Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Not To Be (Jeffaro)]

Superb!

I'm going to admit it, I don't like Heavy Metal, and I know very little about it. I'll have to be thankful that this song is a bit less rough than the usual Heavy Metal song :3. Anyway, sorry if my review ends up a bit short, as I said, I know very little about Heavy Metal :/.

The riffs were very catchy. Loved the one at the beginning, and the one at 1:32 was catchy too. Overall I enjoyed hearing your riffs, and your time signature of 3/8 (or is that 3/4? Sorry, I'm inexperienced at music theory) was also awesome, and your almost seamless switching to 4/4 was impressive too. I enjoyed the slow part at the end, since I thought it would end at 2:05, but there was even more to it. As for the vocals, they were sung well, I suppose, but they were a bit weak. Either you turn their volume up, turn the guitar/drums down or just sing with a bit more power.

The guitar was superb quality, but I suppose that's what you get for recording real guitars :3. Wish I knew how to play an electric guitar properly, or had a non-retarded mike for starters, but oh well, I have to stick to unrealistic guitar VST's for now.

The transitions are very good. At first I thought that the transition from one time signature to another at the beginning was a bit weird, but now I think it sounds fine. I especially like the transition to the slow part at 2:06-ish. Yeah, transitions are awesome :D.

The structure is good. Repeating the intro riff at 1:56 was a nice touch, and ending it with the slow section was good too. Maybe the lyrics could have come in 2 bars later than they did, but that could be just me. What I think could've been a bit more structured would be the lyrics. They only played in an unexpectedly short section of the song. Maybe you could add a chorus for the vocals, and think up a few more verses, repeating the chorus every now and again. I think you should try and make the vocals take up a bit more of the song. The variety, on the other hand, was good. Maybe the riff at 1:32 could have had a few more subtle changes since it did get a slight bit repetitive, but, again, that's probably just my bias.

The intro was a nice way to start the song. The drums started, and soon you introduced the guitar, which provided a powerful intro. The ending was also brilliant, but I think you could've added an epic crash cymbal playing just when the last note plays to give it a bit more importance.

The drums were very well varied, and fit with the song really well. Perhaps they could've been a bit louder? I don't know, they seemed a bit too overpowered by the guitar and I think that making them louder will make the song sound a lot more powerful and epic.

All in all, I definitely enjoyed this submission. I usually hate Heavy Metal, but I still liked this submission. I can't give any less than a 10/10, because all of the defects I tried to point out in this song were just small nitpicks. Keep it up.
10/10
5/5
Sorry, no download... as I said, I don't enjoy Heavy Metal enough to download it, even if it's this good :P.

-Review Request Club-

Jeffaro responds:

Holy shit! This is by far the most detailed review that I've ever see!

Yeah.. That opening chugging riff in that weird time signiture is something that I cannot recreate. It just happened and it sounded cool. The trick to the transition to 4/4 was to have the drums put more emphasis on that timing. As for the vocals, yeah I can't sing for shit.

Well, as far as structure goes I take my time with songs in order to have the most solid sounding piece possible. I hate loosely thrown together songs.

Onto drums. I keep them at a low volume because they should too fake and crappy when they are cranked. No matter how good you mix them they will make the whole song sound bad if they are cranked. I am glad that I had enough variation though. That was my main concern with this song.

Thanks for the detailed review dude!

[Once Was Never Enough For You]

Unique.

I've never really heard anything like this, it sounds very unique. While the silence at the end is obviously unnecessary, and this does have a few other defects, it's still a really cool song, and I'm impressed. As I said, it sounds really unique; so unique that I don't think I'll do my usual review structure of Melodies/Sounds - Transitions/Structure - Percussion - Conclusion, and instead split the review into two sections; what's good about the song and what's bad about it.

-PROS-

This song sounds very original and unique. I've never heard anything similar to it, and the different sounds that you used were very weird yet strangely sound awesome. The sound at the beginning was really rough but interesting to listen to.

The vocals were also sung very well. I don't know about the lyrics since the fact that I'm deaf from one ear makes me incapable of hearing stuff properly, and I can't understand the vocals, but from what I heard, they were song extremely well.

The track that's accompanying the vocals sounds cool, and even though at times it gets pretty rough, it still fits very well with the vocals.

There's a cool synth playing some higher notes with cool melodies.

The intro was interesting, to say the very least, and started the song up well. The ending was good too.

The melody on the vocals was absolutely awesome. Not only that, but there were some very cool effects on the vocals here and there in the song which I very much enjoyed :D.

The emotion of anger is clearly present in the song. The sounds you used definitely evoke a theme of anger and revenge, and the vocals were sung with emotion. The atmosphere is also good.

-CONS-

The silence at the end is obviously unnecessary. It's very annoying and if someone downloads this song and puts it in a playlist, when the song ends, s/he has to wait a whole minute for the next song to start or manually switch to the next song, which is a bit inconvenient. It isn't that hard to remove silence, you know :P.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ziqzytznjd4

The song is quite quiet. I think amplifying this at least 4 decibels would be better.

The song's level always remains the same. If you take a glance at the waveform of this song, it stays roughly the same amplitude, indicating that there are no climaxes, breakdowns, etc... I definitely thing that adding a bit more to the structure with interesting new sections will not only increase the diversity of the track and make it less repetitive, but even give you more opportunities to portray more effective emotions and more interesting changes.

The percussion was very simple. Basically only a bass drum every 2 beats. I'm thinking that this song could really do with some epic drums from a drum kit playing really slow beats with a good amount of reverb on them. It would definitely evoke more anger to the listener.

The vocals, as Fro pointed out, were weak. Like I said, they were hard to understand, at least for me. The supposedly background sounds covered it up, making the vocals more in the background than the other sounds.

I said somewhere above that the ending was good, although it still isn't perfect, in my opinion. The final note with the vocals was very cool, but from then on I think that you should have faded everything out slowly and gradually, instead of kept it going at the same level and ending suddenly...

Perhaps you could've added a few more bass tones, IMO.

-OVERALL-

This is a very good track, and I enjoyed it. Maybe I gave you a bit of a lower score than the other reviewers, and as you can see there are more disadvantages than there are advantages, but heck, that doesn't mean that this is a bad song. All in all, I enjoyed it, and it has HEAPS of potential, but I think there are still a few more things to fix before I can enjoy this to its fullest, personally. However, keep up the awesome work, and if you ever build on this or make it better, then send me a PM, I'd love to hear a newer version.
7/10
5/5 - because this song is badly 0-bombed and definitely deserves a higher score than it has now.

-Review Request Club-

[==(Absentminded)==]

Haha, wow!

I've finally gotten around to reviewing this, and wow, I love it. This really sounds nothing like MindMiner, which shows that you have a lot of diversity when it comes to making music. I think I prefer this song a *slight* bit more than MindMiner, but that's just my biased opinion. This song is really cool, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.

The melodies are absolutely superb. Well, actually, I don't have much to say about the melodies since this is more of an atmospheric track, but from the little I can say about the melodies, I must say, that bassline will never get out of my head. Its notes have a really awesome rhythm to them, and I really enjoyed listening to the bass throughout the whole song. One thing I might have asked more would be a bit more variety in the bass guitar's melodies. It felt a slight bit repetitive at times. 1:10 was a nice alternate bassline, maybe you could've kept that part going a bit longer, or add a few more parts like it. Still, other than that, the bassline was awesome.

I also really like the clumsy-like feel which the high synths evoke, they obviously with the name perfectly. The really long breaks at first sound very weird, but when the song continues, you think 'wow, that break was awesome' even though there was so much silence. The only thing which I think would really fit in this song would be a bass slide at the end of one the breaks, such as at 1:29 or 2:15. I really think it'll fit perfectly in the song. Or maybe I'm just trying too hard to find something to nitpick...

The instruments were by far the most awesome I've heard in a long while. I loved the sound of the bass guitar (it sounds real O.o) and the synths you used were really cool. The pad in the background was also awesome, and so were the vocal samples. Just like in your song MindMiner, you had a very unique choice of instruments surprisingly fit very well with each other. All of the reverb and delay you put on the instruments gave the track its own depth, and I'm sure that even without the pad the song would sound rich and full of depth. Nice job with the choice of instruments!

I absolutely loved all of the transitions you did. They were excellent, smooth, and very well executed. Maybe 0:24 became silent a bit too abruptly, but that's probably just me. The breaks provided really interesting transitions too. I'm pretty sure my favourite transition would be the one from 2:11-2:16. So yeah, transitions were sublime. I also liked how you introduced the high-pitched synths at 0:27.

I really can't determine a structure from this song. The bass guitar played similar basslines throughout the song, but the foreground was very trippy and extremely varied, yet the song strangely didn't sound random at all. Variety was also superb - while I think the bassline should be varied a slight bit more, the song never actually got repetitive, so nice work there. Intro and outro were both amazing, as well.

When it comes to the percussion, I'm in two minds about the clap. I know that song's foreground is supposed to have so much reverb, but I think the clap has a bit too much, which got a bit annoying after some time. Again, this is a really minor nitpick and I'm probably just being too fussy. Other than the clap, the percussion was perfect. It fit flawlessly with the song, and had a very catchy beat. Did you use a tambourine or a high hat in the drum beat? I can't really hear it properly because of my deaf ear and all xD. Kick sounded great, and so did the open hat.

Overall, I actually had goosebumps while listening to it. I definitely think this is one of my favourite tracks on Newgrounds, and other than tiny nitpicks like too much reverb decay on the clap, an abrupt transition to silence at 0:23, slightly repetitive bassline and lack of bass slide (xD) I think this song is perfect.
Also, to answer to your reply in my other review, I add the Review Request Club sig at the end of every review, but you're free to request this so I get free points, haha.
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.
Fav'd as an artist.

-Review Request Club-

[Xyirx - Dragon's War]

Epic.

Yeah, I'm going to use the same review summary as DraknaarKau. This is a very epic and fast-paced song, and I enjoyed it all the way through. It's very high quality, and powerful, and it shows you worked hard on it. Awesome job on this man, I can't believe I missed out on so much by not reviewing your older requests these last few weeks.

The melodies are very heroic, and I really enjoyed them. The staccato strings' melodies were especially heroic, but at the same time they sound very war-like. Loved the notes you played on the high strings too. Also, the emotional piano melody at 0:52 was awesome and the glissando at the end of it was a nice touch, but I couldn't help but think that it could have been softer with a more powerful crescendo onto the next part. I think you should take advantage of the softer parts of a song to make the section which follows it sound much more epic and powerful. Although I have an obsession towards epic and powerful so I should shut up now :3.

The instruments were very high quality. Which VST did you use? I especially liked the choirs you used throughout the song, heard mostly in the piano part. They added to the epic feel of the song and were a very nice touch. Maybe that's just because I love adding choirs to my song, though :D. That flute (I don't know if it is or I'm just imagining it - I'm deaf from one ear so I can't hear the instruments properly) sounded really cool and added to the 'medieval' sound that this song has. Finally, I also liked the tremolo strings you used in the background. They definitely added to the tension.

The one thing that truly ruined this piece for me (and made me give you a 9) would be the mix. The sounds sort of blur together with each other at times, and I'm not really hearing the clear sound that I want to hear at times. This could either be because of too much use of reverb, bad volume levels, lack of proper EQing or lack of mastering, but I think that a lot of the time the song really sounds blurry and hard to keep track of. Could just be me though, I don't know...

The transitions on the whole were superb. The only transition which I didn't really like would be the one at 0:52. I like the fact that you added those wind-chimes to move to the piano part, but I definitely think that the transition itself is too abrupt since it switches from epic and powerful to slow and soft too suddenly, or maybe it's because the piano is introduced out of nowhere. The transition at 1:32 sounded a bit weird at first but I'm starting to like it now xD. TL;DR: transitions were good except the one at 0:52 in my opinion.

The structure is very good. I would've liked to hear more of a climax at the end of the song, and seen a few more softer parts in the song, even if for a few bars, but still, that might be a bit too much to ask for to try and fit in an only 2-minute long song. While on the subject, I think you could've made the song a bit longer, though :P. Ah well, as for the variety, I was really impressed. It's one of the reasons why I prefer orchestral submissions so much more than techno and trance; in orchestral you don't repeat the same thing over and over and techno/trance has been made so much, that it's become generic and overused. You did a great job varying the song :D.

The intro was very good, especially the prominent tremolo strings playing along with the staccatos. The ending was a bit overused as an ending for orchestral songs, but worked well here :P.

Finally, on to the percussion: I loved it. The occasional cymbal crashes were really mighty and awesome. Gong was a bit weak, though. Still, the snare fit really well in the song and added to the war-ish feel especially since it was so powerful. I would've welcomed more orchestral percussion like bass drums and timpanis, but the percussion you have now is amazing.

Overall, this is one hell of a good piece. I enjoyed listening to it, it was really epic and I hope you keep up the amazing work. I think you should focus on improving the blurry mix and that one transition at 0:52.
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Xyirx responds:

Oh......I just don't really know how to describe my feeling to see a wall of review text in front of me. Seriously, this is like the longest review I've ever had.

For the VST, I use Edirol Orchestral which I'm quite fond with and have been using since I started composing Draconity album. It works quite well, though not as good as East West or Ambience, etc.

About the mix. Yes, I can't do the mastering stuffs well, since I don't really know what to do with it. And using Maximus alone sometimes creates terrible trebles. I just did my best to make each instrument clear and tried to make overall impression of the song strong.

Thank you very much for all the detailed comments. I read all of those, really. And sorry for not being able to respond that long. I don't really know what to type 'cause I'm in awe, reading your review. lol

Xyirx

[Forget it Fucking all remix]

Interesting.

...How you managed to grab an emotional piano piece and turn it into a fast-paced DnB song while still making it sound good is beyond me, so awesome job there. While I personally prefer the original version, that's probably just because I would usually enjoy a piano piece more than a DnB song, not because your song is bad. You've definitely improved since the last song of yours which I've reviewed. Nice job, keep it up :).

I can't really say much about the melodies since you didn't make them yourself, but I like that you did something original with the melodies as I said above, since you managed to turn a piano piece into some rather well done drum'n'bass. Good work.

For the instruments, on the contrary, I can say quite a bit... The instrument choice was unique, and I like that. You had a variety of different sounds, and the bass that you used was awesome (especially at 1:13-ish). Hell, I even heard bells in the song. Now, the 2 instruments which I don't think fit really well in this would be the piano and the guitar:

Piano - Among all of those instruments, the piano stood out way too much. In the intro the piano sounded a bit bland and could've been replaced with some sort of plucked synth, and throughout the song the piano did sound a little weird among all the other instruments. Not only that, but you're remixing a piano piece, so I think it'd be more awesome if you add your own touch to the piano melodies by using a different instrument for them.

Guitar - Haha the first thing I thought when I heard it at 1:13 was 'FL SLAYER' lol xD. I don't know if it really is FL Slayer, but it does sound a lot like it. As RealityVictim pointed out, the guitar is quite low-quality it sounds a bit bad in the song. I think that the guitar pretty much ruined the part at 1:13, and in my opinion you could've used a different instrument/synth...

The transitions are awesome. While they're not the smoothest, some sound so epic and great that I didn't really mind hearing some abruptness in the transitions. 0:44 was pretty rough, for example, but then a cool drum roll and effect came in a few seconds after which sounded awesome. Actually, the only transition which truly didn't sit well with me would be the one at 1:12-ish. I think there are a few milliseconds of silence which cut the song a bit abruptly (lol, ultimate nitpicking xP) and the transition is pretty abrupt. Still, all in all the transitions were awesome :D.

The structure keeps to a similar structure as the original, but has a few nice additions. When I remix, I personally completely change the structure of the original song to my own liking, so maybe I'm being a bit biased when I say that I would've liked to see a few more changes in the structure. Variety, however, was brilliant. The intro was perfect as well, but I don't think that ending is too good. Firstly, there was too much silence, which sounds quite odd, and secondly, it ends really suddenly. I expected some sort of ending note or something; heck, I'd even welcome a fade-out, but I think that the ending right now is very weird and abrupt.

The drums were out of this world. I really liked all of the beats you used, and while some where typical DnB beats, they still fit very nicely in the song. The use of a crash cymbal in some new sections of the song could help the transitions a bit more, but other than that, the drums were awesome. Also, did you slice the Amen Break for the drum samples? I really don't know how the Amen Break really sounds, but from experience after reviewing a number of tracks which use the Amen Break, I think the drums sound a lot like the Amen Break :3. Oh well, whatever...

In conclusion, this is a really awesome remix. I personally love remixes where they get a song from one genre and make a totally different genre out of it, since they sound so unique and original. Sure, your remix still needs some work here and there, mostly regarding the instruments, piano/guitar in particular, but overall, I really enjoyed this submission and I hope you keep on improving :3.
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

eatmeatleet responds:

Respond

[The Story WIP]

Decent for a work in progress

This actually sounds quite unique and pretty enjoyable to listen to. This does sound a bit boring at times, but maybe that's because it's a WiP. Good job on it in general.

The melodies are cool. They have a sort of laid-back "lazy" feel to them, and some parts are pretty catchy. I liked the part at 0:30-ish with that cool effect in the background and the pad, played on top of that beat. The guitar's melodies were pretty good too.

Actually, the main 2 things which I don't really like in this would be that it sounds random and that the song doesn't really 'get anywhere' if you know what I mean. I'll start with the random thing: random effects came in all the time, random changes in the percussion (such as the crash coming out from nowhere at 0:25), guitar notes all over the place, etc... Not only that, but even at the end when you suddenly end the piece halfway through a bar and start it again, it makes the listener think 'Eh? What was that?'. I think if you work more on this, if I were you I'd definitely consider making it a bit less... random.

Another thing would be that the song really doesn't get anywhere. While I liked the part at 0:30 since it sounded trippy and catchy, I still think that this gets boring to listen to. There aren't really any climax or breaks, and the song stays on the same level throughout. I think it would definitely be more interesting if you added a variety of different sections to the song.

The instruments are good. Basically the melodic instruments I could make out would be a background pad and a guitar. They're not the best of quality, but give the song a cool vibe. So yeah, not such a bad job on the instruments. The sound effects you used actually make this sound very interesting and unique. You used a few effects, some at random times, but overall they made this more enjoyable to listen to.

Some of the transitions were a bit random, but I liked the transition into the part at 0:30 even though I feel that the random crash didn't help much. All in all the transitions were good. The structure, on the other hand, was weird. Like I said above, the song never really went anywhere but stayed on the same level. Maybe that's just because you're still working on it, though. Variety was good in this, though.

The intro was a bit uninteresting, but I suppose it works. As for the ending, this is a WiP so I won't expect something great from the ending, although it seems to end a little after the second beat of the bar, which is strange.

The drums were cool, but very repetitive. I liked the beat which came in at 0:27-ish, and the drum samples were good, but they were very repetitive, which clashed with the varied foreground, making this sound pretty strange. Also, is it me, or do the drums get lower in volume towards the end?

Anyway, in all, this is a pretty decent work in progress. It sounds a bit random, has a strange structure, is a bit boring to listen to and the drums were repetitive, but it has potential. Good luck continuing it.
8/10
5/5 because this song got 0-bombed.

-Review Request Club-

DXsamurai responds:

thanks for the review, i will have to work out the structure and give a break down or something but for now i'll let it slide. As for the end i had to go back and something and it make the drums quiet...er.

[Over the Limit 2 {Dj-Abbic}]

Hehe...

Don't think I was going to leave you un-reviewed (if that's even a word) after you gave me such an epic review on Racing Through Eternity :D. So yeah, onto the review...
This is a pretty cool song. For only making music for 5 months, I must admit that this is one hell of an impressive song. After five months I personally was STILL crap at making music xD. As Stargenx said, it's quite generic and I almost predicted what was going to happen next, but I still enjoyed it, so good job!

The melodies were quite good. I liked the chord progression you used, it wasn't that generic, and as you said it's a cool melody. I think you had some space for some more melodies though; I don't know, maybe it's because of my obsession for variety, but I think that this could definitely do with a few more melodies, maybe a change in chord progression as well. By 1:09 I was getting quite tired of the melody, and even when you layer a second melody on top of it it still gets quite boring after a while. Some occasional melodic subtle changes could really work well over here too. Also, your melodies seem to stick to the same rhythm for each note, i.e. they're all quavers. I think this could do with a few more rhythmic changes too.

The instruments you used are pretty generic. They don't sound too bad, but a bigger variety of instruments other than just saw waves would be pretty cool. Still, not such a bad choice of instruments. What might work well would be a pad or maybe another background synth to help the melody a bit more, but even though you had no pads and not many background synths, your song never sounded too bland or empty, so nice job over there. The filtering you did on the saw synths was very good, since it introduced new melodies well. The filtering of the synth at the beginning was also interesting, to say the least.

All the other effects were very nice too, like the reverse cymbal/sweep thing you used throughout the song. So, as a recap; decent synths, great effects but could do with more unique synths or background synths. Although I totally agree with you about vocals, I hate them too and I don't think they'll work out in this song xP.

The transitions were impressive. Instead of suddenly introducing new melodies, you always automate a filter effect on them to fade them in, which really helped the transitions. Not only that, but there are loads of cool transitions throughout the song which are well-executed like the one at 0:42 when you introduce the kick. Nice job with the transitions!

The structure is quite unique. Throughout the song, you have basically 2 melodies. You play the first one, then you play them both at the same time, then the second one, then back to the first again and you end the song. Still, while it is a unique structure, it's quite repetitive, as I said above, so I think that other than making this song less generic, you should try and work a bit more on the variety :).

The intro and outro were both OK, although they have potential to be better. I can't help but think that the intro could have more synths playing at the same time, since that saw synth sounds a bit awkward on its own. Ending was alright, but sounds a bit 'unfinished'. If you ever think about expanding on this, then I think that you should continue where you left off by keeping the song silent for a bar, then reaching an epic climax.

Not much to say about the drums. They were quite generic, although they weren't badly varied, so nice job there. Also, yeah, the kick does sound very awesome :3. Wish I was that good at making kicks, lol xP.

Overall, this is a good submission. The two main defects in my opinion would be the fact that it's repetitive and that it's generic, but the FX, the kick, the melodies, and the transitions are pretty much great. Keep up the good work, and sorry if this review is a bit harsh. I figured you'd prefer an honest but harsh review rather than a dishonest but 10/10 review. Thanks again for reviewing my song Racing Through Eternity, maybe we should exchange reviews again sometime :).
8/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

DjAbbic responds:

Yeah :D. Unlike you, my replies cannot be a huge blob of text :(. Oh well, I'll try.

I totally prefer an honest and harsh review over a dishonest review. It always helps to learn new things and what people like/ don't like.

This song was made agess ago, and I'm pretty sure I have improved a lot since this. Also, one thing I'm not too good at, melodies. That's why I started making electro a bit more than this because in electro, the need for a melody is just not there :P.

I guess this submission was an 'early' one and I wasn't very experienced. Every time you look back a few months your music always sounds so simple and generic :|. Well, as long as you had fun making it.

That was my attempt at a long reply :S. If you ever want another review, you could PM me or leave a review somewhere and I'll get back to you asap ^^.

Also, thanks for the review :D. I guess you clicked on 'Most Popular 2010' and came up with this :S. I really hate it when your most popular song is not so good, and people think your a noob >.>

Well, thanks again. :)

[Good Morning {durn}]

Some parts are good, some not as much...

I'll start by saying that I really enjoyed this. It has a nice amount of changes to it, sounds very unique, and heck, some parts even sound professional. Production-wise, this song is also very good, and overall it has a very relaxing feel and a clear joyous sound to it. Some parts can get a bit boring or weird, but still, as a whole, this is a good submission.

The melodies are very nice and I don't really have much to complain about in this song, composition-wise. I really liked the change you did in the song at 1:57. It was getting a bit repetitive, so this little guitar section really broke the monotony well. I also liked the melody that played towards the end of the song by the guitar. It was definitely a euphoric melody. Actually, this whole song has a certain sense of happiness to it, and I can definitely imagine this being perfect to start a day with :).

The one thing which I didn't quite like was that sound that started to fade in at 0:27 and got to its loudest at 1:05. The exactly moment that I heard this sound I was a bit shocked, really. The whole song had a nice vibe to it, and this sound just ruins it all and sounds cheesy and strange. I'd definitely consider changing it to some sort of woodwind instrument or high violin.

As for the instrument choice, I was really, really impressed. I mean, wow, there's a guitar, there are some nice plucked synths, of course there's that cheesy sound at 1:05 and there's, what, a saw synth at 2:40? Wow. And you made it fit so well too! I must say that the instrument choice here is fantastic. The sounds fit so well together (except that sound at 1:05 which sounded out of place) and I can't believe you managed to make sounds which usually don't have anything to do with each other sound so awesome together. Good job on that ^^.

The transitions on the whole were great. Instead of suddenly introducing new melodies, you fade them in, providing a smooth transition, and I noticed a few cool breaks throughout the song like at 1:01 which helped to create a smooth transition. Probably this song's flow is the most smooth I've heard on NG in ages. The song just seamlessly transitioned from one section to the next, which I think is important in a song like this. Buildups were also good; no problem there...

The structure in this is actually quite unique. You have a set background with some nice bassey pad-like sounds and of course the House beat, but in the foreground you add a variety of different melodies, and each one comes in with a long fade-in and exits smoothly. I suppose a unique structure for a unique song would be necessary, though :D. Variety was good, and although the song was getting a bit repetitive after the one minute marker, I still think that the variety of different instruments and sections, coupled with the unique touch that you added made this quite an interesting and varied song.

The intro was PERFECT to someone who's just waking up. I definitely can't think of a better way to start the song. The song looped well too, and at times I didn't notice that it looped, although I think you could've done a quick fade out of the drum beat at the end to provide a smoother transition to the beginning.

The drums at times needed to be varied, but I doubt that would be easy in a song like this, and even then, the drums sound fine as they are. Perhaps the most interesting part about the drums is that they're a House beat, and they fit perfectly with the relaxing mood you've evoked. The drum sounds were also awesome and the drums were just the right volume. Basically, flawless drums.

You really seem to know your way around your DAW and you're really talented at making music, or at least judging from this song. It was really relaxing and enjoyable. I would have given it a 10 but the sound at 1:05 totally ruined it for me, sorry :P. Still, you were close to getting a 10, so amazing job on the song. Sorry for the long review, I'm like that when I write my reviews :D.
Keep up the truly amazing work, I hope to hear more of your pieces in the future!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

durn responds:

Hehehe, yeah, you're not alone with the dislike of the synth I chose for the lead melody. I really should've filtered it better and found some better supporting fx to thicken it up but for some reason I liked the shrillness of it. Almost seemed like an alarm clock in a way, to me. :d

You freakin' reviewed the hell outta this song, dude! :D That is amazing!! I'm glad you enjoyed the transitions as it's something I spend a lot of time on, I love stitching together weird odds and ends that may not normally work. :d

:) I'm glad my years of Reason use are starting to show as more than "Oh, that guy uses Reason". lol. :D Thanks for -beyond- the best review I've ever gotten, Stephen! Thank you, kind sir! :)

[RD2010: Energy Glitch [Cut]]

So this is what I'm up against?...

...Well wow, I'll have a lot of work to do (haven't finished my submission yet). Haha, may the best man win xD.

Anyway, on to the review...
This song is really awesome. I absolutely love the glitchy-ness, the robot theme to it and of course the windows effect at 1:40, but you know how I am with windows sound effects xP. Keep up the awesome work this is definitely among your best work!

There aren't really many melodies over here, but still, the melodies you used were cool. They have a dark/sinister feel to them. Probably my favourite part would be 1:41, although the whole song sounds really awesome. However, as Rig said, this could really do with a chord change to vary the melodic section of this song a bit more. Maybe even an epic solo might work out well over here. Still, overall, the composition of the song was good, and I especially liked all of the melodies and stuff that were playing towards the end. They really created a mighty and powerful climax, and were quite catchy too.

The synths you used at times were a slight bit generic, but that hardly stopped them from sounding really cool. I think that my favourite synth would be the saw bass that's heard clearly at 1:41, although the synth at 2:08 was great too (I also liked the slight portamento you put on it, if I'm hearing correctly, lol). Probably one of the coolest things about this submission would be all of the sound effects you threw in for the intro. Rig really knows how to make cool robot effects :D. You also succeeded in adding this robot effects throughout the song without making them distract the listener or start to get boring. As I said above, I loved the Critical Error sound you did at 1:40, lol xD. So yeah, overall, awesome synths and awesome effects.

The transitions are definitely the best I've heard from all of your songs. None of the transitions sounded even slightly abrupt. I liked how you introduced the hat line at the beginning, and how you added so many tiny breaks around the song to provide cool transitions, such as at, of course, 1:40, at 1:52 and at 2:07. Yeah, I'm really impressed with your transitions :D. New synths were all introduced extremely well, and the buildups were spot on.

The structure is great, and so was the variety. The drums were so varied and there was such a nice variety of different sections in the song that I didn't even get slightly bored listening to this. Man, the more I listen to it, the more I think "It's going to be hard to win the Robot Day competition" lol xP.

The intro was excellent. I really like the delayed hit/sound effect you did to start the song up, and the small sweep you did before that. It really started the song well. The ending was superb as well. You ended it on a really epic ending note at 2:29 and faded out the notes a little which provided a nice effect to finish the song. Fantastic outro!

The drums as you said were very glitchy. They were also amazingly varied, and never got annoying or boring. Actually if you removed all of the synths, effects and stuff, leaving only the drums, then I'm convinced that it would still not get boring to listen to xD. No kidding man, the drums over here are out of this world. The snare sounded great, the hat was cool and the kick was nice and bassey (your sister was wrong in my opinion, to me it was used just the right amount, lol xP).

In conclusion, this is one of the best Robot Day submissions I've heard so far. The drums are glitchy and awesome, the intro and outro were superb, the song is really well structured, the variety is perfect, the transitions are extraordinary, the synths you used were great, the robot effects were implemented flawlessly, and the melodies were good and catchy. I only mentioned a few nitpicks which might improve this song, but they're not enough to stop me from giving you a 10/10. Keep up the amazing work.

To be honest, I was hoping that you or mr-jazzman won't post anything for the competition, but turns out you both did, and now I have to work my ass off to make something worthy enough. Good job!
10/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

[Isolate ft. Montehawks]

Quite a lengthy song...

While I don't think this is your best, it's still a really nice song. Just like most of your others, it's quite long, so you know what I do when I'm reviewing a long song. Break it up into sections :D.

0:00 - Damn, haha, I just had to have my volume up quite high because I was reviewing a slightly quiet song before this one. The powerful hit at the beginning *almost* gave me a fright, but luckily it's pretty hard to give me a fright :3.

I personally prefer intros which start with a really quick sweep (maybe a bar long) which gets from soft to loud, or maybe a reverse cymbal, instead of starting it instantly with a powerful hit. Definitely gives the listener a little time to prepare for a loud hit.

That being said, the intro was quite powerful and the plucked synth set the mood immediately. I didn't like the clapping and applause since it sounded a bit cheesy but that's probably just me and my hatred for anything generic. Good job on the intro!

0:47 - The song becomes quiet now, and there's an awesome buildup. Loved the transition at 1:01 and the addition of that beat was a really nice touch.

1:21 - Also a nice transition, although from here I'm starting to get a bit bored. The song doesn't really go anywhere for quite a while and nothing other than the fantastically executed transitions were that interesting.

1:56 - A bit of an anti climatic transition, to be honest, and over here the melody is getting a bit repetitive. Still, not too bad.

2:23 - OK that was very cool. After hearing this I was finally convinced that this song has some of the coolest transitions that I've heard on NG in a long while. The climax that followed soon after was awesome and as usual the harmonizing was spot on.

2:52 to 3:20 - I don't know about this part. It seems a little unnecessary to me. Not only because this is quite a long song and could do with being shorter and more condensed, but also because it's not really interesting and sounds a bit boring, to be honest.

3:20 - Wow, amazing. The percussive hit you did was a great way of introducing the piano. Best part is that the piano wasn't used before in the whole song so it really grabs the listener's attention when it comes in. Choir in the background was really nice too.

When some accompaniment and chords come in at 3:47, I was even more impressed. While I think the beat could've been a bit different since the exact same beat was used earlier in the song, I was still extremely impressed.

From then on the piano part was nicely structured and varied well. I think this part would be my favourite from the whole song, but then again I love piano anyway xD.

5:11 - A very nice way to go back to the familiar main melody that plays throughout the song. We can clearly see (hear) that from here the song is getting ready to finish, and while I said that I don't like the applause in the beginning since it sounded cheesy, I actually think the applause over here fits really well xP.

5:53 - Ah, the piano comes in again with another good transition. Nice job here.

6:06 - The song ends. As for the ending, it was great. The only thing that might have been better is if you give a bit more importance to the final note. Maybe give it a percussive hit or something, since right now I think that the final note doesn't really give as much of a satisfying ending as I would have liked.

SUMMARY:
I'll have to admit that for your first collaboration, I'm very impressed. I've never done a collaboration with anyone before except people I know in real life so I don't really know how the experience is, though.

Heck, even if it wasn't your first collaboration this is still a really awesome song, especially transition-wise and piano-wise :D. Probably the main problems with this song are the fact that it's repetitive and sometimes uninteresting. Keep up the awesome work!

Heh, feels weird requesting a review when I'm in the Review Request Club, but if you could review my song 'Racing Through Eternity' then that would really be awesome.
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste n/322854

9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

DJ-Chilvan responds:

Thanks so much for the review! I read and followed every single word, and will take all of it into consideration. Just right off the bat, I collaborated with a real-life friend. Montehawks (Monte) is a very good friend of mine. We made this at his house. So yea, this is my first collab, and it's with someone I personally knowXD.
I really liked the transitions too. Many of them were from Monte but I spiced up a few and told him where to put them. In a nutshell, Monte made around 40% of the patterns while I made 60% of them. I made the piano part and most of its harmonic counterparts as well (that was so I could show my influence in this collab). I focused on harmonies, structure, bass lines, and mixing. Monte focused on transitions, effects (especially filters), several parts of the structure, and some instrument choice. I also had my instrument of choice in here (the simple saw from Nexus). The cutoff was just lowered, so its more comparable to "Golden Paradise" rather than "Our Nova."
I'm glad you liked my song! I would love to see a review for Golden Paradise if it wouldn't take much of your time.=)
Thanks!