Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[FFX_Battle_Theme [Box-Killa]]

Nice remix!

Good job. Quite an original idea: turning a boss theme into a mellow ambientish song, plus you succeeded really well over here.

I didn't play FFX yet so I didn't hear the original, but I know how final fantasy boss themes are, and they're so action packed. I'm impressed that you managed to turn something like that into such a relaxing song. Good job. Choice of instruments was great as well. My only concern over here is the variety of instruments. It feels like it's missing something right now, and I think that it's best to add more instruments. An addition of a piano would be a good start.

The transitions were great, with smooth flowing melodies throughout the song. I'd suggest more drum transitions though, like drum rolls and stuff. Good song structure with awesome variety as well and many alternate melodies to stop the song from getting boring. Nice intro, and good way to introduce the drums, but as for the ending, instead of a fade, IMO the song would be better off as a loop, since fade endings very rarely sound too good.

The drums were so-so. Beats were excellent, so was variety and the drums were never introduced too suddenly, but I don't think they fit too well with the song. The kick was a little too hard, snare sort of stood out in the song and was too abrupt, plus I think there needs to be more samples.

It's a good remix, making me want to hear the original. You've got a great idea, but I just wish for variety of instruments, variety of drum samples which fit with the song and a better ending. Other than those, keep up the good work!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Box-Killa responds:

yeah, the only problem tho is that the bass drum makes the song sound really whole. Without it it feels kinda empty.

[LB + Song of Storms Remix]

LOL, REVIEW MAH AUDIOZ!! KTHXBAI

'Nuff said. Haha, joking :P. Definitely not enough said... Anyway, I really enjoy the original Song of the Storms, and I'll say the same about this remix. Really nice job!

You don't usually hear remixes with added notes in them, and this had a nice amount of new notes in it, which sounded really well done, and makes me wish they had done them in the original. The instruments were excellent quality as well. May I ask where you got those strings? They sounded really awesome. I think you could've used the flute more here, and maybe added more instruments, since the variety of instruments is nothing too special. I'd suggest some pizzicato strings playing instead of the piano in some parts, and maybe some brass.

Oh, and a problem regarding the piano. It seemed a little to plain, and not that smooth, even though it fit really well with the song. I think you should add a slight bit of reverb to it or use a different sample, since it seems a little bland as it is now.

Good use of sound effects, although as Darklight said, the rain sounded like water coming out from a tap. Also, you could add more sound effects, like wind. (if you need some good weather sound effects, you can send me a PM ;) ). I think you should add some more effects in some parts in the middle of the song, instead of limiting yourself to the intro and outro of the song for the effects. Wind is usually really good to mix with the main melodies.

The transitions were just like they should be: smooth and with a lot of variety to them. The different notes you added definitely did some really good transitions, especially in the strings melodies. Good variety as well, even for a four minute song, and it didn't get that repetitive, although variety of background accompaniment would make it sound better and much less repetitive.

Loved the intro, it had a good mix of sound effects, and although, like I said, the rain didn't sound too well, the thunder was extraordinary and started the song excellently. The ending was quite abrupt, but still, there was a good transition to the final note, and the sound effects after made up for the abruptness. What I'd do if I had to change it is add a final ending note with the strings along with a chord with the piano, and the the note fades away, while the sound effects fade in.

The orchestral drums were really great with fantastic samples. What I'd ask for is more drums spread out in the song, since they felt a little random being tossed in here and there randomly in the song. Maybe give some fixed drum beat that plays in certain parts of the song, and alternate beats in other parts. Also, a gong would be cool here. Still, amazing job with the timpanis, and the cymbal was amazing.

This is a really good remix, and I'm not only saying that because I enjoy the original. You gave a lot of your own touches to it, added really good drums, and used some really amazing instruments which I have no idea how you made them sound so good. Yes, this does have some defects, but the advantages definitely make up for it. Keep up the amazing work, oh supreme remixer! :D. Oh... man, 897 characters left :P.
10/10
5/5
Download.

-Review Request Club-

Lublub194 responds:

Epic review good sir.

I don't think I'll respond to all points, so sorry for that in advance.

I tend to lack reverb. Haha, but this one does have reverb. It's just mild.

Most remixes I do aren't really remixes, but rather remakes. This time I wanted to throw in my own notes. Make it truly a remix, and I'm glad everyone has appreciated the notes I chose.

I've thought about putting the rain throughout the whole song, yet, I'm not sure if I want to or not. I kinda like it to rain only on some parts. I actually got the sound effects from a youtube video, and everyone there thought they sounded good, haha. So I don't see why everyone thinks it sounds like tap.

Anyways, the drums were placed every 3 measures. Maybe that's why you felt they were random. Because most of the time people go by 4 measures. It's a long story why I went with 3, but it's what I went with. Haha.

I'm glad you appreciated the remix, very glad! Hope I can impress more people in the future! Thanks for the review!

- Lubz

[NGStyle_DNB_Menu]

Please!...

...Continue it! This is really well done, and I enjoyed it a lot. Nice idea to it as well.

The melodies are just excellent, and are so epic. There weren't really any alternate melodies though, so if you could fix that, it'd sound much better. The main instrument did get a slight bit annoying, since high-pitched saw waves playing for a whole 40 seconds over and over again did get a little annoying. Background melodies were saws as well... What I'm trying to say is, vary a little, don't keep to supersaws all the time. Still, the saws are excellent in themselves, even though they were slightly overused. The pitch bending on that instrument in the background was very cool too.

The transitions and interludes in this song were great, and I didn't notice that many defects regarding the transitions. Loved the reverse kick you used to move from the intro to the more laid back part at around 0:11. Great song structure too, I like how the first part was fast-paced and it moved to a slower part with a slower pace of drums, and even though this is just the same melody repeated again and again with no alternate melodies, this wasn't repetiitve, because of the variety of the drums and melodies in the background, so good job with that. The intro had some superb sidechaining, and this looped pretty well too. I'd suggest adding a drum roll for the last few seconds of the song, since even though it's a good loop, the drums sort of came in too suddenly when it looped.

The drums were really good, and as SessileNomad said, the snare was so awesome-sounding. The variety of drum samples is really great too, and the drum beats are amazing. Good job on the drums, they were perfect.

Overall, a great and useful loop, and I don't see why it shouldn't star in the latest flash game menu, since it's really cool. Just work on adding some alternate melodies, fixing the loop a little, and nore variety of synths, but other than that, this loop is brilliant. Hey, ya know what? This just gave me an idea: The NG Theme in DnB... Wow, that'd be awesome :D. Well, whatever, nice job in general, keep up the great work!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Flash-MX responds:

Very comprehensive and useful review, thank you!
And thanks everyone else from the Review Club, definitely an advantage to making music,
I will most likely be finishing this song too,
Later all!

[awesome windows song remix]

You chose a great song to remix...

...but the remix itself needs much more work. Its a nice remix, and the only one I've seen for this song so far, although it does feel quite empty.

This is a remix, so I can't credit you for the melodies, although the instruments, I can, and they are very, very nice. I don't really notice any XP sounds over here as you mentioned in the review below, though (and I did 3 XP songs of my own, so I kind of know what I'm talking about... sorta... :P) but the most important thing is that the instruments here really rock. The main instrument had a really cool vibe to it, and the delayed saw synth gave a nice touch to the song. Just lay down on that screeching at the beginning O_o, I honestly have no clue why you put it there.

Now, onto the negatives... The transitions didn't impress me much at all. There were a lot of parts in the song were there were large amounts of (almost) silence to transit from one melody to another, for example, at 0:45 - the drums there were barely heard and it sounded like silence. Also, new instruments weren't introduced well, and didn't fit well with the flow of the song. for example, at 0:32, that new instrument was introduced much too suddenly, and even the saw wave didn't come in that smoothly either.

Also, this kind of felt, well... empty. A little problem you have when you compose songs is that you almost never make more than one instrument play melodies at the same time. I recall that in the original, there were up to about 3 melodies or even more playing at the same time. Try and make more melodies play together, maybe add your own slower melodies in the background, and experiment with different harmonizing, adding some more fullness and depth in the background.

When it comes to the intro and outro, they weren't really that bad. The ending was fine, even though it think that you could've added a slower delay to the last note and leave it echo a little more (right now it sounds like a loop), but apart from that, it was fine. The intro, as stated before, was very annoying with that screeching effect; you really should remove it. Add nicer effects instead, like sweeps and stuff, making some effects yourself with Sytrus (Blackhole12 made that Sytrus guide, which I believe you're familiar with, so you could use that ;) ).

Drums are a big disappointment in this song. Firstly, they were very quiet, and you quickly lose track of them in the song because the melodies cover them up, and secondly, the samples were nothing too special (look here for great free drum samples, and a LOT of them [remove spaces] : http://www.darkbeats.com/sampleswap/ ). If you made them louder and used better samples, you'll find transitions like the one at 2:01, come out much better, plus they add a lot of fullness to songs.

I really enjoy listening to the original one, and unfortunately expected more in this. You have the instruments perfected, but the overall structure needs work. Make more melodies play together, with maybe some harmonized ambient melodies playing chords in the background, improve those drums by making them louder and using better samples, give the song more depth with some better effects, work on some transitions, and please, remove that screeching sound X(.
5/10
3/5

-Review Request Club-

mikkim responds:

only three things in this song weren't windows, and that was the drums(which might have been windows) and the saw-wave, which is why I didn't make any background effects. and also the screeching sound was a failed attempt to copy the bass at the start of the song, but I failed at it, even though I'm sure I set the settings to the same he did, so the mistake was probably that the sample changed between vista and xp. Thanks for telling me where to get good (at least I hope it's good.) drum samples as well, because I never had any good sample to use.

[~BH~ Aurora Theory]

This is the Perfection Theory!

Man, this song needs so much more exposure than just 21 votes and 2 reviews so far. This needs a top 5, just like all your other songs. It's just so amazing. Definitely one of your best work, an amazing improvement from the original.

As said in the review on the WiP, the melodies are really, really catchy. I wouldn't even change a note in them if I had to go through them. The alternate melody of the piano was very catchy, and so were all the other melodies. The instruments are really amazing too. I suppose you made them yourself, didn't you? Well, no matter, they are just so epic. Loved the instrument that plays at around 2:16 at its loudest, and keeps playing till around 2:32. The piano was really good too, with the type of melody that will not exit your head no matter how hard you try to get it out. Choir voices in the background were really cool too (seriously though, do all of your songs have choirs in them? :P), and in all, the instruments and melodies here are a perfect combination.

Oh, and the usual, transitions and interludes were very professionally done. What impressed me most though was how well you introduced new instruments, especially the cool sounding one, which had a great transition to it at 2:14, and I couldn't find one transition which didn't sound smooth.

And now, I'll move up to the buildups, which by the way, were really brilliant. The gradual buildup at the beginning was perfect, and really, really excellent job on that buildup at 1:21, it was just so awesome. Reverbed kick was fantastically done too. In all, that buildup is BY FAR one of the BEST I've heard, no kidding. The melody you did in the buildup was great too.

The intro was excellent, since if you started it with just piano only, it wouldn't have been as smooth as this. It had a really nice-sounding effect to it too. As for the ending, it was amazing as well, with a good drum roll to give the ending that importance it needed, but if I were to go through this song, the only thing I would change would be the loudness of that drum roll. It just felt a little too quiet and needs more importance than all the other drums. Other than that, this song qualifies for perfection.

The drums, as usual, are very varied, and fit really well with the song, and had OK samples. The reverbed kick and the snare were my favourites from all the samples. The buildups on the drums were superb as well, and the drum beats were excellent. In general, the drums were pretty quiet, but I think that if you made them any louder, they'd start to become annoying and interfere with the song, so you should keep them just as loud as they are now.

I don't really need to summarize what I said in this review, the only word you need for a summary of this song is 'Flawless'. You honestly never stop to amaze. It's impossible for you to ever submit a song which I give less than a 5/5 in, and which doesn't deserve top rankings here on Newgrounds. IMO, you're the best artist ever to enter NG, keep up the great work, you're not an expert at making music, you're THE expert. Amazing job!! Phew... long review O_o. 892 characters left, hehe :D
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.

-Review Request Club-

ErikMcClure responds:

All the synths were made by me, yes.

I do particularly like the job i did on the transitions in this song. I'm not usually that good at transitions so I don't know what changed :P

I love choir because its one of the most effective fillers I can get. Similar to how the piano is the most effective melodic instrument.

One of these days your going to get bored of giving me such ridiculously high praise :P

Thanks :D

[Big Red - Ain't No Sunshine]

Whoa... All from your mouth?

Now that's impressive. I honestly thought those were samples using a DAW in the background :P. I was about to say 'Whoa, where'd he get those great samples from' until I saw your response to Fro's review XP. Great job!

I liked the vocals, and they were sung really well. I didn't listen to the original (I know, I live under a rock) so I can't compare it to this one, but this one is really great. I just think they need to be a little louder. Also, this does need a bit more of a background melody to it, too.

The drums... sorry, the drum 'noises', were really excellent. Nothing to complain about here, they were really varied, and fit excellently with the song. Loved the transition at 1:23, as well.

It's a really great song, which sounds really well done. Practically, the only thing which bothered me was the loudness of the vocals. Definitely keep up the great work!
10/10
5/5
Sorry, no download. This may sound really wierd but I don't really like songs with lyrics in them.

-Review Request Club-

BigRed responds:

I'll re-record it and just hum the melody, then you'll love it! haha
Thanks for the review.

[First Musings]

Lol, I think of a forest too :P

You're definitely getting better at this, and I'm expecting a classical masterpiece from you by the rate your classical songs are going. Good work.

The melodies had some great mixtures of major and minor, as mentioned in the below reviews. I liked the fast paced part at around 1:15, you really should've continued the song like that, and then moved onto the slower notes. It'd help in fixing the length of this song, since right now the song is pretty short. The best melodies in my opinion were the clarinet's melodies, but obviously it was the main instrument so I can't expect any less. I liked the bassoon in the background, even though you could've made it less simple as you mentioned in the Author's Comments.

The instruments in general had really good quality, especially that clarinet. I liked that you had strings over here, but I think you should add more of the strings, and maybe get a better sample, since the one over here needs a bit more fullness to it in my opinion. If you want really good strings for free, I'd suggest Squidfont which is a soundfont. You can never go wrong with it. It also has some nice brass and woodwind too.

The transitions are excellent, and the instruments were introduced really well, especially the clarinet. Strings were slightly too suddenly introduced. I'd suggest doing tremolo strings in the background going from soft to loud starting at around 0:34 or so, while all the other melodies are playing, and then it's at its loudest right before the strings start. When the strings start, the tremolo strings fade away. I tried it once on one of my songs and it came out really well.

As regarding the structure, this has a great structure, and the variety is amazing too. Loved the intro, it felt really good with the bassoon, but the ending wasn't that good, since it was a fade ending. You should continue with a lot of instruments playing together, like the bassoon, strings, clarinet, and maybe een pizzicato strings, flutes and pianos. I can see a lot of potential in this if you continue it into a full song.

As you said in one of the reviews below, you should add some orchestral percussion instruments. There's a great plugin called Stormdrum 2 which has amazing orchestral percussion, but it costs, and if you'd like some free ones, you can send me a PM, I have a few OK samples...

Anyway, all in all, you have quite a talent when it comes to classical, and if you just put your mind to it and make a long orchestral song, believe me when I say it's going to be epic. Good job on this, and keep up the good work!
8/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-

loansindi responds:

Wow, thanks for the giant review. I'll try to give you a point-by-point response, since I know I like responses when I leave detailed reviews.

First I'll say that making a piece of any length is definitely a battle for me, it's hard to maintain focus on any given song long enough to really 'finish' it. I'm working on it though, I really do like the clarinet in this song.

Garritan PO has some pretty decent strings and woodwinds. Right now there's just the violin, but as time goes on I'll definitely work on adding more accompaniment. It's also worth considering that I haven't done much to this song other than composition, so the sound will change before it's done for sure.

Regarding transitions... those are something I always fuss over. I never feel like I accomplish them as well as I could. Ending isn't really an ending because the piece isn't done.

Orchestration is something that I'm working up to. I tend to err on the side of sparseness, because too many instruments will rapidly start competing with each other in a bad way.

Percussion in orchestral pieces eludes me. I should probably start looking into it though.

Again, thanks for the giant review. I hope to keep producing things people can enjoy.

[Thank You - BK]

Starts promising...

...And maintains its pace throughout. Excellent job, it really sounds well, and shows you worked really hard on it.

Melodies are probably the best part of this song. The melody at the beginning was really cool, and the piano melodies were really cool. There were many alternate melodies, well, actually, there wasn't really a fixed chorus, but all the melodies sounded really cool. The variety of instruments was really good too. Like Coop said, there was some sort of instrument which sounded like a Chinese fiddle or something, which I'd never imagine hearing along with electronic instruments that were used in this song. Anyway, long story short; each instrument was amazing and all the melodies are catchy and awesome.

The transitions were really good, and the song flowed really well. New instruments were introduced really well, so good job on that, considering how many instruments there were over here, and the buildups were excellent as well. The song structure is what's concerning me a little over here. This song is just SO varied, that it sometimes starts to feel random, so a chorus over here would do wonders. Plus, this song is quite long, so shortening it would help quite a bit.

The intro was really cool, with a nice effect in the background and some of the best instruments in the whole song. It's just the ending which needs a little work, since I think the ending should have some more importance. It just ended with one note, so I expected the song to continue, but it didn't. I suggest doing a bit of silence after that last note, then do a gradual buildup after that and then all the instruments start playing together in a really action-packed climax of the song, and then you end it with all the instruments playing a proper ending note or something.

The drums were awesome, and were really varied, fit well with the song, were just the right loudness, and had some really good samples. I liked the snare you used, it sounded really cool. I just think that you should use more samples though, because for a long and varied song like this, you'd expect more drum samples then just 3 or 4. Maybe you could add some crash cymbals here and there, more snares, reverbed kicks, tamboruines, shakers, and maybe some other different types of kicks too.

It's a cool song, which I enjoyed from beginning to end. Felt a little random, and there weren't many drum samples, along with the fact that the ending could use some more work, but other than those, keep up the great work!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Bracksta responds:

sorry about the random feeling it kinda had to happen that way because i made the song's basic structure then freestyled over the whole song with whatever sounded cool, lol. i agree that i need to mix up my drum samples. i used to do that alot about two years ago, but now i focus on the melody to much. i'll work on it. My endings always are lacking, i have such a hard time making a solid one :(. when i make then longer people complain, when i make then short they complain. i need some lessons on that aspect. Thank you so much for your time and great review!!!!

[Hypno_Shooter [Box-killa]]

Wow, this is so VG-ish...

...Don't worry, that's a good thing. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Still, like Darklight, I feel like being evil and giving you a 9 as well because of a few problems X).

The melodies were superb, and were really varied, just like Haggard said. I liked the background accompaniment with the piano-ish melody, since it sounded really video-gamish and cool. I'd work on its variety though, if I were you. The instrument choice was really nice. I liked the high bells over here, and the main instrument was cool, but after some time got quite annoying. You should add a few more instruments, like some square-based synths and some plucked instruments. One of the best parts of this song were the laser and alien-ish sound effects, IMO. They sounded excellent.

The transitions were really good and the melodies flowed excellently together. The transition from the main synth to the bells melody was quite cool, and the effect buildup at the beginning was pretty nice. Really cool song structure, and great variety as well. I liked the part where the piano was playing only at 1:46, it sounded fantastic while not disrupting the fast-paced feel of the song. Still, the intro wasn't that impressive, and neither was the ending. I think this song would be much better off if you looped it. Firstly, I think you should take away the first 15 seconds of the song so the action-packed parts start straight away, and then remove the sound effect you had at the end. It should make it loop much better, and more flash artists would become interested in having it in their submissions.

The drums really weren't that special, and although they were just the right loudness, I was expecting a more action-packed drum beat with more than just a kick and snare. I'd say some tambourines, shakers hi-hats. and more types of snares and kicks wold do a good job on this. Maybe you could try some reverse cymbals and reverse kicks over here too. Still, the drums you have now are really varied, and transit from one melody to another.

It's a really cool sounding song, with just a few flaws. It'd do great in a flash submission if you remove the effect at the end and the first 15 seconds of the song and make it a loop, or you could always submit another version of this song except looped. Anyway, whatever; good job, keep up the great work!
9/10
5/5 - Man, this has some awful 0-bombing onto it. I don't think you should mass PM people to review your submissions, it'd attract more 0's. :\

-Review Request Club-

Box-Killa responds:

Meh i dun care about 0 boming, look at all the reviews I got, and 450 views so far, A front page would be nice, but I dont mind... :D

[PPC2 - K Time]

A sort of creepy feel to it.

Experimental tracks aren't usually my cup of tea, so I can't give such a long review for these ones, but still, I was impressed by a lot of things in this track.

Obviously, the effects were great, but they're the main attraction of the song, so that's expected. There were some really awesome effects, and some extremely nice vocal work, especially the voices at 1:21, 3:49, 5:10 and 5:55. Still, 3:49 and 5:55 can't be your voice. A boy definitely can't go that high; you must've made the pitch higher or something on a sound editor. Still, the most important part was that they sounded very, very cool.

There were loads of other effects which impressed me as well, and the delay and reverb effects you put on them were great. Some effects really caught me off guard, like the ones at 0:30, 3:15, 4:59 and 5:45. The thing which annoyed me the most in this song was the guitar, though. It got quite repetitive in some parts, and sort of felt strange along with the rest of the song. You should either remove it and add some more individual guitar effects yourself (pick scraping, string scratching, etc.).

To summarize, it's one of the better experimental tracks I've heard, with some awesome sound effects here and there. The only thing which annoyed me most over here was the guitar. Other than that, good job!
8/10
5/5 because of some 0-bombing.

-Review Request Club-

Monkeydelic responds:

Thank you :)
First of all, i swear, i didn't play around with the pitch of my voice, that is my voice, hey, if Mika can do it, why not me :P
Yeah, as i've said in down below, i really didn't put much effort into the guitar, as the effects were my main priority, but when i'm re-recording this particular song, i'll work more on the guitar, and see if i can make it not so repetitive.

Thanks for the review :)

Namaste.