Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Infinite]

Oh man, this is some really fun stuff. You're one of the stronger electronic producers in this competition and I'm really glad you put your skills to the test with such a unique yet well-produced experiment. The swing tempo works extremely well, creating a memorable groove and giving this track a lot of character. The composition on top of that swing groove is also very obscure, but at the same time, oddly enticing! I think in terms of composition my main issue is that this gets pretty repetitive. You have a very interesting motif that appears at 0:39 for the first time, but that's all you ever play in the more interesting parts. In the less interesting parts where less is going on, you don't have much to keep the listener interested either (aside from maybe the [also repetitive] piano part at 1:57).

You don't leave much to desire in the production, I'll give you that! Everything is super clear and sounds fantastic, especially at high volumes. The sounds you've used are also top-notch. You use mostly heavy, thick, pad-like synths over light, airy synths, giving the track a somewhat menacing and dark kind of vibe. These contrast greatly with the light, high piano notes, a contrast which I adored. Having said that, perhaps making the piano a little more upfront in the mix would elevate it to a little more than just a vague background element. Your drum sounds are, of course, perfect. Punchy and snappy, precisely how I like them! I actually think you should try creating more complex hat rhythms at times, but otherwise you did a good job.

Very solid stuff. I had a few issues with some volume levels, and I think it did get somewhat repetitive/dull, but otherwise this is an extremely successful experiment!

SCORE: 9.3/10

AeronMusic responds:

Thanks Step for your indepth review! I always love to read any of your reviews, even on other tracks.
You're absolutely right about the repetitiveness. It was hard to make something new in this song that didn't change its theme.
I'm glad people liked the dark vibe. I love to hear and make this type of music.
And yeah, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to music production.
Anyways, I am really happy to hear you liked it!

[Acidulus 8]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

I am almost speechless. This is hands down my favourite electronic submission this round, and there was a lot of great electronic stuff this round. For starters, as is ALWAYS the case with your music, the production is godly. I absolutely love the clarity of everything, and the earcandy-filled sound palette you use. The drums are crisp and the textures you create with those synths are to die for. I've always been a HUGE fan of your production value and you continue setting the bar every damn time. I also loved the contrast between the VGM-infused first half and DnB-infused second half. It was a pleasure hearing the melody played first by that chiptune-esque lead synth with all that pitch automation you do on it and classic VGM-like arpeggios in the background, and then hearing it in all its glory later on in its more modernised counterpart.

Your melody is a ridiculous earworm by the way. You repeat the main motif quite a lot but have an appreciable amount of variety in the counter-melodies and continuations of your main melody so that didn't bother me much. It just did more to cement the melody in my head, and while I hate you for that since it won't be getting out any time soon, I can't deny it's ridiculously catchy! My only two complaints are the intro and the vocals. I like how you had a subtle foreshadowing of the vocals at the very beginning, but I felt like 7 seconds in, when you introduce the melody, you don't give it a suitable entrance. It just comes in out of nowhere, and while it wasn't too abrupt, I felt like it cheapened the melody a little over there. Additionally, the vocals were a nice idea, since it would've been cool to hear the melody played by what sounds like a large group of singers, but it came off sounding very offputting and artificial (as if you just recorded one note of yourself singing and then pitch-bent it for the rest of the notes).

I think you get the highest score of the round from me. I am a huge fan of this and I hope you continue to impress.

SCORE: 9.7/10

garlagan responds:

HOLY...
I don't even know what to type here. I'm astonished!
I had so many doubts about this track. But it seems keep working on it has paid off!
Ah, me hands be shakin. Best part of the NGADM right here, reading amazingly detailed reviews.. and not even knowing what to respond haha.
Really, your reviews are just too good Step.
You're right about the vocals, they kinda sound off in the track. I recorded myself like 40 times, doing eeee, oooo, uuu lol. It was fun! But I'm far from getting good at it YET :p.
By the way, the melody being an earworm is the greatest compliment I've ever received on a song. Can't thank you enough for that! And your favourite electronic submission !?!? This is just too much, heart attack incoming.

CHEERS STEP!

[Tropical Dream]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

I think I've mentioned this to you before, but the one thing that always pops up in my head when I think of your music is how you theme each one so effectively. It's like, you decide "right, I'm going to make a track to depict X theme", and then make a track that depicts that theme so well that anyone who hears it would instantly agree. This sounds EXACTLY like a tropical island, what with the classic island mallet, bright, warm instrumentation such as the acoustic guitar, beach sound effects, ethnic percussion, and a happy, laid-back mood to put icing on the cake. It works like clockwork, and I must commend you on having such a clear ability to make music fit a certain theme, as it's a skill that any game composer in their right mind would die to have!

You have some great production here. I love the snappiness of the percussion, the deep bass, the overall clarity, and the levelling. Some of the sounds you use are significantly blander than others (looking at you 1:03 brass and 2:55 strings), but that hardly takes away from the piece. The composition I'm in two minds about. On the one hand you have some REALLY addicting stuff such as 1:17's motif and pretty much all of your transitions (seriously, the transitions in this are just the BOMB), but on the other hand a lot of your primary motifs, such as the one that first appears at the start of the track, sound a little forced to me and not very memorable. Also, I feel like your track slightly overstays its welcome. I mean, it's pretty varied, but gets pretty monotonous after around 3 and a half minutes.

Anyway, this is one of my favourites from you. Wonderful work.

SCORE: 8.8/10

DuttonsaysHi responds:

Hey thanks for the in depth review! :D I really appreciate it.

I'm really glad you picked up on the theme I was going for :D. I mean I tried to make it as obvious as possible with the title and instrumentation and all. I actually usually decide a theme half way through my tracks once the ball gets rolling, but this time I though I'd use steel drums as a starting point to make something in the theme of summer/sunny things.

Haha yeah a lot of complaints I've had in the past have been because of my instrument quality. Since I use reason, things like East West symphonic orchestra and such are out of the question. I have to stick with good ol' sound fonts which aren't necessarily bad, it's just sometimes I make their authenticity a little too obvious.

About the song "over staying it's welcome"... yeah I have to agree, I thought the same too. I figured it was just because I grew tired of it after hearing it over and over. I thought it was just me rather than the song. >_<

I may not have made it to round 2 but I managed to try a theme I've always wanted to do so I'll call it a win. :D

Thanks again!

[Dawnglide]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

I'm glad you made it into the competition in the end, even if you only managed to make a track for the first round. You bring something very valuable to the table, and that's a great sense of composition. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing your arpeggios and harmonies in the intro, and the melodies played by that smooth square lead are solid and flow very naturally. You have a solid progression and every transition is smooth (loving the one at 3:18), largely due to the fact that you often prepare the introduction of a new instrument/element suitably by ramping it up a few beats before it actually comes in. That's the mark of a thoughtful compositional flow. The structure is solid, and the intro and outro are both suitable ways to transition out of and into silence respectively.

My issue is not in the composition of this track, which is for the most part good, but in its sound. While you have a suitably clear mix and balanced levelling, the track just sounds extremely bland. It has very little depth outside a somewhat resonant/shrill pad, piano, drums and a square lead. At the risk of sounding like an uneducated music listener, the track lacks... punch. All of the elements are pretty subdued and sound pretty dull, and without any complex composition to make up for that we're left with a pretty underwhelming submission, I'm afraid. On an unrelated note, 1:22's synth is pretty harsh, and not in a tasteful way! I would suggest a different sound.

Recap: solid melodies/harmonies, lots of potential, bland instrumentation. Good job overall, and thanks for taking part!

SCORE: 7.2/10

LunacyEcho responds:

Thanks a lot, Step! I can't imagine how time-consuming all this work must be.

=> melodies/transition/structure =>

Thanks a lot! Those are definitely things I've been working on and am trying to improve. I'm glad they worked! My melodies have normally been really basic and catchy in the past, and I've been trying to make them deeper with more emotion. My transitions and structure in the past have been crap, so planning out stuff ahead of time taught me a lot about music writing that I hadn't known before.

=> composition vs instrumentation =>

That's a problem I've been sort of noticing in my music lately. :( My ending mix tends to be really quiet, and while they sound nice on a high volume, they tend to seriously underwhelm at a lower one. Thanks for pointing it out.

I've probably said this way too much in my response, but thanks so much for the review! I really appreciate it.

[Lythalia]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

Wow! I remember you being one of my "definitely yes" auditioners when I was doing audition judging, and for a good reason! This is tremendously good. I love your production value for starters. It's SO clean and clear. Maybe the drums could've been mixed in a little better (cymbals were kind of tinny) but otherwise I'm a huge fan of your mixing and levelling. The composition is also pretty great! Nothing out of this world, but they're simple and likeable. 0:44 in particular is an earworm. On top of all that, you have masterful guitar playing, sweet harmonies and backing riffs, fitting percussion, and some nifty nods to electronic music, such as the brief, heavily filtered intro. You did a lot of things right in this track, as my high score shows.

But man, repetition! It isn't that bad of a problem, but I do think the amount of content doesn't merit five whole minutes of listening time. A lot of sections were simply copy-pasted more than once, ostensibly to give the illusion of a long track, but to me it simply came off as being repetitive. If you want five whole minutes of music, then I would suggest adding more distinct sections, and maybe even some dynamics such as clean guitar solos or whatever. Anything to break up the monotony would do 5 minutes justice easily. The ending, too, was highly disappointing. Fade-out endings rarely work, usually just sounding like a cop-out, and that is precisely what it sounds like over here. A more satisfying ending will really do this track wonders!

Anyway, complaints aside, I love this track. Keep up the awesome work.

SCORE: 9/10

JDawg00100 responds:

Thanks for the detailed review, I actually agree completely with it. I'm not a fan of the structure of this song, I also find the drawn out riff in the middle really annoying. I had a different song that I was hoping to finish before the judging started but I didn't have the time.

[Unshackling the Necromancer]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

This is one of the more professional-sounding orchestral submissions of the round. I love the quality of your sounds and your arrangement. It's the kind of track that, with a slightly less muddy mix, I would expect to hear in a film or game, and that's always a great sign. You've got a powerful arrangement of instruments that really shines in parts like 2:12 which sound menacing and dark, or 1:06 where you have these absolutely exceptional fast passages that truly give off a feeling of intensity and excitement. Of course, it helps that the samples you use are high-quality, but what I really must commend you on is how well you use them. The only quirk I have with your arrangement is that the guitar, while sounding fantastic, felt a bit out of place at the very end, since it just came out of the blue without any prior foreshadowing.

My main issue with this, apart from the mix being just a little muddy, is that the composition is lacking. It almost feels as if each section you wrote was only written with the mere intention of portraying the mood described in your author's comments. The composition is simply not memorable. I mean, sure, it's well-written, has a lot of sweet call-and-response sections and the voicing is pretty sweet, but outside of the well-portrayed moods there isn't much to commend. In a way, this like Veneox's submission - it tells a story through different moods. However, his actually has some sweet motifs, whereas to me, I regret to say that this sounds a lot more lifeless and lacking much-needed expression.

That's my opinion on it! You certainly have the talent to make a more expressive and compositionally sensible piece, so I hope you give that a shot for the next round!

SCORE: 8.2/10

Jay-Turner responds:

Thanks for your response Step.

I'm glad you enjoyed the quality of the sounds and the range I tried to express. I used a lute for this piece, I did use it earlier on in the piece at around 40 seconds subtly. I guess I wanted to added an element that wasn't typical to an orchestra - the same as I used tamourines in the introduction to embody the necromancer's chains.

I didn't intend for the piece to be catchy or memorable but rather to invoke emotion/feeling of what is going on, I imagined it would place emphasis if it was accompanied with visuals. I did use a motif though, first at 0:24 and then the outro lute plays it again.

Anyway I am following your advice and trying to create a more thematic piece for my second submssion. Thanks again for your thoughts, I appreciate it.

[Junkman Jam]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

Whoa. I'm not exactly sure what to think of this! Undeniably catchy guitar riffs, a fairly slow/laid-back pace with fitting percussion, and then the craziest announcer voice that you could possibly imagine. If there's one thing that this track has, it's character. The voice acting is pretty damn good and does a great job of conveying the insane but oddly confident and enthusiastic junkyard owner, and man, the the tone of this track is so gritty. The guitar sounds almost like it's struggling to stay in pitch and the voice sounds like it's being spoken through a cheap megaphone echoing throughout a deserted junkyard. This kind of rough and gritty approach gives the track huge amounts of nerve and personality, making sure to leave a mark in anyone's head.

Like I said to Braiton, however, I think your production needs work. I was pretty torn about this because I kept asking myself - would a clearer mix hurt the junky, gritty nature of this track? Ultimately, however, I feel like the fact that the mix isn't clearer is simply hurting the listening experience. It is certainly possible to keep that rough tone in your track while doing things like making the drums more upfront and punchy, balancing the mix out so there's less mids and more bass, and making it such that you can actually understand most of the lyrics! I would suggest listening to the soundtrack of the old PS2 game Metal Arms, mainly this one - http://goo.gl/1Z2Jgd - to get an idea of how to nail the balance between both a rough tone and a clear mix. Also, on a composition-related complaint, The riff you introduce at 0:39 is GREAT but you really rely on it too much, and in a track where the only other elements are vocals that are impossible to understand and subdued/distant drums, you needed to add more variety to that guitar outside the (pretty sweet, I might add) solos.

I don't think you can quite get away with making something so obscure and unique without having better production to justify it, but there's no denying that this track has bucketloads of personality. Good job.

SCORE: 7.8/10

BrainLight responds:

Thank you for reviewing. I'm very glad you liked it dispite the mixing issues. In the end, I'd rather have someone like the music more than they like the mix so this was a great compliment.

But it was damn hard to not muddy up the track while trying to bring up those drums. Recordings were not the best.

[I Owe You The Same]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

Oh man, this is a funny one! In a way it's in the same light as SonicWombat's submission. It has a pretty modest, home-made sound made out of just a guitar and your voice, the most humble instrumentation ever. However, suffice to say, yours has a little more cheek to its lyrics than his does! Speaking of which, the lyrics are well-written, and you sing them very nicely. You have a laid-back and confident singing style which, like secantwave, I wish I heard more of. I admit I didn't care much for the rap sections, which were fine but not quite as impressive as the singing. The vocal melody, while naturally not very complex, does its job well at providing a catchy hook to ingrain into the listener's head, and the clean guitar solo was a pleasure to listen to. The kicker at the end with Tim's mum also made me giggle a little, so there's that!

The production, in some ways, is decent. I like how gritty the sung voice sounds. Not sure if it's simply your recording quality, or any kind of distortion effects you put on the voice, but it works! In terms of execution, your guitar-playing is tight. Some minor timing issues, but that actually adds to the charm so I'm not too bothered. Unfortunately, in other ways the production isn't quite there yet. The rap sections were extremely unclear, the clacks at 1:14 have too much high end and stand out unnaturally, and the mix overall is thin and subdued. I read what you said in the thread, but I'm afraid I still disagree - reworking the mix and master to make the track more full-bodied instead of it being so thin and subdued will do the track wonders. Right now, the track could at least do with some compression and reworking the EQ, as long as the dynamics are retained of course.

Recap: was hoping for a better mix and more developed sung sections. Otherwise, this track is charming and a blast to listen to. It's been a pleasure having you on the contest!

SCORE: 8.1/10

Ceevro responds:

Hey, no worries! I was honestly shocked to get through the auditions! Seems that you liked my tune a bit more than the other judges. I know I've got issues with EQ...it's always going to be a challenge to compete acoustically with mixes done entirely on a computer, which is to say that I need to study my mixing more.

As for singing...well...that's just what came to me when I was writing, for this particular song.

However, that's all good. I have some clear things to work on for next year!

[Rising to the Challenge]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

Oh man, this track! It has so much charm that it really is hard not to like it. The retro VGM boss music vibe is so addictive, and represented charmingly by an instrument arrangement that sounds like it came from the 80's, what with the sawtooth lead chords and tonnes of cheesy tom fills. There's nothing that sounds out of place. Everything just works. As if your memorable arrangement wasn't enough, you even have some pretty brilliant composition, starting from the motif you first introduced on its own at 0:12. It's such an earworm, and you use it in various parts of the track to tie a bow over everything very neatly. You have other classic nods to video game music such as the arpeggios at 0:37, the gliassando at 2:35 and the understated ending that makes this actually work to an extent if it were to be looped. These are all really nice touches!

Despite how fun this is to listen to, I can't deny that it gets extremely tiring to listen to after a while. It's fine at the start and I couldn't help but smile while hearing you introducing your elements and setting the mood, but after around 2 minutes the insistently energetic pace and blaring high synths really do take a toll. Even taking a look at your waveform shows that you're not giving the mix much room to breathe and that you've got some pretty heavy compression going on. If I were you I'd add some more dynamic contrasts like the one at 2:17, and also make the mix more balanced so it isn't focused on sounding loud, and instead sounds a bit more manageable to listen to in long stretches.

That should be about it. Great job, loved it, but work on that mix!

SCORE: 8.5/10

Spadezer responds:

Thanks very much for the encouraging review. I wish I could have had more time to add in some dynamic changes before you judged, but I could still do it and send you a link to the more finished product. Hopefully this doesn't stop me from continuing on to the next round.

I'm glad you loved it that much though. I feel silly for not picking up on the dynamic mixing but I can take an 8.5

-Spadezer-

[[IV]Novocaine]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

As you're not new to the NGADM, I've heard a fair bit of your work, and I've concluded that if there's one thing you're great at, it's creating textures composed of layers of different instrument tracks. Every piece of yours has this wonderful blend of different sounds that complement each other like peas in a pod. This track in particular has a seamless blend of orchestral and electronic, with even a distorted electric guitar sound showing up a little over 2 minutes into the track! Add accompaniment from percussion and sci-fi drones to that concoction, and you've got a very enjoyable texture. Might I add that your percussion is brilliant? It's rhythmically superb and sounds great (especially those tom rolls!). I would watch out though since it did get somewhat repetitive.

My issue with this track was already mentioned in the review section. This is very low-key stuff that doesn't have much movement at all. It retains a consistent dynamic from the beginning and since nothing groundbreaking is going on in terms of melodies (I mean, your motifs are pretty good, just not particularly complex or varied), this can unfortunately lead to the track getting dull. I found myself bored listening to this after you finished setting the mood and introducing the new layers of instrumentation, since from that point it didn't really go anywhere or provide anything memorable. Also, what's up with that ending? It just... stops! I mean, for a track of this style, I wasn't expecting you to end it with a bang or anything, but your ending simply came off as abrupt and premature.

All things considered, this is a very professional-sounding track and has some really well-executed ideas. Good job.

SCORE: 8/10

IglicaV responds:

Good to see you again! To be honest, I'm aware of all those issues you mentioned. I still need to get some experience in this kind of music, and I promise that I will work hard to get better! Thank you for your review, it was great to participate again!

See you next year :D