Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[First Musings]

Lol, I think of a forest too :P

You're definitely getting better at this, and I'm expecting a classical masterpiece from you by the rate your classical songs are going. Good work.

The melodies had some great mixtures of major and minor, as mentioned in the below reviews. I liked the fast paced part at around 1:15, you really should've continued the song like that, and then moved onto the slower notes. It'd help in fixing the length of this song, since right now the song is pretty short. The best melodies in my opinion were the clarinet's melodies, but obviously it was the main instrument so I can't expect any less. I liked the bassoon in the background, even though you could've made it less simple as you mentioned in the Author's Comments.

The instruments in general had really good quality, especially that clarinet. I liked that you had strings over here, but I think you should add more of the strings, and maybe get a better sample, since the one over here needs a bit more fullness to it in my opinion. If you want really good strings for free, I'd suggest Squidfont which is a soundfont. You can never go wrong with it. It also has some nice brass and woodwind too.

The transitions are excellent, and the instruments were introduced really well, especially the clarinet. Strings were slightly too suddenly introduced. I'd suggest doing tremolo strings in the background going from soft to loud starting at around 0:34 or so, while all the other melodies are playing, and then it's at its loudest right before the strings start. When the strings start, the tremolo strings fade away. I tried it once on one of my songs and it came out really well.

As regarding the structure, this has a great structure, and the variety is amazing too. Loved the intro, it felt really good with the bassoon, but the ending wasn't that good, since it was a fade ending. You should continue with a lot of instruments playing together, like the bassoon, strings, clarinet, and maybe een pizzicato strings, flutes and pianos. I can see a lot of potential in this if you continue it into a full song.

As you said in one of the reviews below, you should add some orchestral percussion instruments. There's a great plugin called Stormdrum 2 which has amazing orchestral percussion, but it costs, and if you'd like some free ones, you can send me a PM, I have a few OK samples...

Anyway, all in all, you have quite a talent when it comes to classical, and if you just put your mind to it and make a long orchestral song, believe me when I say it's going to be epic. Good job on this, and keep up the good work!
8/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-

loansindi responds:

Wow, thanks for the giant review. I'll try to give you a point-by-point response, since I know I like responses when I leave detailed reviews.

First I'll say that making a piece of any length is definitely a battle for me, it's hard to maintain focus on any given song long enough to really 'finish' it. I'm working on it though, I really do like the clarinet in this song.

Garritan PO has some pretty decent strings and woodwinds. Right now there's just the violin, but as time goes on I'll definitely work on adding more accompaniment. It's also worth considering that I haven't done much to this song other than composition, so the sound will change before it's done for sure.

Regarding transitions... those are something I always fuss over. I never feel like I accomplish them as well as I could. Ending isn't really an ending because the piece isn't done.

Orchestration is something that I'm working up to. I tend to err on the side of sparseness, because too many instruments will rapidly start competing with each other in a bad way.

Percussion in orchestral pieces eludes me. I should probably start looking into it though.

Again, thanks for the giant review. I hope to keep producing things people can enjoy.

[Thank You - BK]

Starts promising...

...And maintains its pace throughout. Excellent job, it really sounds well, and shows you worked really hard on it.

Melodies are probably the best part of this song. The melody at the beginning was really cool, and the piano melodies were really cool. There were many alternate melodies, well, actually, there wasn't really a fixed chorus, but all the melodies sounded really cool. The variety of instruments was really good too. Like Coop said, there was some sort of instrument which sounded like a Chinese fiddle or something, which I'd never imagine hearing along with electronic instruments that were used in this song. Anyway, long story short; each instrument was amazing and all the melodies are catchy and awesome.

The transitions were really good, and the song flowed really well. New instruments were introduced really well, so good job on that, considering how many instruments there were over here, and the buildups were excellent as well. The song structure is what's concerning me a little over here. This song is just SO varied, that it sometimes starts to feel random, so a chorus over here would do wonders. Plus, this song is quite long, so shortening it would help quite a bit.

The intro was really cool, with a nice effect in the background and some of the best instruments in the whole song. It's just the ending which needs a little work, since I think the ending should have some more importance. It just ended with one note, so I expected the song to continue, but it didn't. I suggest doing a bit of silence after that last note, then do a gradual buildup after that and then all the instruments start playing together in a really action-packed climax of the song, and then you end it with all the instruments playing a proper ending note or something.

The drums were awesome, and were really varied, fit well with the song, were just the right loudness, and had some really good samples. I liked the snare you used, it sounded really cool. I just think that you should use more samples though, because for a long and varied song like this, you'd expect more drum samples then just 3 or 4. Maybe you could add some crash cymbals here and there, more snares, reverbed kicks, tamboruines, shakers, and maybe some other different types of kicks too.

It's a cool song, which I enjoyed from beginning to end. Felt a little random, and there weren't many drum samples, along with the fact that the ending could use some more work, but other than those, keep up the great work!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

Bracksta responds:

sorry about the random feeling it kinda had to happen that way because i made the song's basic structure then freestyled over the whole song with whatever sounded cool, lol. i agree that i need to mix up my drum samples. i used to do that alot about two years ago, but now i focus on the melody to much. i'll work on it. My endings always are lacking, i have such a hard time making a solid one :(. when i make then longer people complain, when i make then short they complain. i need some lessons on that aspect. Thank you so much for your time and great review!!!!

[==(Glass Tree in the Sky)]

YUCK!

I HATE Ambient... Ugh... but guess what... I really liked this! You get a 10/10 not only for making such an amazing song, but also for actually making me download an ambient song, which is very, very rare XD.

The melodies here are just beautiful. Not only that, but they're very catchy, and there are a nice amount of alternate melodies to make the song never even get slightly boring. The bass's melody was very catchy, and quite varied too, and in some parts, especially towards the end, there are loads of melodies playing at the same time which usually sounds complicated and hard to keep track of, but you managed it perfectly. Melodies are definitely awesome.

Another thing which is really impressive over here is the outstanding choice of instruments. Each one fit so perfectly with the next. The first one that plays was so relaxing, and there were so many instruments around here which helped in the amazing variety that this song has. I liked the instruments that played at around 2:53. Really great sound effects too.

The transitions, like Darklight said, were truly extraordinary. There were some great effect and drum transitions around the song which made the melodies flow really well together. Practically the whole song was a buildup, and that buildup was done really well, with new instruments being introduced excellently, and a very gradual build up in general. The variety, as mentioned above, was superb.

The intro was really cool as well, and although I think the effects that you did at the beginning could've been just slightly louder, the intro still sounded really cool. The ending was a fade ending, and usually fade endings don't come out that well and leave the listener wondering why it finished, but this one strangely fit really well, so good job.

The drums here were really well done; just the right loudness without interfering with the song, varied extremely well, had excellent samples, really amazing beats... Well, what can I say... They were flawless!

You won't even begin to understand how much I hate Ambient, so getting a 10 from me in an ambient song really means something. Keep up the amazing work, this piece was excellent. For some really wierd reason, it reminds me of Spyro the Dragon :S.
10/10
5/5
Download.

-Review Request Club-

[Hypno_Shooter [Box-killa]]

Wow, this is so VG-ish...

...Don't worry, that's a good thing. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Still, like Darklight, I feel like being evil and giving you a 9 as well because of a few problems X).

The melodies were superb, and were really varied, just like Haggard said. I liked the background accompaniment with the piano-ish melody, since it sounded really video-gamish and cool. I'd work on its variety though, if I were you. The instrument choice was really nice. I liked the high bells over here, and the main instrument was cool, but after some time got quite annoying. You should add a few more instruments, like some square-based synths and some plucked instruments. One of the best parts of this song were the laser and alien-ish sound effects, IMO. They sounded excellent.

The transitions were really good and the melodies flowed excellently together. The transition from the main synth to the bells melody was quite cool, and the effect buildup at the beginning was pretty nice. Really cool song structure, and great variety as well. I liked the part where the piano was playing only at 1:46, it sounded fantastic while not disrupting the fast-paced feel of the song. Still, the intro wasn't that impressive, and neither was the ending. I think this song would be much better off if you looped it. Firstly, I think you should take away the first 15 seconds of the song so the action-packed parts start straight away, and then remove the sound effect you had at the end. It should make it loop much better, and more flash artists would become interested in having it in their submissions.

The drums really weren't that special, and although they were just the right loudness, I was expecting a more action-packed drum beat with more than just a kick and snare. I'd say some tambourines, shakers hi-hats. and more types of snares and kicks wold do a good job on this. Maybe you could try some reverse cymbals and reverse kicks over here too. Still, the drums you have now are really varied, and transit from one melody to another.

It's a really cool sounding song, with just a few flaws. It'd do great in a flash submission if you remove the effect at the end and the first 15 seconds of the song and make it a loop, or you could always submit another version of this song except looped. Anyway, whatever; good job, keep up the great work!
9/10
5/5 - Man, this has some awful 0-bombing onto it. I don't think you should mass PM people to review your submissions, it'd attract more 0's. :\

-Review Request Club-

Box-Killa responds:

Meh i dun care about 0 boming, look at all the reviews I got, and 450 views so far, A front page would be nice, but I dont mind... :D

[PPC2 - K Time]

A sort of creepy feel to it.

Experimental tracks aren't usually my cup of tea, so I can't give such a long review for these ones, but still, I was impressed by a lot of things in this track.

Obviously, the effects were great, but they're the main attraction of the song, so that's expected. There were some really awesome effects, and some extremely nice vocal work, especially the voices at 1:21, 3:49, 5:10 and 5:55. Still, 3:49 and 5:55 can't be your voice. A boy definitely can't go that high; you must've made the pitch higher or something on a sound editor. Still, the most important part was that they sounded very, very cool.

There were loads of other effects which impressed me as well, and the delay and reverb effects you put on them were great. Some effects really caught me off guard, like the ones at 0:30, 3:15, 4:59 and 5:45. The thing which annoyed me the most in this song was the guitar, though. It got quite repetitive in some parts, and sort of felt strange along with the rest of the song. You should either remove it and add some more individual guitar effects yourself (pick scraping, string scratching, etc.).

To summarize, it's one of the better experimental tracks I've heard, with some awesome sound effects here and there. The only thing which annoyed me most over here was the guitar. Other than that, good job!
8/10
5/5 because of some 0-bombing.

-Review Request Club-

Monkeydelic responds:

Thank you :)
First of all, i swear, i didn't play around with the pitch of my voice, that is my voice, hey, if Mika can do it, why not me :P
Yeah, as i've said in down below, i really didn't put much effort into the guitar, as the effects were my main priority, but when i'm re-recording this particular song, i'll work more on the guitar, and see if i can make it not so repetitive.

Thanks for the review :)

Namaste.

[PPC2 - Forest II]

Nice :D

Although, as mentioned in the other reviews, the first one beats this one by a little, this still is great.

The melodies were what I enjoyed most in this song for sure, and although some of them sound rather familiar, they're really catchy, and sound laid-back and fun to listen to. Really nice guitar playing too. As Darklight said, it's impressive that you managed to keep such a stable rythm when playing on your own without any drums or other instruments helping out. Speaking of other instruments, I wish there were a few more, since this does feel slightly empty. Sadly, like in the other song, this doesn't have such a good recording quality either, which honestly ruins this song quite a bit.

The transitions sound great, and I can't complain about them. Amazing song structure too, like in the last one, with a lot of variety too, and many alternate melodies which all sound really cool. The song has a nice intro too, with a very catchy melody, and the ending was really good. Ended on the right note, with a nice ritenuto to it.

This really does need some drum beats to them. I'm imagining a soft snare and ride cymbals over here, or maybe some congas and bongoes could sound good, along with a few forest sound effects; you really should get SessileNomad to make some drums for you :D.

This is a really nice song in all; another one which makes me have a picture of a dense forest in my mind. Sorry for the short review (OK... short compare to my other reviews...). Anyway, keep it up!
8/10
4/5

-Review Request Club-

Monkeydelic responds:

Thanks :)

I'll try to add some synth and other stuff on the re-record.

As far as i know SessileNomad is working on a drum track now, so i'm really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Thanks for review :)

Namaste.

[We Believe Ep.3 - F-777]

You did it again!

This is truly amazing, and one of my favourites from the whole series. Amazing job, it sounds fantastic.

I noticed a lot more alternate melodies in this song from your other We Believe songs, and each one is just so catchy. The one playing at the beginning was the best, and I liked the one at 2:05 a lot too. Really nice-sounding unique instruments too, and there was a lot of variety in the instrument choice. The choir-voices-ish instrument towards the end were just awesome. As usual, mind-boggling sound effects.

The song's transitions were great, for example the one at around 1:20, where it built up to a more action-packed melody. Speaking of buildups, they were perfect. Instruments were introduced really well, too, like the one at around 2:02. This also has a great and varied song structure as well, and I never got bored listening to it. Great intro, and it was cool how it built up. The ending was fine, but it was just slightly too abrupt.

The drums sound just as good as in all your other We Believe songs, in other words; excellent. Their variety is out of this world too, and they switched from beat to another very smoothly. Awesome samples too.

I keep saying the same thing on every one of your We Believe songs: This song is so amazing. I'm honestly getting tired of saying it O_o. Oh well, it's a true statement anyway, so: This song is so amazing! Keep it up!
10/10
5/5
Download.

-Review Request Club-

[Industrial Cavern]

I see why it's one of your best songs.

This is a perfect song for what you were aiming for, and sounds great.

The melodies sound really awesome and fit very well with the song, and although there's only one real melody playing over here, this didn't get too repetitive. Loved the instruments over here, they sound very industrial, especially the one playing the background melody which sounds trumpet-ish and the bells were excellent too, and gave a mystical feel to the already awesome mechanical feel of the song.

The transitions here are excellent, but what made them so good were the loads of tempo-changes you did here. They fit a lot with the factory suddenly starting up/shutting down. I liked the transition at around 2 minutes into the song, as the other reviewers said, it seemed like the song stopped, but luckily it didn't. The structure is amazing too, and the variety is great, just getting a little repetitive sometimes. Extraordinary buildups too. I really liked the intro with that effect, and the main drum beat started up really well and I quickly caught its rythm. I see what you were going for in the ending, and you did a good job on it, it sounds a lot like the factory's stopping. I still think you should've continued the bells' melody some more though, and then you end it with a proper ending note, or you could try and loop it, because as you said, it could be in a game after all.

There weren't any drums over here, and they're definitely not needed. All of the amazing factory sound effects served as great percussion, and had a catchy beat to them, even for just sound effects. I liked the sound effect you used at the beginning, too. What I'm just hoping for is more variety of effects, and different beats, because, by making more beats with more effects, you'd have fixed the 'a bit repetitive' problem that Haggard mentioned. Still, the repetitiveness of the effects isn't really such a big problem when they have such an amazing and catchy beat to them.

Honestly, Industrial never sounded so good. This'll make a great soundtrack in a game, and my only complaints are the repetitiveness of the beat and the ending needing to be a bit longer and more gradual. Other than that, great job, and definitely keep it up!
10/10
5/5
Sorry, no download. Industrial isn't my genre :P.

-Review Request Club-

PuffballsUnited responds:

Whoa! Thanks for the intense review! I know what you mean by thew beats getting repetitive and I'll keep that in mind for next time.

[byzentine awesome.]

Not too good...

Not such a great job. It has some potential, but definitely needs more work to it.

The melody sounds very Arabic and cool, but there was only one melody practically, which was pretty annoying. The instruments weren't that good either, TBH, since that sax doesn't sound much like a sax, plus the piano isn't really best of quality. If you want an Arabic style, try and add some acoustic guitars or something, and making the sax and piano sound better.

The transitions were pretty strange in general as well, for example, the drum roll came in very suddenly and unexpectedly, plus the drums were taken away quite abruptly too. Not such a great song structure in all, and this was very repetitive too, with the same melody being played quite a few times, and a rather annoying drum beat in the background. The intro wasn't really that good. I don't see why you want to start it with claps (or was that rain? O_o). The ending was sudden as well, since I expected the sax to go on longer, instead of just end. Plus, the final note needs some sort of importance, since it was just like all the other notes, and didn't sound much like an ending note.

The drums were annoying and sort of felt extra in the song. The snare used wasn't bad, but apart from that, the drum samples weren't too special. Also, the drums varied from too loud at the beginning and too soft after the long snare roll was over.

The melody here is nice, but the song needs more fullness to it, with more instruments accompanying in the background, a better song structure, better percussion and more variety. Sorry for the harsh review :(.
4/10
2/5

-Review Request Club-

mikkim responds:

first off, there's no piano in here, and the saxaphone isn't supossed to sound like a saxaphone. the drums are kindof simplistic, yes, but that's one of the places that I don't really pay attention to.

[SN |Pristine| SN]

Glitch again X(

Quite an awesome song, and although glitch never really was my favourite genre and I never actually enjoyed glitch, songs like these are just the few exceptions.

The melodies were a little blurry together, but overall were quite nice. I liked the part at 0:58 quite a lot. The intruments were quiet awesome as well, although a bigger variety would be a little nicer, since in some parts, the high-pitched got kind of annoying, so you could make a lower instrument playing long ambientish notes. Effects here, were, as usual, extraordinary, especially the ones at 0:58.

The transitions were fine, and nothing felt too sudden or anything, except when the drums were introduced. You had a nice buildup before, but the drums still came in quite abruptly because of the fact that they're so fast-paced and loud, an the buildup was soft. The structure is OK, and the variety is great, if not just slightly a little random. What really put your score up were the tempo changes around the song and the accelerandos, ritardandos and stuff. It shows you worked quite hard on them, and they sounded really good in the song.

The intro was very good, and so was the accelerando after. Good buildup, but as I said, didn't introduce the drums that well, so you could make the buildup louder in general. The ending had ended on a good note, and was in general fine, but the last chord needs more importance, so you could make it louder and add more notes to the chord, along with some reverbed kick or faded sweep to show it's an ending.

The drums were fast paced, and even though ambient is supposed to be slow, you have yet again managed to mix DnB with ambient. The drums were very varied too, and although I think they could be a little quieter, they weren't bad overall. Good samples too.

So... Ambient/DnB/Glitch, you really do make the strangest combinations. Still, I guess that doesn't matter when these combinations always sound so good. Keep up the great work!
9/10
5/5

-Review Request Club-

SessileNomad responds:

and ambient bass pad would have made a bit of sense, but you see i actually was making this to be just an ambient song with really heabvy glitch stuff going on, but it kind of leaned mroe towards a dnb kinda track and i never really though about putting a bass pad in there, odd, since it is a dnb track

a reeverbed kick or somthing on the final note would have been a really good idea, i think i might do that on my next track, i cant believe i didnt think that xD

at :58, thats just a plain old phaser, in case you wanted to know

as for the blury-ness of the melodies, i actually had a pad doing the same notes as the piano in some parts, and for some reason it like ate up the piano, but i liked the emersive effect i felt it gave so i decided to not try and fix it

long reviews are my favorite :]

peace out, glad you liked it dude

thx for reviewing