Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[==(Shadow People)==]

Best song atmosphere I've heard in months.

I'd call this the best you've ever done so far, or at least my favourite from you. It sounds so atmospheric, as usual, but has a variety of superb sounds which fit flawlessly together. Naturally, the production is all great, and this has loads of different sections which all sound fantastic. You're a musical prodigy, you know that?

I'll review the song as I go along, since this has so many different sections that it's impossible to talk about all of them together.

0:00 (Intro) : Very nice way to start the song up. The bass guitar started it smoothly, and then it instantly moved on to the main guitar plucks which are heard throughout the song. The slight ambiance at the beginning was a nice touch, and the transition to the drums was smooth. Oh, and that synth which comes in around the 1:00 marker... wow...

0:32 : The drums come in over here, so I may as well comment about them. The 9/8 beat works out really well, although I think the drums could've been a slight bit better, especially that snare. I think the snare sounds a bit too... heavy, for an atmospheric piece like this. Maybe a lighter snare with a little bit of reverb on it might work a bit better.

Other than that the drums are insanely well made.

1:28 : A new section comes in, and it's in 4/4. Transition was a bit abrupt, but works fine. At first I thought this part stood out a bit too much (almost reminded me of a pop song of some sort) but at 1:41 the wonderful atmosphere returns. Loved the drum fill at 1:40, by the way.

2:07 : Awesome drum solo... is awesome :D.

2:14 : You repeat the main theme again, giving the song a solid structure. Not much to say except great job, I guess.

2:42 : The song gets even more atmospheric. One thing which irked me a bit was that oboe (?) at 2:50. It sort of comes in a bit unexpectedly. But I'm just trying to nitpick here - from then on the oboe sounded superb and fit very well.

3:12 : After another cool drum fill, the drum beat enters. Over here is where I first noticed that you switched to 6/8. Another flawless transition. So flawless that I didn't even notice it.

3:30 : OK now this part is BY FAR my absolute favourite part from the whole song. Every time I hear the song I always long for this part to start. The introduction of the strings was wonderfully subtle, and the sound of the strings themselves was so mystical and amazing. You're constantly adding new sounds to the piece, and I've got to say, you're darn good at it.

3:50 : Another sublime part by those strings. Seriously, this part is so good it's giving me the goosebumps. How the hell can you be this good at making music?

4:09 : My favourite transition from the whole submission. Extremely smooth and linked the 6/8 section to the main 9/8 theme beautifully.

One thing which could have made this better was if you continued to play the strings, but playing them as long chords in the background, instead of just fading the strings note out. I think it would give the outro a bit more significance and end the song nicely. But then again maybe I'm just being biased because I LOVE THE SOUND OF THOSE STRINGS.

4:20 : 10/8 bar. But looks like I was too late to point that out, thanks to Shamukh.

4:49 (Ending) : After a whole five minutes, the song ends with a fantastic ending. It almost loops well too. Almost...

OVERALL COMMENTS:

I'm not going to lie to you; this is by far one of my favourite songs made by a Newgrounds artist, no joke. I never get tired of listening to this, and despite it being 5 minutes in length, it has enough different sounds and sections (not to mention time signatures...) to make it impossible for the listener to get bored listening to this.

So yeah, as a general conclusion the whole song sounds very atmospheric and all of the sounds fit so well with each other. There were a few things which bothered me, but those are all probably just personal preference. All in all, keep up the amazing work, and for god's sake, find some good way to sell your music, NOW.
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.
Mov'd up two ranks in my favs list :D.

-Review Request Club-

[Agamoka - Chaoz Fantasy Remix]

Starts well, but loses its touch.

Let me start by saying that I LOVE the Chaoz Fantasy melody, so maybe I'm being a bit too strict since I expect a lot from Chaoz Fantasy remixes, but still, this is a decent song. The notes seem to be all correct, and you have some cool sounds. Decent job!

One thing that stood out for me would be the fantastic intro. Maybe you could've started it a little more softly and then automated a cutoff filter on the song till you get to 0:22 for a more powerful buildup, but I'm probably complaining too much. Very nice intro!

Unfortunately, when it gets to 0:22, I started to lose interest. The cymbals or snares at 0:20-ish are a little too rough and come in suddenly, and then the transition that followed was quite anti-climatic. I think some epic breakbeat should kick in at 0:22 and get the song going.

The kick comes in at 0:22 as well, and I think it wasn't nearly as powerful as it should be. It sounds very hidden in the mix, and it has a very simple rhythm. I think you should just stick to the drum style of the original, with breakbeats and drum fills and stuff.

Anyway, at 0:44 the melody enters, and while I do give you some credit for the creative pitch-bending, it sounds completely out of rhythm. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but in any case, I think you should make it the right rhythm since it sounds very cluttered and out of place.

The main drum beat kicked in, and it sounds very simple and generic. A kick-open hat-clap-open hat rhythm doesn't do nearly enough justice to the Chaoz Fantasy melody in my opinion. As I already said, I think you should scrap all the percussion you did and go for more breakbeat-style percussion.

1:07... Again with more pitch-bending. I think it sounds more out of place over here. I know you're trying to sound original, but I don't think it works that well. I was literally hoping this part will end so the song can move on, I'm afraid :(.

At 1:30 you introduce the tertiary melody. It sounds pretty cool over here, but again, it's completely out of rhythm and doesn't fit at all with the background. I think that if you make it in rhythm it'll sound a lot better. Also, the drum beat fades in and out in volume over here for some reason. Sounds a bit weird...

As for the ending, not nearly as good as the intro. It ends very abruptly and I think that you can either consider looping it or giving it a better ending.

So, a recap:

Starts very well, but starts losing its touch at 0:22. The pitch bending sounds weird, the melody goes out of rhythm a lot, there are a few anti-climatic transitions and the ending needs work. But hey, there are some cool sounds, and I think this song has a lot of potential to be much better. Good luck if you decide to go back to it!
6/10
3/5

-Review Request Club-

[[SpXer] All-Nighter]

Definitely in need of those vocals.

I'm not going to lie, as this submission is now, it's very repetitive, and I did get bored listening to it, but I'll keep in mind that you're going to add vocals to it, and I'm sure that when you do it's going to sound excellent. This submission has a very nice sound to it, and even though it's repetitive, I'm sure it'll be much better with the vocals, if you ever submit a version of this with the vocals. Good job!

One thing I liked about the submission would be the sound quality of the submission. It sounds very very lo-fi and sloppy, but that fits flawlessly with the mood that you were aiming for, and I'm sure that the vocals you made (which are very well-written) will fit right at home with this.

The piano sounds nice and its melody is pretty catchy and grows on you as the song progresses. I would've liked some more piano melodies, but due to my lack of knowledge of this genre I don't know if it'll fit well. Even with the beat I would've liked a few more subtle rhythmic changes, but who knows, maybe I just complain too much. I liked the bass in this, and I love the sound of that guitar thing (?) at 0:50.

I suppose I'll end this review with a generic overall paragraph. Like I said, this song is repetitive, but I really like the sloppy sound that it has. All in all, I enjoyed this and it doesn't have any actual flaws which I can point out except the lack of lyrics. Keep up the good work, and sorry for the short review :P.
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

spartacusxerox responds:

Hey thanks supersteph54, fellow RRC member, I enjoyed your comment a lot
I like how you encompassed both the positives and the negatives quite well, and I think I will put vocals to this song

I enjoyed your highly structured review and the amount of time you put into providing quality feedback.
Thanks

-SpXer-

[Key to Eternity]

A typical DJ-Chilvan song...

...Not saying that's a bad thing. As usual, an uplifting, joyous and of course lengthy song :D. Definitely something that reminds me of summer, and a lot more melodic than the usual trance song. One thing about this submission is that after I've finished listening to it, it doesn't feel like a whole seven minutes have passed. Time flies when you're enjoying something, eh?
By the way, very sorry I took so long to review this. I've been meaning to review this, but I've had so much to do...

Right then, I'll review this as I go along since this is pretty much the longest song I've ever reviewed xP.

0:00 (Intro) - You've got to love that intro. The cool effect at the beginning transitioned perfectly to the start of the song. The song immediately begins with a light, dreamy feel to it. The melody itself sounds astoundingly well-done. Unfortunately, one thing which I immediately noticed would be the mix. It sounds a little undefined and blurry. I think some stereo separation, EQing and a little less reverb might fix this, but mixing isn't my specialty.

0:56 - Whoa. That transition was absolutely superb. You used the same effect as you used in the intro, and then the drums came in and I couldn't help but widen my eyes a little :P. However, like kravening said, the drums are too quiet, especially the kick which is basically drowned in the mix due to no highs/mids (again, some EQing will fix this). I'm not asking for a floor-shaker, but I think a more powerful kick will definitely sound more epic.

2:20 - Haha just when I was about to comment that the song was feeling a little monotonous and needs a new sound, you go and add a new sound. Is that the generic rhythm I'm hearing again, though? :P.

2:47 - O.O This part literally (OK not literally) blew me away. The atmosphere here is out of this world, and dude, that is the most massive crash cymbal I've heard in ages... Yeah, long story short, this is probably one of my favourite parts of the song. Maybe you should take a shot at making an ambient song sometime. Judging from this part, I'm sure it'll be successful. Around a minute afterwards, you introduce the intro melody again in a very subtle manner, which worked so well.
I would've preferred it if you used a new synth over here to repeat the intro melody though, since it might make it sound more epic, but that's just a small suggestion...

4:23 - The kick comes in, a nice touch; would've been better if the kick wasn't so drowned out and weak, but I should stop complaining :P.

4:51 - Here's another really cool part with a good atmosphere. Soon a really long sweep starts, and ends at 5:18.

5:18 - Yet another AMAZING transition, and then a key change? Genius. It provided a wonderful climax to the song, and anyone can clearly see that the song is finally coming to an ending.

6:15 (Ending) - A good approach for an outro, the song is clearly about to end any second. The ending itself is awesome, but I think the very long note at the end was a bit ear-piercing lol. Maybe you should make it half its length. Other than that, an awesome ending, with some cool plucks fading out at the end too, which was a really nice touch.

-OVERALL-

This is really cool, among the best of your submissions. The melody is epic, all of the sections sound amazing, the transitions are beautifully executed and the intro/ending are both perfect (except for the ending note which could be a little shorter). I think the main two problems with this would be the blurry mix, and the quiet drums, namely the weak kick which is practically begging for some highs and mids. I think that if you worked on those two defects, along with any other small nitpicks I complained about in the review, then it would make the song a great deal better.

So all in all, I don't regret coming to review this. Usually for a whole seven minutes, I'd get bored, but this manages to keep me entertained and interested for every second that the song is playing. Keep up the excellent work! Oh and we should exchange reviews again sometime :D.
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.

-Review Request Club-

DJ-Chilvan responds:

lol wow I can't believe I forgot to respond to this review! It prolly slipped me. Thanks for this kind and lengthy review. You seriously do have the best ones on NG!

[Are U Ready {Dj-Abbic mix}]

A bit generic at times, but sounds cool.

You were right when a few months ago you said that your most popular song of 2010 isn't as good as your current songs, and while I always prefer more melody-oriented songs (probably why I like Orchestral more than House/Trance), there's no denying that this is a well-made song. Sounds generic, and I don't know how hard it is to make a House song which isn't since I've never made one, but it's still enjoyable to listen to and sounds cool. Good job.

Since this is quite a lengthy song, I'm going to review as I go along...

0:00 (Intro) - Very generic intro, I'm afraid. I like the sound of the kick, and the clap/snare that comes in after, albeit a little flat and dry, sounds OK. If there was anything I'd suggest over here, it'd be to make the intro less generic, maybe give it some new sound to keep the user interested. Or maybe it's just me and my ridiculously limited amount of knowledge of this genre.

0:30 - The melody's coming in. A typical rhythm of a house melody, can't really complain about it, and I suppose since this is a remix I can't credit you for the melody :P. The sweep you used was cool though, and the buildup of the melody was good.

0:59 - A new melody is layered on top of the previous one, and starts building up too. While this is yet another generic approach, the effect you used at the beginning of this part was great and the whole part provided a break from the usual pounding beat of the kick. Cool effect at 1:26 too :D.

1:29 - Here the beat is getting a bit repetitive, in my opinion. Maybe a few subtle changes might help make this part more interesting. Probably me though, like I said, I prefer more melodic songs.

2:30 - We're reminded of the break at 0:59. The 1/3 swing at 2:57 was really cool, and I liked the new layer to the melody at 3:14. Nothing to complain about here :3.

3:44 (Outro) - The outro starts here, and you slowly build down till the crash cymbal at the end. Not a bad ending, although it is quite generic (yeah I'm complaining too much).

-OVERALL-

This is a good submission, a definite improvement from the other one I reviewed, but I think the main problem that this song faces is that there aren't many things to make the listener go 'OK, that is cool', except maybe the 1/3 swing later on in the song, since a lot of the transitions, effects, rhythms and sections in this song have been used over and over in this genre. I may be too fussy, but if there's anything I think you should work on, it's making your stuff less generic.

That being said, you've nailed the transitions, production and effects, and the song all in all sounds good. Keep up the good work, and best of luck in the NGADM!
8/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

DjAbbic responds:

Yay :D I'm going to respond to your critiques (which I enjoy oh so much) as I go along.

Intro - Well, the generic intro was one of the things I picked up from all the professionals (Electrixx, Dirtyloud, Dj Solovey etc) and they all have the same intro. Maybe it's for easy DJ mixing but meh, I followed :P

:30 - It's still part of the intro, just added that to make it less boring I guess.

:59 - This was my attempt to recreate the melody from the original by ear. I don't really get people who use MIDI. It's just not fun to create :S. Sadly, the effect at 1:26 was a preset. I'M SORRY! :S

1:29 - This is the part where people should be bobbing their heads to the rhythm, I wouldn't have expected people to still listen to the beat :S. Oh well, my attempt at an epic rhythm.

2:30 - Laziness, pure laziness. Sorry again :(.

3:44 - At this stage, I've listened to it so much I was getting a bit tired and running out of ideas for it, so I decided to do a lame ending. I agree so much with generic endings, but I can never seem to end my songs well. It's always a fade-out or a crash. Maybe one day :P.

I think the point of making this song was to improve my production quality. Every time I compare my songs to professionals, they always have that sound that I don't (ambitious much?). Lately, my songs have been focusing on being professional sounding rather than well thought out. Just a next step :)

And thanks for wishing me luck in the NGADM :). I'll need it. Hope I get past auditions :o.

And last of all, thanks for the review ^^. I love your detail so much. :D

[A Land Far Away]

Why didn't I discover your songs sooner? O.o

Man, these are the type of songs that I really enjoy. A wonderful variety of dynamics, fantastic use of the samples, and some very nice melodies. This has a certain adventurous feel to it, definitely reminds me of soundtracks in films like Pirates of the Caribbean. I can't find many problems in it, and your Author's Comments really do it justice. It indeed is epic win.
Oh, and as a side note, I'm very sorry for taking so long to review this. I've had so much to do lately that it's become very hard to keep up with everything.

I'll split my review into a pros/cons layout.

-PROS-

- There's just so much to listen to in this track. There's no apparent main melody, yet it never starts feeling random. Each melody flows beautifully to the next, and all of the melodies sound excellent. The piece is so dynamic and varied that I can't help but listen to it again and again, hearing something new every time I listen to it.

- As I said, this track sounds so adventurous and at times mysterious. I can see this right at home in an adventure/fantasy film. Like Porkrock said, this sounds a lot like any typical film soundtrack, but I certainly don't have anything against that :D...

- The percussion fit very well. I expected the bass drum or timpani (not sure, I'm deaf from one ear and can't catch some sounds very well...) to be a little more powerful at times, but other than that, the percussion sounded great and complimented the melodies very nicely.

- An obvious advantage in this is that the instruments are excellent quality, but that's expected if you use East/West, right? xD. I use it too, but I can't get my sounds to be as realistic as this, so good job on that O.O.

- The transitions were all awesome (except one which I'll mention in the cons section). I especially liked the transition at 0:54 where the track seems to become more sinister and mysterious.

- By the way, the part at 0:54 was my favourite part. The choirs fit flawlessly here too.

- You started the song quite well too with the slowly rising percussion. Maybe a softer, longer intro building up to 0:02 might make it sound a bit more impressive and epic, but that's more of a suggestion than it is criticism.

- The ending is also very satisfying. A bit of a generic approach, but works perfectly. However, is it me or am I hearing the cymbal cut off too suddenly at the end? :S.

-CONS-

- The track at times has somewhat of an empty feel to it. This would fit perfectly as a background soundtrack to some sort of movie, but as a song on its own, it occasionally feels like it lacks depth, or at least in my opinion, especially at the beginning. Maybe some double bass playing some long chords in the background might fix this, I don't know...

- Remember that one transition I mentioned earlier? Well, the transition at 1:26 is what's bothering me a bit. The song sounds exactly like it's ended, and then it suddenly continues out of nowhere. I have no problem with you adding some silence in certain parts of the song, actually on the contrary, sometimes it makes the part following the silence sound even more epic, but I think that it didn't work as well as I would've liked it to at 1:26. The song seemingly ends, and then starts again, and for a second I thought a totally new song started. Might be just me.

-OVERALL-

I suppose the word 'outstanding' can sum this up quite nicely. I thoroughly enjoyed the track from beginning to end, and while it has two really small problems, this is definitely something that I won't get tired of listening to anytime soon.

Actually, it has quite a different style from Foresight. If I didn't know that you made both of them I would've thought that someone else made this track xD.

Anyway, keep up the amazing work. I must say that your songs are ridiculously underrated, thanks to 0-bombers :(. Great job on this, you're one hell of a talented artist! :D.
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.
Fav'd as an artist.
O.O

-Review Request Club-

If it's not too much to ask, would you mind leaving a review on a song of mine?
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste n/313345

Tomppaah responds:

Oh my lord Steph :D Where do I even begin?

"your Author's Comments really do it justice"
Haha, I didn't really think I had to write anything other than that at the moment ;)
When I posted it I was so damned happy with it. I had been sitting for quite some time, just messing around in FL, when suddenly this came out.

"the bass drum or timpani"
It's a timpani :3

"you use East/West, right?"
Why yes indeed I do! The greatest VSTi I've worked with! Don't you think so too? ;)

Some things about your cons section. Yes, I constantly have the problem of not fleshing out my tracks. ;S A lot of them can sound empty at various points, and I hate myself for not being able to come up with anything I like for those parts. I'd rather leave it empty than put something there that I don't like. :3 Maybe that's wrong.

Now that you mention it, that transitioin at 1:26 does sound a tad awkward. ;) Maybe it shouldn't come back in so hard. A softer entry after the pause might have been better.. Hmm.. I'll have to take a look after I get my computer back ;)

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this monster of a review! :D
I would never have believed I'd get these awesome reviews when I posted in the RRC thread!

Yes, I agree.. Zero-bombers is fail.
But what can you expect? ;)

[After Rain]

Certainly sounds like what you were going for...

...I have to admit that the first thing I'd think of if I heard this song would be a forest, and the various droplet effects really helped to give the atmosphere of a wet forest, just after a lot of rain. I've had it looping for quite a while without noticing that it's been looping all this time, so that's pretty impressive. Since it's quite a long song, I'll review the song as I go along, rhyme unintended.

0:00 (Intro) - An interesting way to start the song. The high bells give out a sort of 'dreamy' feel, so I didn't think you'd manage to turn this into a forest-like song, but I suppose you did a good job in that despite the 'dreamy' feel in the intro. You may want to EQ the bells a bit more though, I think they have too much highs and listening to them with high volume or listening to them a lot gets a bit annoying. The melody is good though.

0:13 - I'm hearing some droplet sounds. They work really nicely and fit beautifully with the bells, but one thing that I don't really like is that they fall at the second beat of the bar each time. I doubt that a real forest can make droplets fall off its leaves in such a rhythmic, predictable manner.

My point is, while the droplets fit very well playing at the same time as some notes with the bells, I think that occasionally you could add some droplets at random times during the song. Not too much, or it might distract the listener, but I think that not making the droplets so predictable by playing them exactly on the beat might make the atmosphere better.

0:28 - The percussion comes in. To be honest I'm not so impressed with the percussion, sorry :(. It's very simple and bland. Maybe you could add a few congas/bongos, cymbals, and maybe some shakers or other soft percussion. Right now, the percussion sounds extra, and doesn't compliment the track as much as I would've liked.

0:56 - I think the main melody starts getting a bit repetitive here. You're slowly introducing new elements to the song every few bars, which is great and makes this more interesting, but you might want to vary the main melody a little too.

1:25 - Here I'm hearing some variety, and while you didn't change the melody that much, this subtle change worked quite well. I absolutely love the staccato woodwind notes in the background, though. They fit excellently in the track and remind me of a forest a lot.

1:53 - I'm hearing a soft woodwind melody in the background. Nice touch.

2:21 - Here the woodwind melody enters the song. The melody is good, but what stood out the most in my opinion would be the sound of the woodwind instrument itself (some sort of flute or pan flute, I think). It sounds amazing, and worked very well. Later on, at 2:58, the bells play the melody alongside the woodwind, which sounded great.

3:13 - I think the transition before this part could use some work (the song goes quiet too suddenly), but I must say that this part is one of my favourite parts in the song. This is the first time I'm hearing the harp (?) which made this part quite interesting. The song reaches its climax as you introduce some more woodwind (which, by the way, sounded wonderful), and then it slowly dies down. Fantastic.

4:38 - It's become apparent that the song is getting ready to end. The transition to this part was good, and it's a good approach to an outro. One thing which I'm noticing is the lack of sound effects, though. You only had droplets, and I think some rustling of leaves, soft animal sounds and wind sound effects played at random times in the song would really help the atmosphere, in my opinion.

5:07 (Ending) - Here the song ends pretty subtly. I think the ending was a bit unexpected, but worked well. I'd prefer it if you slowly faded out the droplets, but that's a minor defect that's probably just me :/.

-OVERALL-

This is an impressive submission. Percussion is too simple, and doesn't compliment the track, there's a lack of different sound effects, at times it gets repetitive and there are a few small problems here and there, but overall it sounds great. Good job!
8/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-

EvilScorpio responds:

Enormous thanks to you for so detailed and attentive review)) I will try to fix the pointed small problems and make the track even better. Thank you again)

[Chasing the Clouds [Sonic 2]]

Very relaxing and calm.

There aren't many problems that I have with this song which I can mention. It sounds excellent, and naturally I wish it was longer. Good work, it sounds very well done :D.

I'll split the review into a pros and cons section.

-PROS-

- The sounds you chose work really well with the melodies, and that's one of the main things I look for when listening to a remix. The guitar, or harp, or whatever it is, works extremely well, and the pad in the background compliments it nicely. The bass in the background fit nicely too, and gave the listener a little more to listen to, despite the length of the submission.

- The transitions are great. There's one particular transition which is a very slight bit abrupt, but I'll mention it in the cons section. Most of the transitions fit nicely and flowed smoothly.

- The intro was well done.

- This has a really calm and light feel to it, which works really well with the nice melody. I can't credit you for the melody since this is, of course, a remix, but you really did the melody justice with the calm feel, the awesome sounds and the smooth transitions.

-CONS-

- The transition at 0:04-0:05-ish sounds pretty abrupt, in my opinion. While the pad sounds great like I said above, I think it comes in too suddenly. Maybe some quick reverbed reverse cymbal to start it up for something like that might work to introduce the pad more smoothly, but since this pad basically has no attack time at all, I think it needs something else to introduce it more smoothly and not so abruptly.

- I think this needs some more sounds to keep the listener interested. Maybe a few wind effects or a new instrument. Just a thought.

- You know this already, but I'll mention it anyway. The song doesn't loop well because of the pause at the end. I'm not reducing any of the score because of it since you said you don't know how it happened, but it's a bad thing about this track nevertheless. Have you checked if Newgrounds is adding the silence? Maybe if you mark it as a 'loop' not as a 'song' it might not add the silence. Or maybe when you exported it you ticked some sort of option which adds silence to the end of your track. That's all I can think of now :3.

-OVERALL-

It's a cool little loop, and despite the fact that it doesn't do its job for looping, may need another sound to keep the listener interested, and there are a few abrupt transitions, it's still an impressive track. Been such a long time since I last heard it, heh.

Keep up the good work, good luck if you ever finish it!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

DarkKyoushu responds:

Woah.
I'll only ask you in the future to review my tracks, simply that your review is the only review i got that was nice to read. (The only guy with a review talent)

The Start, indeed is, way to abrupt. I'll upload a fixed version soon enough. But first, i need to get that damn pause away at the end. >.>

Nice Day, DarkKyoushu.

[Cmb - Kill A Baby! >:d lml]

Sorry, it's basically a noisefest...

Sometimes, there are certain submissions that get requested in the Review Request Club which don't need constructive criticism so much that I really don't understand why they get requested in the first place. I'm going to be totally honest with you, this is one of them. Still, I suppose that I still have to review it with a proper review, since that's what you asked for.

The melodic part of this submission isn't too bad. While the vocals have no melody to them at all and sound like, of course, dying pig sounds, the melodies played by the guitar are decent. The vocals themselves were disturbing, but that was clearly the intention of them so I won't complain about that.

Completely random strings at 1:48 though, but they did sound convincing. What sample did you use? Just a little heads up though, judging from the quality of the other sounds in this track, I doubt you used your own sample, so if you cut the strings out of some classical song or something then it's probably copyrighted and you could get banned from submitting audio to the NG for using them.

Anyway, copyright junk aside, I'll continue the review. The guitars themselves were obviously FL Slayer, so the quality was a bit of a let down over there. Another clear let down is as SlaveLabor pointed out - the song is drowned in clipping and a ridiculous amount of bass, giving it a bad quality, rough sound. Some simple EQing should fix that, if by some miracle you want to fix it.

One good thing about the song is that it doesn't get repetitive. The lyrics, while repeating roughly the same thing over and over again most of the time, did have some new, unexpected sections here and there which kept the song interesting, such as the err... 'I' part at 1:08, the 'kill' parts at 0:54 and 1:25, and there were various parts where you mix up the words to come up with another random phrase. There were two guitar solos, and not to mention the random strings at 1:48, so if I had to judge this according to its variety, then I won't have much to criticise.

Anyway, that's about it. You clearly did a good job in making the song sound disturbing, and since you said you didn't create this to be enjoyed, then you certainly did an excellent job in that too, but if I had to rate it as a song, then I can't really give it any more than a 4 out of 10. Sorry for being harsh.
4/10
2/5

-Review Request Club-

cheesemonkeybill responds:

sometimes, there are certain reviews that get posted on my music that make me go lawl. i'm going to be completely honest, this is one of them. still, i suppose i will respond to your review.

the strings that i used in this song weren't a sample at all. everything in this song was made with fl synthesizers, yo. i doubt you would be able to tell the difference tho. nonetheless, i got fl project files that prove i didnt cut jack copyrighted shit - i'm too legit to quit.

anyway, offensive accusations aside, i'll continue my response. the clipping you hear in this song is from the fact that i put distortion on almost everything. bass synth, drums, guitar, vocals. there isn't really much to fix in the eq department - trust me. it is my artistic right to put a ridiculous amount of bass and distortion in my masterpiece.

anyway, thats about it. you clearly did a good job in making your review tactful. but if i had to respond to this as a review, than i would have to say your kind of a dick, what with the fucked up copyright accusations. fuck you. but you did do an excellent job in being critical and lengthy in your review, and i did call on you guys for your criticism, so thanks. sorry for being harsh.
8=D
F/U

-Cheese Monkey Bill-

[[dB] The Abyss]

YES.

Now this is good music. I'm not saying it's the best I've heard, but seriously, your rate of improvement in music is one of the quickest I've seen on NG, and this song is just proof of it. I liked this track quite a bit, and while it has its problems, this is definitely one of the better tracks I've heard in a while. Great job on it man!

I'll split my review into a pros and cons section...

-PROS-

- The main melody is very catchy and well-made. I find myself humming it in my head quite a lot of the time, and it fits so well with the 'abyss' feel you were going for.

- The background fits very nicely with the stuff playing in the foreground. I especially liked those plucks you introduced for the first time at 0:36-ish (the ones which you ended the song with). Again, this also did the song's title justice.

- The transitions on the whole were beautifully done. While the transition at 1:50 has room for improvement, I loved the transition at 0:51 and the way the intro bass synth came in at 2:12 was so cool.

- The structure is probably one of the main things that impressed me in this track. Every new section was interesting, and the amazing transitions from one section to another section helped too. Every melody fit perfectly in its place, good job!

- Variety was just right. I have to admit that this is a fantastic improvement from your other tracks, which aren't as varied as I'd like them to be, at times, but this one has perfect variety. Not too much, not too little.

- Piano solo was awesome.

- The synths and sounds you used were almost all perfect (I'll mention which one wasn't in the cons section :P). I especially liked the bass synth you used at the very beginning, and the background plucks too. The piano fit better than I thought it would too. All of that combined with some well-placed and well-made sound effects and sweeps makes this a song to remember.

- Intro was pristine, nothing at all wrong with it, except maybe the sweep sounding a bit generic, but heck, not much of a problem there.

- Same with the ending, it was excellent and I must admit that I would not have thought of a better ending myself :D. Just one thing though, I would've preferred it if you faded the plucks out a little more. They sort of end out of nowhere at 2:49 if you get what I mean. I would've preferred it if they kept on fading out till they run out of volume, so to speak. Might be me and my nitpickiness (Google Chrome says it's not a word but I don't care) though.

-CONS-

- I think this song lacks in the low end. It sounds too empty, and while I know that an abyss is supposed to be empty, I don't think it works too well over here. Easy solution: add a bass pad. Don't make it dominate the whole background, but give it some space to fill in the background, it'll definitely help give the song a deeper feel. Maybe you can consider some male choirs instead...

- That one synth at 0:14 annoys me. It sounds alright at 1:21 and at 1:54, but playing alongside the main melody it sounds a bit weird. Maybe you can add some synth bell sound, or a square lead instead. You can keep the synth for 1:12 and 1:54, but I would suggest using a different synth when playing the main melody.

- Drums aren't particularly good, I'm afraid. The hat line was too simple (the rhythm was good but you only used one hat which was a high hat and cut through the song too much if you get what I mean) and the kick is too weak, not to mention the clap sounding a little plain. Don't like the percussion in this one, sorry :(. Reverbed kicks were well placed though, and the beats were good. I just didn't like the sounds themselves.

-OVERALL-

Three cons against nine pros, I suppose (rhyme unintended). Shows that I think your song is awesome, and it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out :D. Seriously, this track is catchy, gives out a nice abyss feel and is deserving of the 10 score I gave it. Keep up the great work, I definitely hope to hear some more amazing tracks like this one!
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.
Fav'd as an author.
Shutting Up Now...

-Review Request Club-

Decibel responds:

Woah, I am pleased to tell you that i read everything O.o
Naic Review, I have better thangs comin up so watch out =]

>DJ<