Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[GM - Dragon Of The South]

This is an NGADM Round 2 review.

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Wow, my god. This is so much better than your previous song. Round 1's track may have been a bit uninspired, but this is not the case here. Almost everything sounds much more inspired and well-thought-out. The melodies are great. You showcase the aggression of your guitar tone but at the same time you do indeed put in some dynamics and very solid composition. There is one section that just took me aback because of how good it was, though, and that would be 3:12. I love it; you approach it so well. I would approach it with some over-the-top buildup but all you use is a little ascending riff to introduce that section, and despite such a subtle and understated technique, you still make that part sound positively massive and awe-inspiring. What follows is a build-down to the ending which was very well-executed.

...but screw that, everything was well-executed, and that definitely includes the production. For the third time since NGMT, you continue to surprise me with your incredibly tight production value, and that's only complemented by your technical prowess with your guitar. Your mix is meaty and bassy, and as usual you make good use of compression, without using too much of it that your track becomes a block of loud audio. Your drums are also pretty much flawless. Something that's certainly to be commended is the kick, which has astounding clarity that I would not expect in a track with guitars that are so heavy on the lower end.

I'm finding it problematic to pinpoint any issues with this track. I feel your intro (up till 0:54) felt disjointed from the rest of the track, and this is jarringly apparent if the track loops. After listening to the ending and moving back to the beginning, it's like I'm hearing a totally different song, since you don't really repeat any elements from that intro anywhere else. Also, the first half of your track is a tad bit flat in terms of melodic content (not as much of a problem as it was in your Round 1 track). I felt like the second half of your track was far more of an effective showcase of your compositional skill.

You've created a very mighty and enjoyable track, with suitable dynamics and fantastic production. Truly brilliant work; I'm extremely impressed with this.

Score: 9.3/10

InYourDreams responds:

Thank you Step! as allways, I'm so happy to read your review :D... Makes me feel, that I'm approaching production the right way.
I worked harder on this song than on my submission for the first round and I think it was worth it. I hope I can keep working that way.
I'm loving music more than ever! :)

[Evolution]

This is an NGADM Round 2 review.

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As with many of the other tracks this round, this is an improvement over your Round 1 submission, which is so great to hear, because it means you genuinely put effort into delivering better and better content every round, and take the judges' tips/pointers into consideration. Here we have another long, fleshed-out and generally well-structured metal track, but this time with a somewhat more mellow and reflective pace than your Round 1 track. The guitar-playing, while being a bit rhythmically off at times (could be fixed with some simple audio file slicing), was great, and I absolutely love your quieter parts especially. I think you really excel at softer parts in your metal tracks.

That's not to say the heavier parts are bad though! You've got a great-sounding guitar and much nicer drums than in this track's predecessor. Yes I agree with the other reviewers that the kick and snare may stand out too much, but I'm still feeling some good oomph from the drums that do the track justice. The mixing is a definite improvement; still needs some work though. The track is noticeably empty during the heavier parts, and lacks the fullness of a tighter mix. Some of the elements in the track, such as the high strings towards the end, feel a bit unfitting; they're dry and don't blend well with the guitar; I'm not saying remove them, but work on integrating them more. They somewhat taint what would have been a perfectly-executed ending.

Now that the production issues are ironed out, onto the composition issues. Your composition is, as usual, solid, but I felt like the heavier parts lacked an identity; it's as if they were hovering between sounding heavy and sounding emotional, but not quite managing to touch any one of them. To try and be constructive, I'll link to a metal track that I feel nails that "heavy but emotional" vibe - the Cabal Online Desert Scream theme (http://goo.gl/kDLWHz). I advise listening to the whole track (because it's awesome) but the part I'm talking about comes in at 1:16. Finally, some transitions need work - some of the pauses worked, but others (4:17 for instance) felt a bit arbitrary. In addition, 4:43 was a buildup to nothing, and felt really anticlimactic.

Keep working on your mixing, be mindful of transitioning and work more on atmosphere-building in the heavier parts, but man, other than that, this is a good improvement (even if my measly 0.3 upgrade from your previous score may indicate otherwise) and you should be proud of it!

Score: 8/10

Metallica1136 responds:

Yeah, after reading the reviews I recieved for Round 1, I definitely knew some work had to be done, and some improvements had to be made. Yeah, I'm working on keeping my songs's timing better. Yeah, the kick and snare are a little loud, but I'd much rather hear drums too loud than too soft. :P Yeah, I do agree about the emptiness. I need to work on making my tracks sound thicker, and fuller. Yeah, the strings do feel a bit misplaced with the guitar. Like you said, it doesn't seem to blend in with the guitar.

Thanks for your review man! I'll be sure to keep all those things in mind!

[Ling Kano's Fighting Show]

This is an NGADM Round 2 review.

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I'm just instantly going to start this review by telling you that if there was one thing you did right in this track, it's the mood. You've set the mood absolutely perfectly. Your pacing feels just right for a "fighting show" kind of idea, and you use highly suitable instrumentation to give this a retro and classic sound, which to me is reminiscent of something you'd hear in Japanese-styled animated show. Thankfully, the mood is NOT the only thing you did right in this track. Your instruments work beautifully together. The drums in particular are a great driving force, but know their place as a background element without disrupting the piece.

The way you structured the piece is excellent. While this feels dynamically flat for the first half (which, for this track, isn't such a bad thing), at 1:20 you introduce a dynamic change, which, albeit being a bit abrupt, led well to the next section which was a pretty badass buildup. The listener is treated to some excellent interplay with the song's various elements, and once we get to 2:20 the song really comes together into a phenomenal climactic section which gives such an awesome lasting impression. Your composition has never really been bad and over here is no exception. You've got a catchy (although occasionally tiresome) main guitar riff, but your composition's strength lies in the 2:20 section. My favourite part about your composition is how you highlight the foreground melody with a drum roll like at 2:33 and at the very end. Great idea.

I like this a whole lot more than your Round 1 submission, but unfortunately I still have production-related complaints with it. There's something off about your mix/master which I can't quite put my finger on. I hate saying comments like this because it makes me sound so unprofessional, but I really can't tell you for sure what's wrong with it. It might be a bit too much compression, or it might just be too much EQing. What I mean by that is, some of your elements sound a bit thin, as if they've been stripped too much of their frequencies during EQing (like the instrument at 1:20). Maybe your mids could do with a bit more volume. What I can say for sure, though, is that 0:17's drums sound incredibly thin and lacking in power. Also, the mix can get a bit cluttered, mainly towards the end. Some simple levelling could fix this.

Anyway, whether your Round 1 track was a success or not, this was. You've got such a great mood and likeable composition that I'm willing to set the production issues aside and give you a good score.

Score: 8.3/10

SourJovis responds:

Glad you liked this song better. I still like the previous one as much as this. The production didn't go nearly as smooth in this one as in the previous round. But overall I'm not too unhappy with this song. In retrospect I understand why people like this one better. The other song had too many unusual things that the listeners who didn't share my thought process (every listener beside me) wouldn't understand. It also had things that didn't bother me much but I should've known others would dislike. Such as the sampled guitars and vocoder. Though I intended to use live guitars and vocals that wouldn't require vocoding.

I too like the melody at 1:20 that returns at 2:20 best. Catchy melodies are my strong point. Perhaps I should've made two more melodies like that, to make this song a string of catchy melodies, instead of one big build up for one short main melody. Unfortunately only this melody came to mind. The rest was just drag and dropping of notes by the book. Did you notice the main melody is the only part that has chord progression? The rest of the song is just one Gm chord. I almost wanted to make a song that was entirely with one chord. Thought that would be funny. But then I thought, it'd be too boring. It really should have a catchy melody to have some right to exist.

So you don't like my mix and master, but you can't say why? What a help you are. No I agree. I had the exact same thing while making this. That's why I couldn't make it any better. I really had a hard time mixing it. If I had to change one instrument from right to left to make one part sound better. I had to reverse the panning of all of the other instruments as well to compensate and make the other parts still sound good. The song quickly got cluttered so I had to make the individual instruments sound thinner. I also left out a lot of instruments that sounded quite good by themselves, but just sounded too messy with the other instruments. It can't really be too compressed I think. I had a style in mind that usually has a lot of compression and I wanted to put distortion on the track to make it sound old, but in the end I didn't do it. It barely has compression now, and no distortion. Perhaps it's something else, or it’s the compression and the distortion on the individual instruments. The drums for example have a lot of compression. The drum kit at 0:17 probably sounds weak because it's not very loud, so it doesn't drown out the other instruments later in the song. It doesn't have a lot of bass frequency boost either, because most of the low comes from the synth kick and the base guitar, and I didn't want the bas tones to become muddy. Perhaps I should've layered that drum fill with the base guitar, to make it sound more powerful. I think the drum kit could use some more bass frequency boost then it has now. The tape strings (at 1:20) could use more low yes. It wasn't originally intended as a solo instrument, but as lead for the end of the song. I didn't use it there because it became too cluttered, and I liked the high strings better. With less other instruments to get in the way I should give it a wider spectrum.

I also noticed my songs often sound soft or thin compared to other louder songs. This is easily remedied by increasing the volume. I often think the louder songs sound too loud in the middle. I think my songs sound fuller and more lively than many of the louder ones when you just adapt the volume of the individual songs to a volume pleasant to the ear. That's because I try to use frequencies across the entire spectrum and leave in a lot of dynamic. At least that's what I think. I could be doing it wrong.

[Moon]

I went to your music page with the normal expectations I have when listening to an average Newgrounds musician - expecting some amateur techno, orchestral with bad composition, metal with bad production, you know, that kind of stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that compositionally you are well above the quality of average Newgrounds musicians. This is a lovely piece.

As the two people below me have said, the atmosphere is excellent. It really does make a difference when you make music inspired by other things doesn't it? You don't have the best production out there but you humbly create an astounding atmosphere, especially in the lighter sections where you have stuff like the harp playing.

The composition is one of my favourite aspects about this piece. I can't quite fault your composition. Chords are a bit lovely (I would've liked some more resolutions to major chords, but really that's personal preference; might not even work with the theme anyway). Your harp melodies especially are beautifully subtle and elegant. I love them.

Flow and progression are all nailed too. Every section melds perfectly with the next, and the whole experience feels very natural and uninterrupted. You've also got a good sense of dynamics and solid approaches of transitioning between one dynamic and another (except in one section which I'll mention later). The intro is excellent; ending is a bit lame, but the cadence is very sensible so it works as an ending, even if it doesn't aim to impress!

Apart from the fact that this is unfortunately pretty short, the only other obvious issue I found is that the production value isn't quite there. The instruments are generally too dry. This doesn't hurt the atmosphere as much as I expected it to, but it still makes the track feel flat/bland. On the flip side, your instrument quality is actually not bad at all; I'm not sure what VST you're using but you make good use of its sounds! The only issue is that the staccato is highly unnatural. I think that rather than using actual staccato samples, you're only playing short notes, which, especially for the woodwind, sticks out like a sore thumb.

1:03 felt very artificial. You should work on making that transition a bit less harsh. The introduction of the string chords at 1:05 came off as too much of a surprise. Another mix-related issue is that you don't separate your instruments that much in the mix, and they all just sound muddled and thin. You need to make better use of all the frequencies in your mix, and allocate suitable room to each instrument. EQing does wonders here.

Really though, this is a gorgeous piece. I'm glad I listened to this. Keep up the excellent work, and work on your production! By the way, props for making such good music on LMMS. You just prove that an artist doesn't need expensive tools to make good music!

8/10
4/5

Krichotomy responds:

I'm honored by your praise and your detailed criticism.

I guess my track is short still. Grin. The first version was 1:33, but after much improvement it reached 2:10. Beyond that I tried extending it several ways, and all attempts ended up either being too repetitive or changing the piece too much, so I decided to just release the 2:10 version that perfectly captured the atmosphere.

Can you explain in a PM what "dry instrumentation" means and how I can avoid/improve it?

The instruments are all soundfonts. A string one, a nice harp one, a piano one, and everything else is the Fluid R3 soundfont. You are right about the staccato. I'll have to see if any of the soundfonts have staccato versions. I don't think the staccato sounds bad at all, though it does sound very fake and probably makes a lot of people cringe. :D

Harsh string thing going on at 1:05. Duly noted.

I'll also have to play around with EQing and see what I can learn.

[Fall From Grace (Part 1)]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

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Yup, that was beautiful. To be honest I was always a bit questionable of your choice of buying East/West, being a techno artist yourself, but you actually use it brilliantly. The mix between techno elements and orchestral elements was just perfect. Maybe a bit too much reverb on your orchestral elements at times, but most of the time your use of reverb, while heavy, is tasteful, and you have good enough EQing skills to still keep everything clear most of the time. Some things I absolutely loved in this track were the bitcrushed drums which sound wonderfully atmospheric, the harp and piano parts, the incredibly good introduction of 0:53's synth, the snarling brass, and your excellent use of choir. Nice intro by the way! The way it gets into the track subtly was incredibly effective.

A few quick issues. The ending is really lame. It felt like you didn't approach it correctly, and just threw in the tonic note as an excuse to end the track, rather than really giving it a proper ending. As I said, your bitcrushed percussion is excellent, but most of the other percussion was a bit unfitting. As you already know, the climax is a bit of a disappointment. I also felt like you could've spent some more time building up the atmosphere. I really enjoyed the first half minute because it really built up an excellent atmosphere, but we don't get that much anymore in the rest of the track, as you usually opt to introducing new section after new section without many atmospheric sections in-between, somewhat cheapening the impact of certain parts, like 1:27's part. 2:18's transition is the only transition I didn't like - it was abrupt.

It's scattered with problems here and there but that was a fantastic listening experience. Great job!

Score: 8.7/10

[Point of Time]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

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Very, very strong start. That intro is just great. Very interesting arpeggiated pattern that indeed sounds a lot like Midna's Lament, but then evolves into something entirely different. I love your as-always unorthodox combination of sounds. Wonderful palette of sounds, especially the pads which are just excellent. You've got a real knack for dreamy atmospheres like this, because for the umpteenth time your atmosphere is spot on. The climax that comes in at the end is beautiful. On top of that, you have great, unique composition, and (mostly) excellent transitions. Awesome ending too.

I wouldn't call this unpolished, but its mixing certainly needs work. You don't quite have the production value that your opponent has - sometimes the mix gets pretty muddy, especially towards the end. It's also a bit short. You've developed it pretty well so it doesn't really feel unfinished, but there is room for more development. I'm not a fan of the transition you used to lead to the climax. I felt as though you could've approached the climax a bit better to give it some more significance. Lastly, the 808-esque drum kit you're using is a bit questionable. It does the job of providing a rhythm, and it's an interesting percussion choice for sure, but it doesn't provide much of an atmosphere, which I think drums should do in a genre like this.

Excellent track. Keep up the great work.

Score: 8.2/10

[Journey to the Edge]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

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Wonderful composition. I really applaud you for working with what you had, despite East/West not working and you having to work on LAPTOP speakers, and still managing to make something that has rock-solid composition and a great sense of mood and atmosphere. I can tell when someone makes their music in a notation software because, perhaps expectedly, their music always seems to have a lot more focus and detail on composition than someone who uses a DAW and sequences the music, using a piano roll. The first section had excellent chords, the second built an excellent mood, and transitioned well to the third part, which was a bit of a disappointment compared to the rest but I'll get to that later. Overall, you used your compositional talent to your advantage and still made something good.

Unfortunately, the track is a bit underwhelming, especially when you try and portray more powerful moods like the heroic, valiant mood of the first section and the dangerous mood of the third section. The sounds you're using really don't portray much power, and I'm not going to just blame that on Garritan's sounds. The track's production is unfortunately leaving a lot to be desired. Some of the sounds are pretty dry, and nothing stands out. As a result, this subdued kind of sound worked just fine for the second section, which is perhaps the strongest of them all. The third section is very short, and couple that with a premature-sounding ending and the lack of power I mentioned earlier, and you've got a final section that does not give much of a lasting impact.

This is a shame because you're a great composer, and I very much enjoyed your audition. Still, good job with this, despite your lack of resources; it was enjoyable!

Score: 7.4/10

WingoWinston responds:

Thanks you very much for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed the composition. My dismay in losing has been somewhat rectified by your review. I know what you mean by the lack of power. That does not lay in Garritan but with the dynamics. This is something I still need work on and need to learn to better manipulate on Finale. Losing has only encouraged me to further hone my skills and I'll only hit back harder next year.

Cheers.

[Fight the Movement! ~P~]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

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Right off the bat you've got very suitable instrumentation. Rock and orchestral are two things that fit together beautifully, and here's a good example of that. Your melodies and chords are very indicative of some sort of boss battle, making this excellent game music, along with the fact that it loops perfectly! I enjoyed your chord progressions, and you've got a strong main piano melody - I would've liked a lot more melody development on the piano but for a loop that's less than 2 minutes, it's not too much of a problem. Excellent structure that works well for a loop, decent transitions, and a good intro.

However, I'm afraid I have to say that this is by far not the best I've heard from you! Everything in this feels like it's "by the book", so to speak - there's nothing that particularly stands out as unique or interesting. This kind of music is very reminiscent of RPG music, which you really do well, but when I'm judging stuff for a competition, I judge how well they are as a standalone song, not how well they'd fit in a game. The production, on the whole, is crisp and clean, but the track occasionally sounds pretty weak and bland mix-wise, which would be fixed with more detailed mixing/EQing. And hey, it's pretty short, so it's lacking content. It's developed very nicely for a small loop, but if you made some long, progressive orchestral/rock ballad of sorts, with more melodic development and dynamic variation, it would work so much more to your advantage! Hell, even a longer loop would work; going for an approach NemesisTheory's Rose series took - more power, more development, more originality, and still a boss battle loop like this, would have also been a good idea.

That's my opinion on this track. I've heard better from you, and this needs quite a bit of polishing and touching up, but it was a pleasant listen overall!

Score: 7.2/10