Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[FD - Dreams]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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This is such an incredible track compared to the original that it's actually hilarious. Even on its own, this is one hell of an incredible track.

The atmosphere is nailed. The intro is just spine-chilling, and when the vocals come in, it truly becomes an extremely dark and captivating experience. This track has the ability to encapsulate the listener in its grasp and keep him/her under the spell until the very end, and then leave him/her thinking about it even after the track is finished. And halfway through it turns into a metal track with excellent guitar-playing! That was entirely unexpected, even if hints of it were thrown in at 2:14 (which were wonderfully subtle, great job). The vocals overall added a disturbing element to the track and the voice acting is just excellent. I don't know where you got those vocals from or if you made them yourself though.

It is incredibly hard to find anything to point out that I didn't like. This is just fantastic. I can only mention miniscule little faults that are probably personal preference. The ending, for me, felt a bit too uneventful for an ending. Perhaps add some echo/reverb to the vocals, especially for the last word, so it rings a bit more before the track ends. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the mixing in the metal part. The cymbals sound a bit thin and the rest of the drums sound a bit flat. These are all slight nuisances that don't really deduct from your score that much.

I consider this one of the best submissions in the contest. Truly well done!

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SCORE: 9.5/10

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thank you so much, this is an incredible review. :)
Yes, I did perform the vocals myself as I couldn't get any voice actors to read those lines and so I had to stick with my fat performance. People liked it, I'm pretty content too. Also I agree with the minuscule flaws, I'll definitely be careful next time.
Thanks again
//FD

[Violin Fight (Arr.)]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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45 minutes! Now that's what I call speed-writing. After 45 minutes I still wouldn't be done choosing my instruments haha.

You're a talented composer and it shows over here. This often reminds me strongly of the Guild Wars 2 soundtrack for some reason, but that aside the composition is lovely. Great change of chords at 1:20 for example. I like that you still made creative interpretations of the original, like throwing in that beautiful harp and woodwind intro, and slowing everything down to a more emotional pace as well. The sounds are also awesome, but I'm pretty sure you use East/West right? That explains it. The brass in particular works very well. I like that you extended the original in quite a few different ways. You added a lot more instruments which weren't necessarily strings, and made this feel more like a song and less like a cool little menu thing.

That said, I can tell that this is written in a small amount of time. I've always thought you've struggled a bit with mixing, and over here it's all the more apparent. The staccato strings have way too many mids and there's a lot of frequency clashing going on here. Apart from that, some transitions feel rushed. With a bit more tweaking, the transition at 0:46 would be good, but right now it sounds abrupt. 1:20 feels like a rushed transition too, and the harp/violin part at the end feels like it came out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, on the whole this feels unfinished. If only you started earlier, because if you realise your full potential I think you would've done very well in the contest.

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SCORE: 7/10

samulis responds:

Yeah, I really need to teach myself all the fancy mixing things people do. Finale doesn't offer EQ... all that would need to be done to the rendered file or perhaps I could find a good VST EQ plugin (I know there are millions out there... if you have one you recommend, let me know!).

I really honestly don't have the tools to do a full mix like most digital composers do aside from pan, volume, reverb, and some basic envelope work, all inclusive in the PLAY VST. Finale recently brought in VST effect support, but I really have never bought any effects or learned formally the best practices to using them, so that's something I need to work on for the future. :)

When I go back to this, I plan on adding some percussion (I normally do them last and left them out on this due to the time), some more content before the ending plus a better ending, and clean up the transitions as a whole.

I actually was busy out of my mind for the weeks leading up to the deadline with schoolwork, so it was a last minute "maybe I should give this a shot..." sort of thing. I don't know how I managed to even make it a piece of music tbh. Thank you for the critique, I'll try to stop entering these things at the last minute. :P

[Four Brave Champions (CS)]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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Some other submissions in this contest did some pretty big changes in style from the original, like metal to orchestral and 8-bit to metal, but none are so far away stylistically from the original than this!

You get major points for turning the original into a consistent and coherent jazz track without diminishing the power of the original melody. Some parts sound truly brilliant in jazz form. Apart from that, you've got some excellent chords, and smooth tempo changes which I bet were not easy to pull off. What I like the most about this, apart from your great composition, is that it feels so well-structured and masterful. Other than 1:01 which felt a bit more forced, everything else feels smooth and has a clear direction. You even ended it the way you started it which works considerably well. Overall, fantastic interpretation, masterful composition and rock-solid structure...

...which is then ruined by bad mixing and sounds. I still get MIDI vibes in this, and it feels more like a song that's simply in arrangement form waiting to be played by a big band, rather than a song that holds its own as a digitally-created track. Some sounds are good but just don't fit, like the trumpet, and others like the saxophone (or whatever brass you were using to play chords in the background) sound grating. Not to mention the drums, which fit incredibly well, but sound quite flat and lacking in power. The mixing also needs work; levels-wise this sounds fairly unbalanced, and some sounds are very dry.

Overall, I'm going to deduct two points for the sounds and mixing. If those were nailed then I would have no problem with this because it's simply pure talent waiting to be played by a whole band and recorded professionally in a studio.

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SCORE: 8/10

[SD and L (cover)]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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You're the one of the two competitors to cover two tracks, and unlike the other one I feel like you actually had a decent transition here.

Let me start by saying that the guitar at the beginning sounds fantastically atmospheric and works extremely well as an intro. Even if you say you have a bad microphone, it sounded just fine. Tasteful use of reverb on it too! You then transition to the other track with a fairly smooth transition (even if it's a bit crossfade-ish), and some really unique-sounding ideas. This all sounds interesting and creative. Both covers also feel like improvements from the originals too.

Unfortunately, like other people have said, I feel like this didn't go anywhere. The second part especially doesn't feel very structured. The guitar intro was lovely but when it transitioned to something else, there was nothing that indicated that the guitar intro's place is in this track, since it turned into something else entirely. The other submission covering two tracks also felt disjointed and I feel that this was an issue that I should have addressed earlier, since using more than one track to cover in your submission doesn't mean you can make it sound like two different covers entirely.

You present great, creative and intriguing ideas, but work more on making this one cohesive listening experience, since it feels somewhat directionless.

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SCORE: 6.5/10

alternativesolution responds:

Oh, that's good to hear! I finally was able to filter out much of the background noise (I got a new mic now, yes!) after tweaking around, but to me I couldn't tell if I had done the job right or not. So I'm glad it's not terrible sounding.

I had a hard time transitioning the two covers, and at first wanted to add in some guitar to the second piece as well, but it sounded too busy... so I ended up leaving it how it was. Ah, the life of a procrastinator. I picked my songs 3 days before the deadline and did all the work on the final day, most of it after 6pm >.<
But it is good to know I did well with the creative aspects, because I was certainly happy with the second cover, myself. Just...not how quickly it ended. (time constraint) I wanted to extend it much further, actually. If I had allowed myself more time from the start, I would've seen to the now-clear transitioning issues.

"You present great, creative and intriguing ideas, but work more on making this one cohesive listening experience, since it feels somewhat directionless."

This is especially helpful. Cohesiveness is very important, and I will keep that in mind the next time I think it's okay to procrastinate.

I appreciate your input, and thank you for your review!

[Motivated Wonders[NGAP10]]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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You're the first to put melodies from more than one song in your track. Interesting!

I suppose I'll have to treat this as two different covers. The Motivated Suspicions cover was my favourite from the two. You still managed to retain the great chords from the original and you've got some great ideas in there too. The original is MIDI so it's nice to hear it with a beefier and thicker arrangement, rather than with crappy MIDI instruments. The other cover was not as impressive, I felt, but you still made some decent interpretation of the original in some parts.

That said, I expected a lot more from you and this was a bit of a disappointment. A lot of the samples you used just don't that good at all and this isn't mixed well. The slap bass in particular sounds bad. The sax is the only instrument in the Motivated Suspicions track which I was happy with. The second cover is also lacking in good sounds (and this can be heard all too clearly at 4:54 especially), and you didn't even vary the genre and structure that much either,. And of course, a big issue with this track is that it's just two covers squashed together. when I said I allowed composition from more than one track, I was still expecting one unified experience, since you essentially did the same thing as posting two submissions to the contest, except they're just put together in one audio file here. No good transition, nothing to join the two together. You didn't even use the same instrument set.

I love some of the ideas you have here, but I'm a big fan of some of your other works and this doesn't begin to compare I'm afraid.

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SCORE: 6/10

Nimble responds:

I can agree with you with just about everything you've said here; mixing ain't my strong suit, there are a couple sounds that are below quality, and the transition didn't go very well. I wanted the transition to be sudden, e-brake style(the kind you sometimes see in film scores and musicals), but I guess it was just a bit too much of a fast change to be effective. I will argue the instrument set point though. there is a english horn improvisational solo in the Motivated Suspicions part and right after the solo section the harp and flute/eng are used along with the electric piano in the "B" section, and the harp plays along with e.pno for the rest of the Motivated Suspicions part. Also, the brass section is the same throughout both sections. I'm just being technical at this point, though.

In all, I do feel like if I had just left out the second half it would've been a lot better, due to the lack of transition and no general structural changes. To be honest, Time was one thing I was spending alot of on this contest, because for two weeks I was brainstorming and sending PMs out to artists asking for a MIDI or chords to work with. Of course then a few unexpected things happened, ended up working for about 9 hours in one sitting on this single submission, then turning it in just about an hour before the deadline. I feel terrible to have disappointed you, and will make it a personal goal to learn and fix ANY of my future mistakes and will try my best to reach a higher standard with each submission that i write in the future. I thank you for your time in reviewing this piece.

[Sea of Grass (Jazz)]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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Wow, that's exactly what I needed. Some mellow jazz. Thank you.

The composition here is just beautiful. I haven't given points to that many people for the composition because, needless to say, it's generally someone else's since this is a cover competition. However, I have to mention that you entirely changed the chords of the original and it just sounds amazing in this setting (0:43 gave me goosebumps!). The song you chose is far from jazz but it works so well in jazz that it's making me wonder why TroisNyxEtienne didn't make it jazz in the first place haha. The instruments other than the guitar play some fantastic supporting melodies. The piano especially sounds great at the end where it really shifts the pace into a more uplifting style.

My complaint here is that unfortunately this sounds somewhat disjointed. Instead of being one cohesive song, this often just pauses one section and starts another, like at 0:21 and 0:57. I really appreciate you turning the original into this rubato jazz thing, but that doesn't mean you make it sound like it's not a full, structured song. Some transitions just didn't work. This is my only complaint, and it may be more than just a minor issue but it sure as hell didn't detract from the incredible composition.

All in all, fantastic work. I'm highly impressed.

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SCORE: 9/10

SilverPoyozo responds:

Yes exactly, when I first heard her original version the harmony just screamed 'jazzy' to me.

Well, that happened due to the lack of time and especially my lack of skill with beats, I planned on making the transition smoother with some drums.Plus, I intended for the song to be a bit longer, so the first section would make more sense...but still I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the review.

[Smother (Overburn Cover)]

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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This started off fairly badly, but got so much better later on that you still got a fairly high score in my books!

Right, let me start by saying that making an orchestral cover of a metal song is NOT easy, I'm sure. Of course, it depends on the song, but in general metal tracks have a lot of repeating riffs and chug rhythms that are hard to interpret with an orchestra. The one you chose is fairly melodic which of course works in favour of you, but I still commend you on making a great orchestral track out of a metal track. The large amount of orchestral instruments give this a somewhat generic but still appreciated "epic" feeling. Some parts like 1:08 are awesome, and the ending when everything comes together is pure brilliance. Great choice of chords too by the way! Lastly, the ending was quite good, even if it was similar to the original's, and I like how you ended it with a melodic phrase that was repeated various times prior to the ending.

Having said all that, the mix over here needs to be reworked entirely. I'm not sure what sounds you're using, but while some of them sound fine (like some of the percussion and the choir), others sound bad. This seems to be mostly the result of lacklustre mixing. Some of the instruments here are incredibly dry, and this is especially notable when the piano does its solo and throughout a lot of the percussive section. Some reverb would work wonders. The levels and EQing need work too. Nothing - not even the foreground instruments - stands out from the mix most of the time, and this is very clear with the brass especially.

Overall, despite this having some shortcomings, I enjoyed it! Great work.

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SCORE: 8/10

[LHM - Endless Handbag 98']

NGAP 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST REVIEW

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Wowww, finally someone covers what's basically considered the Newgrounds theme song. I was worried it would get neglected!

The production is awesome. You're one of the people on Newgrounds who I can always expect great sounds, solid mixing and good production in general. The snare/clap in your beat is just golden and works so well. In fact all your drums are just perfect. I would've liked a bit more character in synth at 1:05 since it feels a bit plain compared to the original's, but honestly other than that your sounds are splendid, and complemented nicely by the aforementioned good production value.

Having said that, I expected a LOT more from you, man. I know what you're capable of making and this does not live up to it, mainly in terms of creativity. The creativity factor is not present here; most of the awesome ideas in this cover are ideas that I can't credit you for because they were in the original. This feels overall quite bare and lacking intricate thought put into it. You've got some much more high-quality sounds and production than the original has, but that alone isn't enough to constitute a high mark. Not quite sure what's happening at 0:46 too. I love your idea but it's not executed as well as I would've hoped.

A bit of a disappointment overall, but still a good attempt with production that's hard to fault. Decent work!

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SCORE: 6.5/10