is that there's only one other quieter instance of it in the song, so when it does come in it really stands out and tells you "Hey, this song section is important. Pay attention!".

Unfortunately, I can tell that this is rushed. While it sounds so professional and intricate, I'm hearing some almost unforgivable mixing quirks. 0:22 and 1:05 have some very clear peaking issues. Some frequency somewhere is too loud and is causing some nasty clipping. I'm perplexed why you kept it like this because I'm pretty sure you know about it and this can be fixed very quickly with a small EQing job.

On top of that, as I said above, the woodwinds can get very tiring to listen to, especially during the middle part of the song, maybe because they have very precise and penetrating frequencies, like a sine wave (although obviously not to that extent) rather than, say, beefy string chords which take up a more diverse range of the audible spectrum. I apologise but I can't think of any obvious ways of fixing this without diminishing their amazing sound too much. Might be just me anyway :3.

Other than that, your mix is very good. I'm hearing everything quite clearly; even the piano which is pretty far off in the background. And as I already said, you've got some great effects on that voice. You also make great use of the mix, and you don't leave much unattended space. The double bass especially fills up the mix so well and gives it some important depth.

One last thing to mention; I think you could have given some more love to the other instruments. As much as I love your wife's voice, you only have extremely brief instrumental sections like the awesome glock pattern at 0:40. This unfortunately reduces the replay value of this song and makes it more predictable.

There are a few issues but I mean this is an absolutely fantastic track. You've got some SERIOUS talent and I wish you the best of luck in the MAC, and NAC! Keep it up man, and fantastic work!

9/10
5/5

bassfiddlejones responds:

First off, thank you so much for taking the time to look at this piece. It means a lot!

Glad you liked the vocals! And no, she actually has never had any formal instruction in voice, just incredibly talented :)

You're absolutely right about the glock! I love that patch. And there actually are no woodwinds in this piece... I believe it was just Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Trumpet, Piano, and Glock. I wanted to add a full brass and partial woodwind section but didn't have time to score it.

I'm actually glad the vocal melody was somewhat predictable! That's sort of what you want in a carol - something that's easy to remember. The point of a carol is really to tell a story, the music is almost secondary. So, the more easily accessible the music is, the better the effect of the carol. That's how we've passed down our history for thousands of years, and I think we're losing the tradition in our generation. Also, I liked the chords at 1:03 too :) I tried to change things up in the background a bit.

And you're right, this was quite rushed, and it shows in some ways like the clipping. I was indeed aware of it, though I'm pretty sure it was due to some physical problems with the miking set up. I'll have to go back and check to see if it's the EQ, which would be a quick fix. Mixing is not my forte, if you haven't noticed :) Still plenty to learn! We literally finished this song about an hour before it was due, so I didn't have much time to go back :(

I'm happy you liked the effects on the voice! I had to play around a lot until I found something I liked. Also, I would have done a LOT more instrumentally if I had the time to do it. This unfortunately could only be a skeleton based on the deadline.

Thanks a ton for your feedback, Step! I take your opinions pretty seriously. Great job placing in the MAC/NAC, and good luck in the top 8!

[Jonas Wasilco~Din of War]

Oh, you got fyri52 to sing. Out of coincidence she sang for a song I worked on too, a cover of the Reset theme in Okami. Awesome.

Regarding the song, this is a neat piece of work. I LOVE your guitar work, composition, and overall this is skilfully composed. To be honest when I saw your username I expected you to be a beginner that started on FL and is making Megaman remixes so when I heard this I was (very pleasantly) surprised haha.

I'll start with some criticism. Fyri has a very nice voice but unfortunately there are some serious tuning issues here. Image-Line has a plugin called Newtone which is exactly what you need here. You'll have total control over the pitch of each sung note; it's a fantastic plugin. Also, the voice itself is a bit dry and it's hard to decipher the words. It sounds like you don't have much experience working with vocals; I had the exact same problem when I tried using vocals for the first time. My advice would be to allocate some room for them in the mix, kill the high frequencies that produce the 's' sound and give them some high-end reverb.

Thankfully, your composition is awesome. Love the guitar riff at 0:26... in fact I like all of the guitar work. You're a great guitarist and you clearly have experience making metal music. Great riffs overall, and great rhythm guitar work too. The vocal melody isn't fantastic, but it works. Most of the composition is fantastic, though.

Instrumentation could be a little more interesting, but I can't really complain. I'd love some more instruments in there, like strings or something, since drums, guitar and vocals are very standard on their own, but they can easily mud up the mix so it might not be the best of ideas. What you have right now is fantastic.

Mixing of the guitars is great. The drums' mixing is good too, but I would've liked some more power from them. As I already said, the vocals leave some improvement mixing. Transitions are spot-on (except that I'd like some more power in the transitions to the chorus), and I also like the intro; nice, simple and fitting. The ending, however, is very abrupt. I don't know if this was intentional.

This'll have to be a shorter review than what I usually write since I'm super busy. As a recap: fantastic composition and great guitar work are the strong points of this piece. The vocals need some work in general and there are a few minor flaws here and there, but all in all a great song. Keep it up :3.

7/10
4/5

Megamannt92 responds:

Thanks for the detailed review! As for my username, I made this account a long time ago haha.

Anyways...Fryi52 does have a wonderful voice, and she is great to work with. I know what you mean with the voice mix though, I'm not good at mixing vocals...All I have on the vocals is some comp and delay. I'll look into that plugin for sure!

As for other instruments I would love to add some strings, but I'm downright terrible at playing keyboard. I have a MIDI guitar but its kinda sketchy and its not the best for creating anything of quality.

[Endless Forms]

I should be studying Systems of Knowledge but I like this too much not to review it now so screw Systems of Knowledge, everyone needs a break once in a while :3.

This is seriously good stuff. I love this genre and you execute it so well, with the laid-back tempo and a wonderful assortment of chill ear-candy synths and harmonies throughout. And again you've got fantastic mixing and effects and everything is so well-made. Sometimes I forget how incredible you are at this genre.

What's really cool is that this is very interesting throughout... I can't explain why you've done certain things in here and why they work so well. For instance I love the sound you used at around 0:25 - 1:16, but you throw it in right after a beautiful atmospheric intro, which contrasts greatly, and after around three quarters of a minute of playing, it goes away and doesn't come back at all in the song. Really weird way of doing it, but the song just wouldn't be the same without it. You also throw in some suspenseful film-scorey choir notes at 2:31 along with some high sine tones that are supposed to be totally out of place in this song but again, oddly work very well. These kinds of things really stick in my head after the first listen.

Composition is wonderful; the chords are all fantastic, especially the chords in the intro, and how you repeat them unexpectedly at 0:49. This doesn't actually have some form of melody though, preferring instead to stick to awesome harmonies and spine-tingling effects instead. While this can be good sometimes, it works against you in the less busy middle section which didn't have such interesting melodic material to keep me interested throughout. However, your composition is very solid. Oh and the guitar riffs at the end are beautiful, and of course there's the obligatory catchy bassline coming in at 1:25. Catchy basslines are like your trademark or something

Your sounds are so good. I honestly don't think there are any sounds that I didn't like, but the ones I really need to comment about would be the drums. Seriously dude, apart from the fact that the drum beats are fantastically incorporated and very well-made with diverse rhythms and fills, they sound absolutely excellent. The drums at around 0:23 have a certain dirty and gritty sound to them which I love, and the drums at around 1:36 have a certain organic quality that you bring out very well with the tight mixing and badass samples.

And the mixing! Man, I think Nemesis is your only nemesis when it comes to mixing, because in almost every other song of yours that I've heard (with the obvious exception of Drifting having way too much bass) you've always had exceptional mixing, and here we've got another fine example of this. The drums are punchy, everything is in its place, and you make great use of the mix. Maybe I would've liked some more bass throughout perhaps. The bassline had pretty wimpy bass and even the kick that comes in at 0:25 was a bit disappointing in terms of bass, but otherwise your mixing is so good.

Transitions are, as always, smooth, and this time you've got some very interesting transitions. First off, the progression of the drums transitioning to the proper beat at 1:37 is hands down the coolest drum-related thing I've heard in months. You've got some great transitions like how the song opens up so vibrantly at 0:22 (which you illustrated pretty well in your YouTube video I thought) and how it does the same 2:42, except with the addition of that goosebump-inducing guitar. Intro and outro are flawless, and I like how they're related to each other; as in, the song starts how it ends. That works very well.

So yeah, told you to expect a praisefest! This is one of my favourite things from you this year, coupled by Solace and Depths of Phendrana. Other than some very minor complaints I don't have much criticism to bring forth here. I swear if we ever do a collab it's going to be in a genre like this. But yeah, that aside, fantastic work, keep it up, yadda yadda yadda. filler filler filler filler filler.

10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.
filler.

Buoy responds:

you're already done with that song lol. If you don't get top marks on that thing I will hunt the responsible person DOWN

Yes those things are a bit weird, this actually started as two separate songs... the 1:12 part was one song, the 1:25 - 2:25 was a different one. Both were pretty repetitive and featureless by themselves and I couldn't figure out how to continue any of them because that's what tends to happen with my songs, but then I realized they had a pretty similar organic vibe so I just put one of them after the other, transposed one and made a transition. That really loosened things up and I ended up with this. So I kinda forgot about the 0:25-1:16 thing but at least I brought it back very briefly at 3:30... same goes for the sine thing and choirs, they were elements from the first part that I brought back just to keep it full circle so to speak

That's also why there's not much melody to speak of, and why there are a lot of different sounds and harmonies and stuff. The general idea of the song is actually EXACTLY the same as that of your Ecosystem song so that's interesting. Though the creatures in my ecosystem are a bit more mechanical and insectoid and science fiction inspired maybe? lol i dunno

Should have had moar bass yeah

Thanks so much for the review man, it's really reassuring to get the praisefest because I was kinda worried especially about the mixing and structure aspects. And hey let's collab! ...when neither of us is submerged in oceans of homework and particularly important tests ;____; i'm starting to feel your pain these days

[Venus]

This is your NGADM Round 5 Review.

--

SO, you won the competition! Congrats AGAIN for claiming first place! I've got to say that I'm really glad you found out about the NGADM. Otherwise I wouldn't have ever listened to AWESOME MUSIC like this.

You know this is a pretty noticeable change in style from what you usually make. I mean I can still tell this is yours, especially in the style of singing (and the actual voice of course) but this feels a lot more rhythmic and structured than your previous works. It's totally not scatterbrained at all which was a really nice change. I actually think your structure is pretty damn awesome, and I especially love your progression to bits. You really managed to make everything flow well and your transitions are also fantastic.

Moreover, I'm hearing some lovely details. The subtle snare roll at 0:53, the orgasmic little melodic embellishment at 1:00, the new layer of rhythm guitar that plays at 1:27, the AMAZING descending scale at 1:39 (seriously that little detail makes me smile every time), the organ in the background at 1:54, the hissing at 2:38... I can honestly go on and on. Lovely brass solos too. Kudos to camoshark for that.

This is also has some of the best singing from all of the songs I've heard from you so far. I love how your vocal line fits so well with the song. Truth be told, sometimes the vocals in your previous songs (with the exception of Don't We All) sounded a bit tacked on at times, as if you first made the song and then tried to fit in the vocals wherever you can, but here you seem to have integrated them a lot better. I love the parts where you've got the words timed with those heavy guitar strums and drum hits such as at 0:07. It fit very well and really made the track enjoyable. Lyrics are awesome too, and it's cool that you talked about Venus. Venus is pretty underrated, since Mercury's closest to the Sun so most people think Mercury is the hottest planet in our solar system, when in reality Venus is, thanks to the greenhouse effect. BUT I DIGRESS.

Your mixing... man. Amazing. Sounds a little heavier and bassier than what you usually make but still, wow. The guitars especially sound exceptional. My only complaint mixing-wise is that the vocals in the intro at the very beginning blare out a bit too much. Usually I wouldn't complain about something like that but since it's the start of a song, the vocals do come in as a bit of an unpleasant surprise. I do like your new approach for an intro though, and I love how it starts with just vocals and then the drums and guitar kick in. Nice idea. Ending's pretty awesome too. I would've let the last note ring for another five seconds or so, slowly fading out, but that's just me.

The reason I gave this a 9 rather than a 10 is that this feels a lot less like the revolutionary jazz/metal fusion music you've made in previous rounds and becoming a bit more standardised. Sure, it's still revolutionary and has great composition as usual... but it just doesn't have the great atmospheres Omniwitch presents, the amazing diversity of Child of the Trough, and the interesting approaches of Chemicals.

The consequence of this is that it just isn't all that interesting throughout. You might've tried too hard to avoid making it scatterbrained and all-over-the-place since now you can almost say it's gone to the other extreme. The guitar rhythms supported by punchy drums and stretched-out vocal notes got pretty old eventually, and while this features awesome brass solos and guitar riffs (and a very welcomed reintroduction of the main theme at 4:45 with new melodic layers and an awesome melodic change at 5:06), it just doesn't feel like it does 7 minutes justice. The only real break was towards the end. You've got to find a balance between making it structured and making sense (which you nailed) and keeping it diverse and interesting...

Still, I'm honestly just nitpicking here. This is wonderful and I have yet to hear something from you that changes my opinion of you being one of the best artists on Newgrounds. Great work!

--

9/10

Kor-Rune responds:

Thank you for the detailed and length review! I'm happy the NGADM exists, I could've never put together the motivation to write music by myself. <:

Yeah, I don't write a lot of fast and loud music, but I was willing to try this time around, see if I could do it. I think my voice is a little too frail and innocent for loud stuff, but who cares XD

2:38 hissing pad is secretly overused for all of NGADM, LOL. I hope I made it subtle enough, I used it in every track I've submitted for the competition except Don't We All.

And you are right, all the tracks except Don't We All had vocals tacked on after I wrote the track. I had a different writing process for Venus, a process that actually included vocals as I wrote. For the entire competition except Venus, I actually ignored the writing process and went straight to recording, I guess that is how I end up losing my train of thought and going to something completely different and irrelevant. Oh well, now that I have more than 2 weeks to make a song, and a dickload of fantastic feedback, it won't be a problem any longer! <:

yeah man Venus is pretty brutal, I was reading about it in the Guiness Book of World Records at work. Honestly though, when I can't think of lyrics I just write about space, cause there's usually enough crazy shit happening out there to talk about.

I agree about it getting boring, I ended up trying to compensate with a bunch of inconsistent guitar effects, layers, harmonies, and of course, the presence of lyrics. cause a voice always makes a boring section exciting <: until the voice gets boring LOL

Thanks again for the awesome review Step! I had fun with the competition and am looking forward to next year!